The Arthur of the North: The Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus' Realms (Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages) by Marianne E. Kalinke

Author:Marianne E. Kalinke
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: University of Wales Press
Published: 2015-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

This epilogue supplies a satisfactory and harmonious ending to the story of Parceval, an ending that is lacking in Chrétien’s unfinished romance. It explicitly stresses the hero’s worldly achievements as husband, king and model knight. As happens in Chrétien’s account, Parceval’s spiritual journey had already come to a conclusion at the end of his stay with the hermit on Easter Sunday. There ‘nám [hann] á þessum tveimr dögum eina góða bæn ok lifði síðan sem góðr kristinn maðr’ (182) (he learned by heart a good prayer, and lived ever after as a good Christian man) (183). In the French romance the account of Perceval’s adventures ends abruptly after the hero has received communion. The plot then turns to Gawain’s adventures and never returns to Perceval. The Norse saga remedies this unresolved ending of Parceval’s story by inserting an epilogue that lists all of Parceval’s accomplishments in respect to God, his wife and his role as a king and knight (Psaki 2002, 211). It thus combines the two realms that are central to the subject matter, the spiritual and the secular, and confirms that the hero has achieved an understanding of and success in both. Parcevals saga harmonizes both realms inasmuch as Parceval first makes peace with God and then settles into his secular life as husband, king and exemplary knight.

One contentious aspect of Parcevals saga is its depiction and therefore understanding of the Grail. The Norse translator seems to have attempted to explain an idea that was utterly foreign or at least incomprehensible to him and his audience. Chrétien spreads out his information about the appearance, nature and function of the Grail over several verses (3220–9; 3234–9; 3245–53; 3290–3; 3000–3). The Norse saga merely translates – or rather recounts – Chrétien’s very first mention of the Grail in verses 3220–3. There Chrétien explains that un graal is carried in the hands of a fair, charming and well-dressed maiden. In Parcevals saga we learn that a beautiful maiden walked in and ‘carried in her hands, just as though it were a gospel-book [textus], something which they call in the French language a grail [braull], but we may call it “processional provision” [gangandi greiða]’ (149). While Maclean translates the Latin term textus with ‘gospel-book’, ‘Evangelistary’ has also been suggested (Foote 1969: 58). The term braull presumably is a possible misreading of OF graal. It seems appropriate to translate the otherwise unattested Old Norse gangandi greiði as ‘processional provision’, as Maclean does, thereby giving the expression a sacred or even liturgical connotation that is missing from other suggested translations, such as ‘walking purveyor of hospitality’ (Barnes 1993, 497), ‘herumgehende Bewirtung’ (Kramarz-Bein 1999, 67) or ‘hospitality bestowed while walking’ (Kratz, 1977b: 376). The depiction of Chrétien’s Grail in the saga is somewhat similar to that in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival in that the Grail is characterized by its ability to sustain those in its presence (Kramarz-Bein 2007, 142), but otherwise the actual form, qualities and symbolism of the Grail remain obscure in the saga.

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