A Perceforest Reader Perceforest is one of the largest and certainly the most extraordinary of the late Arthurian romances, and is almost completely unknown ex- cept to a handful of scholars. But it is a work of exceptional richness and importance, and has been justly described as ‘an encyclopaedia of 14th-century chivalry’ and ‘a mine of folkloric motifs’. Its contents are drawn not only from earlier Arthurian material, but also from romances about Alexander the Great, from Roman histories and from medieval travel writing – not to mention oral tradition, including as it does the first and unexpurgated version of the story of the Sleeping Beauty. Out of this, the author creates a remarkable prehistory of King Arthur’s Britain, describing how Alexander the Great gives the island to Perceforest, who has to purge the island of magic-wielding knights descended from Darnant the Enchanter, despite their supernatural powers. Perceforest then founds the knightly order of the ‘Franc Pal- ais’, an ideal of chivalric civilisation which prefigures the Round Table of Arthur and indeed that of Edward III; but that civilisation is, as the author shows, all too fragile. The action all takes place in a pagan world of many gods, but the temple of the Sovereign God, discovered by Perceforest, prefigures the Christian world and the coming of the Grail and Arthur. Nigel Bryant has recently adapted this immense romance into Eng- lish; even in his version, which gives a complete account of the whole work but links extensive sections of full translation with compressed accounts of other passages, it runs to nearly half a million words. A Perceforest Reader is an ideal introduction to the remarkable world portrayed in this late flowering of the Arthurian imagination. Nigel Bryant has worked as a theatre director and radio drama pro- ducer for the BBC, and as head of drama at Marlborough College and Lecturer in Drama at the University of Manchester. This is his fifth major translation of medieval Arthurian romance. Also translated by Nigel Bryant The High Book of the Grail: A Translation of the thirteenth-century romance of Perlesvaus Chrétien de Troyes, Perceval: The Story of the Grail Robert de Boron, Merlin and the Grail The Legend of the Grail Perceforest: The Prehistory of King Arthur’s Britain The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel 1290-1360 A Perceforest Reader Selected episodes from Perceforest: The Prehistory of King Arthur’s Britain TranslaTed by nigel bryanT D. S. BREWER © Nigel Bryant 2011 All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner The right of Nigel Bryant to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First published 2011 D. S. Brewer, Cambridge ISBN 978 1 84384 290 3 D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mount Hope Ave, Rochester, NY 14620, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Papers used by Boydell & Brewer Ltd are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests Printed and bound in Great Britain Contents Introduction 1 How Perceforest earned his name 5 Newly crowned king of England by Alexander, Betis is warned that the forests of the land are infested by an ‘evil clan’ headed by Darnant the Enchanter. Their most damning crimes are the offences they commit against women, and they are adept at using magic as a weapon. Betis sets out to confront them. The Perilous Temple 11 Perceforest is set in the pre-Christian past. The pagan Alexan- der is a paragon of every chivalrous quality, and the ‘old gods’ he worships are undoubtedly abroad and functioning in the world; but there is a fascinating tension throughout the romance between this old religion and the ‘New Law’ of Christianity which is to be brought to Britain at the story’s end. The Adventures of Claudius and Estonné 19 Perceforest has numerous sequences of which the director of a modern ‘action movie’ would be proud. The adventures of two knights as they search for the missing Perceforest offer memorable examples. The Wonders at Gadifer’s Coronation 24 If the martial exploits of Claudius and Estonné are wishful thinking, reflecting the period’s fantasies like many a modern gunfight or car chase, so are some of the passages describing the glamour attendant upon kingship. Enchantment is again a notable feature as the author tells of the coronation of Gadifer as king of Scotland. vi A PERCEFOREST READER King Gadifer’s Wound 27 The author of Perceforest, emphasising the need for strong, sound rule, tells us that ‘when the head is sick, all the limbs suf- fer’. For a long period both Perceforest in England and Gadifer in Scotland are unable to give leadership to their kingdoms: Percefor- est, overcome by grief at the news of Alexander’s death, sinks into a long depression, and this episode tells what happens to Gadifer while hunting. Zephir the Trickster 31 A key figure in Perceforest, and a most surprising one, is a creature called Zephir. He’s a fallen angel, cast out of Paradise with Lucifer, yet he looks after the interests of several admirable knights and indeed of Britain as a whole. And he’s a Puck-like trickster, delighting in playing cruel (if often hilarious) tricks on people – and all his powers, he says, ‘come from God’. Troylus in love 39 If ever a chivalric romance asserted the inspirational effects of love upon a knight, it is Perceforest. All people, the author makes plain, should be subjects of the lord Love, and if we’re not inspired by our commitment to that mighty lord, how much, the author asks, are we ever likely to achieve? This idea is explored wittily – but with no lack of serious intent – in this passage. A New Order of Chivalry – the ‘Franc Palais’ 43 There is a strong possibility that Perceforest inspired the founding of the Order of the Garter by Edward III of England and the Company of the Star by John II of France. King Percefor- est’s ‘Order of the Franc Palais’ and the building that housed it are described in this episode. The God of the Sheer Mountain 52 The author’s attitude to magic is ambiguous. He has the Fairy Queen, King Gadifer’s wife, use her skills in magic to manifestly good ends; but what is to be avoided, he says, is for a ‘magi- cian’ to become adept and imagine he’s therefore godlike. In this episode young Gadifer, son of King Gadifer and the Fairy Queen, CONTENTS vii undertakes a mysterious mission; it leads him to encounter the enchanter Aroés, who has set himself up as God of the Sheer Mountain. The Fish-Knights 63 The author of Perceforest sends his knights out to confront a world of awesome marvels. The complexity of the created world, and the author’s fascination with it, are nowhere expressed as startlingly as in an adventure encountered by King Perceforest’s son when he’s stranded on a distant island. The Sleeping Beauty 67 Perceforest has been described as ‘a mine of folkloric motifs’, and is famous for featuring this, the first written version of the story that has come to be known as ‘the Sleeping Beauty’. The Marvellous Child 84 One of the most striking characters in the later books of Perce- forest is Passelion, destined to be an ancestor of no less a figure than Merlin. The Death of Caesar 93 The author of Perceforest draws material from many sources, linking his prehistory of Arthurian Britain to numerous existing traditions and histories. In this episode, he makes the murder of Julius Caesar an act of revenge for his destruction of Britain. The Adventure of the Red Sword 100 Britain, recovering from its destruction by the Romans, needs a new king and queen. The destined ones are Gallafur and ‘the Maiden of the Dragons’. They are descendants not only of Per- ceforest and Gadifer but of Alexander, too, and their bloodline is to continue to King Arthur himself. Arthur will thus have Greek blood, inherited from Alexander the Great. But, although the Maiden of the Dragons has captured Gallafur’s heart, he will not be worthy of her unless he first achieves the Adventure of the Red Sword.