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The Grail Story of Chrétien de Troyes as Ritual And Symbolism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Roger S. Loomis
Roger S. Loomis*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Abstract

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Type
Notes, Documents, and Critical Comment
Information
PMLA , Volume 71 , Issue 4-Part-1 , September 1956 , pp. 840 - 852
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1956

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References

1 RPh, vi (1952), 173–178.

2 Christian von Troyes, Percevoiroman, ed. A. Hilka (Halle, 1932), lines 1986, 2058–69.

3 RPh, vii (1953–54), 173.

4 Cf. quotation from Mannyng below, and Goldsmith's “Stanzas on Woman”: “When lovely woman stoops to folly, and finds too late that men betray.”

5 Mabinogion, ed. G. and T. Jones, Everyman's Library, pp. 195 f.

6 RPh, vi, 174. PMLA, lxx (1955), 237, n. 23: “The Blancheflor-Perceval episode can be considered rightly only in the light of … spiritual evolution.”

7 RPh, vi, 176.

8 Andreas Capellanus, Art of Courtly Love, trans. J. J. Parry (New York, 1941), pp. 21 f.

9 RPh, vi, 176.

10 G. R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England (Cambridge, 1933), p. 382.

11 Roman de la Rose, ed. E. Langlois, SATF, ii (1920) lines 3395–3408.

12 RPh, vi, 174.

13 PMLA, LXX, 226 f. “Chretien's images must have been drawn from the common treasury of images that were kept in currency by the Liturgy: ‘It surely is no accident that in the text for Holy Thursday and Good Friday there appear such a quantity of Chretien's references:… the chalice, the lailleor, candles and angels, the bleeding lance … His use of symbolism shows a thorough mastery of the Liturgy … ‘ ” p. 230. “Because of his extensive use of Holy Week Liturgy, we may be sure that Chrétien was thinking of the chalice …” p. 237: “Chrétien who has not once slipped in his handling of numberless liturgical details, would surely not have his hermit-priest ignorant of liturgical details. Certainly the hermit knew that the sacred vessel which contained the host (oiste) from the Mass on Holy Thursday until the Mass of the Presancttfied of Good Friday was a chalice, and not a flat plate or platter or dish.” p. 238: “Chrétien is concerned with Holy Week Liturgy.” p. 239: “It has been pointed out repeatedly that Chrétien de Troyes leaned heavily on the Liturgy for his symbols, for his language, and even for his theme.”

14 MP, xiii (1916), 681.

15 Opera, ed. Dimock (London, 1916), vi, 183.

16 Continuations of the Old French Perceval, ed. William Roach (Philadelphia, 1949), i, 262. See Rev. Celtique, xxvii (1930), 43–45.

17 Ibid., ii (1950), line 13431, variant of MS. M.

18 Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, ed. H. O. Sommer (Washington, 1909), i, 13, lines 24, 27.

19 J. Gwenogvryn Evans, White Book Mabinogion (Pwllheli, 1907), col. 130, 166. Cf. Giraldus' assertion that the Welsh ate from “scutellis latis et amplis.” See n. 15, above.

20 MP, xiii, 683. Univ. Calif. Pub. Moi. Phil., xxviii, No. 5, p. 321.

21 Continuations of Old French Perceval, i, 361.

22 Christian von Troyes, Percevalroman, lines 6420 f.

23 Jean Frappier, Chretien de Troyes, Perceval ou le Conte du Graal, Cours de Sorbonne (Paris, 1953), p. 90.

24 Studi Medievali, xvn (1951), A miniature in MS. Brit. Mus. Royal 14 E iii, fol. 77v, shows Bishop Josephe presiding at a sacramental feast: on the table before him are four vessels. The first is a rather deep dish, “scutella aliquantulum profunda,” with a short base, containing a large fish. Next is a ciborium, so identified by the cross on the cover. Third is a cup of the chalice type. Fourth is a cruet or flagon.

25 For example see A. Vacant and E. Mangenot, Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique (Paris, 1911), ni, col. 491: “Le synode tenu à Paris en 829 déclarait déjà, can. 45, que c'était un abus que les femmes distribuassent la communion.” Durandus, writing in the late 13th century, says in the Inslitutiones, chap. De Sacramento Eucharistiae: “nullam feminam calicem Domini tangere permittite,” and “fidèles manu propria communicate, et laico vel feminae eucharistiam ad deferendum infirmis tradere nolite.”

26 Aiwin Schulz, Hofisches Leben zur Zeit der Minnesinger, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1889), i, 372, n. 2. See also p. 373, n. 2.

27 H. Havard, Histoire de l'Orfèvrerie Française (Paris, 1896), p. 216.

28 Frappier, p. 91. See also Bull. Bibl. de la Soc. Internationale Arthurienne, No. 6 (1954), pp. 75–78.

29 Ibid., p. 77.

30 J. Armitage Robinson, Somerset Historical Essays (London, 1921), p. v: “Students of the Arthurian legend will find some of their difficulties removed by the negative results of this discussion. Arthur and Avalon, Joseph of Arimathea and the Holy Grail belong exclusively to the later recensions of the book [DeAntiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae].” Robinson, Two Glastonbury Legends (Cambridge, 1926), p. 36. The Catholic Encyclopedia, on which the author of the article in PMLA seems to have relied for information about Glastonbury, does in Vol. vi, 579, ascribe to William of Malmesbury the statement that Joseph came to Britain in A.D. 63, nevertheless on p. 580 states that the text of the De Anliquitate is in a very corrupt state.

31 R. S. Loomis, Arthurian Tradition and Chrétien de Troyes (New York, 1949), pp. 335–459.

32 Continuations of the Old French Perceval, I, 355–369. Trans. Jessie L. Weston, Sir Gawain at the Grail Castle (London, 1903), pp. 15–29.

33 Romanische Forschungen, XLV (1931), 82–86. The relevant part of the Adventures of Art Son of Conn is translated in Tom P. Cross and C. L. Slover, Ancient Irish Tales (New York 1936), pp. 493–495.

34 U. T. Holmes, History of Old French Literature from the Origins to 1300 (Chapel Hill, 1937), p. 290.

35 Loomis, pp. 387 f.

36 Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, vin (1903), pp. 265 f.

37 AJPhilol, vii (1886), 176–202. G. L. Kittredge, Study of Gawain and the Green Knight (Cambridge, Mass., 1916). MP, xii (1915), 585–644. Rev. Celtique, xxxi (1910), 413–471.

38 Loomis, pp. 375–393.

39 H. Delehaye, Légendes Hagiographiques, pp. 88 f.

40 Loomis, pp. 145, 445 f.

41 Romanische Forschungen, xxv, 73–77.

42 Ibid., XLV, 71. Loomis, p. 387.

43 See list in Loomis, p. 386, and Jean Marx, Légende Artharienne et le Graal (Paris, 1952), pp. 198–201; Frappier, p. 98. The Brythonic personage Nudd and his divine original Nodons cannot be regarded with any certainty as the ancestors of the Fisher King. See RR, xlv (1954), 12–15.

44 Ralph of Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum, Rolls Series, p. 125. Caesarius of Heister-bach, Dialogue on Miracles, trans. H. V. E. Scott and C. C. S. Bland (London, 1929), ii, 150 f.

45 Romanische Forschungen, xlv, 88 f. For the form Cambenoyt see Jessie L. Weston, Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac (London, 1901), p. 159.

46 R. S. Loomis, Wales and the Arthurian Legend (Cardiff, 1956), pp. 53–60.

47 Ibid., pp. 42–52.