Merlin and the Grail: Joseph of Arimathea. Merlin. Perceval. The Trilogy of Prose Romances Attributed to Robert de Boron

182 Pages·2001·0.644 MB·English

by  Robert de Boron, Nigel Bryant (transl.)

ARTHURIAN STUDIES XLVIII
MERLIN AND THE GRAIL
ARTHURIAN STUDIES
ISSN 0261–9814
Previously published volumes in the series
are listed at the back of this book
Merlin and the Grail
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA
MERLIN
PERCEVAL
The trilogy of prose romances attributed to
ROBERT DE BORON
Translated by Nigel Bryant
D. S. BREWER
© Nigel Bryant 2001
All Rights Reserved.Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
First published 2001
D. S. Brewer, Cambridge
ISBN 0 85991 616 2
D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY14604–4126, USA
website: www.boydell.co.uk
Acatalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Robert, de Boron, 13th cent.
[Selections, English]
Merlin and the Grail: Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, Perceval: the
trilogy of prose romances attributed to Robert de Boron / translated
by Nigel Bryant.
p. cm. – (Arthurian studies, ISSN 0261–9814; 48)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0–85991–616–2 (alk. paper)
1. Robert, de Boron, 13th cent. – Translations into English.
2. Grail – Romances. I. Bryant, Nigel. II. Robert, de Boron, 13th
cent. Roman de l’estoire dou Graal. English III. Robert, de Boron,
13th cent. Roman de Merlin, English IV. Perceval (Prose romance).
English V. Title: Joseph of Arimathea. VI. Title: Merlin. VII. Title:
Perceval. VIII. Title. IX. Series.
PQ1515.A6 E5 2001
843'.3 – dc21 00–052971
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Great Britain by
St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Contents
Introduction 1
The Modena manuscript 1
Authorship and sources 2
Sacred relics 8
The trilogy’s construction 9
Style 10
Further reading 12
Joseph of Arimathea 15
Merlin 45
Perceval 115
Three for three:
Sally, Jevan and Will
Introduction
‘WiththeobviousexceptionofChrétiendeTroyes,themostinfluentialwriter
withintheFrenchromancetraditionmaywellbeRobertdeBoron.’SoNorris
J.Lacyhaswritten;1anditissurelynoexaggeration.Notonlyinthedevelop-
ment of the Grail legend, but in the evolution of Arthurian literature as a
whole, it would be hard to overstate the importance of this trilogy of prose
romances. Relatively short though they may be, these works attributed to
Robert de Boron not only gave a vital new impetus to the story of the Grail
leftunfinishedbyChrétiendeTroyes,butwerealsotoproveaninspirationto
laterwriters,showingthewayforwardbycombiningaseriesofnarrativesto
create the very first cycle of Arthurian tales. For the redactor of the version
translated here was not content merely to take the Grail as the object of a
chivalricquestandgobackintimetotellthestoryofitsoriginsintheBiblical
past; nor was he content to move on and see the Grail quest brought to a
conclusion;hewentfurther,andgavehisaudiencearesolutiontothewhole
ArthurianstorybyfinishinghisPercevalwithanaccountofthebetrayaland
deathofArthurandtheendoftheknightsoftheRoundTable.Thistrilogyis
astonishingly ambitious, original and complete in its conception.
The Modena manuscript
TheJosephofArimatheahassurvivedinseventeenmanuscripts,mostofwhich
alsocontainMerlin,butonlytwogoontocontaintheentiretrilogyofJoseph,
MerlinandPerceval:manuscriptE.39oftheBibliotecaEstenseinModena,and
nouv.acqu.no.4166 of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (formerly named the
‘Didot’ manuscript after a past owner – hence the title Didot-Perceval often
appliedtothethirdpart).Thesemanuscriptshavenotnecessarilybeenused
as the bases for modern editions: both Richard O’Gorman in his parallel
1 ‘The Evolution and Legacy of French Prose Romance’, in The Cambridge Companion to
MedievalRomance,ed.R.L.Krueger(Cambridge,2000),p.169.
2 Introduction
edition of the verse and prose versions of Joseph (Toronto, 1995) and Alex-
andre Micha in his edition of Merlin (Geneva, 1979) argue at length for the
superiority of other manuscripts, each editor finally opting for a different
text. But Bernard Cerquiglini, in his edition of the complete trilogy,2 follows
thetextsimplyoftheModenamanuscript.Uncriticalthoughsomemayfeel
this to be, it has the great virtue of presenting a medieval reality: it gives a
single, complete text as it would have been experienced by a contemporary
audience.
Ofthetwomanuscriptsthatcontainthecompletetrilogy,theModenatext
is unquestionably the better – notably in the Perceval section. In his fine
edition of the Perceval, William Roach refers to the Modena redactor as ‘a
carefulandthoughtfulworkman...[whosemanuscript]givesastraightfor-
ward,cleartext,admirablysuitedtoconveyingtheimpressionthattheJoseph
– Merlin – Perceval – Mort Artu tetralogy is a unified and harmonious whole
...[whiletheParis‘Didot’manuscript,althoughittellsessentiallythesame
story, contains] . . . hopelessly garbled passages. . . . The text of the [Didot]
manuscriptissocorruptthatthereadermayoftenwonderwhethersomeof
itsreadingsdonotrepresentmisprintsorerrorsoftranscriptiononthepartof
the editor.’3
This, therefore, is a translation of the trilogy (or tetralogy, if you think of
theMortArtuasaseparatesection)ascompiledbytheanonymouswriterof
thatspecificmanuscript,nowinthelibraryatModena,andasitwouldhave
beenread–or,moreprobably,performedandheard–byaspecificgroupof
people in the thirteenth century.
Authorship and sources
But what exactly did the redactor whose work is preserved in the Modena
manuscript do with Robert de Boron’s material? What exactly did Robert
himself write?
Asimpleaccountwouldhaveitthatthistrilogyisatranslationintoprose
of a trilogy originally written by Robert in verse. However, only one manu-
scriptofhisverseversionsurvives,4anditcontainsonlyJosephandthefirst
502 lines of Merlin. Whilst it might be reasonable to conjecture that Robert
wrote a complete verse Merlin that is sadly lost, this is by no means certain;
and there is no reason at all to suppose that he ever wrote a verse Perceval.
Indeed,thereisaverygoodreasontothinkthathedidnot:inthecourseof
thisproseMerlinwecomeacrossapassageinwhichtheredactorcomments
2 RobertdeBoron,LeromanduGraal(Paris,1981).
3 WilliamRoach,ed.,TheDidotPerceval,AccordingtotheManuscriptsofModenaandParis
(Philadelphia,1941),pp.37,4,5,317.
4 EditedbyWilliamNitze:RobertdeBoron,Leromandel’EstoiredouGraal(Paris,1927).