"Le Conte del Graal"

One of the "Quest" versions of the legend of the Holy Grail (Graal). It was the last of a series of works of medieval romance written by Chrétien de Troyes, a twelfth-century French writer. Chrétien favored the Arthurian legends and he wrote one volume on Lancelot and King Arthur's court that formed the background of several other books. Le Conte del Graal told how Perceval was reared to the life of a forester by his mother, but forsaking her became a member of the court of King Arthur. Perceval went forth as a knight-errant, and his numerous adventures are recited.

In the middle of the story, the adventures of Gauvain, another of the knights, are fully detailed. However, in the end Chrétien returns to Perceval, who ventures forth again and wanders about for five years in a godless state of mind. One Good Friday he meets with a band of pilgrims who remonstrate him for riding armed on a holy day, and he turns aside to confess to a hermit who turns out to be his uncle. From him he learns that only the sinless can find the Grail, and that he sinned in abandoning his mother and thus causing her death. He had also taken a lady, Balncheflor, but he never returned to her from his wanderings.

Le Conte del Graal was not completed, but copies were circulated, read, and deeply influenced later writers of the Arthurian tales, who developed the story of Perceval and filled in many details of the Graal legend. Chrétien never identifies the Graal, but its juxtaposition with Good Friday caused later authors to identify it with the cup of Christ's Last Supper.

Sources:

Chrétien de Troyes. Le Conte del Graal (Perceval). Edited by Félix Lecoy. Paris: Champion, 1973.

Lacy, Norris J., ed. The Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, 1986.