Part I
A Welsh Romance
During the 19th century Lady Charlotte Guest assembled eleven medieval Welsh tales from the Red Book of Hergest (dated between c.1375-c.1400), to form the collection commonly known as The Mabinogion. In her 1906 edition, Guest published the tales in the following order:
The Four Branches of the Mabinogi, The Dream of the Emperor Maxen, Lludd and Llefelys, Culhwch and Olwen, Rhonabwy’s Dream, The Lady of the Well, Peredur son of Efrog, Geraint son of Erbin, Hanes Taliesin.
Although Guest referred to these tales collectively as “The Mabinogion” they do not share common authorship or date of composition, and content varies from tale to tale; only The Four Branches seem to have been intended as a serial work, and even then it is a loose connection. Although the tales contain older material found mainly in two manuscripts (in addition to the Red Book of Hergest, we find a similar collection in the White Book of Rhydderch, c.1350), it is generally accepted that they were written down between the 11th and 14th centuries, a period when native prose and poetry was susceptible to foreign influence.
Guest regarded the term 'mabinogion' as the plural form of 'mabinogi' and subsequently entitled her collection accordingly. However, the term is a scribal error derived from the Welsh word 'mab' meaning ‘son, boy’; thus, its original meaning was ‘youth’ or ‘story of youth’. It has been suggested that the Four Branches may refer to the life of Pryderi who is the only character appearing in all four tales, being born in the First Branch and dying in the Fourth. ‘The Four Branches of the Mabinogi’ are the mabinogi proper, as it were, being the only tales in the manuscripts that refer to themselves as such.
Guest’s grouping brackets the tales as The Four Branches, the four Native Tales, and the three Romances with the inclusion of the Hanes Taliesin as a twelfth tale, but this late story has no place among these earlier Medieval works as it does not appear in the Red or White Book manuscripts, being first recorded in the mid-16th century by Elis Gruffydd.
In the White and Red Book manuscripts the following groupings are common to both:
(i) The Four Branches of the Mabinogi;
(ii) ‘Peredur son of Efrog’, ‘The Dream of the Emperor Maxen’, ‘Lludd and Llefelys’;
(iii) ‘Geraint son of Erbin’, ‘How Culhwch Won Olwen’.
Rhonabwy’s Dream, which is not included in the earliest manuscript (The White Book), is usually included in scholarly editions at the end of the ‘collection’.
In grouping the tales for her edition of the Mabinogion, it is clear that Guest did not adhere to manuscript authority. Manuscript evidence does not suggest any particular groupings for the seven tales following the Four Branches, however, traditionally, the tales of ‘Peredur son of Efrog’, ‘Geraint son of Erbin’, and ‘The Lady of the Well’ have been known as ‘the three romances’.
Lady Guest noted similarities between the Welsh tales of Peredur, Owain and Geraint and Chrétien de Troyes, Perceval, Erec, and Yvain, noting that in their existing form the Welsh tales were by no means wholly Welsh. Subsequently, the Welsh texts have been grouped together from Lady Guest’s Mabinogion in the 19th century when the relationship between them and the three corresponding late 12th century French Romances were recognised by scholars.
In the 1948 edition of The Mabinogion by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones the tales, (with Hanes Talesin omitted) are presented in the following order:
i) The Four Branches of the Mabinogi;
ii) The Four Independent Native Tales (‘The Dream of Macsen Wledig’, ‘Lludd and Llefelys’, ‘Culhwch and Olwen’, ‘The Dream of Rhonabwy’);
iii) The Three Romances (‘The Lady of the Fountain’, ‘Peredur son of Efrawg’, ‘Gereint son of Erbin’).1
Following many years of debate between scholars examining and cross-examining narrative structure, style, motifs and themes, the relationship between the Welsh and French romances has never been satisfactorily determined. However, we cannot discount the prospect of direct influence of the French on the Welsh compositions. If it is accepted that the Welsh authors derived their romances from Chrétien’s works, they certainly adapted very freely. We could argue that it is more probable that both the Welsh authors and Chrétien de Troyes drew on a common body of narrative material, which many scholars conceive as being of Celtic origin.
Lady Guest noticed that the older 'native tales' such as Culhwch and Olwen display little Norman influence and the less ancient tales such as Geraint, Owain and Peredur contain many allusions to Norman customs. Guest considered that this was evidence that the “three Welsh romances” had probably migrated from Wales to France, then returned to their homeland after several centuries absence and were re-translated with Norman additions. Guest considered that an early form of the three Welsh romances lay behind Chrétien's romances.
Clearly the authors of the White Book and Red Book manuscripts, the only two medieval manuscripts containing all of the so-called “three Welsh romances”, failed to see any connection between them and did not originally perceive them as a group at all. Owing to the absence of manuscript authority it must therefore be admitted that the grouping of these texts together in editions of the Mabinogion since the 19th century, which has undoubtedly influenced readers perceptions of them, that the concept of the “three Welsh romances” must be recognised as a modern construct.2
The Source of the Grail
However, there is an undeniable connection between the three Welsh Romances ‘Peredur son of Efrog’, ‘Geraint son of Erbin’, and ‘The Lady of the Well’ and their French counterparts of 'Perceval', 'Erec et Enide', and 'Yvain' by Chrétien de Troyes. The relationships between these texts has furnished much scholarly debate since it was recognised back in the 19th century yet the greatest disagreement has been the question of whether the Welsh text Peredur son of Efrawg is a translation and adaptation of Perceval, or Chrétien's source.
Perceval, or Le Conte du Graal (The Story of the Grail) is the earliest of the Grail romances, written in Old French by Chrétien de Troyes between 1180 and 1190, left unfinished the tale was the last of his works. Chrétien is credited with introducing the ‘Grail’ to Arthurian romance, the most important text of the Arthurian Cycle of the Matter of Britain. However, as noted above, a Celtic origin for the Grail has been claimed by some scholars which see the derivation of Chrétien’s Perceval from the Welsh Peredur as critical in their argument.
Chrétien’s Grail (or ‘graal’) is a mysterious serving dish carried in a procession with a lance and other talismans before Perceval at the castle of the lame Fisher King. Perceval fails to ask crucial questions about the Grail which would have cured the Fisher King's wound and prevented the imminent devastation of the land.
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| Perceval arrives at the Grail Castle, to be greeted by the Fisher King. From a 1330 CE manuscript of Perceval ou Le Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes (BnF Français 12577, fol. 18v) |
At the Fisher King's castle Perceval was first presented with a sword by the lord as an act of hospitality. Perceval then sat down beside him, who treated him with the greatest honour. And in that hall was the brightest light could ever be created by candles. Then the Grail procession commenced:
"While they were talking of one thing and another, a boy came from a chamber holding a gleaming lance by the middle of the shaft, and he passed between the fire and the pair who were sitting on the bed. Everyone in the hall saw the bright lance and its shining head. And from the tip of the lance's head came a drop of blood; and right down to the boy's hand this drop ran. The lord's guest gazed at the wonder that had appeared that night, but refrained from asking how it came to be, because he remembered the warning of the one who'd knighted him, who'd taught him to beware of talking too much; he was afraid it might be frowned upon, so he didn't ask at all. Then two other boys appeared, holding candlesticks of fine gold, inlaid with niello, they were handsome boys indeed, and in each of the candlesticks they bore were at least ten burning candles. A girl who entered with the boys, fair and graceful and beautifully attired, was holding a grail between her hands. And she entered with the grail, so radiant a light appeared in the hall that the candles lost their brightness like the stars at the rising of the moon or sun. After her came another girl, holding a silver trencher. the grail which went ahead was made of pure, fine gold, inlaid with many kinds of jewels, the richest and most precious in earth or sea: the stones in the grail surpassed all other gems without a doubt. They passed before the bed as the lance had done, and entered another chamber. The boy saw them pass, but didn't dare ask who was served from the grail: he'd taken the words of wise Gorneman to heart. I fear he may suffer for doing so: I've heard it said that sometimes a man can talk too little as well as too much! But whether it was to bring him good or ill - I don't know which - he asked nothing."3
Chrétien's Grail procession is barely 200 lines of a poem in excess of 9,000, yet this mysterious episode supplies the title and overshadows the whole work. Leaving his tale unfinished was perhaps Chrétien’s master stroke, thereby ensuring the mystery of the Grail endured, which it certainly has for a thousand years.
As for Chrétien's source, he claimed he was given a book by Count Philip of Flanders (Alsace). It seems unlikely Chrétien invented this statement as Philip outlived Chrétien by several years before he died in 1191. Yet nothing is known of this book and its origin cannot be considered any more than speculation.
Chrétien simply called the vessel carried in the enigmatic procession 'un graal' (a grail) as if it would be well known and understood by his audience and it should provide no mystery as the name of a common dish or a flat serving tray. Later texts described it as a cup, goblet or, in religious versions, as the chalice of the Eucharist it became “The Holy Grail”.
Writing shortly after Chrétien, probably within 20 years, a French poet named Robert de Boron gave the Grail a Christian dimension in his two poems written at the beginning of the 13th century; the 'Joseph d'Arimathe' and the 'Merlin'. These two works, along with a third unfinished part, the ‘Perceval’ are thought to have formed a greater opus 'Le Roman de l'Estoire dou Graal' which told the early history of the Grail.
According to Boron, the Grail was a vessel used at the Last Supper which Joseph of Arimathea then used to catch the last drops of blood from Jesus’ body at the Crucifixion. Boron’s work has been interpreted as stating that the Grail was brought to Avalon (Glastonbury). Boron's 'Joseph d'Arimathie' provides the first history of the Grail but does not mention the bleeding lance but it does appear later in the Didot Perceval, a Grail text written between 1190 to 1215 AD, thought to be a representation of Boron's final work (the Perceval). The gleaming lance of Chrétien's Grail procession then developed into the spear of Longinus, the centurion who pierced the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross, supposedly found at Antioch in 1089; as with the Grail, Christianised as another relic of the Passion.4
As stated, Chrétien never finished his story which led to at least four different writers producing Continuations over the next 50 years in attempts to bring the tale to a satisfactory conclusion. An introduction to Chrétien’s story was included as “The Elucidation” and also a prologue known as “Bliocadran” which apparently was the name of Perceval’s father.
In addition to the four Continuations several writers produced versions to provide the complete Grail story, and include some material apparently omitted by Chrétien: As we have seen above, Robert de Boron wrote within twenty years of the Perceval and introduced a Christian element to the Grail Story. Wolfram von Eschenbach produced an 'adapted' translation into a High German epic at the beginning of the 13th century known as Parzival. Wolfram added an Oriental element to his version of the tale in which the Grail is a mysterious stone left on earth by banished angels.
Another version, also written around the beginning of the 13th century in Old French prose was the Perlesvaus, known in English as The High History of the Grail. This tale includes many obscure elements that defy satisfactory explanation. It has been said that Perlesvaus has more decapitations than a French revolution. The local geography used in Perlesvaus has led to claims that it was written by a monk from Glastonbury Abbey. A fragment found at nearby Wells Cathedral in Somerset adds weight to the Glastonbury case.
And many more so-called Grail texts emerged over the next few centuries, all claiming to be the “True story” of the Grail. But there can only be one; a Welsh or French text.
Notes & References
1. The order adopted by Sioned Davies in her edition of The Mabinogion, Oxford University Press, 2007: The Four Branches of the Mabinogi, Peredur son of Efrog, The Dream of the Emperor Maxen, Lludd and Llefelys, The Lady of the Well, Geraint son of Erbin, Culhwch and Olwen, Rhonabwy’s Dream.
2. Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan & Erich Poppe, The First Adaptions from French: History and Context of a Debate, pp.110-116, in Arthur in the Celtic Languages, Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan & Erich Poppe, editors, University of Wales Press, 2019.
3. The Complete Story of the Grail: Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval and its Continuations, translated by Nigel Bryant, DS Brewer, 2015 (paperback edition 2018), pp.28-29.
4. See: The First Grail Maiden
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