The wasteland motif in Arthurian literature : the antithesis of the ideal

This thesis examines the treatment of the wasteland motif in eight representative works of Arthurian literature from the twelfth to the twentieth century. The works discussed are: Chretien's Perceval, the Vulgate Quest, Malory's Sankgreal section of Le Morte Darthur, Browning's "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," Tennyson's "The Holy Grail" from Idylls of the King, Eliot's The Waste Land, Hunter's Percival and the Presence of God, and Percy's Lancelot. These works, written in both English and French (translations used) and covering a span of eight centuries, are surveyed individually and are discussed more generally in the introduction and at the beginning of each chapter. It is shown that the works present the wasteland motif as the antithesis of the given ideal. The ideal is presented in a variety of ways. Sometimes the ideological view is expressed outright, other times it is shown to us by the description of the idealized quester -- he who finds the grail. In the later works, the treatment of the wasteland motif is problematic because of the absence of a firm ideological view point, particularly in those works which we would term agnostic. In all these works it is a faith in the ideal which characterizes the successful grail knight who is able to defeat the wasteland.