Dr. Goldstein

ENGL 4610

Fall 2003

The Generation after Chrétien

 (based on Pearsall, Arthurian Romance)

1.      Continuations of Perceval (in verse, c. 1190s-1220s)

First Continuation (a Gawain romance)

Second Continuation (follows both heroes; breaks off)

Third Continuation (Perceval heals Fisher King)

Fourth Continuation (Perceval defeats Tristan; Bleeding Lance was Longinus’s)

2.      Robert de Boron (in verse, c.1200): clericalization of Arthurian matter

Joseph d’Arimathie (Grail becomes chalice from Last Supper)

Merlin (fragment survives)

Perceval (lost)

3.      “Vulgate Cycle” (prose, c. 1215-30): Cistercian influence (see comment below)

Lancelot du Lac (very long!)

Queste del Saint Graal (invention of Galahad as new Grail knight)

Mort Artu (‘Death of Arthur’)

The sequence of these three works is known by scholars as the “Lancelot-Grail cycle,” which was later joined by prequels borrowing from Boron):

Estoire del Saint Graal (earlier history of Grail, borrowing from Boron)

Estoire de Merlin (introduces Merlin’s lover Viviane)

4.      Le Roman de Tristan de Léonois (prose c. 1225-35, modeled on Vulgate cycle drawing on earlier poetic narratives)

5.      Vulgate cycle reshaped (c. 1230-40), adding:

Suite de Merlin

As Pearsall suggests, in the Vulgate cycle “the Grail became the object of a quest for spiritual perfection in which the Knights of the Round Table could not but fail, because of their investment in the world and in women. . . . [This failure] was the demonstration of the irredeemably fallen state of secular chivalry” (p. 45).  When Pearsall notes that “the Vulgate compilers” were “inspired by ascetic and other-worldly ideals” (p. 45-46), we may attribute this ideological orientation to the shaping influence of Cistercian monastic ideals.

Page created: 9/23/03