Quête del St. Graal.
- It tells of Lancelot's son, Galahad, coming to Arthur's court, of his achieving the adventure of the Siege Perillous and the sword in the block; of the appearance of the Holy Grail, which fills each beholder with meat such as he longs for; of Gauvain's vow to go in quest of it for a year and a day, which the other knights of the Bound Table join in. The adventures which befall Galahad and the other questers are for the most part such as are foretold in the Grand St. Graal, and mostly exemplify the sin of carnal love, and the ascetic virtue of Galahad. One, however, assigned to Lancelot, is not mentioned in that romance: Lancelot finds a wounded knight seeking solace from the Holy Vessel, the Grail appears, but Lancelot says never a word, for which aftertimes much mischance was his ; when he awakes he is bitterly reproached.
Perceval finds Mordrains kept alive, having fed on naught but the Lord's body for 400 years, and waiting the arrival of the good knight. Lancelot comes to Castle Corbenic, but is struck insensible and powerless for many days for approaching too near the Holy Vessel. Galahad, Perceval, and Bors ultimately come to Castle Corbenic, where they are joined by nine (or ten) other knights; Josephes appears and celebrates the Sacrament for the whole company. Christ makes Himself visible to Galahad and bids him to Sarras whither the Grail is to depart, Britain being unworthy of it; but first he is to heal the maimed king. The three then go on Solomon's ship, are thrown into prison and there fed by the Holy Grail; a final revelation is followed by the death of Galahad, followed after a year by that of Perceval, who is buried in the same grave. Bors returns to Britain and tells the adventures of the Holy Grail, which are written down and kept in the Abbey of Salisbury, whence Walter Map drew them to make his book for the love of King Henry.
The second romance is almost the least known work of the cycle. It derives the name under which it is commonly known (the Didot Perceval), from the fact that the solitary MS. in which it is found belonged to the well-known collector, A. F. Didot. This MS. also contains prose versions of Borron's two poems, Joseph of Arimathea and Merlin, and it is natural, at first blush, to take the Didot Perceval for a prose rendering of the otherwise lost conclusion of Borron's trilogy. But this, as we shall see, is certainly not the case.
Quelle: The Legends of The Holy Grail, Alfred Nutt, London 1902, S. 30ff