But King Arthur sayeth, “Fair nephew, let not your heart be troubled by such tidings. I also have but recently learned of my own coming into this world. None of us can choose how we come or how we depart. You are honoured far and wide for your knightly virtues and none but you hath brought such high esteem.”
Perlesvaus or The High Book of the Grail or The Book of the Grail is a 13th century Arthurian text. It’s ostensibly a continuation of Perceval, as many things are1 - though it dwells very little on the Grail quest2 and covers a lot of the “main” Arthurian legend.
It’s notoriously dark3 and idiosyncratic with its plot points, like Guinevere’s death, the murder of Loholt, and its Crusade-like religious conversions4.
Especially with the Crusade influence, a couple points that stuck with me:
- There is a “Knight Coward” that had a very interesting approach. While he’s eventually converted into a brave knight in his own right, there’s some surprisingly sympathetic points: Gawain replieth, “You wish for nought but peace, and a full noble wish that is. May God grant you as you desire.”
- There’s also several references to “What ails you?“. I don’t know if any of these are intentional (or even in the original language) and I didn’t catch a clear resolution to it, but it’s a famous resolution of the Grail Quest.
- There is (this isn’t unique to this tale) a fun repeated adventure of trying to find a knight who keeps changing their shield.