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An example from Irish Literature occurs in the ''Echtrae Airt meic Cuinn'' ( Echtra , or adventure in the Otherworld , of Art Mac Cuinn ). Recorded in the 14th Century but surely taken from an older oral tradition, ''Echtrae Airt meic Cuinn'' is nominally about Art, though the adventures of his father Conn Of The Hundred Battles take up the first part of the narrative. The High King Of Ireland , Conn turns his land to waste when he marries a wicked woman, an unacceptable action for the king. He searches for a way to restore his country by sailing towards the mystical western lands, and eventually washes up on island inhabited by the neice of the sea god Manannan and her husband. He attends an otherworldly banquet, and when he returns his wife is banished, and presumably the curse is lifted. In the Arthurian Grail material, the Wasteland's condition is usually tied to the impotence of its leader. Often the infirmity is preceded by some form of the Dolorous Stroke , in which the king is injured tragically for his sins but kept alive by the Grail. In Chrétien De Troyes ' '' Perceval, The Story Of The Grail '', the Fisher King has been wounded in a misfortune that is not revealed in the incomplete text, and his land suffers with him. He can only be healed if the hero Perceval asks the appropriate question about who the Grail serves, but warned against talking too much, Perceval remains silent. In the First Continuation of Chrétien's work, the anonymous author recounts how Gawain partially heals the land, but is not destined to complete the restoration. Over the course of time romances place less emphasis on the Wasteland and more on the king's wound. In the Lancelot-Grail Cycle the link between the devastated land and the wounded king is not absolute, and in the Post-Vulgate Cycle much more emphasis is placed on King Pellehan 's injury by Sir Balin than on the devastation this causes to his kingdom. Scholars of the earier 20th century devoted much study to the Wasteland motif. Some arguments are more convincing than others, however. In one of the more popular works on the subject, '' From Ritual To Romance '', author Jessie Weston suggested that the origin of the motif lie with an otherwise unattested pagan fertility cult. Though mostly disregarded today, Weston's book was credited by T. S. Eliot for the title and some incidental symbolism in his influential poem The Waste Land . REFERENCES
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