Perceval, or, The Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes

The boy is knighted by Gorneman (1305-1698) The boy arrives at Arthur's court he kills the Red Knight and takes his arms (834-1304) The boy meets a girl at a pavilion and takes her ring (635-833) The boy's first encounter with knights he leaves his mother (69-634) William Roach (Geneva, 2nd edition, 1959)Ĭhretien dedicates his work to Count Philip of Flanders (1-68) Line numbers refer to Le Roman de Perceval ou Le Conte du Graal, ed. Gerbert's Continuation: the Crusading Knight The First Continuation the Unimportance of the Holy Grail Nigel Bryant's previous translations from Medieval French include Perlesvaus - the High Book of the Grail, Robert de Boron's trilogy Merlin and the Grail, the Medieval Romance of Alexander, The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel and Perceforest. Equally, Chrétien's original poem was almost always copied in conjunction with one or more of the Continuations, so this translation represents how most medieval readers would have encountered it.

Only in this, The Story of the Grail's complete form, can the reader appreciate the narrative skill and invention of the medieval poets and their surprising responses to Chrétien's theme - not least their crucial focus on the knight as a crusader. Two other poets were drawn to create preludes explaining the background to Chrétien's story, and translated here also are their works: The Elucidation Prologue and Bliocadran. Besides Chrétien's original text, there are the anonymous First Continuation (translated here in its fullest version), the Second Continuation attributed to Wauchier de Denain, and the intriguing Third and Fourth Continuations - probably written simultaneously, with no knowledge of each other's work - by Manessier and Gerbert de Montreuil. The Complete Story of the Grail is the first ever translation of the whole of the rich and compelling body of tales contained in Chrétien's poem and its four Continuations, which are finally attracting the scholarly attention they deserve. Not only did it inspire quite separate works his own unfinished poem was continued and finally completed by no fewer than four other writers. It was, however, far too attractive an idea to leave. But Chrétien never finished his poem, leaving an unresolved story and an incomplete picture of the Grail.

The mysterious and haunting Grail makes its first appearance in literature in Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval at the end of the twelfth century.

Perceval, or, The Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes