The Mammoth Book of King Arthur (66 page)

Although in structure
Parzival
follows the storyline of Chrétien’s
Perceval
, there are some significant changes, including to Parzival’s parents. His father
Gahmuret was the younger son of the lord of Anjou, and, when his elder brother inherited the title, Gahmuret set out on worldly adventures. He spent time in Babylon and Arabia, even fathering a
child, Feirifiz, by the
queen of Zazamanc, before returning to the west and marrying Herzeloyde, queen of Waleis. Upon his brother’s death, Gahmuret becomes lord of
Anjou. He responds to a plea from the Baruc of Baghdad who is being attacked by the Babylonians, and dies in the conflict just days before Parzival is born. Mother and child flee into the remote
forest until, captivated by the sight of knights, Parzival ventures forth into the world.

Wolfram often changes or provides names. Perceval’s sweetheart becomes Condwiramurs, the Grail King is Anfortas and the Grail castle becomes Munsalvaesche, “the mountain of
salvation”. The Guardians of the Grail are the Templar knights. Parzival’s experience at the Grail castle is similar to but more elaborate than previous descriptions, though he still
fails to ask the right question. Parzival returns to Arthur’s castle, is admonished by the ugly damsel, here called Cundrie the Sorceress, then both he and Gawain set off on their respective
quests. Parzival wanders for nearly five years as if in a daze and eventually finds the retreat of the hermit Trevrizent (Parzival’s uncle and the brother of Anfortas).

It is in Book 9 that Wolfram provides his interpretation of the Grail in what is an intensely mystical section. We learn that the Grail is a stone of power, the
lapsit exillis.
We also
learn why the Fisher King Anfortas is wounded. He had fallen in love with a lady he had served and at a tournament was wounded in the genitals by a lance, the same one borne in the procession.
However, it was prophesied that should a youth ask the right question of him about the Grail he would be cured, though could no longer serve as Grail King. In other words, the asking of the
question, which had eluded Perceval in all of the versions to date, is the key to Perceval becoming the Grail King’s successor. Trevrizent also reveals how the Grail serves as a secret
organization despatching knights to become lords of disinherited lands.

Wolfram returns to follow Chrétien’s storyline but as we approach the climax, which Chrétien left unfinished, Wolfram comes back into his own. Parzival’s half-brother
Feirifiz appears and he and Parzival do battle until Parzival recognizes his identity and the two are reconciled. Parzival and Feirifiz go jointly to the Grail castle. With his understanding
Parzival is able to cure Anfortas, and the Grail King hands over his role to Parzival.
Feirifiz marries the Grail Bearer, Repanse. We even learn something of the future of
Parzival’s son Loherangrin.

Although Wolfram worked from the same material as Chrétien, he refashioned it from the spiritual to the hermetic, making it less a work of religious attainment and more of discovery and
destiny. His light matter-of-fact touch would have allowed the reader to understand his own world whilst still being uplifted by the majesty of the subject. Wolfram doubtless planned to explore
more of the Grail world, since he worked on another poem,
Titurel
, the name relating to a forebear of the Grail King. But he left that unfinished and it was completed in the 1270s as
Der
jüngere Titurel.
Like the later epic poem
Lohengrin
(believed to be written by the otherwise-unknown Neuhäuser in the 1280s), it features no Arthurian characters so is only
Arthurian by association.

→ The French Continuations (except the Fourth) were translated and reworked by Clause Wisse and Philipp Colin during 1331–1336 and incorporated between Books 14 and
15 as
Der nüwe Parzefal
, but their work adds nothing to the original.

QUEST OF THE HOLY GRAIL
, anon. (French, soon after 1215).

This is the second book in the original Vulgate Cycle and follows the Prose
Lancelot
(see next chapter), but is composed in an entirely different vein. It is clearly a
spiritual quest with little relevance to earthly matters.

Camelot is visited on the day before Pentecost by a maiden who requests that Lancelot accompany her. She leads him to a nunnery in a forest where he is asked to knight a young man who is brought
before him. This Lancelot does. Also present are Lancelot’s cousins Bors and Lionel, who believe the young man is the son of Lancelot. All three return to Camelot. They discover, on the Seige
Perilous, or Perilous Seat, a new inscription:

They cover the inscription with a cloth. A squire rushes to tell King Arthur that a marble slab has floated down the river in which is embedded a sword. Arthur hurries to the
scene with Lancelot, Gawain and Perceval. The sword has the inscription:

Arthur, believing Lancelot to be the world’s best knight, asks him to withdraw the sword. He refuses, knowing he will not succeed. Gawain is also loath to do so but Arthur
insists. Neither Gawain nor Perceval can withdraw it. Lancelot sees it as ominous that Gawain has even tried and declares that he will rue the day.

They sit down for the Pentecostal meal. All the knights are present, including four crowned kings, and the only vacant seat is the Siege Perilous. No sooner have they completed their first
course than all the castle doors and windows shut of their own accord, yet the dining hall remains light. An old man in a white cloak appears, leading a young knight in red armour, but without
sword or shield. He is announced as the Desired Knight, descended from King David and the family of Joseph of Arimathea.

The knight is led to the Siege Perilous and when Lancelot removes the cloth he sees that the inscription now states
THIS IS GALAHAD’S SEAT
. Galahad reveals that he
has come because the Quest for the Holy Grail will soon start. Arthur takes Galahad to the river, where the sword is still embedded in the marble slab. Galahad withdraws it easily, stating that he
knew he would obtain a sword and so had not brought one. He now needs a shield.

A damsel riding by tells Lancelot that he is no longer the world’s best knight and advises Arthur that they will soon be visited by the Grail. Arthur celebrates with a tournament and
Galahad defeats all who stand against him.

While they dine that evening there is a clap of thunder, and the room is illuminated as if by the Holy Spirit. The Grail appears,
but the room is so bright, and the Grail
covered with a cloth, that no one can see it properly. It passes round the room and everyone finds their plates full with whatever food they desire. The Grail goes but no one sees how or where.
Overcome by events, Gawain declares that he will not rest until he has seen the Grail. All the assembled knights (150), agree and swear an oath to seek the truth of the Grail. Arthur is distraught,
realizing that this is the beginning of the end for the Round Table.

Although all the knights depart on their Quest the story concentrates on the actions of Gawain, Lancelot, Bors and Perceval and how Galahad’s quest interacts with theirs. Each of the
knights is tested and all, save Galahad, are found wanting, though at one stage Galahad fights with Lancelot and Perceval, not knowing who they are, and nearly kills them both. He hurries away
before he can be recognised. Galahad’s first encounter, however, is at the White Abbey. Bademagus and Yvain the Bastard had already reached it because Bademagus was interested in a shield
which could not be taken from the abbey without its bearer being killed or maimed within a day or two. Galahad encourages them to take the shield, saying that if they fail he will use the shield
himself. Bademagus takes the shield, despite a warning from the monks. A few leagues from the abbey he is challenged by a white knight, and receives a mortal blow.

The knight takes the shield back to the abbey and hands it to Galahad. The knight reveals that forty-two years after Christ’s passion Joseph of Arimathea and his companions left Jerusalem
and came to the city of Sarras, then ruled by the Saracen king Evalach, who was at war with his neighbour Tholomer. Joseph’s son Josephus gave Evalach a shield marked with a red cross and
told him that after three days, when he felt he was sure to be defeated, he was to reveal this shield. Evalach did so, and discovered that the shield bore the image of a crucified man. He recited
the words that Josephus had told him and thereupon won the battle. A man whose hand had been amputated touched the shield and his hand was restored. Evalach took the shield to Josephus whose nose
began to bleed. With his blood Josephus made the image of a cross on the shield. The shield is left in the safe keeping of Evalach to await the coming of the Good Knight, Galahad.

Galahad leaves Bademagus at the White Abbey and is accompanied by Bademagus’s squire Melias, who wishes to become a knight. They reach a fork in the road, and learn
that whoever takes the right turning will meet with certain death whilst only the world’s greatest knight can take the left route. Melias, newly knighted, takes the left turning. He discovers
a crown in a bush but when he takes it he is badly wounded by a knight. Galahad rescues him and takes Melias to an abbey to heal. There Melias learns that he had committed the sins of pride and
presumption. As all of the knights proceed on the Quest they are to be tested and their sins discovered.

Galahad comes to the Castle of Maidens where seven brothers hold prisoner any maidens who pass their way. Galahad defeats the brothers and they all flee. Soon afterwards they meet Gawain who is
travelling with his brother Gaheris and Yvain the Bastard. The seven brothers attack the knights but are soon killed. When they lodge for the night at a hermitage, the hermit admonishes Gawain for
killing all of the brothers, which was not necessary to succeed in the Quest.

Lancelot, who had been travelling with Perceval, is now travelling alone. While resting he sees the arrival of a wounded knight who is healed by the appearance of the Grail. Lancelot tries to
move but cannot. The knight’s squire takes his armour. Only when they have gone can Lancelot move again. Lancelot tells this episode to a priest at a small chapel who explains that Lancelot
will not achieve the Grail Quest because of his sin of adultery. He must first repent. Lancelot thereupon stays with the priest for five days to purge his sins and vows never to repeat them. When
he leaves, and after a vision of his forebears, Lancelot enters a tournament. He chooses to fight on the side of the black knights, because they are losing, but he is unhorsed and captured. He
learns that this was yet another test and that he should have fought on the side of the white knights, who represented the knights of heaven whilst the black knights were the soiled knights of
earth. Confused and introspective, Lancelot wanders dazed for several days, putting up no fight when he in unhorsed by another knight. He finds himself hemmed in by cliffs and a river and there
stops to await guidance from God.

Perceval, in the meantime, has come to a small chapel where
there is an old recluse. He discovers that she is his aunt who was once Queen of the Waste Land. She tells
Perceval that his mother had died of a broken heart when he left her to become a knight. She also reveals that only three knights will complete the Grail Quest, Galahad, Bors and himself, but he
will succeed only if he remains chaste. She explains to Perceval the significance of the Round Table, referring to the three great fellowships since the coming of Jesus Christ – the Table of
the Last Supper, the Table of the Holy Grail, and now the Round Table.

When Perceval leaves his aunt he passes by an old abbey where he sees an incredibly ancient man lying upon a bed and wearing a crown. He asks one of the monks who he is and learns that he is
none other than King Evalach himself, now called Mordrain, who had prayed that he would live until the Good Knight came.

Leaving the abbey, Perceval is attacked by bandits and though rescued by Galahad (though he does not know his identity) he loses his horse, and Galahad leaves before Perceval can follow.
Perceval declares that he will do anything for a horse. A damsel appears who presents Perceval with a horse. Perceval becomes wary of the horse but mounts it in order to pursue Galahad. The horse,
though, has a mind of its own and takes Perceval towards deep water. He is saved by crossing himself, otherwise he would have drowned. Perceval is rescued by a shipful of maidens and has to resist
sexual temptation. Perceval prays to God and the ship and maidens vanish. Perceval is collected by another ship and a priest explains that, despite Satan’s temptations, Perceval has passed
the test.

Gawain, however, is struggling. He has joined forces with Hector, Lancelot’s half-brother, hoping that together they might have more adventure. They challenge a knight and mortally wound
him, only to discover they have wounded their friend Yvain the Bastard. Gawain is distraught and feels himself accursed. A holy man advises Gawain that he is too old and set in his ways for this
Quest, expecting to find the solution in temporal matters rather than spiritual. He is told he should return to Camelot, but he cannot bear the thought of not being part of the Quest. Gawain tells
the Holy Man that he will talk with him again but hurries to follow Hector. The two subsequently meet Galahad, though again they fail to recognise each other. Galahad
severely
injures Gawain, as Lancelot had foreseen when Gawain tried to remove the sword from the slab.