Percival or Perceval (or Persifal, as Wagner, according to some, mispelt it) is one of King Arthur's legendary Knights of the Round Table.
In Welsh literature Percival's story is allotted to the historical Peredur.
He is most famous for his involvement in the quest for the grail.
Chrétien de Troyes wrote the first story of Percival. He does not propose an etymology for the name, but his immediate successor did: "perce" le "val" -- where the Fisher King lives and thus finding the secret of his identity. He is named "Perceval" only after the episode with the Fisher King.
Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and the now lost Perceval of Robert de Boron are other famous accounts of his adventures -- not to mention Wagner's "PARSIFAL".
There are many versions of Percival's birth.
In most accounts he is of noble birth.
His father is either King Pellinore or another worthy knight.
His mother is usually unnamed (unless she is named, perhaps wrongly, "Heart's Sorrow", etym. dub.) but plays a significant role in the stories.
His sister is the bearer of the Holy Grail, she is sometimes named Dindrane.
In tales where he is Pellinore's son his brothers are Sir Tor, Sir Aglovale, Sir Lamorak, and Sir Dornar.
After the death of his father, Percival's mother takes him to the Welsh forests where she raises him ignorant to the ways of men until the age of 15 -- "a perfect or pure or guileless fool" as Wagner prefers, "where 'fool' in Arabian has a right implicature, mind, Judith" and is related to 'genius'.
Eventually, however, a group of knights passes through his wood, and Percival is struck by their heroic bearing.
Wanting to be a knight himself, the boy travels to King Arthur's court, and after proving his worthiness as a warrior he is knighted and invited to join the Knights of the Round Table.
In the earliest story about him he is connected to the grail.
In Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail, he meets the crippled Fisher King and sees a grail, not yet identified as "holy", but he fails to ask a question that would have healed the injured king -- but then he had been taught by his tutor ("Never quote your mother, just me" -- "Don't ask impertinent questions").
Upon learning of his mistake he vows to find the Grail castle again and fulfill his quest but Chretien's story breaks off soon after, to be continued in a number of different ways by various authors.
In later accounts, the true Grail hero is Galahad, Lancelot's son.
But though his role in the romances had been diminished, Percival remained a major character and was one of only two knights (the other was Sir Bors) who accompanied Galahad to the Grail castle and completed the quest with him.
On top of that, Percival's eldest son was Lohengrin, if you heard of him. (Hence the swan association).
In early versions, Percival's sweetheart was Blanchefleur and he became the King of Carbonek after healing the Fisher King, but in later versions he was a virgin who died after achieving the Grail.
In Wolfram's version, Percival's son is Lohengrin, the Knight of the Swan, and an ancestor of Ludwig II of Bavaria, who commissioned "Parsifal" to Wagner. The prima was in his castle, The Swan Castle.
In modern times his story has been used in such varied retellings as T. S. Eliot's modernist poem The Waste Land, Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal, John Boorman's Excalibur and the novel and film The Natural.[1]
The movie The Fisher King is a modern retelling with Robin Williams as Parry, and Jeff Bridges as the Fisher King-like Jack Lucas.
Éric Rohmer's 1978 film Perceval le Gallois is an eccentrically staged interpretation of Chrétien de Troyes's original poem.[2]
As well, Richard Monaco's series of four novels based on the Arthurian Grail Quest of Percival, beginning with Parsival or a Knight's Tale, is a re-telling of the Percival legend. [3].
The book "Parzival" by Katherine Patterson is a retelling of the story.
- ^ Barry Levinson (director). (2007-04-03). Knights in Shining Armor. [Documentary]. Sony Pictures Entertainment.
- ^ Lacy, Norris J. (1991). "Eric Rohmer". In Norris J. Lacy (Ed.), The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, p. 389. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-4377-4.
- ^ Fries, Maureen, and Thompson, Raymond H. (1991). "Richard Monaco". In Norris J. Lacy (Ed.), The New Arthurian Encyclopedia p. 326. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-4377-4.
References
- Chrétien de Troyes, Nigel Bryant (translator) (1996) Perceval, the Story of the Grail, D. S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-224-8.
- Chrétien de Troyes, D. D. R. Owen (translator) (1988) Arthurian Romances, Tuttle Publishing, reprinted by Everyman. ISBN 0-460-87389-X.
- Lacy, Norris J. (Ed.) (1991). The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-4377-4.
External links
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Wiktionary
Up to date as of January 14, 2010Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
Contents |
English
Etymology of the name "PERCIVAL".
Old French "Perceval", name of a knight in a twelfth century Arthurian romance by the French poet Chrétien de Troyes.Shaped like Old French perce (“‘pierce’”) + val (“‘valley’”).
Probably representing some Gaulish or Welsh name.
Cognate with German Parsifal.
Proper noun
| Singular Percival | Plural - |
- A male given name.
- A patronymic surname.
Quotations
- 1953 Agatha Christie, A Pocket Full of Rye, page 20:
- Lancelot Fortescue! What a name! And what was the other son -Percival? He wondered what the first Mrs Fortescue had been like? She had a curious taste in Christian names...
Related links
Up to date as of November 16, 2009   | Perceval page from the Camelot Project at the University of Rochester - PERCEVAL: TEXTS, IMAGES, BASIC INFORMATION |
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