So far then we have traced the evolution of the _Lancelot_ story, and found that at one period of its development, and that an advanced period, it was connected with a Grail story, which regarded Perceval as its hero and knew nothing of Lancelot's son, Galahad. How then did the latter appear upon the scene, and in what light are we to regard the romances dealing with him?
I have studied the Galahad _Queste_ closely, and have compared versions gathered from widely different sources, French originals, and translations, and I am distinctly of the opinion that we possess the romance practically in its original form. It is a homogeneous composition, it is not a compilation from different sources and by different hands. There is no trace of an earlier and later redaction, save only in the directly edifying passages, which in some cases appear to have undergone amplification. The difference between the versions is not that of incident or sequence, scarcely even of detail, but rather of the superior clearness and coherence with which the incidents are related in some of the versions as compared with others. I am strongly inclined to think that there is no peculiarity in any of the _Queste_ MSS. which cannot quite well be ascribed to the greater or less accuracy of the copyist, or his greater or less taste for discourses of edification.
Nor is the _Queste_ by the same hand as was responsible for the final moulding of the _Lancelot_ story; though so closely connected with, indeed dependent upon, that story, it yet in many points stands in flagrant contradiction with it, and there is little doubt that the _Lancelot_ would gain greatly in coherence if the _Queste_ were omitted, and the passages preparatory to it eliminated from the original romance. These remarks apply also to the _Grand S. Graal_ in its present form, though, as we shall see, this last named romance does not stand on precisely the same footing as the _Queste_ with which it is now closely connected.
The following facts seem to stand out clearly. Both these Grail romances, the _Queste_ especially, depend _entirely_ for their interest on Lancelot. They are the glorification of his race as that from which the Grail Winner is predestined to spring. The genealogies, however they may vary (as they do in the different versions), are all devoted to this object. They are most closely connected with, and practically presuppose each other; yet admitting, as I think we must admit, that they do not represent the original form of the Grail story, they do not produce the impression of romances which have been worked over with the view of substituting a new hero for the one in whose honour the tale was originally constructed.