Didot Perceval
Arthurian scholars are united in pointing out that the prose Perceval is not one but two works: a fairly long Grail quest by the knight Perceval and a very short Mort Artu which forms the third section of the translation (pp. 70 f.). The first part of the translation, or Prologue, is considered by most authorities of today to be the conclusion of the prose Merlin rather than the beginning of the Perceval.
According to the ‘E’ manuscript:
Perceval was the son of Alain de Gros and grandson of Bron, the Rich Fisher. Here Bron was also known as the Fisher King. The Fisher King was suffering from a debilitating illness instead of being maimed.
Unlike the Chretien's Conte du Graal (c. 1185), Perceval's father, Alain le Gros, was still alive, and it was he who instructed Perceval to set out for King Arthur's castle to become a knight of the Round Table. Only then did Alain died. Perceval set out for Arthur's one day, without informing his mother. His mother thinking that his son was killed by some wild beast, died from grief.
The Siege Perilous was first introduced in Boron's Joseph of Arimathie and Merlin. The Siege Perilous is the only seat left vacated in the Round Table; the seat was reserved for the true Grail knight, who would happen to be the greatest knight in the world. This seat was supposed to represent the seat of Jesus at the table of the Last Supper. Once, one of Joseph's followers, named Moys (his name is Moses in Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie, c. 1200) thought to seat himself at the Siege Perilous of the Grail Table, but Moys was hurled into the abyss.
When Perceval sat upon the Siege Perilous, the stone seat was split down the middle. A voice of God or the Holy Spirit, told those in Arthur's court that an enchantment had fallen upon Logres, until a knight achieve the Grail. Perceval would have being swallowed up in the earth, had Perceval had not being the grandson of Bron or had the naive hero not crossed himself before sitting on the Siege Perilous.
Perceval went to the Grail Castle twice. The first time he came upon the Grail Castle by accident, where he witnessed the Grail, he had failed to ask the crucial question that would have lift the enchantment from Logres and healed his grandfather, the Fisher King. Perceval was not aware that he was already in the castle until he left it in the morning. A damsel rebuked Perceval for not asking the question after leaving the castle, which would have his adventure.
Perceval tried to find the Grail the second time, but failed to find it, until ten years later. During that time, his adventure followed that of the Second Continuation, losing chess game against an invisible opponent, the hunt for the stolen white stag's head and magic hound. It was Merlin who finally guided Perceval to the Grail Castle.
The second time, Perceval managed to ask the right question, gaining the secrets of the Grail. Perceval told Bron that he was his grandson. Bron taught the secret words concerning the Grail. Seven days later, Bron died; the angels took the aged king's soul to heaven. Perceval then became the new keeper of Grail and king of the Grail Castle. The devastated and barren land and the Siege Perilous were miraculously restored.
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