Having given some more thought to the notion of the good knight, and the unrepentant Perceval, I am interested to try a new reading of the ending of the Perceval story. We entertained the notion that Perceval was the fallen knight, of sorts, beyond help and now completely out of the action because of the nature of his leaving the tale (to learn repentance with his monkly uncle), while Gawain continues on the quest to clear his name and find the bleeding lance. What if Perceval is not out of action, but on his way to understanding the nature of the Lance itself. It was his ignorance of it that led him to be considered so very unlucky, for not having asked after either grail, or lance, and consequently for not having been able to help the crippled Fisher King. There is an emphasis on helping others, on ones actions as affects others outside of oneself in Arthur, but I can't help but return to just how stupid Perceval was. His tale was one of slow, reluctant, often misguided attempts to learn how it was to be a knight and a gentleman, and given his knowledge of Christianity, it seems also that it is his attempt to learn to be Christian. I am willing to say that Perceval is on his own grail quest, through the learning of repentance and a knowledge of Christ's sacrifice that goes beyond the knightly one. Knights kill, and knights go to church, but they are hardly good Christians for this, while Perceval's uncle most certainly is. What if the strange interpenetration of the deeply religious into the growth of the knightly being is itself a way to claim that Perceval is finally learning of the bleeding lance, and the grail, through personal repentance and religious instruction?
This feels like a bit of a stretch for me, but I also like any story that deals with reflective spiritual growth, so I'm willing to push this farther. Any thoughts?
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I like this reading, actually, and the hints in this direction that you see in Chrétien's Story of the Grail become more explicit in The Quest of the Holy Grail, which introduces the contrasting yet related pair of "earthly chivalry" and "heavenly chivalry."
ReplyDeleteWell, I think it's pretty interesting to consider the way the ideas of Christianity are introduced into this new version of King Arthur's knights. While the narration might seem preachy at a first glance I find it fascinating how the author introduces Christianity into this particular story. In an era in which magic still defined people's understanding of the world, the author tries to bring in notions of this faith (also probably understood from the point of view of the supernatural) and re-direct the true quest.
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