Introduction

Summary

The Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes and its Continuations have survived in 15 medieval manuscripts, but only one of them, fonds français 12576 of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, contains Chrétien's poem and all four Continuations without any missing folios. It is in excellent condition, and was copied with a remarkable degree of care, with very few obvious errors or accidental omissions. It is that manuscript's text which is followed in this translation, except where occasionally indicated in footnotes.

The manuscript probably dates from early in the second half of the thirteenth century, but the dating of the original composition of the poems is difficult. Chrétien de Troyes almost certainly began Perceval in the mid-1180’s, and definitely no later than the end of the decade, for Count Philip of Flanders, to whom it is dedicated, died at Acre in 1191 during the Third Crusade. Chrétien himself died with Perceval unfinished, as Gerbert de Montreuil testifies . The theme of Chrétien's last work was, however, too good to leave, and quite apart from the separate works that it inspired, Chrétien's own poem was taken up by no fewer than four continuators, who carried the story on over a period of some forty years. The First Continuation is completely anonymous; the authorship of the Second is hard to attribute, since at the point where the writer identifies himself none of the scribes of the extant manuscripts could agree on a spelling or even a version of the name; only the last two are properly attributable: the writer of the Third Continuation identifies himself at the very end as Manesier, and there is another Continuation – which appears in the manuscript as a long interpolation between the Second and the Third – written by a man who announces himself as Gerbert and who is generally accepted as being Gerbert de Montreuil, the author of the thirteenth-century Roman de la Violette. It seems extremely likely that Manesier and Gerbert, judging by their extensive borrowings from Perlesvaus and The Quest of the Holy Grail, wrote their Continuations as late as 1230; and it seems likely also that they wrote them at very much the same time, with no knowledge of each other's work. It may well be that Gerbert wrote his own independent ending to the romance, and that a scribe or redactor later cut it so that the Third Continuation could be added.