Jessie Laidlay Weston (28 December 1850 – 29 September 1928) was an English

independent scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher ...

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

and

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

, working mainly on mediaeval

Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...

ian texts.

Early life

Weston was the daughter of William Weston, a tea merchant and member of the Salters' Company, and his second wife, Sarah Burton, and named after his first wife Jessica Laidlay. Sarah, after giving birth to two more daughters died when Jessie was about seven. William remarried Clara King who gave birth to five more children.Jane Chance (ed.), ''Women Medievalists and the Academy'' University of Wisconsin, 2005 The elder siblings were born in Surrey, but youngest son Clarence was born in Kent. Jessie, her sister Frances and brother Clarence later moved to

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

, where Jessie began her writing career, remaining there until around 1903. Her home at 65 Lansdowne Road still stands, as of 2010. Jessie studied in

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the Lei ...

then

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

under Gaston Paris. She also studied at the Crystal Palace School of Art. One of her first printed works was a lengthy sentimental verse called ''The Rose-Tree of Hildesheim''. A narrative about "sacrifice and denial", it was modelled on the story of the

Thousand-year Rose The Thousand-year Rose (German: ''Tausendjähriger Rosenstock'', literally: Thousand-year-old Rosebush), also known as the Rose of Hildesheim, grows on the apse of the Hildesheim Cathedral, a Catholic cathedral in Hildesheim, Germany, that is dedi ...

, which grows on a wall at

Hildesheim Cathedral Hildesheim Cathedral (German: '), officially the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary (German: ''Hohe Domkirche St. Mariä Himmelfahrt'') or simply St. Mary's Cathedral (German: ''Mariendom''), is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral in the city cent ...

. Published in 1896, it was the title verse in an omnibus of her poems.

Career

Her best-known work is ''

From Ritual to Romance ''From Ritual to Romance'' is a 1920 book written by Jessie Weston. Weston's book is an examination of the roots of the King Arthur legends. It seeks to make connections between the early pagan elements and the later Christian influences. Th ...

'' (1920). In it she brought to bear an analysis harking back to

James George Frazer Sir James George Frazer (; 1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. Personal life He was born on 1 Janua ...

on the

Grail legend The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracul ...

, arguing for origins earlier than the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...

ic sources conventionally discussed at the time. It was cited by

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...

in his notes to ''

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...

'' (1922), and mentioned as one of two chief inspirations for the poem along with James Frazer's ''

The Golden Bough ''The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion'' (retitled ''The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion'' in its second edition) is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by the Scottish anthropologist Sir ...

''. Eliot later claimed, in his lecture

The Frontiers of Criticism "The Frontiers of Criticism" is a lecture given by T. S. Eliot at the University of Minnesota in 1956. It was reprinted in ''On Poetry and Poets'', a collection of Eliot's critical essays, in 1957. The essay is an attempt by Eliot to define the b ...

(1956), that his original intention was merely to add the references he had employed, to counter earlier criticisms of his work as plagiarizing. More extensive notes were requested by the publisher to bulk out the length of the poem in book form, calling them "bogus scholarship". It also caused her to be dismissed as a

theosophist Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

F. L. Lucas Frank Laurence Lucas (28 December 1894 – 1 June 1967) was an English classical scholar, literary critic, poet, novelist, playwright, political polemicist, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and intelligence officer at Bletchley Park during ...

, in a hostile review of Eliot's poem. The interpretation of the Grail quest as mystical and connected to self-realisation, which she added to the anthropological layer of reading, was to become increasingly popular during the 1920s. According to

Richard Barber Richard William Barber FRSL FSA FRHistS (born 30 October 1941) is a British historian who has published several books about medieval history and literature. His book ''The Knight and Chivalry'', about the interplay between history and literatur ...

in ''The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief'', the

Wasteland Wasteland or waste land may refer to: * Desert or barren area * an uncultivated area of land, whether wooded or not, whether common land or not Art, entertainment, and media Comics * ''Wasteland'' (DC Comics), 1987–1989 anthology-style horror ...

as theme in the Grail romances is of minor importance until the last works of the cycle, and the emphasis on

fertility Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertili ...

is "an interpretation which has haunted twentieth-century literature to a degree quite disproportionate to its basis in fact". The book appears in the film ''

Apocalypse Now ''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, is loosely based on the 1899 novella ''Heart of Darkness'' by Joseph Conr ...

'' amongst those kept by the character Kurtz, along with ''

'', these being the two books T.S. Eliot cited as his chief inspirations for ''The Waste Land''. While Weston's work on the Grail theme has been derided as fanciful speculation in the years since the publication of ''From Ritual to Romance'' (even one-time supporter

Roger Sherman Loomis Roger Sherman Loomis (1887–1966) was an American scholar and one of the foremost authorities on medieval and Arthurian literature. Loomis is perhaps best known for showing the roots of Arthurian legend, in particular the Holy Grail, in native Ce ...

eventually abandoned her hypothesis), her editions of numerous medieval romances have been commended as valuable translations. A biography "In Quest of Jessie Weston" by Janet Grayson appears in "Arthurian Literature," Vol 11 (1992).

Works

*''Parzival: A Knightly Epic by Wolfram von Eschenbach'' (1894) (translator) *''The Legends of the Wagner Drama: Studies in Mythology'' (1896) *''The Legend Of

Sir Gawain Gawain (), also known in many other forms and spellings, is a character in Arthurian legend, in which he is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table. The prototype of Gawain is mentioned under the name Gwalchmei in the earliest W ...

: studies upon its original scope & significance'' (1897) *''

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of f ...

'' : Retold in Modern Prose (1898) *''King Arthur and His Knights: A Survey of Arthurian Romance'' (1899) *''

Guingamor ''Guingamor'' is an anonymous medieval lai about a knight who leaves the court of his uncle, a king, because the queen has sent him off to hunt for a white boar. By offering a reward for the boar's head, she hopes to get rid of the protagonist Gui ...

Lanval ''Lanval'' is one of the Lais of Marie de France. Written in Anglo-Norman, it tells the story of Lanval, a knight at King Arthur's court, who is overlooked by the king, wooed by a fairy lady, given all manner of gifts by her, and subsequently ref ...

Tyolet ''Tyolet'' is an anonymous Breton lai that takes place in the realm of King Arthur. It tells the tale of a naïve young knight who wins the hand of a maiden after a magical adventure. Composition and manuscripts The actual date of composition is ...

, Bisclaveret: Four Lais Rendered into English Prose'' (c. 1900) translator, text by

Marie De France Marie de France ( fl. 1160 to 1215) was a poet, possibly born in what is now France, who lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but she and her work were almost certainly known at the royal court ...

*''

Morien ''Moriaen'' (also spelled ''Moriaan'', ''Morien'') is a 13th-century Arthurian romance in Middle Dutch. A 4,720-line version is preserved in the vast Lancelot Compilation, and a short fragment exists at the Royal Library at Brussels.Besamusca, B ...

: a Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose'' (1901
PDF
*''The Romance Cycle of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

and his Peers'' (1901) *''

Sir Cleges ''Sir Cleges'' is a medieval English verse chivalric romanceLaura A. Hibbard, ''Medieval Romance in England'' p79 New York Burt Franklin,1963 written in tail-rhyme stanzas in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. It is clearly a minstrel ...

, Sir

Libeaus Desconus ''Libeaus Desconus'' is a 14th-century Middle English version of the popular " Fair Unknown" story. Its author is thought to be Thomas Chestre. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of Renaut de Beaujeu's ''Le Bel Inconnu''; both ver ...

'' (1902) *''The Three Days' Tournament'' (1902) *''The Legend of Sir Perceval: Studies upon its Origin, Development and Position in the Arthurian Cycle''. London, David Nutt (1906). 2 volumes *''Sir Gawain & the Lady of Lys''. London, David Nutt (1907) *''Old English Carols from the Hill MS''. London, David Nutt (1911) (translator) *''Romance Vision and Satire; English Alliterative Poems of the Fourteenth Century'' (1912) *''The Quest for the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracul ...

''(1913) *''The Chief Middle English poets'' (1914) *''

'' (1920) *''The Romance of

Perlesvaus ''Perlesvaus'', also called ''Li Hauz Livres du Graal'' (''The High Book of the Grail''), is an Old French Arthurian romance dating to the first decade of the 13th century. It purports to be a continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' unfinished ''Perc ...

'' (1988) edited by Janet Grayson

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weston, Jessie Laidlay English folklorists Women folklorists Arthurian scholars 1850 births 1928 deaths Holy Grail English women writers 19th-century English writers 19th-century English women writers 19th-century translators 20th-century English writers 20th-century English women writers 20th-century translators