As
it is concerning the Lance alone that Gawain asks, the first
modification must have been at this point; the bringing into line of
the twin symbol, the Vase, would come later.
The fellowship, it may even be, the rivalry, between the two great
Benedictine houses of Fescamp and Glastonbury, led to the redaction,
in the interests of the latter, of a Saint-Sang legend, parallel to
that which was the genuine possession of the French house.[15] For we
must emphasize the fact that the original Joseph-Glastonbury story is
a Saint-Sang, and not a Grail legend. A phial containing the Blood of
Our Lord was said to have been buried in the tomb of Joseph--surely a
curious fate for so precious a relic--and the Abbey never laid claim
to the possession of the Vessel of the Last Supper.[16] Had it done
so it would certainly have become a noted centre of pilgrimage--as Dr
Brugger acutely remarks such relics are besucht, not gesucht.
But there is reason to believe that the kindred Abbey of Fescamp had
developed its genuine Saint-Sang legend into a Grail romance, and
there is critical evidence to lead us to suppose that the text we
know as Perlesvaus was, in its original form, now it is to be feared
practically impossible to reconstruct, connected with that Abbey.
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