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I. THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE LEGEND IN FOLK-LORE.--Old Celtic prototypes of the Graal literature--Some unconsidered specifics of this subject--A position by way of alternative--Elements of the whole argument--The Cauldron of the Dagda--The Cauldron of Bendigeid Vran--Quests which are not of the Graal--Druidic Mysteries--After what manner these mysteries and their doctrine dissolved into the light of Christianity--A catholic conclusion regarding the claims of Folk-Lore The matter which is placed in our hands. II. THE WELSH PERCEVAL.--Presence of early elements in a late form--Value as a non-Graal Quest The root-matter of the story--Comparison with the Graal Quests--Analogies with the Graal Hallows--The Vengeance Legend--Conclusion as to this text. III. THE ENGLISH METRICAL ROMANCE OF SYR PERCYVELLE.--The archaic elements of this Quest and its claims in comparison with those of the Welsh Peredur--The story in outline--Analogies in the Italian Carduino--Conclusion as to this text and generally as to the Proto- Perceval Quest before the Holy Graal arose on the horizon of literature. IV. THE CONTE DEL GRAAL and in the first place--(A) Preliminary to the whole subject--(B) Concerning the poetic romance of Chrétien de Troyes--The state of the story as one of transition from the folk-tale to the true romance of the Graal--Its connections with the mystic side of the legend--The silence of Perceval--The exile and sorrows of the Knight--The speculative intentions of Chrétien
[paragraph continues] --(C) The continuation of Gautier--The development of Perceval's story--The point to which it is taken--The historical texts of the Graal which intervened between Chrétien and Gautier--The unfinished Quest in Gautier--(D) The conclusion according to Manessier--Intervention of the Vengeance Legend--Elements of Graal history in this conclusion, and inferences therefrom--The ordination of Perceval as a specific departure from tradition--The assumption of the Hallows--(E) The alternative conclusion of Gerbert--The dual failure of Perceval--His penitence and expiation--The conventional intention of his marriage--His later and higher intention--An adornment of a spiritual marriage--The Knight of the Swan--An analogy with Alain le Gros--The process of departure from Folk-lore in the Conte del Graal--Absence of the Vengeance Legend in Gerbert--Further consideration of the Prologue to the whole story--(F) In which Sir Gawain is considered briefly as a Companion of the Holy Quest--Modern speculations and inferences as to the primary claim of this hero--The light upon these which can be gathered from the poem of Heinrich--The judgment of the prose Lancelot and the Quest of Galahad--Sir Gawain in the story of Chrétien--The burden of this Quest in Gautier--His recognition that the courtly Knight was predestined at least to some measure of success--How the false experiment is not repeated by Manessier or Gerbert--An Advance Note on Gawain in the Parsifal of Wolfram--The Knight of Courtesy in the Longer Prose Perceval.