Chapter 4. - Redaction, Language, and Localization

Summary

Redaction

Ever since Alexandre Micha published his classification of the manuscripts of the Merlin en prose in 1958, it has been broadly accepted that there exist two discrete redactions of the Merlin narrative in Lancelot-Grail manuscripts, even if the reason for the existence of two separate redactions and which of the two is the older remain subjects for debate. Micha referred to these two redactions as alpha (α) and beta (β), and each of them he set out as being made up of several families. At the risk of generalizing, and notwithstanding continuing scholarly debate, there is broad consensus that α may be rather closer than β to Robert de Boron’s original Merlin (that which formed part of the probable trilogy of texts attributed to him, sometimes referred to as the Livre du Graal). This conclusion is based in large part on the difference in the order by which the Grail hero must achieve the adventures of the Perilous Seat at the Round Table and the Grail Table. In α, the Grail Table comes before the Round Table while, in β, the reverse is true. In short, this modification, alongside various others, are believed to demonstrate that α works more obviously to complete Robert de Boron’s trilogy, where β introduces modifications and—importantly—abridgements that are designed precisely to allow the narrative to transition towards the Queste and Mort Artu, which are the concluding chapters in the Lancelot-Grail Cycle. Even if β was designed for the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, though, there are actually more extant Lancelot-Grail manuscripts that contain α, which might raise questions as to when β first entered circulation and how warmly it was received.5

While Micha’s identification of two redactions for Merlin seems secure enough, he pays only fleeting attention to the often-present Suite Vulgate suffix and its associated redactions. As Trachsler also notes, Micha’s only real reference to variance in the Suite Vulgate is in a footnote, where he states: “Il n’y a pas deux Suite-Vulgate différentes, mais, semble-t-il, le texte de nos manuscrits α n’est pas identique à celui des manuscrits β.” On the one hand, then, Micha does not believe that a similar classification of α versus β is appropriate for the Suite Vulgate, but does note, on the other, that the level of textual difference in the Suite Vulgate between the two families of manuscripts is marked.