Sangraal - Beginnings in Literature - Other Early Literature

Other Early Literature

After this point, Grail literature divides into two classes. The first concerns King Arthur’s knights visiting the Grail castle or questing after the object; the second concerns the Grail’s history in the time of Joseph of Arimathea.

The nine most important works from the first group are:

  • The Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes.
  • Four continuations of Chrétien’s poem, by authors of differing vision and talent, designed to bring the story to a close.
  • The German Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, which adapted at least the holiness of Robert’s Grail into the framework of Chrétien’s story.
  • The Didot Perceval, named after the manuscript’s former owner, and purportedly a prosification of Robert de Boron’s sequel to Joseph d’Arimathie.
  • The Welsh romance Peredur, generally included in the Mabinogion, likely at least indirectly founded on Chrétien's poem but including very striking differences from it, preserving as it does elements of pre-Christian traditions such as the Celtic cult of the head.
  • Perlesvaus, called the "least canonical" Grail romance because of its very different character.
  • The German Diu Crône (The Crown), in which Gawain, rather than Perceval, achieves the Grail.
  • The Lancelot section of the vast Vulgate Cycle, which introduces the new Grail hero, Galahad.
  • The Queste del Saint Graal, another part of the Vulgate Cycle, concerning the adventures of Galahad and his achievement of the Grail.

Of the second class there are:

  • Robert de Boron’s Joseph d’Arimathie,
  • The Estoire del Saint Graal, the first part of the Vulgate Cycle (but written after Lancelot and the Queste), based on Robert’s tale but expanding it greatly with many new details.
  • Verses by Rigaut de Barbezieux, a late 12th or early 13th century Provençal troubador, where mention is made of Perceval, the lance, and the Grail ("Like Perceval when he lived, who stood amazed in contemplation, so that he was quite unable to ask what purpose the lance and grail served" - "Attressi con Persavaus el temps que vivia, que s'esbait d'esgarder tant qu'anc non saup demandar de que servia la lansa ni-l grazaus").

Read more about this topic:  Sangraal, Beginnings in Literature

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