Perceval, the Story of the Grail

Gawain is the story’s deuteragonist, a knight whose narrative occupies most of the second half of the text. Many of Gawain’s adventures mirror the circumstances of Perceval’s in their broadest outlines, but he is a very different character from Perceval.

Whereas the younger knight is blithely ignorant of almost everything around him, Gawain is intelligent and clear-headed, an accomplished and skillful knight whose deportment contrasts with the ups and downs of Perceval’s learning of how to be a knight. He is a model of the ideals of knighthood,

entirely fair

intelligent, uncovetous,

bold, nobly born, brave, generous,

and loyal, free from vice and sin (7594-97).

Despite their differences, however, Gawain falls into just as many difficult and dangerous situations as does Perceval, though in Gawain’s case they are the result of an unbending resolution to face any challenge that comes his way, which happens to include a large number of aggrieved former combatants.

Gawain is a core figure in the Arthurian legends, King Arthur’s own nephew and one of the leading knights of his court. According to the traditional accounts, Arthur and Lot (the latter being Gawain’s father) were the sons of King Uther Pendragon and Queen Ygerne, and as members of the same extended family, Gawain and his brothers feature in many Arthurian tales. In Chrétien’s account, Gawain first embarks on a quest to defend his own honor against a charge of treason brought by the royal house of Escavalon, but the resolution of that situation suffers a delay when he is unknowingly given refuge as a guest in Escavalon. In the meantime, he embarks on a new quest, seeking the bleeding lance, and along the way encounters the mystical castle wherein his long-lost grandmother, mother, and sister reside, at which point Chrétien’s unfinished story breaks off.

King Arthur is the central character in the cycle of legends of which Perceval and Gawain are both a part. Though scholars debate the historicity of the Arthur figure, the stories about him appear to emerge from an early medieval context that draws on the traditions of the Britons and Welsh who inhabited Britain before the Anglo-Saxon settlements began.

The first complete accounts of Arthur and his reign come from works written in the high medieval period, making Chrétien’s poems among the earliest narrative forms of the legends. According to the traditional accounts, Arthur was the son of King Uther Pendragon and Queen Ygerne, and he became a warrior-king whose martial prowess and just rule brought unity and stability to his realm. Associated characters in the accounts include his wife, Guinevere, and the knights who formed his “round table,” such as Kay and Lancelot.

Arthur appears in Chrétien’s Perceval in several different scenes, though his character plays little more than a supporting role relative to the narrative. He is an ambiguous character, described as “sad and gay” (846). His role as the high king is more important in the story than are any features of his character. He first appears as the endpoint of Perceval’s first quest, as the young man rides to Arthur’s court in order to demand knighthood for himself. Arthur recognizes Perceval’s potential but does not commit himself to supporting the young man, and much of the rest of the story revolves around Perceval’s habit of sending captured prisoners back to Arthur as proof of his prowess and ability.

Arthur features less prominently in Gawain’s narratives, but the end of the unfinished poem sets up a potentially significant role for him in the sections that were intended to follow. With Gawain’s discovery of the castle wherein Arthur’s own mother abides, Gawain invites Arthur’s court there—ostensibly to witness a duel, but Arthur’s arrival at his mother’s castle grounds would seem to introduce the possibility that Arthur and his family will play a much larger role in the stories yet to come.