From this cause the Fisher King dies before the hero has achieved the
task, and can take his place. "Li bons Rois Peschieres est morz."[12]
There is here no cure of the King or restoration of the land, the
specific task of the Grail hero is never accomplished, he comes into
his kingdom as the result of a number of knightly adventures, neither
more nor less significant than those found in non-Grail romances.

The Perlesvaus, in its present form, appears to be a later, and more
fully developed, treatment of the motif noted in Chretien, i.e.,
that the misfortunes of King and country are directly due to the
Quester himself, and had no antecedent existence; this, I would
submit, alters the whole character of the story, and we are at a loss
to know what, had the hero put the question on the occasion of his
first visit, could possibly have been the result achieved. It would
not have been the cure of the King: he was, apparently, in perfect
health; it would not have been the restoration to verdure of the Land:
the Land was not Waste; where, as in the case of Gawain, there is a
Dead Knight, whose death is to be avenged, something might have been
achieved, in the case of the overwhelming majority of the Perceval
versions, which do not contain this feature, the dependence of the
Curse upon the Quester reduces the story to incoherence. In one
Perceval version alone do we find a motif analogous to the earlier
Gawain Bleheris form. In Manessier the hero's task is not restricted
to the simple asking of a question, but he must also slay the enemy
whose treachery has caused the death of the Fisher King's brother;
thereby healing the wound of the King himself, and removing the woes
of the land. What these may be we are not told, but, apparently, the
country is not 'Waste.'[13]

In Peredur we have a version closely agreeing with that of Chretien;