High History of the Holy Graal
Anonymous Old French Perlesvaus, c. 1210 — a prose Grail romance foregrounding mystical-Christian initiation themes more explicitly than the verse romances. Sebastian Evans's 1898 translation, with his interpretive introduction.
Source context· Western European stream · Greco-Latin cultural age
- Stream
- Western European
- Cultural age
- Greco-Latin (4th post-Atlantean cultural age)
- Composed
- c. 1210 CE
- 1The High History of the Holy Graal: Introduction — Sebastian Evans's 1898 introduction
Sebastian Evans's introduction to his English translation of the Perlesvaus (1898). The provenance of the early-13th-century French original; its anomalous violence and Christ-centred allegory among the Grail romances; its position alongside Chrétien's Perceval, Wolfram's Parzival, and the Queste del Saint Graal in the broader Grail-romance corpus.
3,272 words - 2The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch I — Branch I — the Good Knight and the question unasked
Opens the romance. Josephus's narration of the Holy Graal — the vessel that received Christ's blood at the Crucifixion. The unnamed Good Knight of the lineage of Joseph of Arimathea who failed to ask the saving question at the Fisher King's castle; the little word unspoken whose consequence is the desolation of Britain. The pattern-setting opening for the whole quest.
9,159 words - 3The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch II — Branch II — King Arthur recovers his honour; the call to his knights
King Arthur at Cardoil with the Queen and few knights, languishing in a great melancholy. The wish to win honour and do largesse returns to him; he sends letters throughout the lands summoning all barons and knights to a great court. The frame within which Gawain, Lancelot, and Perlesvaus will be sent on their respective quests.
4,689 words - 4The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch III — Branch III — Gawain into the evil forest
The story turns to Gawain. He passes through the evil forest and enters the forest passing fair, broad and high and plenteous of venison. Trouble lingers from a damsel's warning he received earlier; the misgivings of the knight setting forth into perils he has been warned of but cannot evade.
5,218 words - 5The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch IV — Branch IV — Gawain's adventures continued
Continued Gawain narrative. The pattern of the Perlesvaus now clearly established: each branch picks up one of the three knights' threads (Gawain, Lancelot, Perlesvaus) and follows it before the story is silent and turns to another. The medieval interlace technique at its most controlled.
5,221 words - 6The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch V — Branch V — Gawain at the hermit's orchard; the child on the lion
Gawain rides to a chapel beside a manor at the day's failing. A hermit hosts him and shows him an orchard where two damsels, a squire, and a child of six are guarding a lion. The child rides the lion fearlessly. The hermit explains that only the boy can master the beast — the marvellous-child motif foreshadowing the Perlesvaus narrative to come.
5,440 words - 7The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch VI — Branch VI — Gawain in the enclosed land; the tower with the crane
Gawain comes to a wide country enclosed by a wall — the fairest land he ever saw, four leagues Welsh in length, with a single entrance. In its midst stands a tower on a high rock crowned with a crane. The marvellous-enclosure landscape characteristic of the Perlesvaus romance imagination.
10,365 words - 8The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch VII — Branch VII — Lancelot enters the forest
Here the story is silent of Messire Gawain and beginneth to speak of Lancelot. He enters a forest, meets an armed knight in haste; the encounter that begins Lancelot's parallel adventure-cycle, mirroring Gawain's pattern of meetings, challenges, and obscure quests.
4,666 words - 9The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch VIII — Branch VIII — Perceval at his uncle King Hermit's hermitage
Perceval (named here Perlesvaus, also called Parluifet) sojourns with his uncle King Pelles in the hermitage. He confesses what evils he has suffered since leaving the Fisher King's house; reveals his lineage. The hermit's nephew is now identified; the hidden lineage made plain.
1,577 words - 10The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch IX — Branch IX — the squire who seeks vengeance
Story turns to a squire Gawain met in the forest who is seeking the son of the Widow Lady (Perceval) for having killed his father. The squire travels to Arthur's court, finding the column with the shield of the Damsel of the Car. The motif of pursuing-vengeance against the unsuspecting hero.
5,828 words - 11The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch X — Branch X — Lancelot at the Vavasour's castle
Lancelot riding alone comes to a castle at the head of a launde. The old knight (vavasour) and two damsels welcome him. The hospitality-scene that punctuates the long quest: each branch typically contains one such intimate domestic moment in which the knight is sheltered before resuming the trail.
6,692 words - 12The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XI — Branch XI — Perceval and the Damsel of the Car; releasing the hostage
Perceval is in the kingdom of Logres, traveling to the land of the Queen of the Tents to release the Damsel of the Car whom he had left in hostage on Clamados's account. The Damsel meets him approaching, having freed herself; she rejoices and tells him the consequence of his earlier vow now fulfilled.
2,012 words - 13The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XII — Branch XII — Arthur at Pannenoisance; the search for Lohot
King Arthur at Pannenoisance in Wales with many knights. Lancelot and Gawain return; Arthur asks whether they have seen his son Lohot, of whom he has heard no tidings. I marvel much what hath become of him. The motif of the missing royal son that will return at the romance's tragic close.
2,708 words - 14The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XIII — Branch XIII — Gawain in the hermit's house
Gawain rides until day declines; he lays him in the house of a hermit in the forest. The hermit asks whom he seeks; Gawain replies he is in quest of a knight he would gladly see. The conversation that turns each lodging-scene into an occasion of confession or direction.
4,671 words - 15The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XIV — Branch XIV — Lancelot seeks Perceval at Joseus's hermitage
Story turns to Lancelot, who seeks Perceval as Gawain has been seeking him. Lancelot rides to the hermitage where he had hanged the thieves; Joseus the hermit receives him with great joy. He has seen the son of the Widow Lady but once since the latter left Arthur's court.
2,769 words - 16The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XV — Branch XV — continuing quests; interlace at midpoint
The romance's mid-point of pure interlace. Multiple threads continue in alternation — each knight's trail picked up and dropped in turn — while the larger narrative pattern of converging toward Perceval as the destined Grail-bearer becomes increasingly visible to the reader.
10,964 words - 17The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XVI — Branch XVI — the Knight of the Fiery Dragon threatens Arthur's realm
Brief but dramatic branch. Two armed knights ride into Arthur's hall, each bearing a dead knight before him still armed as in life. They tell of the Knight of the Fiery Dragon — taller by a foot than any knight, sword three times bigger, shield bearing a dragon's head that casts forth fire — destroying Arthur's lands. The land's new peril named.
611 words - 18The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XVII — Branch XVII — Perceval departs his mother; the red cross
Perceval, having stayed with his mother as long as pleased him, departs with her good will and his sister's, promising swift return. He enters the great Lonely Forest, rides until at noon he reaches a fair launde; in its midst stands a red cross beneath which a comely knight is found. The grail-quest's symbolic geography taking definite form.
4,504 words - 19The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XVIII — Branch XVIII — Perceval at the Turning Castle
The Turning Castle — Virgil founded it in the air by his wisdom, when the philosophers went on the Quest of the Earthly Paradise. Prophesied to cease turning only when the Knight should come thither who should have a head of gold, the look of a lion, a heart of steel, the navel of a virgin maid. Perceval arrives; the castle ceases its rotation.
8,478 words - 20The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XIX — Branch XIX — Arthur at Cardoil; the two sunbeams
Whitsuntide at Cardoil — Arthur in the hall at meat with all his knights about him. He looks at the windows and sees two sunbeams shining within that fill the whole hall with light. The miraculous-light motif that marks the moments of grace breaking into the secular court.
2,101 words - 21The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XX — Branch XX — Arthur, Lancelot, and Gawain lost in the forest at nightfall
Arthur rides with Lancelot and Gawain; night comes on in a forest and they find neither hold nor hermitage. Lords, where may we be able to alight to-night? Gawain marvels that they have ridden the day long without lodging. The forest as the place where even kings are reduced to ordinary uncertainty.
5,176 words - 22The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXI — Branch XXI — the Knight of the Golden Circlet; Perceval's victory
Gawain and Arthur meet a knight from the land of the Queen of the Golden Circlet, who reports a sore loss. The son of the Widow Lady has won the Circlet of Gold by slaying its Knight — Perceval's victory in another adventure that the reader follows through this messenger's report.
6,776 words - 23The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXII — Branch XXII — Arthur at the castle of King Fisherman
The great central moment. Arthur arrives at the castle that belonged to King Fisherman — as rich and fair as you have heard told many a time. Perceval, there within, rejoices at the King's coming; the priests and ancient knights celebrate. Arthur is disarmed; Perceval leads him into the chapel where the Graal is.
1,681 words - 24The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXIII — Branch XXIII — Arthur and Gawain at the waste castle; the old priest
Arthur and Gawain take leave of Perceval and the Castle. They ride to a waste ancient castle in a forest; it would have been fair and rich had folk dwelt therein but is empty save for one old priest and his clerk. The desolate-castle motif that signs the larger desolation of the land outside the renewed Grail-castle.
795 words - 25The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXIV — Branch XXIV — Meliant son of the Waste Manor seeks vengeance
Arthur and Gawain remain to guard the recovered castle. Story turns to the knight's son of the Waste Manor — Meliant — whom Lancelot had earlier wounded; he has not forgotten his father's death. Hearing of Briant of the Isles, he plots his vengeance. The cycle of personal vendetta running parallel to the great quest.
6,285 words - 26The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXV — Branch XXV — Arthur and Gawain besieged by Ahuret the Bastard
Arthur and Gawain in the castle where the priest told Gawain how he was born — but unable to depart at their will. Ahuret the Bastard (brother of Nabigant of the Rock whom Gawain slew on account of Meliot of Logres) has assembled knights and holds them straitly within. The closing-in of family-feud upon the king.
735 words - 27The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXVI — Branch XXVI — siege and relief; Briant of the Isles
The siege continues; Briant of the Isles intervenes; the political-military substrate of the Arthurian world fully active here. Where most Grail romances stay focused on the visionary quest, Perlesvaus is unique in maintaining this dense political secondary plot through which great-knight vendettas play out.
2,523 words - 28The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXVII — Branch XXVII — Briant and Orguelleux at peace; Lancelot recalled
Briant would have been wroth with Orguelleux of the Launde but for the King's intervention. When Arthur learns Madeglant is discomfited and Albanie is in peace, he sends word to Lancelot to return; the people of the land mourn his departure, for they had placed great trust in him.
2,185 words - 29The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXVIII — Branch XXVIII — Briant returns to Cardoil; the Albanian recall
Briant of the Isles returns to Cardoil — of the forty knights he took with him, but fifteen return. Arthur is sorrowful, saying he has the fewer friends. They of Albanie petition Arthur: send Lancelot, for they have never known a knight better able to avenge them on their enemies.
2,120 words - 30The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXIX — Branch XXIX — Lancelot at the Chapel Perilous
Lancelot rides full heavy in thought; meets a knight sore wounded. I come from the Chapel Perilous, where I was not able to defend me against an evil folk that appeared there. Lancelot now goes himself toward the Chapel Perilous — the eerie supernatural-encounter site that recurs across Arthurian romance.
482 words - 31The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXX — Branch XXX — Perceval's sister carried off by Aristor
Perceval departs his uncle's castle which he has reconquered; the damsel that was wounded tells him his sister has been carried off by force to a vavasour's house by Aristor, who plans to take her to wife and on the day of the New Year cut off her head. The frame for the urgent rescue-quest that follows.
5,794 words - 32The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXXI — Branch XXXI — Perceval rides toward Aristor's castle
Perceval rides through the forest; sees two squires each carrying a wild deer trussed behind them, taken by hounds. Whither will you carry this venison? — To the castle of Ariste, whereof Aristor is lord. The intelligence-gathering that precedes the rescue: Is there great throng of knights at the castle?
720 words - 33The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXXII — Branch XXXII — Meliot of Logres healed; Gawain in prison
Meliot of Logres has departed the Castle Perilous sound and whole by virtue of the sword Lancelot brought him and the cloth from the Chapel Perilous. But he learns sad tidings: Gawain is in prison — two knights kinsmen of those of the Raving Castle have shut him up on account of Perceval. The vector of obligation now points toward Gawain's rescue.
7,919 words - 34The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXXIII — Branch XXXIII — converging rescues; the political endgame
The branches' multiple plot-threads converge as the romance approaches its close. The knights move toward their respective destinies — Perceval to consummate the Grail quest, Gawain and Lancelot to support, Arthur to learn the eschatological close that awaits the realm itself.
2,508 words - 35The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXXIV — Branch XXXIV — Perceval consummates the Grail quest
Perceval reaches the consummation of his quest. The Fisher King is healed; the wasted land of the Grail-realm is restored. The terms of the original failure (the question unasked in Branch I) are now reversed; the Grail-mystery is brought to its proper home. The romance's most direct redemption-moment.
1,536 words - 36The High History of the Holy Graal: Branch XXXV — Branch XXXV — the closing — Perceval at the holy mountain
The closing branch. Perceval ascends a holy mountain to the place prepared for him; the Grail is removed from the world; the Arthurian realm passes its zenith. Perlesvaus's singular ending — neither the marriage and settled kingship of Wolfram's Parzival nor the apocalyptic finale of the Queste, but a strange withdrawal of the Grail from the world.
9,810 words
JSON: /api/sources/grail-romances/high-history-of-the-holy-graal/index.json · Back to Sources.