Lancelot-Grail Cycle
The Lancelot-Grail Cycle, also known as the Vulgate Cycle or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is an influential 13th-century French Arthurian literary cycle of unknown authorship written in Old French. Consisting of a series of interconnected prose episodes, it is a lengthy faux chronicle-style chivalric romance that retells the legend of King Arthur while focusing on the character of Merlin, the love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere, and the religious quest for the Holy Grail. Expanding on Robert de Boron's "Little Grail Cycle" and the poems of Chrétien de Troyes, the work ties their previously unrelated and disparate stories together into a coherent single tale and supplements them with new material, such as additional details, original characters, and side stories. It also features an ending inspired by the Arthurian chronicle tradition by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
There is no unity of time and place within the plot, but most of the episodes take place in Arthur's British kingdom of Logres. One of the main characters is Arthur, around whom gravitates many other heroes, including the Knights of the Round Table. The chief of them is Lancelot, whose chivalric tale is centered around his illicit romance with Arthur's wife, Queen Guinevere. However, the cycle also tells of adventures of a more spiritual type, featuring the Round Table's search for the Holy Grail, until Lancelot's son Galahad ultimately retrieves it. Other major plot-lines include the accounts of the life of Merlin and of the rise and fall of Arthur.
After its completion around 1230–1235, the Lancelot–Grail was soon followed by its major reworking known as the Post-Vulgate Cycle. Together, the two prose cycles with their abundance of characters and stories represent a major source of the legend of Arthur as they constituted the most widespread form of Arthurian literature of the late medieval period, during which they were both translated into multiple European languages and rewritten into alternative variants, including having been partially turned into verse. They also inspired various later works of Arthurian romance, eventually contributing to the compilation Le Morte d'Arthur, which formed the basis for a modern canon of Arthuriana.
Title
The cycle as a whole did not have an original title. The Lancelot-Grail is a popular modern title invented by Ferdinand Lot. Another widely used modern title,Vulgate Cycle, was popularized by H. Oskar Sommer.It is also sometimes known as the Vulgate Version of Arthurian Romances, and as the Pseudo-Map Cycle, named so after Walter Map, the work's pseudo-author. Less common alternative titles include that of Philippe Walter's 21st-century edition Le Livre du Graal.
Composition and authorship
The Vulgate Cycle emphasizes Christian themes in the legend of King Arthur, in particular in the story of the Holy Grail. As in Robert de Boron's poem Merlin, the cycle states that its first parts have been derived from the Livre du Graal that is described as a text dictated by Merlin himself to his confessor in the early years of Arthur's reign. Next, following the demise of Merlin, there are more supposed original authors of the later parts of the cycle, the following list using one of their multiple spelling variants: Arodiens de Cologne, Tantalides de Vergeaus, Thumas de Toulete, and Sapiens de Baudas. These characters are scribes of Arthur, who recorded the deeds of the Knights of the Round Table, including the grand Grail Quest, as per eyewitnesses of the events being told. It is uncertain whether the medieval readers actually believed in the truthfulness of the centuries-old "chronicle" characterization or if they recognized it as a contemporary work of creative fiction. Typically for medieval stories in pseudo-historical settings, it is also highly anachronistic.File:Français 123, fol. 129, Gautier Map, Aliénor d'Aquitaine, Henri II Plantagenêt.jpg|thumb|"Gautier" purportedly recounting the tales of Lancelot to Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine in a 14th-century manuscript of the Lancelot-Grail
Welsh writer Gautier Map is attributed to be the editing author, as can be seen in the notes and illustrations in some manuscripts describing his discovery in an archive at Salisbury of the chronicle of Camelot, supposedly dating from the times of Arthur, and his translation of these documents from Latin to Old French as ordered by Henry II of England. Map's connection has been discounted by modern scholarship, however, as he died too early to be the author and the work is distinctly continental.
The cycle's actual authorship is unknown, but most scholars today believe it was written by multiple authors. There might have been either a single master-mind planner, the so-called "architect", who may have written the main section, and then overseen the work of multiple other anonymous scribes. One theory identified the initiator as French queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, who could have set up the project as early as 1194. Alternatively, each part may have been composed separately, arranged gradually, and rewritten for consistency and cohesiveness. Regarding the question of the author of the Lancelot, Ferdinand Lot suggested an anonymous clerical court clerk of aristocratic background.
Today it is believed by some that a group of anonymous French Catholic monks wrote the cycleor at least the Queste part. The evidence of this would be its very Cistercian spirit of Christian mysticism, including the Cistercian Saint Aelred of Rievaulx's idea of "spiritual friendship" seen in the interactions between the Grail knights. Others doubt this, however, and a compromise theory postulates a more secular writer who had spent some time in a Cistercian monastery. Richard Barber described the Cistercian theology of the Queste as unconventional and complex but subtle, noting its success in appealing to the courtly audience accustomed to more secular romances.
Structure, history and synopsis
Overview
The Lancelot-Grail Cycle is dated roughly to between and. It may be divided into three main branches, although more usually into five. In the latter division, the romances Queste and Mort are regarded as separate from the Vulgate Lancelot.The cycle's centerpiece is the trilogy Lancelot–''Queste–Mort Artu, collectively also known as the Lancelot en prose, the Estoire de Lancelot, or Le Livre de Lancelot du Lac. It differs greatly in tone between its three internal parts, so divergent that they are regarded as likely, and by some as even doubtlessly, the work of different authors. The first, Lancelot, can be characterized as colorful: the second, Queste, as pious; and the third, Mort Artu, as sober.
It seems that the story of Lancelot had been initially a standalone prose romance in the original so-called "short version". Despite its placement in the middle of the cycle, it is believed as having been actually the first to be written, probably beginning in the "non-cyclic" form, initially largely as an adaptation of the story by Chrétien de Troyes before its expansion. The preceding stories of Joseph and Merlin, adapted from Robert de Boron, joined the cycle late, probably before, serving as "prequels" to the main story.
The cycle has a narrative structure close to that of a modern novel in which multiple overlapping events featuring different characters may simultaneously develop in parallel and intertwine with each other. This technique, known in French as entrelacement, is especially prominent in the Queste''.
''The History of the Holy Grail''
The Vulgate Estoire del Saint Graal is a prologue story that bridges the gap between the New Testament and Arthurian legend. It is the religious tale of early Christian Joseph of Arimathea and how his son Josephus brought the Holy Grail to Britain from the Holy Land. Set several centuries prior to the main story, it is derived from Robert de Boron's poem with new characters and episodes added.The Grail is the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper and to which Joseph then collected the blood of Jesus from the crucifixion. The Grail alleviates Joseph's suffering during his long captivity by Caiaphas. Freed by Vespasian, Joseph leaves Jerusalem with a group of companions, founding a Christian community around the Grail table. Joseph's son Josephus and his brother-in-law Bron the Rich Fisher take it to the west with the mission of guarding the Grail. They Christianize much of Britain, including Camelot, and many of them become martyrs in the process. The guardianship of the Grail is granted to Bron's son Alain, the first Fisher King. Later parts, exclusive to the cycle, tell how the dynasty of the Grail kings continues to the time of Arthur. It includes the stories of the original Lancelot and the original Galahad.
''The History of Merlin''
The Vulgate Estoire de Merlin, or just the Vulgate Merlin, concerns Merlin's complicated conception and childhood and the early life of Arthur, which Merlin has influence over. It is a redaction of the Prose Merlin, itself a conversion of Robert de Boron's poem by the same title. It can be divided into:- The