The Holy Grail: From Romance Motif to Modern Genre

Folklore, Oct, 2000 by Juliette Wood

The Vulgate Cycle, sometimes called "The Lancelot Grail," is a long cycle composed between c. 1215-1235 by different hands. Scholars suggest that the Cistercians were the principle authors and that they combined many elements in the earlier romances and further allegorised the story adding the figure of Galahad who follows the grail back to heaven and Sir Bors who returns to Arthur's court to tell the tale. The Vulgate Cycle is divided into five separate romances, given here in chronological order according to the development of the story, not in order of composition. Estoire del Saint Graal in which Joseph of Arimathea's son, Josephe, is Grail keeper followed by Alain, the first Fisher King, who places the grail in Corbennic Castle and waits for the Grail knight. In the Estoire de Merlin, Merlin dictates the grail story to Blaise and tells Arthur about Seige Perilous and Galahad. The Prose Lancelot contains the story of Galahad's birth, and the appearance of Sir Bors who joins Perceval, Gawain and Lancelot on the grail quest. The knights of the Round Table have a vision of the grail at which a voice announces the quest in Queste del Saint Graal. The grail here is the dish from which Jesus ate the Passover lamb. Lancelot's vision of the Grail is hindered because of his adultery with Guenevere and this reflects the emphasis on the corrupt nature of secular chivalry which is the underlying theme of the Vulgate Cycle. Gawain, Perceval and Bors sail to the Grail Castle in a mysterious ship. Galahad achieves the vision of Holy Grail and the two other knights return to Sarras (the grail castle on earth). Perceval becomes the grail king in this world and Bors returns to Camelot. The final romance, Le Mort le Roi Artu, links the success of the grail quest to the unravelling of the Arthurian world.

Two further romances should be mentioned. Henry Lovelich's The History of the Holy Grail c. 1450 is a translation from the French Vulgate Cycle, but adds the burial of Joseph at Glastonbury and stresses Merlin's role as prophet of the Holy Grail. The best known of these treatments is Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur written c. 1470 and published by Caxton in 1485. Malory uses the Vulgate Cycle for the adventures of the "Sangreal." He emphasises the role of Lancelot, and eventually the Grail is returned to the Holy Land.

Patterns and Themes

In many romances, the grail episode is only one among a number of adventures, and not always the obvious point of the story. The pattern in these complex texts is one of expansion and development. The writers were sometimes aware of other romances on the subject and often indicate their dependence on Chretien or other sources. However, in assessing sources one needs to take into account medieval conventions in romance writing. References to strange sources and hidden books were used to give intensity to the act of composition, and writers did not necessarily intend an audience to take these literally. Although a grail and a procession lie at the centre of these stories, even these are not portrayed consistently. The grail can be a jewelled dish (Chretien), a head floating in blood on a salver (Peredur), a stone (Wolfram), or a ciborium containing bread (Diu Crone). The grail procession includes a bleeding lance (Chretien, Wolfram, de Boron), which is sometimes carried by a member of the procession but at other times in a lance-rest from which blood flows freely and is piped away (First Continuation). Often, the knight observing the procession is shown a broken or flawed sword, and an integral part of the task is to mend this weapon (First, Second, Third Continuations). In other versions (e.g. Second Continuation), a lady gives the knight a stag's head and hunting dog, which he subsequently loses and must restore before the main task can even be attempted. There is also an earthly counterpart to the grail castle, the Castle Orgellous or Castle of the Maidens (Elucidation Prologue), dominated by women who seem to represent the worldly aspect of chivalry. This adventure also needs to be completed before the return to the grail castle. Frequently Gawain, the embodiment of earthly chivalry, achieves this, while Perceval completes the graft task (Third Continuation). In some romances the knight plays chess with a self-moving magic chess board (Second Continuation). In another variation a corpse, together with a bleeding lance or broken sword, is laid out in a chapel or castle. In Perlesvaus it actually occurs as part of the grail procession. Once the Last Supper material was introduced early in the thirteenth century (Robert de Boron), the contrast between worldly chivalry and chivalry of a higher kind became sharper. The grail quest began to supersede the other quests in Arthurian literature and a new knight, Galahad (Vulgate Cycle), was introduced as the perfect grail knight. The figure of Merlin also became linked to the grail quest (de Boron, Estoire de Merlin, Lovelich, Malory).