In Gerbert's continuation we are told that the marriage of the hero is
an indispensable condition of achieving the Quest, a detail which must
have been taken over from an earlier version, as Gerbert proceeds to
stultify himself by describing the solemnities of the marriage, and
the ceremonial blessing of the nuptial couch, after which hero and
heroine simultaneously agree to live a life of strict chastity, and
are rewarded by the promise that the Swan Knight shall be their
descendant--a tissue of contradictions which can only be explained by
the mal-a-droit blending of two versions, one of which knew the hero
as wedded, the other, as celibate. There can be no doubt that the
original Perceval story included the marriage of the hero.[12]

The circumstances under which Rishyacringa is lured from his Hermitage
are curiously paralleled by the account, found in the Queste and
Manessier, of Perceval's temptation by a fiend, in the form of a fair
maiden, who comes to him by water in a vessel hung with black silk,
and with great riches on board.[13]

In pointing out these parallels I wish to make my position perfectly
clear; I do not claim that either in the Rig-Veda, or in any other
early Aryan literary monument, we can hope to discover the direct
sources of the Grail legend, but what I would urge upon scholars is
the fact that, in adopting the hypothesis of a Nature Cult as a
possible origin, and examining the history of these Cults, their
evolution, and their variant forms, we do, in effect, find at every
period and stage of development undoubted points of contact, which,
though taken separately, might be regarded as accidental, in their
ensemble can hardly be thus considered. When every parallel to our
Grail story is found within the circle of a well-defined, and