The Mammoth Book of King Arthur (65 page)

This version brings the story-line to completion. Manessier leaps in with an explanation of the Broken Sword, which seems to be of more significance than the Grail. The sword
had been used by a knight called Partinial to kill the Fisher King’s brother, and wound the Fisher King. Perceval vows to kill Partinial, and much of the story is taken up with the quest to
find him, during which time he encounters demons, and nearly kills Lancelot’s brother Ector, though both Perceval and Ector are cured by an appearance of the Grail carried by an angel.
Eventually Perceval defeats Partinial and returns to the Grail Castle with his head. He and the Fisher King have a meal at which the Grail procession again appears, and Perceval is at last
accepted. The Fisher King now dies and a final vision of the Grail appears at Perceval’s coronation as the new Fisher King. He rules for seven years before
retiring as a
hermit and the belief is that the Grail will be seen no more on Earth.

Between the first two and the last two Continuations, two
Prologues
appeared.

BLIOCADRAN PROLOGUE
and
THE ELUCIDATION PROLOGUE
, anon. (French, early 1200s, post-Boron but pre-
Perlesvaus
) 800 and 484 lines respectively.

The first tells the story of Bliocadran, Perceval’s father. All of his brothers have been killed in tournaments and although his wife pleads with him not to go, especially
as the birth of their first child is imminent, he still leaves. He is mortally wounded and dies soon after. Bliocadran’s widow takes her baby and flees to a remote wasteland forest in Wales.
This prologue blends into the start of Chrétien’s story by repeating the opening lines, though it also contradicts some of Chrétien’s story, in that Perceval did have
other brothers and sisters and his father was supposed to have died of grief over their deaths.

The second continuation, which may be of a later date, adds nothing substantive and tends to confuse. It implies that the castle of the Fisher King had become lost because twelve maidens, who
served travellers from the local wells, were raped by King Amangon and his knights and their golden cups stolen. This is to be avenged by Arthur and his knights, and their exploits at the
mysterious Proud Castle are seen as a parallel to those at the Grail castle. The author then explains the Grail mystery which, for a prologue, is unhelpful.

JOSEPH D’ARIMATHIE
(or
L’Estoire dou Graal)
, Robert de Boron (French, late 1190s) 3,514 lines.

This work reveals the origin of the Grail, imbuing it with Christian symbolism. Robert is the first to identify the Grail as the vessel used by Christ at the Last Supper, and to
make the
connection between the table of the Last Supper and Arthur’s Round Table.

Joseph receives the Grail from Pilate and uses it to collect the blood of Christ when He is removed from the Cross. When Jesus’s body disappears (after the Resurrection), Joseph is cast
into prison. Jesus visits him, with the Grail, and tells him to continue commemorating the Last Supper in memory of Him. There are explicit instructions from Jesus as to what individual items mean,
such as “the vessel of the sacrament will be a reminder of the stone tomb in which you laid me.” All who see the vessel will have lasting joy and fulfilment for their souls, clearly
meaning that those who believe in Christ will have everlasting life. At this stage Robert has done little more than repeat the message of the Gospels, but he now weaves that into the Arthurian
myth.

Joseph is in prison for many years. Eventually the emperor Vespasian hears of the uproar over the death of Jesus and has it investigated, learning the story from Pilate. Pilate, in order to
prove his story, has a search made for anything connected to Christ. In this process he finds Veronica, who has the cloth with which she wiped Christ’s face on the way to the Cross, and which
still bears an image of His face. The cloth heals Vespasian of his leprosy. Though this is not the same as the shroud of Turin, it is evidently based on the same cloth. Robert tells us that,
“this image was the only thing they found which had touched Our Lord.”

Joseph is now released and pardoned, and is reunited with his sister Enigeus and her husband Bron. They gather about them a following and leave Judea “into exile.” All goes well at
first but then their crops fail and Joseph believes it is because some of them have sinned. He is directed by the Holy Spirit to create a second table, in imitation of the one at the Last Supper,
at which the service of the Grail will be celebrated. Bron, who becomes the Fisher King, is charged with collecting a fish to serve at the Grail table, but only those who are free of sin will be
able to approach the table and enjoy the benefits of the meal. When a banished sinner tries to sit at the vacant place at the table, one that equates to where Judas had sat, he is “swallowed
up” as if he had never existed.

Bron has twelve children but only one of these, Alain, will be the ancestor of the final keeper of the Grail. Bron and his successors, the Fisher Kings, become the
guardians of the Grail and travel to the west, to the Vales of Avalon, to await the coming of the final keeper.

Robert continued his sequence of poems with
Merlin
(
see
page 401) before returning to
Perceval
which is treated below.

→ One of the more interesting translations is the Dutch
Historie van den Grale
by Jacob van Maerlant, completed in 1261. Maerlant took issue with Boron where he
believed the work was at variance with the Gospels in how the apostles were dealt with by the Romans, and revised the text accordingly. Otherwise his translation is faithful.

PERCEVAL
, Robert de Boron (France, early 1200s)

None of this poem survives (and it may never have been completed) but it is believed that it was adapted as the prose version of part or all of it appears in the so-called
Didot-
Perceval
, composed in the 1220s. That exists in two variant manuscripts (known as the D and E).

This version starts abruptly, with no information on Perceval’s youth. We learn that his father is Alain le Gros, descended from Bron. Alain sends Perceval to Arthur’s court where he
proves himself in a grand tournament. Perceval begs to sit at the Siege Perilous, the forbidden seat at the Round Table and does so. This causes an Armageddon-like darkening of the skies and Arthur
is admonished for allowing someone impure to sit at that seat. The voice also commands that the knights prove their valour so that they may be judged and the finest knight in the world identified.
Only then may that knight be taken to the castle of the Fisher King and, by asking what the Grail is for and who is served with it, cause the Fisher King to be healed and the land made free of
enchantment.

Much of what follows is drawn from Chrétien’s story and the continuations, and may not have been in Robert’s original scheme. Perceval has to undergo many perils before he
achieves overall mastery and is directed by Merlin – now portrayed rather
like Old Father Time – to the Grail castle where he cures the Fisher King and becomes the
final keeper of the Grail. His actions restore the land, and Arthur is able to conquer Gaul and march on Rome. However, he is betrayed by Mordred and taken to Avalon. Merlin reveals these final
facts to Perceval before himself disappearing into his “esplumior”, a mystical word which seems to imply some future rebirth.

PERLESVAUS (or The High History of the Holy Grail)
, anon. (Flanders, early 1200s).

Perlesvaus
is the earliest known prose Arthurian romance, an original composition not based on a verse romance, though clearly derived from the works of Chrétien
and Robert de Boron. It was regarded by Sebastian Evans (
see below
) as the most complete and authentic text of the Grail story. It is certainly the purest version, and would undergo radical
changes when developed as part of the Vulgate Cycle.

After a brief prologue on the Grail family and the origins of the Grail, the story opens with a languid King Arthur much in need of going adventuring. He sets out to visit a chapel in a forest
to do penance but is admonished by the priest who says that he and his court, though once held in high regard, have now fallen into shameful repute. A malaise has settled over the land because a
young knight who sheltered at the castle of the Fisher King failed to ask the right question when he witnessed the Grail. Returning from the chapel, Arthur is wounded in an encounter with a Black
Knight. He is healed by a maiden who is seeking Perlesvaus and who further admonishes Arthur for his lack of positive guidance. She tells him the story of the origins of Perlesvaus, which is drawn
from Chrétien’s Perceval. As he continues his way through the forest a voice commands that he hold a court to consider how to right the world’s ills.

Arthur calls the court, which is attended by all the knights save Gawain and Lancelot. They are visited by three maidens, one of them with a cart containing the heads of
one hundred and fifty knights. She reveals that these knights met their fate because of the failure of Perlesvaus at the Grail castle. One of the other maidens brings a shield and a hound. The
shield had once belonged to Joseph of Arimathea and was painted with the blood of Christ. She leaves these tokens to be retrieved one day by the Good Knight who, it is foretold, will heal the
land.

When the maidens depart they meet Gawain who agrees to accompany the Maiden of the Cart. So begins Gawain’s adventure, the first of a trilogy that will also include Lancelot and Perceval.
Gawain’s quest is initially to find the Good Knight. He fails to do so but his travels bring him to the Grail castle. He is unable to enter because of his sins, but is told he will be able to
do so if he finds the Sword that had beheaded John the Baptist. Thus Gawain sets off on a further series of adventures, all of which he later learns have allegorical significance, and eventually
wins the Sword. He returns and is admitted to the Grail castle. He dines, and witnesses the Grail procession, but is so overcome by the visions he sees that he fails to ask the right questions, at
which point Gawain finds himself alone and leaves the castle.

Lancelot takes up the challenge. He has to pass the test of a beheading game, but finds his way to the Grail castle barred because of his love for Guenevere. Lancelot realises that he must track
down the Good Knight Perlesvaus, who he believes is with his uncle Pelles. However, Perlesvaus has left Pelles and is involved in a series of battles, including rescuing his mother (who is still
alive in this version). Perlesvaus also comes across the body of Arthur’s son Loholt, killed by Kay who wished to claim credit for a giant Loholt had killed. There is much adventuring, and
considerable symbolism in the respective quests by Gawain and Lancelot to find Perlesvaus and in his own adventures. Central to these is the battle for Castle Mortal whose king, the brother of the
Fisher King, has been attacking the Grail castle. The king takes the castle, the Fisher King is killed, and the Grail vanishes. Perlesvaus, with the help of twelve hermit knights, retakes the
castle.

The story now follows Arthur’s own personal quest. Arthur
arrives at the Grail castle where he has a vision of the Grail in five forms of which only the last, as a
chalice, is described. While Arthur is away Guenevere dies of grief over Loholt’s death. Kay has fled to Brian des Iles in Brittany, who rises in revolt against Arthur. Brian is temporarily
defeated and there is a final showdown in which Lancelot helps Arthur defeat Brian. Arthur, Gawaine and Lancelot all seek Guenevere’s resting place at Avalon, which is revealed to be
Glastonbury. Perceval has to defeat the Black Hermit, the last evil in the world. Perceval sails away from the Grail castle and is seen no more. He leaves the Castle in the hands of his cousin
Joseus, but after long years he dies and the Castle falls into decay. Ever since, only two people have found the castle and returned, and they became saints.

PARZIVAL
, Wolfram von Eschenbach (German, between 1204 and 1212) 25,000 lines

Although he promoted himself as illiterate and was criticised by Gottfried von Strassburg, Wolfram is generally regarded as the greatest of the German epic poets of the period.
Parzival
is effectively another continuation of Chrétien’s
Perceval
, though Wolfram went to great pains to acknowledge his source as one Kyot of Provence. Most now
believe this to be a fictional device, and that Wolfram needed a third party to “authenticate” the material he uses which differs from Chrétien’s. According to Wolfram,
Kyot’s source was a manuscript in Arabic.
Parzival
does contain much Arabic colour and background, and Wolfram, as an itinerant knight, may well have picked up information from various
sources, including knights returning from Jerusalem.