Sir Perceval

The original Grail Knight. The legend of Perceval began with Chretien de Troyes' medieval romance titled Conte du Graal ("Story of the Grail"), which is also sometimes titled Perceval, written around 1180. People were fascinated with both the hero Perceval and the mysterious object known as the Grail. Since Chretien had died before ever completing this work, some contemporary and later authors tried to complete his tale or rewrite their own versions of Perceval. Since Chretien's death, many offshoots about Perceval and the Grail were written about it.

The problem was that the whole tale is so vague, such as the location of the Grail, the identity of the Grail and Perceval's family.

• Family of Perceval

• The Fool or a Hero?

Family of Perceval

Since Chretien's Perceval left no names of his family, other writers tried to match names to each of his family members.

According to Chretien, we know that his father and two brothers died in battle. His mother tried to make Perceval ignorant of the ways of the knights and the court life by living in an isolated forest known as the Wasteland. Perceval would later meet a female cousin who had lived with him and his mother when Perceval was very young. He also meet two uncles: one was the Fisher King who dwelt in the Grail Castle, and the other was a hermit. Both uncles as well as his female cousin came from his mother's side of the family. One continuation on Chretien's work says that Perceval had a sister.

His father name was Alain li Gros in Robert de Boron's trilogy about the Grail (c. 1200), the Didot Perceval (c. 1205) and Le Haut Livre du Graal, which is more popularly known as Perlesvaus (c. 1210). His mother was named Yglais, but this name was only given in Perlesvaus; the Perlesvaus says that he also had a sister named Dindraine (or Dandrane). No brother was mentioned in these three different tales.

Unlike most Grail romances, Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie and the Didot Perceval say that the Grail King (eg. Fisher King or Maimed King) came from the his father's side of the family. In the other Grail romances, the Fisher King usually appeared on his mother's side of the family, (eg. Conte du Graal, Parzival, Perlesvaus).

Unlike Chretien's Perceval, the Didot Perceval said that his grandfather was the incapacitated Fisher King, whose name was Bron (or Hebron). But in Perlesvaus, the Fisher King was his maternal uncle, like that of the romance of Chretien and Wolfram.

According to the German poem titled Parzival (c. 1205), which was written by Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gahmuret and Herzeloyde were Parzival's parents. He had one half-brother named Feirefiz, who was the son of Gahmuret and Belacane. The Fisher King was his maternal uncle, Anfortas.

According to one of the Welsh romances in the Mabinogion, titled Peredur Son of Evrawg (mid-13th century), the hero was named Peredur. Here we have the identity of his father, named Evrawg, and who was an earl. This time, he had 6 brothers who died in battle. His mother was still not named. He had two uncles. One of them, the hoary-haried man who taught Peredur to fight, took over the role of Lord Gornemant of Gohort in Chretien's Conte du Graal. The other uncle was like Chretien's Fisher King.

In the Queste del Saint Graal (Vulgate romance, c. 1230), Perceval's role in the Grail adventure was supplanted by a new knight named Galahad, son of Lancelot. Perceval's father was revealed to be King Pellehen, and he had a sister, sometimes unnamed, but sometimes known as Dindraine. His brothers were Agloval and Drian. He was no longer related to the Grail family, eg. the Fisher King. However, in the Post-Vulgate version, Perceval's father was King Pellinor, hunter of the Questing Beast, while another brother was included to the Vulgate tale, Lamorat or Melodiam, and a half-brother named Tor.

In the Vulgate Cycle, Gawain's family and Perceval's family were friendly, but in the Post-Vulgate Suite du Graal (c. 1250), in Prose Tristan (c. 1245) and Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1469), there was a feud between the two clans. Because Pellinor had killed Gawain's father, King Lot, in battle, Gawain and his brother took revenge upon Pellinor and his sons, except Perceval.

If you are little confused with what I have written so far, then maybe the table below would clear things up. The problems lie with the fact that each source may give different names to the characters. I have only included Perceval's parents and siblings in the table below, leaving out his cousins, aunts and uncles. For more details about Perceval's family, I would suggest that you look at family trees of Grail Family.

Sources	Name	Father	Mother	Brothers	Sister
Conte du Graal (Chretien de Troyes)	Perceval	unnamed	unnamed	2 unnamed brothers	–
Peredur Mabinogion	Peredur	Evrawg	unnamed	6 unnamed brothers	–
Perceval Robert de Boron	Perceval	Alain le Gros	unnamed	–	–
Didot Perceval	Perceval li Galois	Alain li Gros	unnamed	–	–
Perlesvaus	Perlesvaus	Alan the Fat	Yglais	–	Dindraine or Dandrane
Parzival Wolfram von Eschenbach	Parzival	Gahmuret	Herzeloyde	Feirefiz	–
Vulgate Cycle romances	Perceval	Pellehan	unnamed	Agloval, Drian	unnamed or Dindraine
Suite du Merlin (Post-Vulgate)	Perceval	Pellinor	unnamed	Lamorat or Melodiam, Agloval, Drian; Tor (half-brother)	unnamed or Dindraine
Le Morte d'Arthur Sir Thomas Malory	Perceval	Pellinore	unnamed	Lamorak, Agloval, Driant; Tor (half-brother)	unnamed

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The Fool or a Hero?

Perceval was the original Grail hero (see Chretien de Troyes' Le Conte du Graal). Tales, like Parzival (written by Wolfram von Eschenbach, c. 1205), followed the beginning of Conte du Graal, more or less. By the time of the Vulgate Cycle (c. 1230), Galahad replaced him as the hero of the Grail legends, although he still played a vital role.

Perceval was often portrayed as a simple young man with uncouth innocence. As a knight, Perceval had great strength and natural skills in jousting and swordsmanship. His ignorance stemmed from the fact that his mother had kept him ignorant about his father and brothers, who were knights. His mother didn't want to lose her son too, so she avoided mentioning the life of the nobles and knights. Perceval wanted to become a knight and left home after seeing a few knights passing the forest in which he and his mother lived.

Since his mother couldn't persuade him to stay with her, she helped him to dress in a buckskin cloak and mismatching shirt and breeches so that he looked like a peasant or a fool, and he rode a nag as he searched for King Arthur to knight him. She hoped that by making him look like a fool, that maybe her son would fail to become a knight and return home. But she died in sorrow when her son abandoned her.

Some of the advice she gave to her son did make him sound simple and crude. Such as kissing a maiden, taking her ring and eating the food. Basically, he assaulted the maiden like a lecher and stole her ring and brooch like a thief.

When he did reach Arthur's court, Perceval was rude to the king, and Kay the Seneschal took him for a fool, becoming sarcastic before sending Perceval to confront the Red Knight as a way of becoming a knight.

According to Peredur Son of Evrawg (mid-13th century), his two uncles taught him the skill of swordsmanship. One of the uncles played the role of Chretien's Lord Gornemant of Gohort, while the second uncle was like the Fisher King. The second uncle asked Peredur to take up a sword and strike at the iron column. Both column and sword broke in two. He was instructed to put the pieces together and join them. When he did so, both sword and column were restored. He was instructed to repeat it again: breaking the sword and column, and then rejoining them. The third time that he broke the sword and column, he could not restore them back to their former state. His uncle declared that he was the best swordsman in the kingdom, but Peredur had only acquired two-thirds of his strength.

Peredur had also spent three weeks learning to ride a horse and train in fighting from the nine hags of Gloucester.

It was Lord Gornemant of Gohort (in Conte du Graal) and Peredur's first hoary-haired uncle (in Peredur), who advised the hero not to ask too many questions, who brought out the Fisher King who was maimed and languishing in pain. So Perceval was not entirely to blame for his reticence when he witnessed the Grail procession. But Perceval should have used his judgment when to ask questions and when to refrain. His reticence had caused much suffering and devastation of the kingdoms in Britain.

In Queste del Saint Graal (Vulgate Cycle), he was simple to the point of being stupid. Perceval also seemed to have a childish temperament, particularly when something didn't go his way.

Perceval was one of Knights of the Round Table. As a knight, he was usually known as the Red Knight, because he won his horse, armour and weapon by killing the Red Knight of Quinqueroy (known as Ither of Gaheviez in Wolfram's Parzival) at Arthur's court.

In Conte du Graal, he played the role of the Fair Unknown. This was where the hero didn't even know his own name. The hero was usually brought up not knowing his own name, and sometimes not even the name of his true parents. The hero would only learn his name when he overcame his enemy in his first adventure. Many heroes had played the role of the Fair Unknown, including Lancelot in the Vulgate Cycle and Gawain in the Rise of Gawain. The most famous Fair Unknown was Guinglain, the son of Gawain. See Fair Unknown in the Tales of the Knights.

So he was usually seen as the Red Knight. In Didot Perceval, Gawain's sister Elaine was in love with him. It was she who gave Perceval the vermilion armour and shield. In Perlesvaus, at first he bore the red shield with the emblazon of the white stag. He later fought in disguise as the White Knight at the tournament of Crimson Heath. He went to King Arthur's court to fetch the Shield of Joseph of Arimathea.

In Conte du Graal, he bore the sword given to him by the Fisher King.

Perceval was invited by the Fisher King to lodge at the Grail Castle. He was blamed for his failure to ask questions about the Grail or the Bleeding Lance. Had he asked the required questions, the Fisher King's wounds would have healed and the barren land around the Grail Castle would have been restored. Perceval set out from Arthur's court, in a quest to find the Grail Castle, to set things right. However, Chretien never finished his tale. Many other writers tried to complete the mysterious legend.

In the Vulgate version (Queste del Saint Graal), Galahad was the hero, but Perceval and Sir Bors were Galahad's companions in the Quest.

His sister appeared in several later stories. The most notable version was told in the Vulgate Cycle. Though she called herself the daughter of Pellehen, she never gave her name. Her name was probably Heliabel or Dindraine. It was Perceval's sister who guided Galahad to a magic ship, and knew the history of the Sword with the Strange Belt. She sacrificed her life to heal a woman from leprosy (See Death of the Maiden). Her body was placed in a small bark (boat) that drifted until it arrived at the city of Sarras, the last resting place of the Grail.

After finding the Grail and following Galahad to Sarra, they found his sister's boat had arrived, just as she had foretold. They buried her in Sarra. Perceval and Bors stayed with Galahad until he died. They buried Galahad with Perceval's sister. Perceval retired to a hermitage, where he died a year later. Perceval was buried with his sister and Galahad. (See the Quest of the Holy Grail (Queste del Saint Graal), for the full story.)

In Robert de Boron's Perceval and the Didot Perceval, Perceval's father was Alain le Gros (the Fisher King), while his grandfather was Bron, the Rich Fisher.

According to these two works, Perceval won not the grail, but instead was heir to the Grail Keeper's throne. When Bron died, Perceval became the new Grail Keeper and king. Perceval was the last Grail Keeper. When Perceval died, the grail and the lance vanished, most likely taken to heaven.

In the Mabinogion, where Perceval was known as Peredur, the story was different to those of Chretien de Troyes. Peredur was the son of Evrawg, and he had six brothers. When his father and brothers were killed in battle, his mother tried to raise her youngest son in the wild forest, in ignorance of life outside his home. (See Peredur, in the Grail Legend.)

Some of his adventures paralleled those of the Conte du Graal and the Second Continuation. In the Welsh story, we have a crippled king and the procession of the bleeding spear. The next object that followed the procession was a severed head on the platter, full of blood, instead of the Grail. The head belonged to Peredur's cousin, who was killed and beheaded by the nine hags of Gloucester. In the end, Peredur avenged his cousin by killing the nine hags.

In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival (c. 1200), the hero was called Parzival or Parzifal, and was the son of Gahmuret and Hereloyde. He had a half-brother of Feiefiz. Parzival married Condwiramurs, and was the father of Loheranrin and Kardeiz II.