The complete story of the Grail : Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval and its continuations / translated by Nigel Bryant.

Author
Chrétien, de Troyes, active 12th century [Browse]
Uniform title
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Cambridge [UK] : D.S. Brewer, 2015.
Description
lii, 580 pages ; 26 cm

Details

Subject(s)
Translator
Library of Congress genre(s)
Series
Summary note
The mysterious and haunting Grail makes its first appearance in literature in Chřtien de Troyes' Perceval at the end of the twelfth century. But Chřtien never finished his poem, leaving an unresolved story and an incomplete picture of the Grail. It was, however, far too attractive an idea to leave. Not only did it inspire quite separate works; his own unfinished poem was continued and finally completed by no fewer than four other writers. The Complete Story of the Grail is the first ever translation of the whole of the rich and compelling body of tales contained in Chřtien's poem and its four Continuations, which are finally attracting the scholarly attention they deserve. Besides Chřtien's original text, there are the anonymous First Continuation (translated here in its fullest version), the Second Continuation attributed to Wauchier de Denain, and the intriguing Third and Fourth Continuations - probably written simultaneously, with no knowledge of each other's work - by Manessier and Gerbert de Montreuil. Two other poets were drawn to create preludes explaining the background to Chřtien's story, and translated here also are their works: The Elucidation Prologue and Bliocadran. Only in this, The Story of the Grail's complete form, can the reader appreciate the narrative skill and invention of the medieval poets and their surprising responses to Chřtien's theme - not least their crucial focus on the knight as a crusader. Equally, Chřtien's original poem was almost always copied in conjunction with one or more of the Continuations, so this translation represents how most medieval readers would have encountered it. -- Amazon.com.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages l-lii) and index.
Language note
Translated from Old French into English.
Contents
  • Introduction
  • Chrétien de Troyes : Perceval
  • The First Continuation
  • The Second Continuation
  • Gerbert's Continuation
  • The Third Continuation
  • Appendix 1 : The Elucidation Prologue
  • Appendix 2 : Bliocadran
  • Appendix 3 : Independent conclusion to the Second Continuation in the Bern manuscript [Burgerbibliothek 113]
ISBN
  • 9781843844006
  • 1843844001
LCCN
2013556261
OCLC
889168782
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