"[21]
Then, in a remarkable passage, we are told of the direful result
entailed by this punishment upon his land:
"Sa tierre ert a ce jour nommee
Lorgres, ch'est verites prouvee,
Lorgres est uns nons de dolour
Nommes en larmes et en plours,
Bien doit iestre en dolour nommes
Car on n'i seme pois ne bles
Ne enfes d'omme n'i nasqui
Ne puchielle n'i ot mari,
Ne arbres fueille n'i porta
Ne nus pres n'i raverdia,
Ne nus oysiaus n'i ot naon
Ne se n'i ot beste faon,
Tant que li rois fu mehaignies
Et qu'il fu fors de ses pechies,
Car Jesu-Crist fourment pesa
Qu'a la mescreant habita."[22]
Now there can be no possible doubt here, the condition of the King is
sympathetically reflected on the land, the loss of virility in the one
brings about a suspension of the reproductive processes of Nature on
the other. The same effect would naturally be the result of the death
of the sovereign upon whose vitality these processes depended.
To sum up the result of the analysis, I hold that we have solid
grounds for the belief that the story postulates a close connection
between the vitality of a certain King, and the prosperity of his
kingdom; the forces of the ruler being weakened or destroyed, by
wound, sickness, old age, or death, the land becomes Waste,
and the task of the hero is that of restoration.
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