Everything about Perceval totally explained
Percival or
Perceval is one of
King Arthur's legendary
Knights of the Round Table. In
Welsh literature his name is
Peredur (see the
Peredur article for the historical figure). He is most famous for his involvement in the quest for the
Holy Grail.
There are many versions of Percival's birth. In most accounts he's of noble birth; his father is either King
Pellinore or another worthy
knight. His mother is usually unnamed but plays a significant role in the stories. His sister is the bearer of the
Holy Grail, she's sometimes named
Dindrane. In tales where he's Pellinore's son his brothers are
Sir Tor, Sir
Aglovale, Sir
Lamorak, and Sir
Dornar.
After the death of his father, Percival's mother takes him to the Welsh forests where she raises him ignorant to the ways of men until the age of 15. Eventually, however, a group of knights passes through his wood, and Percival is struck by their
heroic bearing. Wanting to be a knight himself, the boy travels to King Arthur's court, and after proving his worthiness as a warrior he's knighted and invited to join the
Knights of the Round Table.
Even in the earliest stories he's connected to the
Grail Quest. In
Chrétien de Troyes'
Perceval, le Conte du Graal, he meets the crippled
Fisher King and sees the
Holy Grail, but he fails to ask the question that would heal the injured king. Upon learning of his mistake he vows to find the Grail castle again and fulfill his quest.
In later accounts, the true Grail hero is
Galahad,
Lancelot's son. But though his role in the romances had been diminished, Percival remained a major character and was one of only two knights (the other was Sir
Bors) who accompanied Galahad to the Grail castle and completed the quest with him.
In early versions, Percival's sweetheart was
Blanchefleur and he became the King of
Carbonek after healing the
Fisher King, but in later versions he was a
virgin who died after achieving the Grail. In Wolfram's version, Percival's son is
Lohengrin, the
Knight of the Swan.
Chrétien wrote the first story of Percival;
Wolfram von Eschenbach's
Parzival, Sir
Thomas Malory's
Le Morte d'Arthur, and the nonextant
Perceval of
Robert de Boron are other famous accounts of his adventures.
In modern times his story has been used in such varied retellings as
T. S. Eliot's
modernist poem
The Waste Land,
Richard Wagner's opera
Parsifal,
John Boorman's
Excalibur and the
novel and
film The Natural. The movie
The Fisher King is a modern retelling with
Jeff Bridges as Percy, and
Robin Williams as the Fisher King.
Eric Rohmer's 1978 film
Perceval le Gallois is an eccentrically staged interpretation of Chrétien de Troyes's original poem.
While some scholars once believed that Percival, along with the legend of the Holy Grail, was of
Persian origin, those theories have been rejected by the weight of scholarly opinion. In that legend, as described in the
Fargads of the
Vendidad (see
Avesta) and later, in verse, in the
Shahnameh,
Jamshid had a magical seven-ringed cup filled with the elixir of immortality.
The cup was said to be in (the hands of) the
Parsi-Var, or
Var of the Persians, thus giving rise to the speculation that the character of Percival was derived from this legend.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Perceval'.
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