Jessie Laidlay Weston, born on December 28, 1850, in Surrey, England, was a distinguished British scholar, medievalist, and folklorist. She is best known for her work on medieval Arthurian texts and her scholarly contributions to understanding the Grail legend. Weston was the daughter of William Weston, a tea merchant, and his second wife, Sarah Burton. After the death of her mother, Jessie moved to Bournemouth, where she began her writing career. She later studied in Hildesheim and Paris under renowned scholar Gaston Paris, alongside attending the Crystal Palace School of Art. Weston s most notable work, From Ritual to Romance (1920), revolutionized the understanding of the Grail legend. She argued that the origins of the legend were older than the Christian or Celtic sources traditionally credited, drawing on the theories of James George Frazer. This work had a significant impact on the study of mythology and was cited by T.S. Eliot in his notes to The Waste Land. Weston's theories were groundbreaking, offering new perspectives on the intersection of ritual, religion, and literature in medieval texts. She passed away on September 28, 1928, leaving a lasting legacy in the fields of folklore and medieval studies.
