Perceval, the Story of the Grail summary

The poem opens with Perceval, whose mother has raised him apart from civilization in the forests of Wales since his father’s death, encountering knights and realizing he wants to be one. Despite his mother’s objections, the boy heads to King Arthur’s court, where a young girl predicts greatness for him. He is taunted by Sir Kay, but receives the vermilion armor of a knight outside Arthur’s castle. He then sets out for adventure. He rescues and falls in love with the young princess Blanchefleur, and trains under the experienced Gornemant.

Eventually he comes across the Fisher King, who invites him to stay at his castle. While there, he witnesses a strange procession in which young men and women carry magnificent objects from one chamber to another, passing before him at each course of the meal. First comes a young man carrying a bleeding lance, then two boys carrying candelabras. Finally, a beautiful young girl emerges bearing an elaborately decorated graal, or “grail”. The Grail contains a single Mass water, which miraculously sustains the Fisher King’s wounded father. Perceval, who had been warned against talking too much, remains silent through all of this, and wakes up the next morning alone. He returns to Arthur’s court.

Before long, a loathly lady of the standard Celtic type enters the court and admonishes Perceval for failing to ask his host about the Grail, as the appropriate question would have healed the wounded king. The lady announces other quests that the Knights of the Round Table proceed to take up.

The next section of the poem deals with Arthur’s nephew and best knight Gawain, who has been challenged to a duel by a knight who claims Gawain had slain his lord. Gawain offers a contrast and complement to Perceval’s naiveté, and his adventures showcase a courtly knight having to function in un-courtly settings. One of the section’s most interesting episodes is Gawain’s liberation of a castle whose inhabitants include his long lost mother and grandmother, as well as his sister Clarissant, whose existence was unknown to him. After this point, Perceval is mentioned only briefly until the completed section nears its end. He meets a hermit, his uncle, who instructs him in the ways of the spirit and teaches him about the Grail. After Perceval has received his uncle’s wisdom, the narrative returns to Gawain, but breaks off shortly after.