essire Jehan, Seingnor of Neele, can hardly be
other than the John de Nesle who was present at the battle of Bouvines
in 1214, and who in 1225 sold the lordship of Bruges to Joan of
Flanders. (5) These dates therefore may be regarded as defining that
of the original Romance within fairly narrow limits.

This conclusion is confirmed by other evidence. An early Welsh
translation of the story was published with an English version and a
glossary by the Rev. Robert Williams in the first volume of his
"Selections from the Hengwrt MSS". (6) The first volume of this work
is entitled "Y Seint Greal, being the adventures of King Arthur's
knights of the Round Table, in the quest of the Holy Grail, and on
other occasions. Originally written about the year 1200". The volume,
following the manuscript now in the library of W.W.E. Wynne, Esq., at
Peniarth, is divided into two parts. The first, fol. 1-109 of the
manuscript, represents the thirteenth to the seventeenth book of Sir
Thomas Malory's "Morte d'Arthur". Of the second, which represents the
Romance here translated, Mr Williams writes: "The second portion of the
Welsh Greal, folios 110-280, contains the adventures of Gwalchmei
Peredur and Lancelot, and of the knights of the Round Table; but these
are not found in the "Morte d'Arthur". The Peniarth MS. is beautifully
written on vellum, and in perfect preservation, and its date is that of
Henry VI., the early part of the fifteenth century. The orthography
and style of writing agrees literally with that of the "Mabinogion of
the Llyvr Coch Hergest", which is of that date. This, of course, is a
transcript of an earlier copy; but there is no certainty when it was
first translated into Welsh, though Aneurin Owen in his "Catalogue of
the Hengwrt MSS." assigns it to the sixth year of Henry I. It is
mentioned by Davydd ab Gwilym, who died in 1368."

Whatever may be the date of the Welsh version, the translator had no
great mastery of French, and is often at fault as to the meaning both
of words and sentences, and when in a difficulty is only too apt to cut
the knot by omitting the passage bodily. The book itself, moreover, is
not entire. On page 275, all between Branch IX. Title 16 and Branch
XI. Title 2, twenty-two chapters in all, is missing. Again, on page
355, Titles 10-16 in Branch XXI. are left out, while the whole of the
last Branch, containing 28 Titles, is crumpled up into one little
chapter, from which it would se