The Grail Quest and Perceval's Journey

The importance of not asking questions in Grail novels cannot be overstated. Not asking questions means not participating in the Fisher King's sacrifice, not participating in Christ's saving sacrifice and thus not in communion with him. THE GRAIL QUEST AND ITS CONCLUSION The vision of the Grail will initiate the Grail quest. Omitting most of the adventures, we can say that shortly after Perceval's return to King Arthur's Court, an extremely ugly damsel arrives at King Arthur's court who will recognize Perceval (from comparing tradition and reading other novels, it becomes clear that this ugly damsel is none other than the same beautiful Grail maiden in a horrible version) and will accuse and insult him before everyone. She will repeat again Perceval's tragic error of not having asked the two fateful questions, and at the end of this accusation will declare the Grail Quest open. Then all the Knights will begin heroic enterprises, but the two on whom the plot concentrates will be Perceval and Gawain, who will take different paths: • The first will arrive after various years and adventures to discover to whom the Grail is served and thus answer the second question; • The second - Gawain - must accept the task of recovering the bleeding lance and thus implicitly answer the second question. The answer to whom the Grail is served is to the Fisher King's father, who is a King so Holy that he has been kept alive for more than fifteen years only by a host contained in the Grail. As for Gawain, there is no answer to his adventure since the tale is left unfinished by Chrétien de Troyes. The reason for this incompleteness is not really known; hypotheses have been made regarding betrayals and conspiracies among those who were the commissioners of the novel and who would thus have disappointed Chrétien de Troyes' hopes. It is possible that this is the reason, but what remains are a series of unresolved questions, but also suggestions that can be drawn. It can easily be hypothesized that Perceval will be destined to find the Grail castle again and heal the wounded King's pains and possibly become King of Arthur's court, as this is implicitly prophesied by the laughing woman. It is understood that Gawain will somehow solve the problem of the lance and that Gawain and Perceval will clash in a duel, and it will probably be on that occasion that Perceval's sword will be destined to break. The mention of the smith's name (Trebuchet), the place where he is found (Cotoatre) and considering him as the only one able to mend the sword suggests that an appropriate adventure would have been planned to mend the sword, probably before the second entry into the Grail Castle. However, the ending planned by Chrétien de Troyes for this story is already eloquent enough. We now come to the subsequent elaborations and developments made by later authors on these Grail symbols. 3. THE LIVRE DU GRAAL BY ROBERT DE BORON Little or nothing is known about Chrétien de Troyes' Grail. It appears carried by a damsel along with the other Grail objects. It will be the work of...