64 pages • 2 hours read
Chrétien De TroyesPerceval, the Story of the Grail
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1181A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: Continuations of the Unfinished Text
Chrétien de Troyes’s original text of Perceval, or the Story of the Grail is unfinished, with no clear indication of how much more of the story remained or the directions it would take (beyond the barest outline offered by Gawain’s final adventure). The unfinished nature of the text is evident in its abrupt end in the middle of a scene at King Arthur’s court, which has just received an invitation to join Gawain. Chrétien may have intended to bring the narrative to a quick conclusion in a climactic reunion between Arthur and his mother, but it is also possible that he intended to provide many more tales relating to Perceval and Gawain. After Chrétien’s death, several different writers made attempts to fill out the remaining story, leading to four major continuations that were published within a half-century of Perceval’s release.
The First Continuation is a complex text that exists in both short and long versions, and while its authorship is unknown, it was traditionally attributed to Wauchier de Denain. Depending on its version, the First Continuation doubles or triples the length of Chrétien’s original poem. It resolves the unfinished episode dealing with Gawain’s invitation and Arthur’s reunion with his mother, then goes on to add many other episodes with Gawain and other Arthurian knights (though not Perceval). It provides stories of the pledges made by the Arthurian knights in response to the challenges laid out by the woman who arrives at court during the transition from Perceval’s narrative to Gawain’s, threads of the story which were left unfulfilled by Chrétien in Lines 4684-4726. It also brings Gawain into the story of the grail, though Gawain also fails to bring about the healing of the Fisher King.
The Second Continuation was released shortly after the First and builds on both the original text and the First Continuation. It adds a further series of Perceval stories to the narrative, including a return to the Fisher King’s castle in an attempt to fix the sword, now broken, which was given to him on his first visit. The author of this continuation is likewise unknown, but is sometimes also identified as Wachier de Denain.
The Third and Fourth Continuations are independent of each other and were probably composed around the same time, likely by the authors Manessier and Gerbert de Montreuil. Both attempt to tie up loose ends from Chrétien’s text and earlier continuations, with Manessier’s Third Continuation being the more popular. It wraps up the Perceval/Grail narrative by telling of the Fisher King’s eventual death and Perceval’s ascension to the Fisher King’s throne before his retirement to become a holy hermit. Several other authors attempted to provide brief additions to Chrétien’s text, including prologues, but the original text had a broader impact on the story’s literary legacy than did any of the later interpolations.
Cultural Context: Influence on Subsequent Arthurian Literature
Chrétien’s poems stand among the first full-length literary treatments of the Arthurian legends. While earlier British and Welsh sources mention Arthur and several of his knights, their accounts are not developed into a complete narrative until Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, written in the mid-12th century. Chrétien’s poems follow quickly thereafter, so many of his treatments and interpretations of Arthurian lore became foundational for later developments in the literary corpus.
The character of Perceval, for instance, is largely Chrétien’s creation. While some aspects of the character might possibly be derived from a Welsh figure named Peredur, Chrétien’s introduction of Perceval into the Arthurian cycle provides the guiding outline of his story for most other subsequent works. Perceval’s unique combination of knightly prowess and silly obliviousness becomes a defining feature of the character in later retellings. Other introductions into Arthurian lore which appear to be original to Chrétien include the character of the Fisher King and the idea of a quest for the holy grail, both of which make their first appearance in Perceval (though they too may have loose predecessors in earlier Celtic legends). Chrétien’s other poems add further elements, such as the famous love affair between Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot.
Arthurian literature after Chrétien continued to build on his foundation, but also departed from it in certain respects. Whereas the Fisher King and the grail may have only been intended by Chrétien as an allegory, they swiftly develop as central characters and narrative arcs in their own right. Eventually other Arthurian characters like Gawain are pulled into the grail narrative, and in later literature a new character, Sir Galahad, displaces Perceval’s leading role in the grail stories.
Another change comes in the mood of the stories, which gradually shift from lighthearted entertainment to a more lofty and grandiose set of moral parables. While Chrétien focuses significant attention on the ideals of chivalry, he also creates characters who are flawed in humorous ways, like the bumbling young Perceval. Later developments in Arthurian literature, however—particularly as they grew out of their medieval context and into the early modern world—tended to drop the comic elements and emphasize the lofty moral vision of chivalrous ideals.
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