Háskóli Íslands
Hugvísindasvið
Íslensk miðaldafræði
“Oh Lord, My God, Forgive Me”:
Comparing the Psychological Effects of Religious Shame in Le
Conte du Graal (Perceval) and Parcevals Saga
Ritgerð til MA-prófs í Íslenskum miðaldafræðum
Bethany Rogers
Kt.: 260682-3429
Leiðbeinandi: Sif Ríkharðsdóttir
September 2015
ABSTRACT
The aim of this thesis is to examine the relationship between religion and shame as portrayed
by characterizations of Perceval in the original French text of Le Conte du Graal (Perceval)
by Chrétien de Troyes and in the Norwegian translation Parcevals saga (author unknown).
This will provide an examination of how shame is represented, what its portrayal means for
the narrative itself and why it may be represented this way due to religious and cultural
influences in Norse and French society. The main focus will be on the association of shame
and sin and how the relationship between the two is viewed in both cultures as depicted in the
two narratives. The portrayal of emotions other than love in the romances has not often been
examined by scholars, particularly in a psychological context. Leah Tether´s Master´s thesis,
―Beyond the Grail: The Roles of Objects as Psychological Markers in Chrétien de Troyes´
Conte du Graal,‖ examines Perceval´s perception of objects in the story and their gradual
acquisition of deeper, symbolic interpretation as he matures. Sylvester George Tan similarly
explores the idea of unconscious sin and asks whether or not Perceval is unfairly castigated
for his actions within the narrative in his article, ―Perceval‘s Unknown Sin: Narrative
Theology in Chrétien‘s Story of the Grail.‖ However, these works do not consider theology
and its psychological influences on an individual and, by extension, his culture as represented
in literature. I will examine Perceval´s psychological state as it relates to his shame in two
versions of the narrative in order to argue that the Norse-Icelandic audience placed much less
importance on religion in general and on shame at committing a sin specifically. In
conclusion, this project will examine the emotional and mental trials of Perceval in the French
and Norse-Icelandic versions of the story after committing a great sin in order to shed new
light on this element of Parcevals saga and the Scandinavian culture it represents.
2
ÚTDRÁTTUR
Markmið þessarar ritgerðar er að skoða tengsl milli trúarbragða og skammar eins og hún er
sett fram í persónu Parsifals í upprunalegum frönskum texta Chrétien de Troyes, Le Conte du
Graal (Perceval) og þýðingu hans, Parcevals sögu. Með þessu má rannsaka birtingarmyndir
skammar og hver merking hennar er í frásögninni sjálfri og hvers vegna slík framsetning gæti
verið vegna trúar- og félagslegra áhrifa í norskum og frönskum samfélögum. Áhersla verður
lögð á tengsl skammar og syndar, og hvernig litið er á samþættingu þessara þátta félagslega
samkvæmt þessum tveimur textum. Framsetning annara tilfinninga en ástar í ástarsögum
hefur ekki verið mikið skoðuð af fræðimönnum, sérstaklega í sálfræðilegu samhengi.
Meistararitgerð Leah Tether, ―Beyond the Grail: The Roles of Objects as Psychological
Markers in Chrétien de Troyes´ Conte du Graal,‖ skoðar skynjun Parsifals á hlutum innan
sögunar og þróun þeirra yfir í djúpstæð, merkingarþrungin tákn samhliða vaxandi þroska
riddarans. Sylvester George Tan skoðar á sama máta hugmyndina um ómeðvitaða synd og
spyr hvort að Parsifal hafi hlotið óverðskuldaðar skammir fyrir gjörðir sínar í frásögnum í
grein sinni ―Perceval‘s Unknown Sin: Narrative Theology in Chrétien‘s Story of the Grail.‖
Engu að síður taka þessi verk ekki tillit til guð- og sálfræðilegra áhrifa sem Parsifal verður
fyrir, og þar með framsetningu menningar hans sem skynjaðrar innan þessara rita. Ég mun
skoða sálfræðilegt ástand Parsfals og tengingu þess við skömm hans í þessum tveimur ritum
og setja fram þá keningu að norrænir áheyrendur hafi lagt minni áherslu á trúarbrögð
yfirhöfuð og sérstaklega skömm tengda syndinni. Skoðaðar verða sagnfræðilegar ástæður
fyrir þessu. Meðal annars áhrif kirkjunnar og samfélagslegar venjur eða hefðir sem enn voru
ríkjandi í Norræna-Íslandi eftir kristnitöku sem voru ekki til staðar í Frakklandi á tímum
Chrétien de Troyes og skrifa hans. Með þessu verður leitast við að varpa ljósi á þjáningar
Parceval sem eru afleiðing af syndum hans innan sögunnar, bæði í frönsku og norsk-íslensku
formi sögunnar, í þeim tilgangi að útskýra þennan hluta Parcevals sögu og þá norrænu
menningu sem hún stendur fyrir.
3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Sif Rikharðsdóttir, for her
unwavering kindness and support as I undertook not only to write a thesis, but did so ahead of
schedule. She has set a shining example of passionate scholarship that has inspired me to seek
a Ph.D. in the future. Thanks also must go to Haraldur Bernharðsson, Torfi Tulinius, Viðar
Pálsson and Terry Gunnell, whose classes inspired curiosity, wonder, and the desperate need
to get it right, because the work we do is so important.
I must also thank my husband, Fróði Snorrason, who continues to help me with
Icelandic translation in times of panic, and his parents, Lilja Karlsdóttir and Snorri Snorrason,
whose knowledge of Icelandic culture, history, geology, archaeology and life in general has
improved every piece of work I have created for this program. Many warm hugs to Birita í
Dali, whose constant encouragement ensured that this thesis was completed on time, yet who
also reminded me to take care of myself, eat good food, get some sleep, and enjoy a cup of
coffee with a friend whenever I can. Thanks also go to Michael MacPherson and Katie Thorn,
who proofread this thesis for the price of a smile.
I would also like to thank the friends and colleagues I have made in the MIS/VMN
program at the University of Iceland; together, they made life in Reykjavik so enjoyable while
opening my eyes to all the possibilities of life, fun and academia, motivating me to go further
than I ever planned with my education in order to continue collaborating with such wonderful
people.
4
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 6
METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................... 8
1. AUTHORSHIP AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF WRITING ................................ 14
1.1 The Matter of France ...................................................................................................... 14
1.2 The Matter of Norse-Iceland .......................................................................................... 22
2. ANALYSIS OF LE CONTE DU GRAAL (PERCEVAL) ................................................. 35
2.1 The Psychology of Perceval in Le Conte du Graal (Perceval) ...................................... 35
2.2 Portrayal of Other Important Figures in Le Conte du Graal (Perceval) ........................ 50
2.3 Portrayal of Religion in Le Conte du Graal (Perceval) ................................................. 54
3. ANALYSIS OF PARCEVALS SAGA................................................................................ 59
3.1 The Psychology of Parceval in Parcevals saga .............................................................. 60
3.2 Portrayal of Other Important Figures in Parcevals saga ............................................... 68
3.3 Portrayal of Religion in Parcevals saga ........................................................................ 73
4. PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND ITS APPLICATIONS ..................................... 75
4.1 Guilt vs. Shame............................................................................................................... 76
4.2 The Relationship between Shame and Religion ............................................................. 78
4.3 Cross-Cultural Psychology: Religion and Emotion in French and Norse Culture ......... 81
4.4 Durkheim and Role of Religion and Shame in Shaping Society .................................... 87
5. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 92
5
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this work is to examine the relationship between religion and shame as
depicted by characterizations of Perceval in the original French text of Le Conte du Graal
(Perceval) by Chrétien de Troyes and in the Norse translation Parcevals saga (author
unknown). This character study will allow an examination of how shame is represented, what
its portrayal means within the context of the romance and why the relationship between
shame and religion may be represented this way due to social and cultural influences in Norse
and French society. This research will allow us to consider the riddarasögur, and particularly
Parcevals saga, in a new way. For a long time, riddarasögur were largely ignored by scholars
of Norse literature, who preferred to focus on indigenous works rather than imported
materials; most overviews of Norse-Icelandic literature include only small sections on the
translated riddarasögur and somewhat more extensive discussion of the indigenous versions.1
However, that is not to say that no one has taken an interest in the riddarasögur as a genre. A
History of Arthurian Scholarship by Norris J. Lacy contains an extensive commentary on
scholarly work in the Arthurian genre, including chapters on Scandinavian and French
Arthurian Literature, designed to survey ―the work of those who are the acknowledged giants
– past and present – of our field.‖2 Two such giants in the field are Geraldine Barnes and
Marianne E. Kalinke. In Geraldine Barnes´ work "Romance in Iceland," she notes that the
riddarasögur are
frequently dismissed as the inferior, ´escapist,´ dreary and depressing products of a
gloomy period in Iceland´s history following the surrender of its autonomy to Norway
in 1262-4 and subsequent deterioration in its economic and political status, the
riddarasögur have proved the least appealing form of Old Icelandic prose narrative to
modern scholarship, which has tended to regard them as something of an
embarrassment to the Old Norse literary corpus.3
In recent decades, thanks in part to the work of Kalinke, Barnes, and scholars of their
ilk, interest in the riddarasögur has flourished. Geraldine Barnes´ 1989 article, ―Some Current
Issues in Riddarasögur Research,‖ provides excellent context on the transmission, translation
and genre identification of the riddarasögur.4 Marianne E. Kalinke´s ―Arthurian Literature in
1
See e.g. Heather O´Donoghue, Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Short Introduction (Malden, MA: Blackwell
Publishing, 2004), 102-104; Rory McTurk, ed., A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture
(Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 380-385.
2
Norris J. Lacy, ed. A History of Arthurian Scholarship ( Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2006), vii.
3
Geraldine Barnes, "Romance in Iceland," in Old Icelandic Literature and Society, ed. Margaret Clunies Ross,
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 266.
4
Geraldine Barnes, “Some current issues in riddarasögur research.” Arkiv för Nirdisk Filologi 104:1 (1989): 7388.
6
Scandinavia,‖ also provides excellent background information on translated and indigenous
riddarasögur, including notable differences in the translated versions, ostensibly due to social
and cultural influences.5 Her work ―King Arthur, North-by-Northwest: The Matière de
Bretagne in Old Norse-Icelandic Romances,‖ contains a thorough examination of manuscripts
and editions for this material.6 Her article ―Norse Romance (Riddarasögur)," in Old NorseIcelandic Literature: A Critical Guide, edited by Carol J. Clover and John Lindow,7 continues
this research with detailed description of genre characteristics for the fornaldarsögur and
riddarasögur (or lygisögur, as they are sometimes known). In comparing the riddarasögur to
their originals, Kalinke was one of the first to conclude that ―Norwegian translators
reproduced more of the content of their sources more accurately than standard editions have
in the past led us to believe,‖8 whereas previous scholarly opinion had focused on the copious
excision of lines from the Norse-Icelandic translations. It is from these scholarly origins that
this paper takes its cues, focusing not on how much was cut or changed but what in particular
was altered and, most importantly, why. The present thesis aims to use this information to
construct a cross-cultural understanding of the relationship between shame and religion in
medieval Norse-Iceland and France around the time that each story was written.
5
Marianne E. Kalinke, “Arthurian Literature in Scandinavia,” in King Arthur Through the Ages, Volume I, eds.
Valerie M. Lagorio and Mildred Leake Day (London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1990), 127-51.
6
Kalinke Marianne E., “King Arthur, North-by-Northwest: the Matière de Bretagne in Old Norse-Icelandic
Romances.” In Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana XXXVII. Edited by Marianne E. Kalinke. Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzels
Boghandel A/S, 1981.
7
Marianne E. Kalinke, “Norse Romance (Riddarasögur)," in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide, eds.
Carol J. Clover and John Lindow (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), 316-63.
8
Kalinke, “Norse Romance (Riddarasögur),” 335.
7
METHODOLOGY
The guiding research questions are: What is the progression of Perceval´s mental and
emotional state in the original French text as compared to the Norse-Icelandic riddarasaga?
How do we define guilt or shame in regards to religion and how were these emotions
perceived in medieval times? How do the concepts of guilt and shame in religion differ
between the French and Norse-Icelandic cultures? Finally, what is the psychological
relationship between religion and guilt? With these questions in mind, we can examine what
the differences in the portrayal of Perceval´s character in the French and Norse versions of the
story reveal about the cultures from which they originated.
The research will be conducted using a three-tiered methodological approach: close
textual analysis of the primary source material using English translations where possible;
historical contextualization of the influence of the Church and related cultural norms using
primary documents and broader social and cultural knowledge through research and
secondary historical sources; and finally, interpretation of primary texts through theoretical
frameworks; in particular, the cross-cultural psychology of emotions framework put forth by
Richard A. Shweder, Jonathan Haidt, Randall Horton and Craig Joseph. This framework
maintains that
emotional experience is not analytically dissoluble from either the conditions that
justify it or the social meaning systems that sustain it. This model offers a contextrich, maximally inclusive characterization of emotional experience – one in which
elements of sociocultural and linguistic context provide the necessary background
against which one can perceive local variations and transformations of the figural
center of emotive processes.9
Schweder et al. assert that the ability to feel emotions is a "content-laden and culture specific
mental process"10 that is not a universal, basic or an intrinsic mental process. These
categories are useful to this research because they examine the inherent connection of emotion
to the social structures (e.g. religious belief) which support it. By its definition, this model
provides for a combination of language, of which the written narratives are a tangible
expression, and socioeconomic evidence that can be discovered within historical and religious
contexts I wish to explore.
The use of the word ―universal‖ in the preceding explanation may lead some to
conclude that I am refuting the idea of universal emotions in facial expressions put forth by
9
Richard A. Shweder, et al. "The Cultural Psychology of Emotions: Ancient and Renewed," in Handbook of
Emotions, eds. Michael Lewis, Jeannette M. Haviland-Jones, and Lisa Feldman Barrett, 3rd ed. (New York:
Guilford Press, 2008), 415.
10
Shweder, et al. "The Cultural Psychology of Emotions: Ancient and Renewed," 411.
8
Dr. Paul Ekman. Ekman‘s work postulates the existence of these basic emotions:
―amusement, anger, contempt, contentment, disgust, embarrassment, excitement, fear, guilt,
pride in achievement, relief, sadness/distress, satisfaction, sensory pleasure and shame,‖11
which are displayed in identical facial expressions recognizable by others, regardless of
culture and social conditioning. This is not in dispute. What is being suggested by this thesis
is that the events which prompt displays of emotion vary between cultures; once the emotion
is displayed through facial expression or other physical indicators, it can be interpreted and
understood to some extent by others, regardless of the cultural milieu. John W. Berry et al.
notes that ―psychological processes (emotions) are similar across cultures but that their
behavioral manifestations (emotion-based behavior) can vary substantially from one culture to
another. ―12 Simply put, what precipitates great shame in one culture may be of little interest
in another, depending upon the morals and values of the particular groups under
consideration.
Shame is defined in this work according to Gunter Bierbauer´s cross-cultural study of
emotion and religion, which states ―shame is defined as a reaction to criticism from others and
as a fear of rejection and withdrawal from love. ... Shame results from the existence of a real
or imagined audience of one´s misdeed.‖13 Under these conditions, an individual experiences
shame rather than a similar, but distinct, emotion such as guilt. To further examine the
emotion of shame within the two cultures, eight components are suggested by Schweder et
al.´s cross-cultural framework, of which I will use the following five to examine evidence
from secondary historical sources and in the narrative texts:
1. Environmental determinants. Are people alike or different in the antecedent conditions
associated with the emotion (e.g. winning the lottery, a remark from a subordinate,
birth of a child, physical contact with a member of an outcaste group)?
2. Appraisals of significance. Are people alike or different in the appraisals of the
antecedent conditions that elicit the emotion, and in the ongoing construals that may
inflect, extend, transform, or truncate the experience (e.g. others' actions were
intentional, unwanted, goal enhancing, expected, disrespectful, or status-degrading;
the outcome can or cannot be changed)?
3. Normative social appraisals. Are people alike or different in the extent to which
showing, displaying, or merely experiencing the emotion has been socially designated
as a vice or virtue or as a sign of sickness or health?
11
Paul Ekman, "Basic Emotions," in Handbook of Cognition and Emotion, eds. Tim Dalgleish and Mick Power
(Chichester, England: Wiley, 1999), 55.
12
John W. Berry et al., eds., Cross-Cultural Psychology: Research and Applications (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2011), 158.
13
Gunter Bierbrauer, “Reactions to Violation of Normative Standards: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Shame and
Guilt," International Journal of Psychology 27:2 (1992): 184.
9
4. Self-management. Are people alike or different in their impulses to action and plans
for self-management that get activated in association with the emotion (e.g. to
celebrate, to attack, to disengage and avoid the other person, to engage in problem
solving)?
5. Social management. Are people alike or different in the ways they respond to and
manage the communication and symbolization of the emotion by others (e.g.,
empathically mirroring the emotion, cowering, withdrawing, discussing an
individual‘s behavior with others, and collectively shaming the individual)?14
The remaining three components are unusable for the purposes of this evaluation because they
rely upon physical markers (e.g. facial expressions) or internal reactions (e.g. changes in
blood pressure) which are impossible to assess based on textual descriptions.
By removing those which cannot be adjusted for textual interpretation, I can then apply
the remaining five criteria to the narrative. In order to do this effectively, I will rely upon
specific displays of emotion and reactions described in the text, evaluating the diction of such
examples for their clarity and severity of meaning. This will be most evident in the French
version of the narrative, for reasons relating to a literary tradition which supported more
effusive displays of emotion through the language of the story and the actions portrayed
therein. The Norse translation may be more notable for its lack of emotions in comparison, as
observed by Philip Mitchell, who points out ―the translators displayed a tendency to omit the
detailed descriptions and the subtleties of emotion in order to get forward with the plot. The
emphasis on narrative content would seem to have satisfied the king and his court and reveals
a failure to appreciate some of the essential qualities of the literature which he sought to
introduce into Norway.‖15 With this general understanding as a foundation, I will then apply
these theories of analysis as closely as possible to the text. For example, in order to evaluate
social management, I will examine the ways that other characters react to Perceval´s actions
based on textual descriptions of their actions and dialogue. I will attempt to find a literary,
historical, cultural or religious reason for the given example of emotion, particularly shame, in
the story. Barring that, it may then be considered a device of the literary genre, in which some
elements are not remarked upon because they do not represent important factors of the
romance.
This framework also draws on ideas of religion put forth by Emile Durkheim, which holds
that social institutions such as religion exist in order to meet certain needs in a given society:
―It may be said that all the great social institutions have been born in religion. Now in order
14
Shweder, et al. "The Cultural Psychology of Emotions: Ancient and Renewed," 415.
Phillip M. Mitchell, "Scandinavian Literature," in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative
History, ed. Roger Sherman Loomis, by Phillip M. Mitchell, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), 465.
15
10
that these principle aspects of the collective life may have commenced by being only varied
aspects of the religious life, it is obviously necessary that the religious life be the eminent
form and, as it were, the concentrated expression of the whole, collective life.‖16 W.S.F.
Pickering has interpreted this statement as follows: ―Crucial to the notion of morality is the
authority that supports it: in traditional societies this authority is based on God or some
equivalent concept. ... This very close relationship between society and morality, between
society and religion, encourages Durkheim once again to state that God is society
hypostasized.‖ 17 By examining the construction and reception of religion in a society, we can
then extrapolate the values and principals of the society which it is designed to support. By
examining the role of shame as it relates to religion, we can postulate upon the role of shame
in society at large within the two narratives.
Lacanian and Freudian ideas of psychosexual development in human psychology will
be used to better understand the characters as they are portrayed, with emphasis on the
character of Perceval and his mental state throughout the two narratives. While
psychoanalysis is intended to illuminate the complex interrelationship of the id and ego that
stem from development in a living, physical entity, we may apply psychoanalytic principles to
literature with the assumption that psychoanalysis can help to clarify literary structures put in
place consciously or unconsciously by the author in an attempt to realistically depict the
world of the narrative. Céline Suprenant observes that while there are many schools of
thought within the field of literary psychoanalysis,
all variants endorse, at least to a certain degree, the idea that literature (and what
closely relates to it: language, rhetoric, storytelling, poetry) is fundamentally entwined
with the psyche. Hence, understanding psychoanalytic approaches to literature
requires us to reflect on the various ways in which this close connection is conceived.
It requires us to question the putative proximity of, or even the identity between,
unconscious psychical and literary processes as one of their most common theoretical
assumptions.18
Furthermore, Morton Kaplan and Robert Kloss observe that ―fictional characters are
representations of life, and, as such, can only be understood if we assume they are real. And
this assumption allows us to find unconscious motivation[s] by the same procedure that the
16
Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, 5th ed., trans. Joseph Ward Swain (London:
George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1964), 418-9.
17
W. S. F. Pickering, Durkheim's Sociology of Religion: Themes and Theories, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, England:
James Clark & Co., 2009), 73.
18
Céline Suprenant, "Freud and Psychoanalysis" in Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide, ed. Patricia
Waugh (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 200.
11
traditional critic uses to assign conscious ones."19 Most critics of a character study-based
approach to literary psychoanalysis, such as Norman Holland, who points out that a writer
―hovers between mimesis, making like, and harmonia, the almost musical ordering of the
events he depicts.‖20 Character studies using psychoanalytic principles, then, neglect
harmonia, the idea that the character acts not only like a real person, but like a person in a
story, whose actions and behaviors must serve to advance the plot in some way. Bernard Paris
comments upon this criticism, noting:
No study of character should ignore the fact that characters in fiction participate in the
dramatic and thematic structures of the works in which they appear and that the
meaning of their behavior is often to be understood in terms of its function within
these structures. The less mimetic the fiction, the more completely will the characters
be intelligible in terms of their dramatic and thematic functions; and even in highly
realistic fiction, the minor characters are to be understood more functionally than
psychologically.21
For this reason, this work will limit analysis to the protagonist, Perceval, alone. Other
characters that may be considered will only be useful for their actions in relation to the main
character. W.J. Harvey believes that it is possible to apply psychoanalytic theory to literary
protagonists because they are the ―characters whose motivation and history are most fully
established, who conflict and change as the story progresses.‖22 Harvey supports this
reasoning by observing that ―most great novels exist to reveal and explore character.‖23 With
this in mind, we may now consider whether the characters created by Chrétien are finely
drawn enough to constitute a reasonable psychoanalysis. Frederick B. Artz comments that
―Chrétien is not content merely to narrate events, but he also tries to interpret them. At the
center of his romances and beneath all the descriptions of armor and costume, of tournaments
and battles, of castles and nature, there is a systematic analysis of love and of human action.
… As one of the first great explorers of the human heart, he must be numbered among the
founders of the modern novel.‖24 D.D. R. Owen characterizes Chretien´s writing skill thusly:
―We are left with the impression of a strikingly superior and many-sided talent. Chrétien has
bequeathed to us a brilliant portrait of the society that gave him his livelihood. Much of his
19
Morton Kaplan and Robert Kloss, The Unspoken Motive: A Guide to Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism (New
York: Free Press, 1973), 4.
20
Norman Holland, Psychoanalysis and Shakespeare (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966), 306.
21
Bernard J. Paris, "Psychology: Characters and Implied Authors," in A Psychological Approach to Fiction:
Studies in Thackeray, Stendhal, George Eliot, Dostoevsky, and Conrad (Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction
Publishers, 2010), 3.
22
W.J. Harvey, Character and the Novel (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1968), 56.
23
W.J. Harvey, Character and the Novel (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1968), 23.
24
Frederick B. Artz, The Mind of the Middle Ages: An Historical Survey (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1954), 348-9.
12
detail is drawn from life.‖ 25 Michel Zink notes ―The action of each romance is concentrated
in time and around the central character. … The Arthurian world is thus an unchanging given
framing the evolution and destiny of the protagonist.‖26 John W. Baldwin points out the
unreality of Chretien´s depiction of society:
Even if situated at the courts of Troyes and Flanders, Chretien nonetheless wrote
romances that remained totally oblivious to the political, matrimonial and martial
events of his day, just as they ignored the governmental achievements within the three
surrounding principalities and the king´s domain … Never did Chrétien let slip an
explicit allusion to an event that can be identified from contextual sources. His monde
événementiel remains that of his own imagination.27
Chrétien chose to root the progress and meaning of the narrative within the trials of the
protagonist rather than social and political elements, theme or style, and so it is within the
protagonist that we must search for evidence of shame.
We will use these theories of psychosexual development of the individual to show
Perceval and his ascension from ignorant child through the mirror stage of self-discovery to
early sexual awakening. This awareness is then arrested in favor of spiritual refinement rather
than bodily concerns. This allows us, the reader, to see through the lens of Perceval‘s
experiences and interactions with others. We may also examine what are the guiding cultural
values for each particular group, French and Norse-Icelandic, to help us define the specific
relationship in each culture between commission of sin and the experience of shame as
presented in these stories.
25
Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, trans. D.D.R. Owen (North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 1993),
xviii.
26
Michel Zink, Medieval French Literature: An Introduction, trans. Jeff Rider (Binghamton, New York: Center for
Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1995), 55.
27
John W. Baldwin, "Chretien in History," in
, eds. Norris J. Lacy and Joan
Tasker Grimbert ( Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2005), 12.
13
1. AUTHORSHIP AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF WRITING
In order to understand the purpose and effect of the two narratives from a literary perspective,
we must first consider what is known about the authorship of these narratives and the
historical context in which they were written in order to understand what social mechanisms
influenced the contents of this tale and its Norse-Icelandic counterpart. Generally speaking,
Frederick B. Artz notes that ―unlike the earlier epics most of the romances seem to have been
composed primarily for an audience of women, and written to be read rather than recited.
They glorified the aristocratic way of life and tried to offset the monotony of feudal existence
with fabulous adventures.‖28 While this may have been true of the original French, we must
analyze the extent to which this stated purpose appealed to a Norse-Icelandic audience. We
shall first consider the patronage of each manuscript and whatever clues may be available to
explain their raison d´être, including an examination of King Hákon Hákonarsson´s motives
in their transmission into Norwegian society and whether or not it was meant for
entertainment or to import cultural values of chivalry and monarchical society. First, we must
discover the extent to which the narrative seemingly reflects the society at the time of its
writing before we may make any statement about the relationship within the culture between
religion and shame. What is not in dispute, however, is the fact that Chrétien and those who
translated his works in the centuries after, were a product of their individual cultures. Suzanne
Marti asserts that ―the potential influence that the target culture exercises on the translator,
and thereby also on the translation process, must also be borne in mind. Since the translator
and his work are, at least to some degree, always determined by his native culture, certain
transformations must be ascribed to the translator‘s adaptation of his material to his own
cultural and literary environment.‖29 In other words, no one writes in a vacuum.
1.1 The Matter of France
As early as the eleventh century, the kings of Western Europe found themselves competing
with the popes of the Christian church. By the time of Chrétien´s writings, the Church was
deeply entrenched in the daily lives of the people of France. As J. H. Burns notes, Pope
Gelasius I had originally ―put forward the view that the world is governed by two separate
authorities, that of the pope in matters spiritual and that of the emperor in matters temporal,
both being subordinated to the lordship of Christ‖30 in 494 AD. Justinian, the Byzantine
28
Frederick B. Artz, The Mind of the Middle Ages, 345.
Suzanne Marti, "Translation or Adaptation?: Parcevals Saga as a Result of Cultural Transformation,"
Arthuriana 22:1 (2012): 48-9.
30
J. H. Burns, The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought C. 350-c. 1450 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1988), 46.
29
14
emperor in the 6th century AD, rejected this concept, and because of his contention it would
be debated throughout the Middle Ages. This idea became known as Gelasian dualism, in
which power was represented using a metaphor of two swords, one which gives power from
God (kingship) and the other which is imbued with the power to act on behalf of God (the
Church). Pope Boniface issued a decree in 1302 saying that: ―Both [swords] are in the power
of the church, the material sword and the spiritual. But one is exercised for the church, the
other by the church, the one by the hand of the priest, the other by the hand of kings and
soldiers, though at the will and sufferance of the priest.‖31 This cleverly asserted the power of
the Church over the state, while keeping them tied to one another.
It was into this social and political climate that Chrétien wrote his seminal romances of
chivalry and knights devoted to their ladies riding off on adventures. This tension between the
powers of church and crown is a large part of Le Conte du Graal (Perceval) and much less
visible in Parcevals saga. The brief training scene with Gornemant provides an interesting
lesson in the origins of noble talent to Perceval and the audience in addition to advising the
hero on knightly decorum. Perceval‘s skill with weapons comes as a result of his noble birth,
for although he is completely unpracticed at using knightly arms,
Le jeune cavalier porta tout de suite la lance et l´écu avec autant d´adresse que s´il
avait toujours vécu dans les tournois et les guerres, comme s´il avait parcouru tous les
pays en quête de bataille et d´aventure. En effet, c´était un don de Nature, et quand
c´est Nature qui enseigne, et quand le cœur y met toute son application,
l´apprentissage n´est pas dificile. (722)
[he began to carry the lance and shield as properly as if throughout his life he had
frequented the tournaments and wars, and wandered through every land seeking battle
and adventure, for it came naturally to him; and since Nature was his teacher and his
heart was set upon it, nothing for which Nature and his heart strove could be difficult.]
(399-400)
His skill as a knight cannot be attributed to anything else at this point due to his lack of
education. Keith Busby notes in his critical analysis that ―the mother‘s attempts at cutting her
son off from the world were doomed to failure because ‗nobility will out,‘ Moreover, Chrétien
had made it quite clear that human destiny must be fulfilled within society, not without.‖32 No
doubt these details were especially pleasing to Chrétien´s aristocratic patrons, as they convey
a certain unavoidable fate which is completely out of Perceval´s control. He will be a great
knight, then, because his noble heritage precludes anything else. This, too, shows France´s
legacy from the Roman Empire; according to J. H. Burns, early Christian lawmakers and
31
32
Antony Black, Political Thought in Europe, 1250-1450 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 48.
Busby, Chrétien de Troyes Perceval, 19-20.
15
philosophers ensured that ―subsequent political thought would be controlled by a greater
debate, namely about the nature and destiny of man.‖33 Thomas Aquinas was a highly
influential theologian and philosopher who, though working slightly after the time of
Chrétien‘s writing, perhaps best typified the arguments of the day with his On Kingship,
appearing in the mid-13th century, which held that hierarchies are natural, and so government
and society should be also. Natural order was decided by God and therefore sacred. Frederick
B. Artz notes a central idea of Aquinas´ On Kingship: “the very existence of a ´common
good of many´ makes government, in addition to society, necessary and natural.‖34 This
concept, together with ideas such as Gelasian duelism, required nobles to uphold the idea of a
natural order defined by God, leading to the idea of divine right to rule in the later medieval
period.
Frederick B. Artz notes that chivalry and courtly ritual had ancient origins in the
Germanic tribes known to Tacitus in the 1st century AD, but grew into ―a movement intended
to improve society‖35 in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, driven by an increasingly wealthy
society able to fund and support expensive knights and by noble women who popularized the
notion of the romantic knight-errant, devoted to his lady love. But men repeatedly sent out to
seek their glory on the battlefield often gain reputations for violence, and their armor made
them tough and experienced in battle. John W. Baldwin comments that Chrétien´s time was
plagued with much political strife: ―Chrétien´s political world was framed by the Second and
Third Crusades (1147-90). These four decades witnessed a three-cornered competition among
the families of Champagne, Flanders, and the Anglo-Norman Angevins that revolved around
the Capetian court.‖36 June Hall McCash notes that Le Conte du Graal (Perceval) was
composed ―sometime between 14 May 1181, the date of [his patron, Philippe´s] military
alliance with Countess Marie and her brothers-in-law, and September 1190, when Philippe
left on Crusade.‖37 Perhaps Chrétien sought to criticize the societal ills caused by constant
warring and a large class of well-trained men, likely returned from Crusades or other
engagements, whose behavior was governed only by an ideal of kindness to others. By the
thirteenth century, Frederick B. Artz notes that public opinion of knighthood had changed;
33
J. H. Burns, The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought C. 350-c. 1450, 19.
Antony Black, Political Thought in Europe, 1250-1450 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 25
34
Artz, The Mind of the Middle Ages, 34.
35
Artz, The Mind of the Middle Ages, 344.
36
John W. Baldwin, "Chretien in History," in
, eds. Norris J. Lacy and Joan
Tasker Grimbert ( Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2005), 8.
37
June Hall McCash, “Chrétien’s Patrons,” in
, eds. Norris J. Lacy and Joan
Tasker Grimbert (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2005), 23.
34
16
―Churchmen frequently condemned chivalry, pointing out the laziness, cowardice, arrogance,
brutality, and lechery of the knights.‖38 This may have been due to the fact that they had lost
control of these warriors. Warren Brown comments that
Knights by this point also had their own law, namely the ―law of arms‖. This law
consisted of formalized traditions about what was legitimate behavior and what was
not. … In theory, the law of arms had roots in Roman and canon law as well as in
custom. In reality, however, it lived in the memory of its practitioners. … Knights did
not easily accept the laws of kings and their legal advisors. The monk Matthew of
Paris, in his Chronica majora, notes in his entry for 1247 that according to the
members of the French nobility, the kingdom had been won not by the learned written
law (ius scriptum), nor through the arrogance of clerics, but by the sweat of war (por
sudores bellicose).39
Chrétien´s work appears to reflect this idea as well. All of his heroes, though ostensibly
Arthur´s men, make their own decisions about who to aid and when to attack. Even the
ignorant and untrained Perceval never takes orders from his liege nor is advised by those at
court. Though originally ruled by the Church in a battle of wills between church officials and
kings, the plight of the knightly class in medieval France shows the process of decline we will
see uniquely reflected in Le Conte du Graal (Perceval).
Originally, Chrétien wrote his Arthurian romances under the patronage of Marie de
Champagne, but, by the time he penned Le Conte du Graal (Perceval), his patron was
Philippe d´Alsace, Count of Flanders. Like Chrétien´s previous post at the court of
Champagne, Flanders was also known for its literary tradition as early as the tenth century,
though it was mainly factual accounts containing genealogical information undoubtedly
preserved for questions of lineage and inheritance.40 It was not before Philippe ascended to
power that the first pieces of courtly literature were produced for the House of Alsace. Mary
D. Stanger notes, "Philippe has been described as the first Count of Flanders known to have
taken an active part in encouraging literary production."41 Philippe and Henri and Marie de
Champagne had an appreciation for the arts in common. However, Philippe was also
ambitious and vain. While he was an intelligent man who was placed in charge of his
demesne in his father‘s absence on Crusade as young as fifteen, Mary D. Stanger also notes
that he deliberately attempted to cultivate the admiration of others ―by keeping near him
experienced knights, brave in war and skillful in tournaments, and by encouraging in his
38
Artz, The Mind of the Middle Ages, 345.
Warren Brown, Violence in Medieval Europe (New York: Routledge, 2014), 259.
40
Reto R. Bezzola, ”Les origines et la formation de la littérature courtoise en occident (500-1200). Troisième
partie. La société courtoise: Littérature de cour et littérature courtoise.” in Tome II: Les cours de France,
’Ou -Mer et de Sicile au XIIe siècle (Paris: Librairie Honoré Champion, 1963), 408-9.
41
McCash, “Chrétien’s Patrons,” 17.
39
17
castles the presence of jongleurs and minstrels of distinction, he wished to impress his
contemporaries with the brilliant, and almost royal, atmosphere of his court.‖42 Therefore, his
appreciation of the arts was no doubt driven partly by a desire for social status as well as any
personal affinity he or his family may have had. In contrast to King Hákon of Norway,
Philippe´s role as the Count of Flanders was not in dispute politically and the dominance of
the Church in Europe had already been established by this time, though, as we have seen,
debate raged in law courts over questions of jurisdiction and right to rule between the two
factions, and would continue to do so for centuries. Philippe himself was a devoted Christian
and military leader, going on Crusade twice and dying during an epidemic after the Battle of
Acre during the Third Crusade.43
Le Conte du Graal (Perceval) was written in the 1180s and left unfinished, probably
due to his death.44 In the opening of the story, Chrétien praises his patron in a prologue known
as the Parable of the Sower. This section stands as a fine example of rhetorical speech and
contains many examples of figurative language, a popular oratory technique since Antiquity
which was brought to medieval Europe via texts such as Cicero´s ―De inventione.‖ By the
12th century, copies of Cicero´s ―De inventione,‖ exceeded Virgil‘s Aeneid.45 Cicero‘s ―De
inventione‖ is unique in that it recommends using emotional appeals to the audience to
strengthen the quality of one´s arguments, whether they were delivered orally or in writing.
Augustine‘s ―De doctrina christiana,‖ was probably well-known in Chrétien´s time and
advances the idea that rhetorical skill and structure is to be used for religious education or
entertainment of those who have come to listen. In this text, Augustine articulates three types
(―styles‖) of oration; plain, used for educating the ignorant masses, middle, used to entertain
the already learned, and high, used for grand speeches intended to arouse passions and inspire
conversion.46 From this, we can see that rhetoric in Europe in the Middle Ages was a tool of
the learned clergy, mostly used for religious affect. Keith Busby notes that the Parable of the
Sower shows ―an indisputable debt to the Ciceronian rhetorical tradition,‖47 as do all
Chrétien´s prologues, which introduce the story, identify its origins and provide tantalizing
hints of its themes while praising his patron who made the writing possible. Chrétien performs
42
Mary D. Stanger, “Literary Patronage at the Medieval Court of Flanders,” French Studies XI 3 (1957): 216.
McCash, “Chrétien’s Patrons,” 23.
44
Busby, Chrétien de Troyes Perceval 54.
45
Rita Copeland, “New Critical Approaches 2015: Rhetoric and the Emotions in the Middle Ages” (seminar
presented at University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland, May 11-15, 2015).
46
James D. Williams, An Introduction to Classical Rhetoric: Essential Readings (Chichester, Sussex: WileyBlackwell), 505.
47
Busby, Chrétien de Troyes Perceval, 12.
43
18
all three of these tasks at once when he says, ―la charité les dons faits par le bon compte
Phillippe, car il n´en parle jamais à personne sauf à son cœur noble et généreux qui lui
conseille de faire le bien‖48 [―the gifts given by the good count Philippe are gifts of charity,
for he consults no one except his noble, honest heart, which urges him to do good.‖49]
Chrétien uses his skill to expand upon religious themes, particularly in Le Conte du
Graal (Perceval), while portraying a segment of society designed to delight his patrons, who
were both noble and members of the French court. Therefore, Chrétien´s stories focus upon
the elite members of society and their heroic adventures in serving their lords and securing
land or a bride to further their lineage. This is not to say that Chrétien wrote only superficial
amusements for his audience, to be enjoyed at court and quickly forgotten. Chrétien takes
these elements of courtly life in France and uses them to ask probing questions about the
nature of identity. This theme recurs in all five Arthurian stories, though never as strongly as
in the dilemma of Perceval, who is shown in the process of becoming a man and then a
gentleman and, perhaps, something more, if the story had been finished. In terms of the
language of writing, John W. Baldwin notes that fifteen of the existing thirteenth-century
manuscripts of Chrétien´s writings were in the Picard dialect, suggesting that they were
written in the north-eastern region of France, where the court ruled, and that this was his
intended audience.50 Given that the author‗s choice of setting, plot and language of writing
was designed to appeal most to his esteemed patrons and their peers, it is perhaps best to say
that any conclusions drawn from this text about the relationship between French culture and
religious shame should reflect an aristocratic viewpoint rather than a general cultural attitude
of all French people.
Generally speaking, the economy of the medieval period in France and most other premodern nations was greatly influenced by its military conquest of other territories, which
resulted in the behavioral trade which followed the development of courtesy and courtly
social conventions. In John W. Baldwin‘s words,
By waging endemic warfare, these leaders amassed great wealth from pillage and
booty. They secured authority for themselves through distribution of these riches to
their military supporters and churchmen. ... Lords channeled wealth through gifts, and
the latter were expected to respond with counter-gifts, thus creating a vast network of
48
Daniel Poirion, ed.,
Œv
lè (Paris, France: Éditions Gallimard, 2004), 686.
Further citations from this source will be noted with page numbers following the quotation.
49
Carleton W. Carroll and William Kibler, trans., “The Story of the Grail (Perceval),”in Chrétien de Troyes
Arthurian Romances (London: Penguin Books, 1991), 381. Further citations from this source will be noted with
page numbers following the quotation.
50
Baldwin, “Chrétien in History,” 4.
19
gift exchange. Wealth was distributed ostentatiously, without restraint. The supreme
virtue in this economy was largesse, or generosity.51
The mores of this culture are reflected in all of Chrétien´s Arthurian works. John W. Baldwin
remarks, ―Chrétien is mute as to where Arthur found his riches, but the king is credited with
maintaining the best knights in his kingdom,‖52 a feat which would have required a massive
amount of wealth to feed, house, clothe and equip the hundreds of men Arthur is credited with
knighting and showering with gifts throughout Chrétien´s five romances. This seigniorial
economy depended on the lord having large amounts of land with which to generate income,
or to give away in fits of generosity, which was maintained by a huge force of peasant labor.53
Chrétien leaves these pedestrian matters out of his narrative, focusing instead on the
adventures of the upper class, either as a nod to his aristocratic audience or due to the fact that
descriptions of agricultural economy do not make for an interesting narrative.
The upper class mentality is reflected in Le Conte du Graal (Perceval) through several
examples of largesse and gift exchange. As defined by Baldwin above, largesse is a display of
wealth without expectation of reciprocation, whereas gift exchange requires the receiver to
respond with a similar gift of land, clothing, arms or treasure. Baldwin further notes, ―These
Arthurian celebrations appear on the surface to be entirely gratuitous and disinterested, but as
in Germanic gift exchanges, each gift requires acceptance and a counter-gift from the
receiver, so that society becomes enmeshed in a complex web of mutual obligations.‖54
Perceval first seeks out gifts when he journeys to King Arthur‘s court, leaving his mother
against her wishes. He wants to be a knight, and has heard that King Arthur makes knights,
and therefore wishes to go there. In fact, Arthur is famous for his acts of largesse in other
Chrétien stories. In Érec et Énide, he gifts 100 knights with robes of silk, weapons and armor
to celebrate Pentecost.55 At Christmas, he repeats this generosity by knighting 400 noblemen
and lavishing gifts of clothing, horses and weapons upon them.56 In Cligés, Arthur knights the
young prince Alexander and his 12 men, also giving them extravagant gifts, with the queen
51
John W. Baldwin, Aristocratic Life in Medieval France: The Romances of Jean Renart and Gerbert De
Montreuil, 1190-1230. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), 98.
52
Baldwin, Aristocratic Life in Medieval France, 99.
53
Baldwin, Aristocratic Life in Medieval France, 110.
54
Baldwin, Aristocratic Life in Medieval France, 99.
55
Carleton W. Carroll and William Kibler, trans., “Erec and Enide,” in Chrétien de Troyes Arthurian Romances
(London: Penguin Books, 1991), 62.
56
Carroll and Kibler, “Erec and Enide,” 118-9.
20
also gifting them with personal items.57 So it now seems that Perceval was logical to seek
knighthood and armor from King Arthur himself, just as it benefits King Arthur to bestow
knighthood upon Perceval, despite his ignorance at the start of the tale:
Although these gifts are offered with seeming disinterest, they nonetheless serve to
recruit new knights, who circulate throughout the Arthurian world performing exploits
that enhance the glory of the mythical king. Arthurian largesse thus generates and
perpetuates chivalric society. The loyalty of the knights is controlled through acts of
creation and gift giving. Largesse reinforces the equality of the Round Table, thus
preserving peace within the Arthurian realm, since no knight could raise economic or
preferential excuse for picking a quarrel with another.58
For Perceval, this normally expedient method of gaining the knighthood and the
trappings which accompany it fails due to the fact that the Red Knight has insulted the queen
and stolen the king´s wine cup. The queen has left the hall and the king is depressed and silent
(393). Thus, Perceval is unable to depend on the king´s largesse and must seek out his own
path to knighthood. In doing so, this difference between Perceval and the other knights at
court has the potential to cause problems. Unlike those who received gifts from Arthur,
Perceval is required to win all that he has in feats of endurance and skill; in fact, we see this
almost immediately when a maiden at court laughs at Perceval: ―Cette jeune fille ne rira que
lorsqu´elle verra celui parviendra au plus haut rang de la chevalrie‖ (711) [―The maiden will
not laugh until she has seen the man who will be supreme lord among all knights,‖ (394)] a
distinction which angers Keu (English: Kay) so that he strikes the maiden and kicks the court
jester into the fireplace. In addition, King Arthur´s ―compagnons se sont dispersés pour se
loger dans les meilleurs châteaux, et il n´en pas de nouvelles‖ (706)[―comrades have returned
to their own castles where it is more pleasant to live,‖ (391)] indicating a general state of
decline. Some scholars, such as Keith Busby, believe this and other elements of vague and
threatening sense of doom in the story may indicate that the Arthurian world depicted here is
at an end.59 By the events in the story, both Perceval and Gauvain are in a position to claim
sovereignty over the Grail Castle and La Roche Canguin, respectively, through matrilineal
birthright, which would cause them to abandon Arthur´s court and the duties of chivalry.
Brigitte Cazelles notes that ―for Arthur to recover his previous preeminence therefore depends
entirely on the king´s ability to convince his companions of the value for them of belonging to
57
Carleton W. Carroll and William Kibler, trans., “Cligés,” in Chrétien de Troyes Arthurian Romances (London:
Penguin Books, 1991), 136-137.
58
Baldwin, Aristocratic Life in Medieval France, 99.
59
Keith Busby, Chrétien de Troyes Perceval (Le Conte du Graal): Critical Guides to French Texts (London: Grant &
Culter, Ltd., 1993), 18.
21
his chivalry.‖60 Arthur is ineffective, as he cannot even convince the naïve and uneducated
Perceval to stay at Logres. The young man, seeing that the king is hardly interested in his
service, leaves to seek his own fortune. Where Arthur was famous in Chrétien´s other stories
for his extravagant gifts, Perceval asks the king for the armor of the Red Knight and then must
get it himself (394).
Other examples of largesse occur throughout the narrative, as charity is the
overreaching theme of the story. Firstly, the Parable of the Sower is included as an exultation
of charity and the charitable qualities of Chrétien´s patron, Philippe of Flanders. Of the count,
Chrétien says, ―Il est plus généreux qu´on le croit, car il donne sans hypocrisie et sans calcul‖
(685-6) [―He is more generous than one realizes, for he gives without hypocrisy or deceit‖
(381)]. In fact, charity (or lack thereof) drives the plot of the story. After Perceval seeks out
aid from King Arthur and fails to receive it, he meets the gentlemanly Gornemant, who trains
him and gifts him with clothing, ultimately knighting him. It is with the skills and knowledge
that Gornemant instills in his charge that Perceval meets the Fisher King, who gives a fine
meal and a wondrous sword in a gesture of hospitality to his guest. Despite these
demonstrations of proper chivalrous behavior, Perceval takes Gornemant´s advice too literally
and fails to show charity or pity for the Fisher King, which is a disastrous failure on his part to
serve the king and thus heal the land, just as he failed to show appropriate concern for his
mother´s pain when she fainted and fell as he rode away on his quest for an exploration of
Perceval´s development as a character throughout the narrative). Baldwin points out,
―notwithstanding that Chrétien prefaces his last romance with an encomium to Count
Philippe's generosity; the ensuing story contains fewer examples of largesse than his previous
writings.‖61 This coupled with the general feeling of decline in the depiction of Arthur and his
court suggests that Chrétien was focusing his story not on earthly concerns, but rather a
presumed spiritual purpose of the writing.
1.2 The Matter of Norse-Iceland
In order to fully appreciate the cultures of France and Norse-Iceland, as they are
portrayed by the content of the two narratives, it is important to understand those historical
political and religious circumstances which made these cultures, of which the writers are a
product. Cultural realities which are taken for granted can have longstanding historical effects
which alter the degree to which some element, e.g. the influence of the Church is relevant to
60
Brigitte Cazelles, The Unholy Grail: A Social Reading of Chrétien de Troyes´s ´Conte du Graal´(Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1996), 117.
61
John W. Baldwin, Aristocratic Life in Medieval France: The Romances of Jean Renart and Gerbert De
Montreuil, 1190-1230. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), 107.
22
the analysis. Likewise, historical context can illuminate subtle differences between two
cultures which can help to understand these two examples of writing which, though
remarkably similar as one is a translation of the original work, stem from quite different
cultures.
At its heart, the early Germanic culture from which Scandinavia springs is
individualistic in nature. Frederick B. Artz notes that ―the early Germanic theory of rulership
combined a number of ideas not commonly held in classical times. One of these was the idea
of consultation between the ruler and his people – ´what touches all must be approved by
all.´‖62 Even though representative government would not be a reality in states such as Spain,
France and England for centuries, this early form was established in Iceland in 930 AD, after
the first settlers left Norway, as a General Assembly which met once each year.63 This period
established a schism between Iceland and Norway. Orri Vésteinsson notes that ―a pervasive
notion in saga literature is that many of the settlers of Iceland were Norwegian noblemen,
who for either practical or ideological reasons could not live under the tyranny of Haraldr
hárfagri (‗Finehair‘), the king who was credited by tradition with unifying Norway under his
sole rule in the late ninth century.‖64
Fight scenes are one element which is rarely omitted from the Norse-Icelandic
translation, unlike the many references to religion which have been cut. In fact, in this
particular area, the translator is more likely to add or embellish the prowess or heritage of the
knights involved in battle. Fighting terminology such as battle, rather than jousting, is the
primary mode of engaging the enemy in Parcevals saga as tournaments and jousts were
relatively unknown in Scandinavia. Rather than engaging in mock warfare, the Scandinavians
of the time used feud as a method of addressing matters of honor. Suzanne Marti asserts that,
Due to the weight that is added to the endowments of Perceval and other knights, also
the institution of chivalry appears to benefit from a favourable representation.
Moreover, the importance that the translator seems to attribute to a positive illustration
of chivalry is indicated by the faithfulness with which he renders many of the passages
I examined, not least when instructions in a knight‘s appropriate behaviour are
concerned.65
62
Artz, The Mind of the Middle Ages, 278.
Gunnar Karlsson, “Social Institutions” in A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, ed. Rory
McTurk (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 509.
64
Orri Vésteinsson, “Archaeology of Economy and Society” in A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature
and Culture, ed. Rory McTurk (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 10.
65
Suzanne Marti, “Kingship, Chivalry and Religion in the Perceval Matter: An Analysis of the Old Norse and
Middle English Translations of Le Conte du Graal” (PhD diss., University of Oslo, 2010), 160.
63
23
Through the many details lavished on scenes of violence and their participants, in
comparison to the relatively sparse attention given to religious matters, this was of particular
interest to the Norse-Icelandic audience. While the aggressive natures of the knights in search
of fame and fortune became a problem in the later medieval period in France and were
condemned by the very church officials who fostered chivalry in the first place, a love of
fighting fit in well with the culture of Norway and Iceland, where feud dynamics were still
common. This is due to the fact that Scandinavia traditionally had an honor-based society, in
which one´s value to the group was determined by his individual reputation and others´
perception of such. William Ian Miller explains the role of shame within society thusly:
Shame has its obvious role in the socialization of honorable people and in maintaining
social control. In the sagas, the norms of honor, the norms of proper behavior, in fact,
are often expressed negatively in terms of shame avoidance as they are positively in
terms of honor acquisition. And shame - as skömm´s synonyms óvirðing (literally unhonor) indicate - is conceptualized as the negation of honor. Shame is seldom, if ever,
described as a feeling. As a linguistic matter, people are not said to be shamed or to
feel ashamed or shame. Shame, rather, is something done to people, or people endure
it or suffer it, or it will come to them, or they simply have it. Skömm is also often used
to label the moral negativity of certain types of action.66
According to Miller, some examples of actions which bring about shame in Norse society are
taking back what you have been given (Njáls saga), failure to show up for a duel (mentioned
in three different sagas), for men to engage in an unfair fight of three against one, for a man to
be struck by a woman, and to have an outlaw escape your clutches and, of course, failure to
act with courage when the situation called for it.67
Though feud was perhaps historically not as bleak and bloody as portrayed in the
sagas, it was a cycle of revenge-taking which had the potential to involve the entire
community, from children and wives to the goðar who represented the people in parliament.
In order to maintain one´s honor, and thus avoid shame, one could not afford to let a slight to
one´s integrity pass. An insult demanded a response, and as such, feud was taken seriously by
both men and women in Norway and Iceland, which left its mark on both cultures through the
many sagas which feature feuds. This societal problem came to a head in the 1200s when the
number of goðar decreased and popular chieftains began an outright battle for power. The
period 1220–62, characterized by struggles between chieftains, is called the Age of the
Sturlungar, which Helgi Þorláksson notes ―is appropriate, because the Sturlungar were not
only in the lead and among the most turbulent of those involved, but also fought among
66
William Ian Miller, Humiliation: And Other Essays on Honor, Social Discomfort, and Violence (Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 1995), 119.
67
Miller, Humiliation, 119.
24
themselves.‖68 Open warfare broke out between these factions in 1235 and continued in
various forms until 1262 and an inability to slow the killing or maintain the expected giveand=take of a typical feud, took its toll on society. Of the covenant which was penned
between the people of Iceland and the king of Norway in 1262, Helgi Þorláksson comments,
―the word ‗peace‘ occurs no fewer than four times in this settlement, indicating that the
Icelanders were exhausted by prolonged war and ready for peace.‖69 Iceland was settled by
those who wished to escape the power-mongering of Norwegian lords and destroyed by that
same urge for dominance by its highest-ranking families nearly 4 centuries later.
It was the same Hákon who commissioned the translated riddarasögur that brought
Iceland back under Norwegian control with the covenant, Gamli sáttmáli, described above,
though he died before he could have more official governance over the island. Hákon himself
was born into a period of civil war in Norway, and so forming alliances and gaining territory
for the state was undoubtedly seen as the best way for him to maintain his throne and compete
with the great courts of Europe. Incidentally, the decision to import great literature such as the
popular French romances could only increase the prestige of Hákon´s hirð.
Of all the countries in Europe, the most powerful at this time were Byzantium, and the
German Empire. Anglo-Saxon England was also strongly Christian and popular as a trading
and raiding destination, but its difficulties forming a united defense against such outside
invasions prevented England alone from providing enough incentive for Norway to become a
Christian land. Sverre Bagge notes the relative power of these three nations:
All three countries were integrated in Western Christendom, apparently without
Eastern Christendom being a serious alternative. The two western centres were both
important but in different ways. The German Empire was the great power of Europe in
the tenth and 11th centuries. Depending somewhat on political conjunctures, gaining
the friendship or avoiding the enmity of its powerful ruler would make strong
incentives to adopt Christianity. In a similar way, Christianization of the neighbouring
countries formed part of imperial policy, whether it was pursued by military or
diplomatic means. By contrast, Anglo-Saxon England was a relatively weak power,
united under one king in the late ninth century, largely as a reaction against the
Scandinavian attacks on England and in the early 11th century even conquered by
Denmark. In between, it had its periods of greatness as well as decline, but was never
strong enough to pose a threat to the Scandinavian countries. Thus, fear of AngloSaxon power was unlikely to be a motive for conversion. 70
68
Helgi Þorláksson, “Historical Background: Iceland 870-1400” in A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature
and Culture, ed. Rory McTurk (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 149.
69
Helgi Þorláksson, “Historical Background: Iceland 870-1400,” 150.
70
Sverre Bagge, "Christianization and State Formation in Early Medieval Norway," Scandinavian Journal of
History 30 (2005): 113.
25
Hákon´s attempts to court those of high-rank at these other centers of power were highly
successful. According to Suzanne Marti, In addition to maintaining important trading
connections with England, ―he was well accepted by other powerful leaders. This is, amongst
others, reflected by the French king Louis IX‘s request of Hákon‘s assistance in the matter of
crusades, and by the German emperor Friedrich II‘s intervention on Norway‘s behalf against
the city council of Lübeck.‖71
Within Norway, it also made sense to push for the adoption of Christianity due to the
civil war. Hákon was based in Western Norway, while his chief rivals, the Eirikssons, likely
controlled Eastern Norway and were supported by Denmark. Sverre Bagge comments, ―It
must therefore have been essential for Hákon to have a good relationship with the mighty
ruler of Trøndelag and Northern Norway; otherwise, he would have to fight a two-front war.
Trøndelag was the centre of paganism in the country.‖72 While this might be expected to
cause a problem, it was not a religious conflict in the making. Though paganism was still a
popular religion at this time, not a rigid system of belief which precluded all others; in
Iceland, the people officially converted to Christianity in the year 1000 AD. After a series of
disputes between pagans and Christians, Bagge notes that the lawspeaker at the þing
―proposed that all should abide by the same laws, and this was accepted. He then announced
his decision, and in the new laws that he recited it was stipulated that all people should
become Christian.‖73 This was done to avoid more strife, and possibly feud, rather than being
born from religious fervor. Bagge encapsulates the situation succinctly as follows: ―It seems
pretty clear that we are dealing with a mixture of religion and politics, with conversion as a
collective more than an individual process and as a change in rituals and external behaviour
rather than in morality or intellectual conviction.‖74
Norway was considered Christian from the 10th century onward, with the appearance
of two men who embodied both political and religious concepts and were immortalized in
Icelandic sagas in a later era:
The two missionary kings, Olav Tryggvason (995–1000) and St Olav Haraldsson
(1015–1030), are described in great detail and often in the form of dramatic and
violent struggles between the old and the new religion. To the saga writers, the
missionary kings were, of course, fighting on God‘s behalf, whereas to modern
historians, their accounts lent themselves to a political interpretation: Christianization
71
Marti, “Kingship, Chivalry and Religion in the Perceval Matter,” 75.
Bagge, "Christianization and State Formation in Early Medieval Norway," 116.
73
Helgi Þorláksson, “Historical Background: Iceland 870-1400,” 145.
74
Bagge, "Christianization and State Formation in Early Medieval Norway," 112.
72
26
was a political more than a religious process, the new religion served as a power base
for the monarchy, but the ‗‗hearts‘‘ remained the same.75
In doing so, Norwegians lost some of their unique cultural values as they assimilated to
European social norms. In comparison, the isolation of Iceland in the North Atlantic would
have ensured their cultural identity was stronger for a longer period of time due to less
influence from European societies. Orri Vésteinsson characterizes the cultural identity of
Iceland as follows:
The Norse of the Viking Age clearly had a strong cultural identity which set them
apart from other Europeans, whether Christians to the south or other pagan peoples to
the north and east. The introduction of Christianity gradually reduced this
distinctiveness, replacing indigenous art styles and tastes with more universal
decorative fashions in the course of the twelfth century. The introduction of
Christianity gradually reduced this distinctiveness, replacing indigenous art styles and
tastes with more universal decorative fashions in the course of the twelfth century.
These changes signify the incorporation of Norse society into the larger sphere of
European Catholic culture. The Norse ceased to maintain a divergent identity and
instead adopted new building styles, new decorative styles and new learning.76
Although his country became more culturally homogenous, King Hákon accomplished much
of what he set out to do by elevating his kingdom to the heights of sophistication typified by
courts like those in France and Italy. Philippe d‗Alsace, it seems, desired the same thing with
his efforts to introduce literature in Flanders.
Though the Parable of the Sower, which crowns the French version of the Perceval
story, allows scholars to speculate on the relationship between Chrétien, the author, and his
patron, the noble Count of Flanders, any bibliographic information has been left out of the
Norse-Icelandic version in favor of a more typical saga opening. This has led to much
speculation as to the true purpose of the translations and the scholarly debate which maintains
that the stories were merely brought into the literary corpus for the sake of entertainment, as
Marianne Kalinke asserts in her work, or if it was part of a larger attempt to educate the
populace on styles of behavior and deference to the monarch typical in the European courts,
as Barnes believes.77 Whatever the motivation, credit for their importation goes to King
Hákon Hákonarson, a man characterized in contemporary writings by Matthew of Paris as
75
Bagge, "Christianization and State Formation in Early Medieval Norway," 108.
Orri Vésteinsson, “Archaeology of Economy and Society,” 20.
77
Bornholdt, "The Old Norse-Icelandic Transmission,” 99; Kalinke, “Arthurian Literature in Scandinavia,” 129.
76
27
―vir discretus et modestus atque bene litteratus‖78 [―a discreet, modest, and perfectly literate
man,‖79]. He was an educated man, described in Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar as having both
Latin stories and Old Norse literature read to him on his deathbed: ―Í sóttini lét hann fyrst lesa
sér látínbækur. En þá þótti honum sér mikil mæða í at hugsa þar eftir hversu þat þyodi. Lét
hann þá lesa fyrir sér norrænubækur nætr ok daga‖80 [―In the sickness he let Latin books be
read to him at first. But then he thought it great trouble to think over what that (the Latin)
meant. Then he let be read to him Norse Books, night and day‖81]. At the very least, these
small details about this figure reveal an educated man who loved a good story, lending
credence to Kalinke´s opinion that he may have wanted them translated simply for the
enjoyment of his court. The translated lai
ttu s s g contains a prologue which seems to
support this conclusion ―En þvílik sannindi sem valskan sýndi mér þá norræna<ða> ek yðr
áheyrendum til gamans ok skemtanar svá sem virðuligr Hákon kóngr, son Hákonar kóngs,
bauð fákunnugleik mínum at gera nokkurt gaman af þessu eptirfylgjanda efni‖82 [―I have
translated into Norwegian as entertainment and diversion for you, the listeners, since the
worthy King Hákon, son of Hákon, asked me, ignorant though I be, to provide some
entertainment through the following story‖83 ].
The best guess we have about the scribe who copied Parcevals saga comes from the
prologue of the Norse version of Tristram and Isolde, which states that the story was written
at the request of King Hákon in 1226, when he was approximately 22. Because of his young
age, scholars assume this was therefore the first of his translations, which included at least
four additional works.84 Brother Robert, who is named in the same prologue as the man
responsible for the writing, is almost completely unknown to scholars. Henry Goddard Leach
believed that, based on his non-Norwegian name, Brother Robert was likely an English cleric
who travelled North to join a monastery there.85 According to Claudia Bornholdt, it is
78
Henry Richards Luard, ed., “Matthæus Parisiensis, Monachi sancti Albani, Chronica Majora,” in Rerum
Britannicarum medii ævi scriptores, Volume 4 (London: Longman, 1877), 652.
79
Richard Vaughan, The Illustrated Chronicles of Matthew Paris: Observations of Thirteenth-Century Life
(Cambridge: Alan Sutton, 1993), 45.
80
Sturla Þórðarson, Hákonar saga hákonars
II: M g u
g l g bœ , Íslenzk Fornrit XXXII, ed. Sverrir
Jakonsson, Þorleifur Hauksson and Tor Ulset (Reykjavík: Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 2013), 261.
81
George Webbe Dasent, trans., Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements
and Descents of the Northmen of the British Isles, Volume 4 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012),
366.
82
Marianne E. Kalinke, trans., “Möttuls saga,” in Norse Romance Volume II: The Knights of the Round Table, ed.
Marianne E. Kalinke (Suffolk, UK: D.S. Brewer, 1990), 6.
83
Kalinke, trans., “Möttuls saga,” 7.
84
Kalinke, “Arthurian Literature in Scandinavia,” 128.
85
Henry Goddard Leach, Angevin Britain and Scandinavia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1921), 179.
28
reasonable to assume Brother Robert is the same person as Abbott Robert, mentioned in
prologue of Elis saga.
It has been suggested that the same Robert who names himself bróðir and abóti in
Tristrams saga and Elis saga (deriving from the chanson de geste Elie de St. Gille)
respectively, is also responsible for the translation of Chrétien´s Perceval. While this
is difficult to prove with certainty, there can be little doubt that the translation was
completed either by Brother Robert or by translators working after him at the
Norwegian court. The language, syntax and style of Parcevals saga and Valvens þáttr
clearly indicate the translator was a Norwegian who worked in the same environment
as the translator(s) of Tristrams saga, Möttuls saga and Ívens saga.86
Nothing is known of the men who later copied these translations in Iceland, providing the
manuscripts that we use today when discussing these works beyond a tentative dating to
before the fourteenth century.87 However, when considering the translated riddarasögur as a
group, some notable differences can be seen. Marianne Kalinke notes that Parcevals saga and
Erex saga ―differ markedly from the other translations and it is reasonable to suppose that the
texts as we know them today bear the marks of an Icelandic redactor´s creative pen.‖88
Unfortunately, it cannot be known exactly what creative changes were made by the Icelandic
scribes in comparison to the lost Norwegian versions and to what extent these reflect a purely
Icelandic culture as opposed to a more general Norse-Icelandic one.
It is not clear what training or rhetorical skill the copyists who created Parcevals saga
may have brought to the endeavor. We only know that they did their work under the
patronage of the King of Norway, who, it is commonly believed, wished to import the
chivalric values of the Continent to Scandinavia; namely, the pomp and circumstance afforded
to royal lineage through characters such as King Arthur and Érec (Norse: Erex), son of King
Lac who ascends the throne in the course of his story, Érec et Énide.
Viking Age Scandinavia was more community-based than the highly structured class
systems of Europe and less concerned with rank in general. Ideas of nobility had reached the
Iceland, specifically, by the later medieval period. This distinction is important due to the fact
that the extant saga was created in Iceland; all other manuscripts have been lost. While
Icelanders were integrated at the court of Norway and so participated in the courtly culture of
Europe, it is unclear to what degree they internalized these notions and it can be said that
these class-based social designs applied were much more uncommon in Iceland. By 1300,
86
Bornholdt, "The Old Norse-Icelandic Transmission,” 101-2.
Mitchell, "Scandinavian Literature," 470.
88
Marianne E. Kalinke, “Arthurian Literature in Scandinavia,” 130.
87
29
however, Iceland had developed aristocratic leanings in some of its citizens, which are present
in the literature. Sverre Bagge notes, ―the drama of Heimskringla is played out against a
background of political institutions, with the king on top of them. There is a difference of rank
between the king and the magnates which makes the ´game of politics´ somewhat different
from open competition between men on the same level.‖89 By packaging these ideas of
obedience and service to noble lords within these entertaining stories, Hákon had perhaps
found an effective way to suggest a society in which he was (or should be) master of all. The
existing manuscript of Parcevals saga falls within this same time period. Phillip M. Mitchell
notes that, ―we do not know precisely when the Arthurian translations made their way across
the ocean, but the transfer must have taken place before the fourteenth century.‖90
From a historical point of view, scholars such as Geraldine Barnes and Liliane
Irlenbusch-Reynard believe that the translated riddarasögur´s purpose was to illustrate ideals
of kingship that the Norwegian monarch, Hákon Hákonarsson, sought to instill in his people.
But above all the Norwegian king was greatly influenced by European political culture.
Scholars such as David Brégaint agree he ―aimed to be a monarch in the western fashion and
to resemble his German, French, and English counterparts.‖91 Scandinavian culture valued
identity (typified by lineage and reputation) and status (characterized by vast lands or riches)
in much the same way as the French, but lacked the centralized authority of the French
monarch. The example of King Arthur, the greatest of all kings whom every knight is pleased
to follow, may have been used to introduce this idea into the society. Liliane IrlenbuschReynard maintains that ―translations completed under Hákon Hákonarson‘s reign were not
chosen randomly – they form a carefully planned and highly selective programme. Some
literary works were selected, some were intentionally ignored and remained not translated;
some values were promoted and some others were not.‖92 Given this, it will be important to
examine the historical context in which the riddarasögur were translated in order to
understand what changes were made to the narrative and possible reasons for those changes.
Though some scholars cite King Hákon´s instrumental role in their transmission to
Norway and the possible political reasons for it, not all scholars choose to focus on his reign
89
Sverre Bagge, “Snorri as a Political Historian,” in Snorri Sturluson and the Roots of Nordic Literature: Papers of
I
l
f
c H l
“S . Kl
O
k ,” Oc b 14-16, 2002. Edited by Vladimir Stariradev
(Sophia: University of Sofia, 2004), 114.
90
Phillip M. Mitchell, "Scandinavian Literature," in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative
History, ed. Roger Sherman Loomis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), 470.
91
David Brégaint, “Conquering Minds: Konungs skuggsiá and the Annexation of Iceland in the Thirteenth
Century” Scandinavian Studies 84: 4 (2002), 442-3.
92
Liliane Irlenbusch-Reynard, "Translations at the Court of Hákon Hákonarson: A Well Planned and Highly
Selective Programme," Scandinavian Journal of History 36:4 (2011): 397.
30
as a flashpoint for their introduction to the North. Marianne Kalinke, for one, does not believe
they were intended to indoctrinate the masses in courtly European culture; instead, she
contends that they were merely entertainment. In her work ―King Arthur, North-byNorthwest: the Matière de Bretagne in Old Norse-Icelandic Romances,‖ she explains that like
the French originals, the translated riddarasögur were ―models as literature of fantasy and
escape intended to amuse and distract,‖ and were ―successful forms of diversion‖93 rather than
instructive materials. Claudia Bornholdt sums up the leading scholarly ideas of past decades
about transmission of these materials in her article "The Old Norse-Icelandic Transmission of
Chrétien de Troyes´s Romances: Ívens saga, Erex saga, Parcevals saga with Valvens þáttr,‖
saying, ―For decades, the critical debate concerning the translated riddarasögur … was split
between the two positions that either consider the translations as entertainment and ´primarily
escapist fiction´ or as didactic models for the Norwegian and Icelandic audiences, positions
that are most vehemently presented in the work of Marianne Kalinke and Geraldine Barnes
respectively.‖94
Regardless of the purpose of importing these literary works into Scandinavia, the
translation and adaptation of the Arthurian material in the Scandinavian realm was a daunting
task that nonetheless had far-reaching effects on literature produced thereafter, particularly
with regard to the Icelandic fornaldarsögur. As Marianne E. Kalinke states, while the
translated romances did not inspire a particularly vibrant Scandinavian Arthurian genre as it
did in Germanic cultures, their influence was still felt. The influence of the translated
riddarasögur is felt ―in both the Sagas of the Icelanders and the indigenous romances by
incorporating certain motifs and episodes from the corpus. To judge by some of the Arthurian
motifs not found in the translations, acquaintance with the matière de Bretagne in the North
also seems to have been translated through oral tradition.‖95 In fact, Torfi Tulinius maintains
that the indigenous romances and especially their later cousins, the fornaldarsögur or
legendary sagas, were born out of a time of adjusting to new societal norms brought from the
addition of Iceland to the Norwegian Commonwealth: ―While Icelanders were adjusting to
their incorporation within a monarchically-governed society for which the figure of the knight
93
Marianne E. Kalinke, “King Arthur, North-by-Northwest: the Matière de Bretagne in Old Norse-Icelandic
Romances,” in Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana XXXVII, ed. Marianne E. Kalinke (Copenhagen : C.A. Reitzels
Boghandel A/S, 1981), 45.
94
Claudia Bornholdt, "The Old Norse-Icelandic Transmission of Chrétien de Troyes´s Romances: Ívens saga, Erex
saga, Parcevals saga with Valvens þáttr” in The Arthur of the North: The Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus'
Realms, ed. Marianne E. Kalinke (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011), 98.
95
Marianne E. Kalinke , "Arthurian Echoes in Indigenous Icelandic Sagas," in The Arthur of the North: The
Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus' Realms, ed. Marianne E. Kalinke (Cardiff: University of Wales Press,
2011), 145.
31
stood as a model of aristocratic conduct, they elaborated an original body of literature.‖96
Therefore, though the Arthurian genre was not as enthusiastically embraced in Scandinavia as
elsewhere, it still had wide-ranging and meaningful effects over time.
Rather than speaking of the genre as a whole, some scholars have chosen to focus on
one or more specific elements of Arthurian lore that were changed, added to or deleted from
Norwegian versions for social and cultural reasons. One such element that did not survive in
translation is King Arthur´s Round Table, the implications of which are discussed in Hermann
Reichert´s article, "King Arthur´s Round Table: Sociological Implications of its Literary
Reception in Scandinavia." Reichert discusses the first mention of the Round Table in Wace´s
Brut, after which it spread throughout Europe together with the fame of Arthur; therefore, its
omission from the Norwegian translation must be significant, because ―even in a culture
where only a little is known about King Arthur, it could hardly be unknown that he ate at a
round table with his most trusted knights who were therefore called ´the Knights of the Round
Table.´‖97 Another such variation is described in F. Regina Psaki´s work, which looks at the
narrative from the point of view of the female characters and their role as advisers to Parceval
as he undertakes his journey to become a knight. Psaki concludes that ―the Norse translators
had the option of subtly modifying the relative weight and ethical alignment of a woman´s
discourse, and … on the whole, in the riddarasögur, the counsels of women are warmer than
in the indigenous sagas.‖98 In examining specific elements, it is perhaps easier to see cultural
differences emerge; for example, a more embracing attitude toward women´s wisdom in
Scandinavia than in France.
In attempting to separate variations in the text which were deliberately made for
cultural reasons from those which resulted from scribal error, methods of copying and
transmission in the Middle Ages must be considered. In her article ―Scribes, Editors and the
Riddarasögur,‖ Marianne Kalinke provides a detailed examination of the approximately
ninety Old Norse-Icelandic romances, known as riddarasögur, written in Norway and Iceland
during the Middle Ages. They survive in 800 or so manuscripts, mostly Icelandic and date
96
Torfi H. Tulinius, The Matter of the North: The Rise of Literary Fiction in Thirteenth-century Iceland, trans.
Randi C. Eldevik (Odense: Odense University Press, 2002), 187.
97
Hermann Reichert, "King Arthur´s Round Table: Sociological Implications of its Literary Reception in
Scandinavia," in Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature, ed. John Lindow et al. (Odense: Odense
University Press, 1986), 396.
98
F. Regina Psaki, "Women´s Counsel in the Riddarasögur: The Case of Parcevals Saga," in Cold Counsel:
Women in Old Norse Literature and Mythology : A Collection of Essays, eds. Sarah M. Anderson and Karen
Swenson (New York: Routledge, 2002), 202.
32
from the thirteenth into the twentieth century.99 In Phillip M. Mitchell´s chapter,
"Scandinavian Literature," in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative
History, the author also references the efforts made by Icelandic copyists to preserve these
works: ―Thus we are indebted to the island for preserving much medieval literature which has
disappeared from the Scandinavian peninsula.‖100 Peter Hallberg´s article, ―Is there a
´Tristram-Group´of the Riddarasögur?‖ considers several of these manuscripts for linguistic
commonalities, grouping seven texts under the label of the Tristram-Group due to ―a striking
resemblance in their vocabulary and style as a whole.‖101 On the other hand, Foster W.
Blaisdell, Jr. disputes this idea in his response "The So-Called ´Tristram-Group´ of the
Riddarasögur"102 where he questions methodological practices when the manuscripts deal
very differently with certain verbs such as kveða. Our modern perceptions of the
Scandinavian version of the narrative may be colored by not only Norwegian cultural
considerations, but the linguistic proclivities of those who wrote the existing Icelandic
manuscripts that will be used for our analysis, as well.
For this reason, both Norwegian and Icelandic cultural, social and historical
considerations will appear in the analysis of Parcevals saga. As Claudia Bornholt points out,
―Any interpretation that exclusively reads the extant saga in the context of the Norwegian
court in the thirteenth century operates on dangerous ground, since the preserved text of the
saga might in fact more closely represent the context on later Icelandic society and the literary
environment of the indigenous Icelandic sagas.‖103 Therefore, it may be more reasonable to
say that the literature and its accompanying analysis reflects a more general Norse-Icelandic
cultural attitude toward religion and shame than one specifically Norwegian.
In addition to answering questions of class divisions visible in the style and mechanics
of the two stories, the more spare, restrained style of Parcevals saga, devoid of the prologue
which displays such rich heritage from the rhetoric of Antiquity as it was passed down to
contemporary Europe also suggests a fundamental cultural difference in manners of speaking.
While in France, such intricate use of hyperbole was a demonstration of one‘s regard to the
one being addressed, and pleasing to the ears of the listeners as well, it was considered highly
complementary. Scandinavian culture, on the other hand, took the opposite view. This idea is
99
Marianne E. Kalinke, “Scribes, Editors and the Riddarasögur,” Arkiv för Nirdisk Filologi 97 (1982): 36.
Phillip M. Mitchell, "Scandinavian Literature,” 470.
101
Peter Hallberg, “Is there a ´Tristram-Group´of the Riddarasögur?” Scandinavian Studies 47:1 (1975): 1.
102
Blaisdell, Jr., Foster W. "The So-Called ´Tristram-Group´ of the Riddarasögur." Scandinavian Studies 46:2
(1974): 134-139.
103
Bornholdt, "The Old Norse-Icelandic Transmission,” 106-7.
100
33
explained in the prologue of Heimskringla, where Snorri Sturluson tell us that ―En þat er
háttir skálda at lofa þann mest ér þá eru þeir fyrir en engi myndi þat þora at segja sjálfum
honum þau verk hans, er allir þeir er heyrði, vissi, að hégómi væri ok skr k, ok svá sjálfur
hann. Þat væri þá háð en eigi lof‖104 [―it is [to be sure] the habit of poets to give the highest
praise to those princes in whose presence they are; but no one would have dared to tell them
to their faces about deeds which all who listened, as well as the prince himself, knew were
only falsehoods and fabrications. That would have been mockery, still not praise‖105] Snorri
here voices the idea that, if one is too careless with words of praise, one strays too far in the
direction of a lie, which mocks the object of praise rather than emphasizing his greatness. In
Iceland, insults such as this could lead to outright feuding if it is taken seriously enough.
Therefore, what is desirable in one culture is considerably restrained in another, as is clearly
reflected in both romance and saga.
104
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla I. Íslenzk Fornrit XXVI, ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnson (Reykjavík: Íslenzka
Fornritafélag, 1941), 5.
105
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway, trans. Lee M. Hollander (Austin: University of
Texas Press, 2010), xix-xx.
34
2. ANALYSIS OF LE CONTE DU GRAAL (PERCEVAL)
Chrétien´s text underwent a marvelous transformation at the hands of those who attempted to
finish the tale as well as those who translated it. Joseph Duggan concludes his comparison of
Chrétien´s heroes in The Romances of Chrétien De Troyes by asserting that even within
Chrétien´s personal corpus, Perceval is unique, perhaps reflecting an evolution in the author´s
skill as a writer: ―Perceval is the only one of Chrétien´s heroes whose conduct is explained
through sin, and this difference is all the more striking when one considers that not even
Lancelot´s adultery is ever referred to as sinful.‖106 For some reason, Chrétien´s final work
seems special even in comparison to his other works, focusing more on spiritual matters and
concepts of sin as defined by the Christian faith. This shift, and the possible socio-cultural
reasons for it, provides the material which will be used to illustrate the relationship between
sin and shame in the French culture of the Middle Ages.
Perceval is the lens through which the reader or listener will identify with the events of
the story and as such, his viewpoint and interactions with other characters define the narrative.
In this analysis, we shall pay homage to the skill of Chrétien de Troyes in writing a vivid
character so lifelike in his motivations and actions as a part of the Arthurian setting while also
bearing in mind that it is a narrative intended to entertain and illustrate the value of charity,
chivalry and dutiful service to one´s king and God, because these were the values which
underpinned the society of France at the time of its writing.
2.1 The Psychology of Perceval in Le Conte du Graal (Perceval)
The character of Perceval in Chrétien de Troyes´ Le Conte du Graal (Perceval) is a
particularly compelling portrait of the path to self-actualization and the formation of the self
within the constraints of medieval chivalric culture. This reading will provide an analysis of
these key aspects of the story in relation to Feud´s four stages of psychosexual development
and Lacan´s theory of the mirror stage to show the development of the character over the
course of the plot. Of particular importance for this thesis will be the range of developmental
stages through which Perceval ascends on his way to becoming a fully realized, independent
adult and the personal, spiritual and social implications of each one, which play a large role in
his emotional reactions to the commission of great sin which forms the central conflict of the
story. Based on work submitted to Torfi H. Tulinius for the Fall 2014 class Chrétien de
Troyes and the Chivalric Romance in Medieval Culture at Háskoli Íslands.
The Mirror Stage
106
Joseph J. Duggan,
c
f
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), 122.
35
The first step in Perceval´s personal development is to experience the mirror stage, a theory
developed by Jacques Lacan which, in his work, is precipitated by a child´s first look in a
mirror, and the accompanying realization that he or she is a distinct being apart from his or
her mother. Without this important psychological event, the individual will remain cut off
from this understanding of him or herself as an individual. Jacques Lacan describes this event
thusly:
It suffices to understand the mirror stage in this context as an identification, in the full
sense analysis gives to the term: namely, the transformation that takes place in the
subject when he assumes an image – an image that is seemingly predestined to have an
effect at this phase, as witnessed by the … ‗imago´.107
The imago, Lacan clarifies, establishes ―a relationship between an organism and its reality.‖108
Slavoj Žižek interprets this idea to mean that individuality therefore ―arrives only at the
moment of the mirror stage, and the formation of the ego.‖109 Using Žižek´s definition, it can
be inferred that at the start of the romance, Perceval´s identity is tied to his mother´s; he does
not have one of his own. He is nameless at his first appearance in the romance, identified only
as ―le fils de la Veuve qui avait pour domaine la Gaste Forêt‖ (687) [―the son of the Widow
Lady of the Waste Forest‖ (382)].110 In fact, Perceval is not named until approximately 2/3 of
the way through the story, which instead uses epithets such as ―jeune homme‖ [―the boy‖] to
refer to the main character.
The story begins with the boy´s defining moment, his first step toward individual
motivation in his personal and spiritual life, when he sees a group of knights travelling
through the forest. Centuries before the work of Lacan and the theory of the mirror stage,
Chrétien unwittingly uses language which suggests mirrors and reflective surfaces in his
description of the knights. He is amazed at the sight of ―les hauberts étincelants et des
heaumes clairs et luisants, et des lances et les écus qu´il návait encore jamais vus, avec des
couleurs vertes et vermeilles brillant sous le soleil, et l´or, et l´azur et l´argent‖ (688)
[―glittering hauberks and their bright, shining helmets … green and vermilion glistening in the
107
Jacques Lacan, Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English, trans. Bruce Fink (New York:
W.W. Norton & Co., 2006), 76.
108
Lacan, Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English, 78.
109
Slavoj Žižek, Lacan: The Silent Partners (London: Verso, 2006), 387.
110
For this analysis, all French quotations come from the Chrétien de Troyes Œevres Complètes, edited by
Daniel Poirion, which is based on MS Bibliothèque Nationale f. fr. 794, called the Guiot manuscript after the
scribe who copied it in the mid-1200s and a slightly later version, P8 (MS Bibliothèque Nationale f. fr. 1450). All
English quotations come from Carleton W. Carroll and William Kibler´s translation “The Story of the Grail
(Perceval)” in Chrétien de Troyes Arthurian Romances, which is also based primarily on the Guiot manuscript.
Quotations will be followed by page numbers corresponding to these editions. In some cases, the English
translation deviates sharply from the French text, and for those few instances I have substituted my own
translation.
36
sunshine, and the gold, the blue and the silver,‖ (382)]. In this moment, Perceval witnesses the
image which allows him to define his own relationship with reality. He realizes that his
viewpoint of the world is limited, and there are things, such as the knight, which he does not
know or understand. He realizes that, unlike his mother, he would like to leave the forest and
become a knight. This moment precipitates the spiritual and social education Perceval will go
on to receive.
The narrative almost immediately illustrates how ill-equipped Perceval is to face his
newfound reality. He disassociates himself with his mother by ignoring her teachings to make
the sign of the cross in the presence of devils, but the scene shows that he lacks the experience
to know how to properly interact with others on his own. He first hears the knights as they
pass through the forest, their armor clinking and rattling as they ride. Thinking they are devils,
Perceval says, ―Elle disait cela pour m´enseigner que l´on doit, quand on les rencontre, faire le
signe de croix. Pourtant je dédaignerai cet enseignement…‖ (688) [―She instructed me to
make the sign of the cross to ward them off, but I scorn her teaching...‖ (382)]. This sets the
tone in the rest of the narrative, where Perceval spends much time not listening to others, or
listening but not understanding what he has been told. Ann McCullough asserts that
Perceval´s early behavior shows that ―not only is he socially inept, but he is also unable to
learn.‖111 After Perceval poses a series of rapid-fire questions about his arms and armor, the
leading knight comments that ―Il ne connaît pas tous les usages … que Dieu m´assiste‖ (691)
[―He doesn´t know his manners, so help me God‖ (384)].
His rudeness continues in the following scene with his mother and we are not told if
this is new behavior resulting from his newfound sense of separateness, in which he asserts
his own will over that of his mother for the first time, or if this is Perceval´s usual childish
treatment of his mother. She expresses no emotion to suggest that it is unusual; instead, she is
portrayed as clingy and overprotective in the extreme. When Perceval comes home, his
mother runs to him, saying, ―Beau fils, l´angoisse étreignait mon coeur parce que vous étiez
en retard. La douleur m´accablait au point que j´ai failli mourir‖ (694) [―Fair son, my heart
was most distressed because of your delay. I´ve been overwhelmed with grief and almost died
of it. Where have you been for so long today?‖ (385-6)]. Perceval was not delayed for hours
in his meeting with the knights, and so it is possible to see his mother´s flawed
characterization: though she loves her son very much, she is smothering in her attentions. It
thus becomes reasonable, even desirable, that Perceval should separate from her.
111
Ann McCullough, "Criminal Naivety: Blind Resistance and the Pain of Knowing in Chrétien De Troyes’s
Conte Du Graal” Modern Language Review 101 (2006): 48.
37
Perceval´s behavior toward his mother implies that he, too, desires to part from her
overbearing presence. He asserts his dominance by silencing her even as she agrees with him
about the beauty of angels. ―Taisez-vous, mere! N´ai je pas vu aujourd´hui les plus belles
creatures du monde, allant à travers la Gaste For êt‖ (695)[―´Hush, mother! Have I not just
seen the most beautiful things there are, going through the Waste Forest?´‖ (386)]. Hearing
his plan to become a knight, Perceval´s mother attempts to rectify the situation, explaining for
the first time how Perceval´s father and older brothers died, all of injury incurred in service to
their respective lords. Perceval´s father was gravely wounded, but died of grief for his
departed sons. Following these tragedies, Perceval became his mother´s only source of
happiness, and to protect her son from sharing this sad fate, she kept all knowledge of
knighthood and his noble lineage from him (386-7). Perceval´s mother concludes the sad tale
of her husband´s death with the words, ―Quant à moi, jái dû mener une vie plein d´amertume
depuis sa mort. Vous étiez le seul réconfort que j´avais, la seule richesse; j´avais perdu tous
les miens‖ (697) [―I have suffered a very bitter life since he died. You were all the consolation
that I had and all the comfort, for all my loved ones were departed‖ (387)].
True to form, Perceval does not listen to this implication of what may happen if he
leaves his mother, saying, ‖Donnez-moi un manger … Je ne sais de quoi vous parlez, mais …
j´irais quoi qu´il en coûte à d´autres!‖ (697) [―Give me something to eat … I don´t understand
your words, but … I will go, no matter what‖ (387). This could indicate his readiness to pass
into the next stage of development, known as the oral stage, and is the first of several
references to the mouth and eating. The foreshadowing of his mother´s speech is realized
when Perceval leaves her and sees that ―sa mere était tombée à l´entrée du pont, de l´autre
côté, et qu´elle restait éntendue, évanouie, comme si elle était tombée morte‖ (700-1) [―his
mother had fallen at the head of the bridge and was lying in a faint as if she had dropped
dead‖ (389)]. The diction of this scene seems to underscore Perceval´s level of selfishness;
anyone would be moved to check on someone who appears to drop dead in front of them, let
alone one´s mother; Perceval still does not know his manners. In fact, Perceval‘s total lack of
concern for the deaths of his father and brothers, and his disregard of his mother‘s loving
attempt to protect him from a similar end, can also been seen as consequences of his mother´s
overprotective parenting. Keith Busby characterizes the mother aptly: ―The desire to stifle the
feelings and inclinations of her son is at best misguided, and at worse, selfish and lacking in
charity.‖112 Ann McCullough supports this conclusion, laying the blame for Perceval´s initial
112
Keith Busby, Chrétien de Troyes Perceval (Le Conte du Graal): Critical Guides to French Texts, 19.
38
ignorance squarely at his mother´s feet: ―Perceval‘s complete lack of social skills is a result of
the strange education his mother gave him. She has instructed him on the values central to the
Christian tradition, but at the same time has kept him in complete ignorance of all chivalric
tradition.‖113 His ill treatment of his parent sets him up for failure as he moves past the mirror
stage to Freud´s oral stage.
The Oral Stage
The oral stage is a phase of sexual development in which desire is centered on the oral
cavity, causing a preoccupation with the lips and mouth. A child experiences this phase early
in life, but as we have seen, Perceval is developmentally delayed and will have only
experienced the first part of oral fixation, not the latter. Freud explains,
The first object of the oral component of the sexual impulse is the mother´s breast,
which satisfies the hunger of the infant. By the act of sucking, the erotic component
which is also satisfied by the sucking becoming independent, it gives up the foreign
object and replaces it by some part of its own body. ... Further development, to express
it most briefly, has two goals - first, to give up auto-eroticism, and, again, to substitute
for the object of one´s own body a foreign object; second, to unify the different objects
into a single impulse, replace them by a single object. To be sure, that can happen only
if this single object is itself complete, a body similar to one´s own.114
Perceval´s mother confirms that he was breastfed in her description of his family´s flight from
the kingdom of Uther Pendragon: ―Vous étiez encore tout petit … Vous étiez alors encore un
nourrisson‖ (696) [―You were tiny, still being nursed,‖ (386)]. The natural progression of
psychosexual development begins with one´s mother and ends with the selection of a new
love-object over time. His mother began the process, but left her son unprepared and illequipped to interact with others. Perceval locates another female almost immediately, finding
a young lady alone in her tent while her handmaids have gone out to pick flowers. Perceval
kisses the woman against her will, mistaking his mother´s advice that ―cette un grande faveur
qu´un baiser de jeune fille‖ (699) [―he who kisses a maiden gains much‖ (388)) for an
imperative to do so, missing the detail that the lady must ―accorde‖ (699)[―grant‖ (388)] her
kiss to a suitor. He adds insult to injury by taking the lady´s ring and eating the lord´s lunch.
With both kissing and eating, the scene is replete with oral imagery.
Perceval´s adventure begins with blunders aplenty and disastrous consequences for
those around him, which will culminate at the Grail Castle later in the story. Leonardo
113
Ann McCullough, "Criminal Naivety: Blind Resistance and the Pain of Knowing in Chrétien De Troyes’s
Conte Du Graal” Modern Language Review 101 (2006): 48.
114
Sigmund Freud, A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis. Translated by G. Stanley Hall (New York, Horace
Liveright, Inc., 1920), 142.
39
Olschki comments, ―it is here that the pure fool, without guile or experience, appears as the
victim not only of his mother´s well-intentioned advice, which he has not understood, but also
of a blind fatality that drives him towards adventure and sin.‖115 Because Perceval is too
foolish and untrained to understand the gravity of what he has done, he continues on his way
without concern. His blissful ignorance and proclivity for unwitting sin would surely endear
him to the audience and would make his eventual redemption all the more satisfying, if
Chrétien had been able to deliver it.
Achieving his primary goal, Perceval journeys to King Arthur´s court, but is
unimpressed by what he finds there. The king is ―pensif et il ne fait pas entendre un seul mot,‖
(708) [―pensive and he does not hear a single word,‖116] too preoccupied with thoughts of a
knight who has insulted him to pay much attention to the boy. Perceval continues to
embarrass himself, knocking the cap off the king´s head and rudely demanding to be made a
knight. Arthur, generous despite his anxieties, chides Keu for speaking sarcastically to the
boy, saying, ―Ce jeune homme a beau être un peu sot et simplet, il n´empêche qu´il peut être
de tres bonne famille. Et si la faute en revient à son education, pour voir eu un mauvais
maître, il peut encore acquérir mérite et sagesse‖ (710)[―Though the boy is naïve, still he may
be of very noble line; and if his folly has come from poor teaching, because he had a low-bred
master, he can still prove brave and wise‖ (393). In Arthur, we have a model of charity and
chivalry, despite his distraction and shabby treatment by impolite guests. Perceval resolves to
get the Red Knight´s armor himself, killing the experienced warrior with a single blow. He
does not have experience with armor, though, and struggles to remove his enemy´s helmet
and sword.
Thus, we have our next example of oral imagery in the French romance. While
struggling with the dead knight´s clothing, he says,‖Je pensais que votre roi m´avait donné ces
armes, mais il faudra que je mette le mort en morceaux comme pour faire des brochettes avant
d´emmener aucune de ses armes‖ (713) [―I think I´ll have to carve up this dead knight into
scraps before I can obtain any of his armor‖ (395)] creating feasting imagery in the parallel
between his fallen enemy and a meat to be carved from the bone before eating. The implied
meal is carried out in two feasts in the story, one with Gornemant of Gohort, and the fateful
dinner at the Grail Castle, in which Perceval concentrates on enjoying the food rather than
displaying proper courtesy to his host.
115
Leonardo Olschki , The Grail Castle and Its Mysteries, trans. J.A. Scott, ed. Eugène Vinaver, (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1966), 7.
116
Translation mine.
40
Gornemant is a character of great significance to Perceval´s journey of identity and
self-actualization. Perceval has no father figure, as his father died when he was only two years
old, and Gornemant fills this role in their brief time together, teaching Perceval how to use his
weapons properly. Perceval is grateful and happy to learn from Gornemant, enjoying
demonstrations of skill by the talented knight: ―Le jeune homme eut beaucoup de plaisir et de
satisfaction à voir tous ces exercises‖ (721) [―The young man was delighted and satisfied to
see all these exercises‖117]. Perceval, like many boys who admire a male role model, wants to
be just like Gornemant, saying ―il ne souhaitait pas vivre un jour de plus ni posséder un terre
ni quoi que soit pourvu qu´il sût aussi faire cela‖ (721) [―he would not care to live another
day, nor possess lands and riches, until he had mastered this ability as well.‖ (399)].
Gornemant uses his influence to encourage Perceval to behave more properly by accepting the
advice of someone other than his mother, urging him to ―suiviez les conseils de votre mère en
me faisant confiance‖ (720) [―believe both your mother´s advice and mine‖ (399)]. With this
prasing, Gornemant positions his advice as equal in value to Perceval´s mother, as a coparent. However, the next morning he knights the young boy, cautioning Perceval to disregard
his mother´s advice and cast off his last tangible link to life in the Waste Forest, imploring
him to leave the crude Welsh clothing his mother fashioned for his journey. As Rupert
Pickens points out, here ―Perceval puts away childish things and begins to accept manhood in
chivalry.‖118 Gornemant continues his teachings, cautioning Perceval that if he continues to
proclaim his mother´s advice, people will take him for a fool. Perceval happily agrees to‖ne
citera jamais plus personne de sa vie, sinon lui‖ (727) [―never again as long as he lived refer
to the words of any other master than the vavasour himself‖ (402)]. In doing so, Perceval
takes a great step toward the world of men: No longer under a sole female influence, Perceval
has learned much about how to act and look like a knight in his time away from his mother.
Like a courteous knight, he decides to immediately return home to see how his mother fares,
when before he was not concerned at all.
Now more prepared to interact with others than ever, Perceval continues on his way to
the castle of Biaurepaire, where he experiences another manifestation of the oral stage. At
last, Perceval has an object for his affections in the form of the lovely Blancheflor. He is at
first paralyzed by indecision, remembering his mentor´s words not to talk too much, for ―Qui
parle trop tombe dans la péché‖ (726) [―he who talks too much commits a sin‖ (402)], but
when the lady comes to his room at night, weeping for her castle under siege, Perceval knows
117
118
Translation mine.
Pickens, “Le Conte du Graal: Chrétien´s Unfinished Last Romance,” 181.
41
what to do. He is courteous enough to give her a comforting embrace. It is unclear whether or
not the two make love, as Chrétien uses only kissing imagery to describe their time together:
―Et il lui donnait des braisers en la tenant serrée dans ses bras … et elle se laisse embrasser.
Elle connut cette nuit-là toute la douceur de dormir bouche contre bouche‖ (736) [―And he
kissed her and held her tightly in his arms … and she let him kiss her … He brought her so
much comfort that they slept with lips pressed to lips‖ (407)]. Perceval finally understands
what it means to help a damsel so clearly in distress, and how to navigate the matter of kissing
a lady, unlike the earlier debacle with the lady in the tent. The next morning, Perceval defeats
the knight who harrows the castle, continuing on his way home after sending the enemy to
Arthur´s court. Having correctly performed the oral stage and elected a new love-object in the
form of Blancheflor, Perceval continues to develop as an individual and moves on to the next
stage of development.
The Anal Stage
According to Freud, those who become preoccupied with the anal stage of
development share certain characteristics.
During our studies of the pregenital phases of the libido we have also gained a few
fresh insights into the formation of character. We noticed a triad of character-traits
which are found together with fair regularity: orderliness, parsimoniousness and
obstinancy; and we inferred from the analysis of people exhibiting these traits that they
have arisen from their anal erotism becoming absorbed and employed in a different
way.119
Roberta R. Greed clarifies these ideas further in her description of the anal stage:
The locus of erotic stimulation shifts to the anus, and personality issues center around
eliminatory behavior, the retention and expulsion of feces. Again, the manner of
resolution of the stage becomes the prototype or pattern for adult behaviors. Freud´s
idea that anal erotism can appear, though sublimation, as an adult character trait (e.g.
strict toilet training leads to compulsive traits such as stinginess and tidiness, popularly
called "anal retentiveness") is well known.120
We see this in the story of Perceval, as he certainly becomes anal retentive in his adherence to
Gornemant´s advice, ―holding in‖ the words he should say. Upon meeting the injured Grail
King, he is invited to share a fine meal. As it is set out, Perceval witnesses the puzzling Grail
procession, which includes a lance which bleeds and a Grail which is illuminated like the sun.
Perceval is curious but says nothing as the objects are carried in front of him more than once;
119
Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis: The Standard Edition, trans. James Strachey
(New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1965), 127.
120
Roberta R. Greene, ed. Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice, 3rd ed. (New Brunswick:
Transaction Publishers, 2010), 70.
42
―Le jeune homme les vit passer sans oser demander à qu´il on destinait le service du graal, car
toujours Il gardait en mémoire les paroles de son noble et sage maître‖ (765-6) [―The young
knight watched them pass by but did not dare ask who was served from the grail, for in his
heart, he always held the wise gentleman´s advice‖ (421)]. Perceval continues to make the
mistake of relying too heavily upon one person´s advice; in the beginning, he listened too
often to his mother, and now he listens too much to Gornemant.121 There is a difference
between his adherence to his mother´s words and his silence in the company of the Fisher
King; where Perceval is blissfully ignorant in his treatment of others before his instruction by
Gornemant, he now wants to ask the question, but ―il craignait, en posant cette question, de se
conduire grossièrement‖ (765) [―he was afraid that if asked, they would consider him
uncouth‖ (420)]. Perceval has an inkling, then, that he should ask, but keeps silent out of fear.
His behavior can therefore not be attributed to ignorance, but a deliberate choice, and this
knowledge can lead to emotional trauma when it is revealed. Freud notes that neurosis is ―the
result of conflict between the ego and the id,‖122 and so Perceval´s attempts to develop his
own identity are clear, though his mistake causes internal strife.
The Grail procession itself may offer other meaningful symbolism. The Grail and the
bleeding lance, have sexual representations which may provide a different interpretation of
Perceval´s inability to display proper behavior. Jessie L. Weston examines the possibility that
the Grail and the Bleeding Lance are symbolic of a pagan fertility ritual. ―Lance and Cup (or
Vase) were in truth connected together in a symbolic relation long ages before the institution
of Christianity, or the birth of Celtic tradition. They are sex symbols of immemorial antiquity
and world-wide diffusion, the Lance, or Spear, representing the Male, the Cup, or Vase, the
Female, reproductive energy.‖123 As fertility symbols, they have the power to reinvigorate the
kingdom if the ritual is completed, in this case, by asking the proper questions about their
purpose. Perceval, however, is mentally and emotionally unequipped to face the deep sexual
connotations of this scene, as he has not yet acquired an individual identity nor completed
sexual development.
Latency Period
After Perceval´s romantic interlude with Blancheflor, he enters a period of latency,
which Freud defines as ―a period of inactivity in regards to sexual development; dams against
121
Pickens, Rupert. “Le Conte du Graal: Chrétien´s Unfinished Last Romance” in A Companion to Chrétien de
Troyes (Rochester, NY: D.S. Brewer, 2005), 181.
122
Sigmund Freud, The Question of Lay Analysis: The Standard Edition, trans. James Strachey (New York: W.W.
Norton & Company, 1978), 27.
123
Jessie L. Weston, From Ritual to Romance (London: Cambridge University Press, 1920), 71.
43
sexual instinct emerge during the latency period," or a time of ―organic repression.‖124 As I
will show, the remaining plot will prevent any further sexual development for the young
knight. So far, Perceval has realized his status as an individual during the mirror stage, in
which he developed a longing for something other than life with his mother: to become a
knight. Though initially boorish and harmful in his interactions with others, he found a mentor
in Gornemant and a new love-object in Blancheflor. However, Freud tells us that in order to
become individuals, boys must "overpower their father"125 as well as separating from their
mothers. Though Perceval has done the latter, he still clings too closely to Gornemant and his
teachings. Ann McCullough notes the paramount importance of this father figure is reflected
in Perceval´s very name: ―In response to the demand of a fatherly figure, Perceval provides a
name within which the very name of the father, père, is inscribed: Père-ceval.‖126 Perhaps this
is why Perceval struggles so with imposing his own judgement when needed over that of
Gornemant.
Shuli Barzilai articulates the psychological importance of a father or other male role
model: ―Identification with the father brings about the formation ´called the ego ideal´ and
produces sublimation; on the other, aggression directed against the father strengthens the
preexisting agency ´called the superego´ and also deepens repression.‖127 This definition can
explain Perceval´s relationship with Gornemant and its inherent problems; Indeed, we have
seen that Perceval has sublimated, or matured, replacing his socially unacceptable behavior
with more desirable actions. He has sacrificed his own desires to serve others, such as when
he delayed his journey home to help Blancheflor and when he vowed to restore the reputation
of the maiden Keu slapped. Both King Arthur and Gornemant have expressed their approval
in words and in making Perceval a knight, respectively; it seems that he is doing well in his
development as an adult and a knight. Freud believed sublimation, or maturation, to be the
key to civilization: ―it is what makes it possible for higher psychical activities, scientific,
artistic or ideological, to play such an important part in civilized life.‖128 Perceval´s new
development is highlighted by his willingness to save the lady in the tent from her lover´s
abuse when he meets up with them again on the road to Arthur´s court. In doing so, Perceval
demonstrates his desire to correct his earlier wrongs. However, Perceval is not given an
124
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents: The Standard Edition, trans. James Strachey (New York:
W.W. Norton & Company, 1961), 5.
125
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, 55.
126
McCullough, "Criminal Naivety: Blind Resistance and the Pain of Knowing,” 59.
127
Shuli Barzilai, Lacan and the Matter of Origins (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1999), 40.
128
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, 74.
44
opportunity to rebel against his father figure, as Gornemant does not appear again in the story,
and so this transition is incomplete; as Freud describes it, ―In order to be individuals, sons
must ´overpower their father.´"129 Without this opportunity to separate from his mother and
Gornemant, Perceval repeats the advice of others without ever considering why he should do
so and so he lacks a critical understanding of the ethics and morals of the society in which he
lives.
After Perceval has failed to ask the all-important questions at dinner with the Fisher
King, he awakens to find himself alone. Setting off again, he meets a woman weeping over
the body of her beloved. After so long, Perceval is able to introduce himself, as the romance
says, ―Et lui, qui ne connaissait pas son nom, le devina comme par enchantement et dit qu´il
s´appelait Parceval le Gallois, sans être sûr de dire la verité, mais il dit vrai, sans le savior‖
(773-4) [―And the youth, who did not know his name, guessed and said he was called
Perceval the Welshman. But although he did not know if that were his name or not, he spoke
the truth without knowing it‖ (425)]. The hesitation with which Perceval names himself
suggests an incompleteness or uncertainty about his identity. Acquiring a name has put
Perceval closer to a complete, adult identity, as he has now achieved Freud´s Einziger Zug,
called the trait unaire by Lacan, in which a combination of letters such as a name, imbue the
thing with meaning; the name is the thing. Lacan says, ―Letters make collections; letters are,
and do not designate, these collections; they are to be treated as functioning like the
collections themselves.‖130 Shuli Barzilai describes this concept in more detail:
Lacan thus redefines primary identification as a linguistic operation of exclusion or
negation. For what does it mean, for instance, to call a cat a cat? It is not ´/k/ is /k/´but
´/k/ is not /m/´ that endows the fabled cat-on-the-mat with an existence. The unitary
trait (also translated as the ‗single stroke‘) of the subjects primary identification marks
the place of nothing, an absence, a lack, and becomes accessible only retroactively,
après coup, through secondary identifications.131
In other words, Perceval has now defined himself by establishing himself and his relation to
others with language: a name. In choosing a name, Perceval declares what he is, and what he
is not. Perceval is Perceval, thus all other persons are not Perceval, by definition. Readers will
have another experience with naming at the end of the story. At that point, Perceval has
confessed his sin to the priest and is no longer burdened with shame; now, he no longer
attaches negative emotions or uncertainty to who he is: ―´Ah! Bel ami, dis-moi quel est ton
129
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, 55.
Jacques Lacan, "De la psychanalyse dans ses rapports avec la realité," in Scilicet 1 (Paris, Seuil, 1968), 58.
131
Barzilai, Lacan and the Matter of Origins, 140.
130
45
nom.´Perceval, seigneur,´ répondit-il‖ (842)[―‘Ah, dear friend,‘ said the good man, ‗now tell
me your name.‘ And he answered: ‗Perceval, sir‘‖ (459)].
Perceval´s psychological journey continues as he returns Arthur´s court. He is hailed
by the king and queen for his many successes in combat and welcomed by all. The next
morning, he experiences what appears to be psychological trauma. Perceval witnesses an
injured goose fall to snow, leaving three blood drops there, which he becomes enraptured
with.
Perceval ne vit que la trace de la neige foulée là ou l´oie s´etait abbatue, et le sang qui
était encore apparent. Il s´appuya sur sa lance pour contempler cette image, car le sang
et la neige formaient une composition qui ressemblait pour lui aux fraîches couleurs
qu´avait le visage de son amie; et il s´absorba dans cette pensée. Il comparait le
vermeil sur le fond blanc de son visage avec des gouttes de sang qui apparaissaient sur
la neige. Toute à cette contemplation il s´imaginait, dans son ravissement, voir les
fraîches courleurs du visage de sa belle amie. Perceval passa tout le début de la
matinée à rêver sur les gouttes de sang… (789)
[When Perceval saw the disturbed snow where the goose had lain, with the blood still
visible, he leaned upon his lance to gaze at this sight for the blood mingled with the
snow resembled the blush of his lady´s face. He became lost in contemplation: the red
tone of his lady´s cheeks in her white face were like the three drops of blood against
the whiteness of the snow. As he gazed upon this sight, it pleased him so much that he
felt as if he were seeing the fresh colour of his fair lady´s face. Perceval mused upon
the drops throughout the hours of dawn …‖ (432-3)]
The fact that Perceval stares for hours suggests he has developed a fixation, which Freud says
is possible when ―one instinct or instinctual component fails to accompany the rest along the
anticipated normal path of development, and, in consequence of this inhibition in its
development, it is left behind at a more infantile stage.‖132 This could be due to his personal
struggle to disassociate his own desires from those of Gornemant, or it could be an internal
sign of his shame upon committing a great sin, which the Weeping Maiden in the forest has
just informed him of, or some combination thereof. Perhaps Perceval, who has just received a
hero´s welcome from the court, feels shame because he knows he has sinned and is thus
undeserving of their praise. The knowledge may have manifested in this fixation and resulting
neurosis. His choice of envisioning Blacheflor is perhaps symbolic; she is described in terms
of her purity and beauty as one of God´s creations, which may at this point contrast with
Perceval´s impurity. The romance says, ―Dieu avait fait d´elle une telle marveille; et depuis il
n´en a pas fait de pareille, non plus qu´il n´en avait fait aupravant‖ (730) [―God had made her
132
Sigmund Freud, General Psychological Theory: Papers on Metapsychology (New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc.,
1991), 20.
46
an unsurpassed marvel to dazzle men´s hearts and minds; never since has He made her equal,
nor had He ever before‖ (404)]. Alternately, the blood could also recall the wounds of the
Christ, the Fisher King or even Perceval´s father, who like the Fisher King was wounded
through the thighs. Medieval connotations of blood could also apply to this scene: Peggy
McCracken asserts ―two kinds of blood are intimately associated with the grail: The blood of
the wounded Christ who appears in the grail, and the blood of the wounded man who is
charged with keeping the grail.‖133 Perceval could also be interpreted as having a religious
experience. David M. Wulff defines this as ―diverse practices that heighten bodily movement
and sensory stimulation rather than reducing them … the culmination is frequently a state of
non-hallucinatory trance, if not also physical collapse.‖134 In any case, Perceval is a man
marked by inner turmoil at this point in the story.
Following a scene in which Gawain escorts Perceval back to court, breaking his
obsessive contemplation of the blood drops, the Hideous Damsel arrives and makes
Perceval´s failure public knowledge. She announces to the court:
C´est toi le malchance, toi qui ayant rencontré l´occasion et lieu de parler es reste
silencieux! Malchance que d´avoir été alors aussi sot! Malchance que d´être resté
silencieux, alors que sit u avais pose une question, le riche roi qui es si mal en point
aurait été guéri de sa blessure et gouvernerait en paix cette terre dont il ne sera jamais
plus le maître. (800)
[And you are that wretched man, for you saw it was the time and place to speak, yet
you kept your silence! You had plenty of time to ask! Cursed be the hour you kept
silent since, if you had asked, the rich king who is suffering so would already be
healed of his wound and would be ruling in peace over the land he shall now never
again command. (438)]
This forces Perceval to fully confront the sin he has committed. Rupert Pickens notes that, as
a consequence, ―his sense of guilt for keeping silent at the Grail Castle, apparently served by
the Hideous Damsel´s words, has driven him to a form of insanity.‖135 The fact that he was
already aware of his sin due to his earlier meeting with the Weeping Maiden suggests that the
Hideous Damsel and her ugly appearance might instead be a manifestation of Perceval´s
emotional state rather than a character intended to advance the plot; the audience, as well as
Perceval, already knows the enormity of his mistake. In fact, the The Hideous Damsel uses
133
Peggy McCracken, The Curse of Eve, the Wound of the Hero: Blood, Gender, and Medieval Literature
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 92.
134
David M. Wulff, Psychology of Religion: Classic and Contemporary, 2nd ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1997), 69.
135
Pickens, “Le Conte du Graal: Chrétien´s Unfinished Last Romance,” 180.
47
the same words as Weeping Maiden when she calls him ―malchance‖ (800) [―wretched‖
(438)]. In addition, Pickens notes, ―her version of the Grail question is the same as his and,
more significantly, she shares the narrator´s insights into Perceval´s motivation in maintaining
silence, which contradicts the Weeping Maiden´s notion of sin.‖136 The Hideous Damsel
places blame for Perceval´s woes on his inability to ask the charitable questions, while the
Weeping Maiden states that his transgression at the Grail Castle was caused by his initial sin
against his mother.
Perceval responds by vowing to wander the land performing knightly acts ―au sujet du
graal à qui l´on en fait le service, et jusqu´à ce qu´il ait trouvé la lance qui saigne, et entendu
la veritable explication du sang dont elle saigne‖ (802) [―until he had learned who was served
from the grail and had found the bleeding lance and been told the true reason why it bled‖
(439)]. Because of this vow, Perceval is led away from civilization and the society which
allowed him to learn and grow as an individual. As a result, he loses everything he knows
about himself: ―Perceval, raconte l´histoire, a si bien perdu la mémoire qu´il ne souvient pas
de Dieu. … C´est ainsi qu´il usa son temps pendant cinq ans, sans jamais se souvenir de Dieu‖
(839) [―Perceval, the story relates, had lost his memory so totally that he no longer
remembered God … So he passed five years without ever thinking of God‖ (457)]. Ann
McCullough notes that the severity of his self-punishment ―repeats and amplifies his initial
error, his wandering away from the mother and her religious teaching. Perceval is thus
punished for his error by being condemned to err, to wander, always further away. And it is at
this point, when he has forgotten everything including himself, that, paradoxically enough, he
might finally know his original crime.‖137
Perceval is accepted back into society, and back into his identity as Perceval the good
knight, when he meets a group of pilgrims on Good Friday and is inspired to speak to a holy
man. Freud notes the importance of voicing one´s troubles, saying, ―speaking is itself the
adequate reflex, when, for instance, it is a lamentation or giving utterance to a tormenting
secret, e.g. a confession.‖138 Perceval finds comfort in his time with the hermit, who restores
his knowledge of his mother by revealing that she commended him to God and prevented
further harm form befalling her son before her death. Also, Perceval takes the first step toward
spiritual forgiveness by taking Communion and is brought into line with religious practices of
136
Pickens, “Le Conte du Graal: Chrétien´s Unfinished Last Romance,” 180.
Ann McCullough, "Criminal Naivety: Blind Resistance and the Pain of Knowing”: 61.
138
Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud, Studies on Hysteria, trans. James Strachey (London: Basic Books, 1957), 8.
137
48
the day: though his lack of father figure was responsible for many of his blunders as a
developing psyche, he now has a heavenly Father who will provide further guidance.
Communion is an important Christian ritual which invites adherents to drink wine and
eat bread in place of Jesus´s blood and body, thereby renewing one´s commitment to the faith.
The King James version of the Holy Bible describes the process:
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and
so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would
judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened
of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. (Corinthians 11:27-32)
Perceval´s part in the story concludes with the detail that ―Le jour de Pacqûes, il reçut la
communion en toute humilité‖ (845) [―on Easter Sunday Perceval very worthily received
communion‖ (461)]. With this act, Perceval is seemingly put on the path to a new identity: a
worthy Christian serving God rather than his own selfish interests. This ending suggests that
Chrétien had something more spiritual in mind for Perceval than earthly concerns of acquiring
wealth and marrying a noblewoman. June Hall McCash writes, ―Perceval (and his later
permutations) in search of the Grail captures the essence of the spiritual quest, greater than
self and the material world, which Chrétien´s death left for later continuators to interpret.‖139
These later continuators transformed Perceval from a man in search of identity to one
of a being guided by the ethics of divinity: a figure of moral purity who serves the spiritual
order. Perceval would become a symbol of chastity in medieval works, joining other figures
like Christ, St. John and Galahad.140 In the Continuations of Le Conte du Graal (Perceval),
written after Chrétien de Troyes had abandoned the tale, the spiritual elements of the story are
heightened; for example, the bleeding lance is revealed to be the one used to pierce Christ´s
side at the Crucifixion (496). In these added chapters, Perceval manages to achieve both
spiritual and earthly rewards. After many more adventures, Perceval returns to the castle of
Biaurepaire, where he is reunited with Blancheflor, and ―they renew their love for three days‖
(498) before Perceval must continue his quest. Perceval´s quest continues through
Menassier´s Third Continuation, where spiritual matters again take the fore; here, the Grail is
finally revealed to be the cup used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch Christ´s blood after it was
pierced by the lance. In the course of his quest to find out whom the Grail serves, Perceval
139
McCash, "Chrétien´s Patrons," 25.
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, "Chaste Bodies: Frames and Experiences," in Framing Medieval Bodies, ed. Sarah
Kay. (Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 1994), 24.
140
49
also battles the Devil himself and is victorious. The Fisher King is eventually healed and
Perceval is revealed to be his nephew. Having thus combined all aspects of his earthly psyche
(spiritual, mental and physical), Perceval now achieves the penultimate position of chivalry
and medieval society: taking the throne of the Fisher King. As soon as the land is restored,
Perceval retires to his hermitage where he is ―sustained only by the Grail,‖ (498) symbolizing
his departure from human concerns as he becomes a holy figure. After Perceval´s death, the
Grail, lance and trencher from the Grail procession accompany his soul to heaven and are
removed from the earthly plane (498). Obviously, there is no way to know if Chrétien himself
would have made a Christian figurehead of Perceval, but it seems clear that the cultural and
social environs of early thirteenth century France lent itself to such a representation, as all the
authors of the Continuations chose to highlight the religious element over Perceval´s
psychological journey to construct an identity as a true knight in a chivalrous society, as
Chrétien seemed to be doing.
Though Perceval at first seems a buffoon compared to Chrétien´s other heroes such as
Lancelot and Gawain, it can be said that he achieves far more. While Lancelot and Gawain,
along with others of noble blood, are gifted with spectacular abilities through their training
and family names, Perceval was obliged to prove himself as a knight and a person. First, he
achieved the mirror stage when he decided to pursue the goal of becoming a knight against his
mother´s wishes. Then, he is able to learn and grow socially and spiritually through his
meetings with King Arthur, Gornemant and Blancheflor. Unfortunately, his journey through
the psychosexual stages of adulthood is arrested in the latency stage due to his inability to
understand when to display charity and when to maintain silence. Through the events of the
story, Perceval learns to display contrition, charity and purity as a knight and these events
define him as a knight. After a period of emotional trauma and self-imposed exile, Perceval
begins his journey to identity anew, as a knight of God.
2.2 Portrayal of Other Important Figures in Le Conte du Graal (Perceval)
In a cross-cultural analysis of emotion, it is important to not only consider Perceval‘s
emotional health but the reactions of those around him. For this analysis, I have narrowed my
attentions to the women of the story. This was done deliberately because women are
particularly influential in Perceval‘s development and the story has a large number of active
female characters rather than the damsels in distress one expects to find in romance (though
some of these characters fulfill that function as well). Investigation of these secondary
characters will not only inform what is known about Perceval, but clarify our understanding
of women´s roles and the ruling elite in these two cultures.
50
As we have discussed, Perceval´s mother in Le Conte du Graal set a terrible
precedent as a mother, depriving her son of any knowledge of his noble birthright and actively
trying to keep him from it when he decided independently to seek it out. The women of
Chrétien´s corpus are, generally speaking, weak and viewed as property by the men of the
story, which the Norwegian and Icelandic translators often chose to change.
Whereas Chrétien de Troyes depicts a giant in Yvain who has already killed some and
threatens to kill more of a maiden´s brothers unless he obtains her as a whore for his
stableboys (vv. 3860-69), the giant of the saga has become more civilized, at least in
one respect: he threatens to kill the maiden´s four remaining brothers unless he
receives her in marriage (chs. 10-11). Nowhere are the differences in attitude toward
marriage and women more pronounced than in Erex saga, which must be considered
an Icelander´s thorough reworking of the original translation, be that Norwegian or
Icelandic. Unlike Énide´s father in the French romance, who unilaterally decides what
is to happen to his daughter, the father in the saga will not give a response to Erex´
proposal of marriage until he has consulted Evida, as she is called in Icelandic.
Similarly, in the Count of Limors episode, the Icelandic counterpart does not force
Evida to undergo the marriage ceremony because his court has informed him that it
would be contrary to God´s law if she has not consented. Changes in both Ívens saga
and Erex saga seem to reflect the work of copyists/redactors concerned with proper or
acceptable behavior in accordance with Scandinavian customs and religious as well as
legal codes.141
Conversely, by acknowledging these changes made to the texts as far as the idea of obtaining
consent before marriage and abstaining from sexual violence, it is suggested that in France,
consent was less of interest to the audience of the romance and thus left out of the tale. The
extent to which female consent was a part of culture is a notable issue, but cannot be
determined by the contents of the two narratives alone and lies outside the scope of this
research. It is possible to locate examples of contemporary thinking about women in a
Church-dominated society, such as in the writings of Bouchard of Worms, a bishop who
wrote a collection of didactic texts known as the Decretum between 1007 and 1012.142
The manuscript was copied, and versions modified to fit local conditions found their
way into all the episcopal libraries, where they remained in use until the middle of the
twelfth century. Bourchard's Decretum was then superseded with Gratian's. But
meanwhile the bishop of Worm's collection was immensely successful in the empire,
Germany, Italy and Lotharingia, whence it reached northern France. There it was in
common use.143
141
Marianne E. Kalinke, “Arthurian Literature in Scandinavia,” 139-140.
Georges Duby, The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France,
trans. Barbara Bray (New York: Pantheon Books, 1983), 59.
143
Duby, The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest, 61.
142
51
According to Bourchard, women were portrayed with typical weakness and susceptibility to
sin, as was common in the teachings of the Church in the Middle Ages. ―The Decretum insists
above all on the need to take account of female perfidy. A wife is naturally deceitful and
should be kept, even as a matter of justice, under the strict control of her husband.‖144 This
perhaps explains why most women in Chrétien´s portrayal of the characters are weak and
ineffectual, like his widowed mother, lost without her husband´s guidance, or completely
subject to the whims of one´s husband or lover, as the maiden in the tent. As I have noted,
Perceval comes upon the maiden in the tent alone and, mistaking her beautiful quarters for a
Church, decides to enter, as his mother instructed him to do. Perceval steals a kiss without
permission, takes the lady´s ring from her finger and eats the lord´s lunch which he finds
nearby, ignoring the woman´s protests. When her lover returns, he immediately condemns her
actions, silencing her protests that it was against her will with the words, ―Dites plutôt que
cela vous convenait et que vous y avez trouvé du plaisir‖ (705) [―No, you liked it and were
pleased by it!‖ (391)]. Later, when Perceval meets the pair again, the lady having suffered
physical abuse for her nonexistent crimes, Orguellus, the Haughty Knight, elaborates further:
―Une femme qui abandonne sa bouche accorde facilement le surplus, si on insiste pour
l´avoir; et elle a beau ce defendre , on sait bien sans l´ombre d´un doute qu´on femme toujours
vaincre sauf ... car elle veut qu´on la prenne de force‖ (781) [―A woman who lets herself be
kissed easily gives the rest if someone insists upon it; and even if she resists, it´s a wellknown fact that a woman wants to win every battle but this one‖ (428)]. D.H. Green notes the
significance of the scene in his description:
But we have witnessed the previous encounter between Perceval and the damsel and
are privy to a possibility unknown to Orguellus and not even considered by him. We
know in fact that the naive, inexperienced lad had done no more than clumsily kiss her
(and take her ring), that his physical appetite had extended no further than some meat
pies he found in the tent, and that in all this she had resisted strongly and genuinely, if
in vain.145
Chrétien seems to have personally disagreed with some gender and social norms in Christian
France and often chose to portray relations between men and women this way in his story;
though women may be harshly criticized by men for their actions, the story reveals they are
often innocent of wrongdoing, making the men appear foolish and ignorant. Michel Zink
notes his unusual portrayal of characters,
144
Duby, The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest, 65.
D.H. Green, Women and Marriage in German Medieval Romance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2009), 83.
145
52
Chrétien stands out much for his unique tone, style, and type of narration as for the
new orientation he gave to romance. The predominant component in his tone is humor,
manifesting itself in the distance he puts – not constantly, but lightly, from time to
time – between himself and his characters and the situations in which he places them.
By means of an aside or a remark, he underlines the contradictions or the mechanical
aspect of a behavior or situation, shows what is unexpected or too expected about
them, lucidly exposes a character´s blindness. 146
One character notably different from the other women in the story is Blancheflor.
Though young and unmarried, as a noble woman, she defends her own castle with the help of
her men-at-arms for a long, arduous period; the soldiers are described as men who ―connu tant
d´épreuves en jeûnes et en veilles que l´effet en était étonnant‖ [―experienced many trials in
fasts and vigils that the effect was amazing‖147]. As the lady of the castle, she courteously
takes Perceval in for the night, despite the hardships she and her people have endured under
siege from Anguingueron. She has been in charge of her men, apparently alone, for ―tout en
hiver et un été‖ (735) [―an entire winter and summer‖ (406)]. Later, she manipulates Perceval
into defending her keep in exchange for her love, but this deceitful use of feminine wiles is
not condemned by the author, as we see the Haughty Knight do with the lady in the tent (407).
In fact, she is praised with the words ―Sa ruse est habile car elle lui a mis dans la tête ce
qu´elle lui interdit si vivement‖ (738) [―she acted cleverly, by discouraging him from doing
the very thing that she had planted in his heart to do‖ (407)]. Leadership appears to have been
acceptable for noble women in times of necessity, when there were no males available to
properly defend a keep. Historically, Flanders, the demesne of Chrétien´s patron Philippe, was
known for placing women in important roles, and attitudes toward noble female leadership
must have been similar in other parts of France and beyond. Karen S. Nicholas notes,
The countesses of Flanders played important political roles in the history of the
country from the time of Carolingian origins. They brought their husbands not only
the prestige of their natal families but often even experience in ruling, as several came
to Flanders as widows of other princes. Because of deaths at war and on crusade,
Flanders passed through the female line nearly as often as through the male line, and
three countesses ruled by hereditary right.148
In general, the culture of France appears to be repressive of women as was typical in the
medieval period due to prevailing religious views that women were a different species than
146
Michel Zink, Medieval French Literature: An Introduction, 56.
Translation mine.
148
Karen S. Nicholas, “Countesses as Rulers in Flanders” in Women in Medieval France, ed. Theodore Evergates
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 111.
147
53
men, ―frivolity personified, fickle,‖149 who must always be watched for signs of sin. Chrétien
appears to have enjoyed turning this idea on its head by having his most misogynistic
characters be proven wrong by the events of the story.150 Though Chrétien may have been
sympathetic to his female characters, the culture of France was heavily mired in religious
belief, and its laws and beliefs were guided more often by bishops and lawmen such as
Bourchard of Worms.
2.3 Portrayal of Religion in Le Conte du Graal (Perceval)
The first mention of religion within the romance is made by Perceval‘s mother, who
told him ―l´on doit croire en Dieu et l´adorer, le supplier et l´honorer‖ (689) [―one must
believe in God and adore, worship and honour him‖ (383)]. Later, she embellishes his scanty
religious education by vaguely explaining the purpose of church and the story of Christ‘s
death (388). This seems odd in a story which so venerates God, but the advice may have
served another purpose. According to Joseph J. Duggan,
Chrétien may, however, have wished to portray Perceval´s mother as assenting to
heretical tenets, perhaps in the manner of a sect like the Passagini of Northern Italy,
who followed both Jewish and Christian practices but did not believe in Christ´s
divinity. If one accepts this second alternative, Perceval would progress from
ignorance of Christianity , through a state of belief in articles of heretical faith, to
orthodox Christian belief attained when he hears about the essential mysteries of faith
from the pilgrims whom he meets on Good Friday. Unfortunately, the text provides us
with no more than evidence for surmise.151
Beyond his mother‘s poor teachings, the most famous religious item within the
narrative is of course the Holy Grail (French: Graal). More focus is given to that object than
any other representation of religion in the story. Perceval´s failure to ask whom it serves is the
source of his great shame; asking this question about the Grail would have restored the Fisher
King and his land. As we have noted, this story contains fewer mentions of charity than any of
Chrétien´s other works. Mentions of religious customs such as not carrying weapons on Good
Friday, daily prayer and the importance of attending church are made, but other common acts
of medieval Christian charity are absent. For example, John W. Baldwin notes that ―Perceval
acquires the habit of attending mass each morning before setting off on a new venture, [but]
he is never depicted as making offerings.‖152
149
Georges Duby, The Knight, the Lady, and the Priest, 65.
Green, Women and Marriage in German Medieval Romance, 234.
151
Joseph J. Duggan,
c
f
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), 120.
152
Baldwin, Aristocratic Life in Medieval France, 105.
150
54
Instead, great detail and importance is bestowed upon on the Grail and the procession
which introduces it to Perceval and to the readers. But what is this Grail? What purpose did it
serve for Chrétien and his contemporaries, e.g. the audience for his story? By examining just a
few of the possibilities suggested by scholars over the centuries since its first appearance in
the literature, we may make a guess as to what Chrétien´s religious message for the people of
France might have been. There are dozens of scholarly theories as to what the Grail represents
and its origins in French, Welsh or Anglo-Saxon lore, among other possibilities; therefore,
this exploration shall be limited to four representative theories which were contemporary to
Chrétien´s writing and therefore more likely to have influenced the writing than other, more
far-flung ideas. In all four theories, the Grail is representative of ritual behavior.
Several theories posit that the Grail is representative of the pagan past, absorbed into
the Arthurian material though folkloric motifs and themes common to many cultures
worldwide. We have already mentioned Jessie L. Weston´s belief that the Grail and the
Bleeding Lance are symbolic of a pagan fertility ritual. As support, Weston references the
cultural practices of the Shilluk, an African tribe who also believe that the health and wellbeing of the land is inextricably tied to that of the land, just as the Fisher King is to his
kingdom; in fact, to protect the crops and livestock, this tribe ritually kills its ruler when signs
of old age and feebleness appear (55-6). Pagan practices within Europe also support this
theory; for example, the Fisher King´s castle is located near water, specifically a lake which
he uses to fish to take his mind off the pain of his injuries. Weston notes that water is known
throughout the world in pagan practices for its life-giving and restorative powers, either by
drenching with, drinking or throwing an offering into it, one can enact all manner of
sympathetic magic.153 Since this theory was introduced by Weston in 1920, scholars such as
Norris J. Lacy have noted that the author´s ―immense and detailed knowledge of the text and
her recognition that the final version of the legend owed as much, if not more, to Christianity
as to the pagan past, has been overlaid by the powerful images that she unleashed.‖154
Moving from origins of cultural osmosis, we can now consider a more concrete source
for the Grail legend. Joseph Ward Goering´s book, The Virgin and the Grail: Origins of a
Legend, notes that ―the object and the image that would become the Holy Grail in the hands
of Chrétien de Troyes and his successors originated in the high Pyrenees, in the late eleventh
153
154
Weston, From Ritual to Romance, 48.
Norris J. Lacy, ed., A History of Arthurian Scholarship (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2006), 30.
55
or early twelfth century, as an otherwise unattested attribute of the Virgin Mary.‖155 Goering
maintains that this mysterious image, first found in a church in the Pyrenees in the south of
France, depicts ―the Virgin, at the head of the college of Apostles, holding a radiant dish or
platter - a "gradal" in the local dialect - in her covered hand. … Eight other churches in the
region display similar paintings of the Virgin and a sacred vessel or grail, all of them painted
or sculpted in the years before Chrétien composed his famous story.‖156 The author believes
that a famous bishop, St. Raymund of Roda, may have travelled in 1123 to consecrate one of
these churches and seen the fresco of the Virgin Mary and the enigmatic gradal.157 From
there, the bishop´s ties through marriage to the French court may have carried the story of the
radiant vessel to Chrétien, who was so inspired by the narrative possibilities that he included
it as a mysterious supernatural relic. It is likely, therefore, that no one actually knew the
function of the item depicted in the artwork, and so it was easy for the Grail, as it became
known, to capture the imaginations of all who heard the story.
The final two theories of the Grail include elements of historical and religious strife
contemporary to the Court of Flanders in the twelfth century.
Eugene Weinraub, in Chrétien's Jewish Grail,158 argued that there were close parallels
with the seder feast at the Passover, in which symbolic objects were brought in, and
the youngest person present asks questions about them, which lead to the recounting
of the Passover story. There is a possible analogy with the girl who bears the Grail, in
that in modern Jewish usage the first question is prompted by the removal of the seder
plate before the meal by a girl of marriageable age; and the candelabra are familiar
images from Jewish ritual.159
Some have suggested that Chrétien himself was Jewish, raising the question of whether or not
we are viewing the narrative through the lens of Judaism rather than Christianity. This
conclusion is further compounded by the fact that in a fourteenth-century compilation of
Ovid's Philomena, part of which is called the Ovide moralisé, which Chrétien names as one of
his works in the prologue to Cligés. According to research from Joseph J. Duggan, the author
is identified as "Chestiiens li Gois." This appellation was later interpreted by Oliver Collet to
mean "Chrétien the Jew," perhaps influenced by the fact that Troyes, where he is thought to
be from, housed a flourishing Jewish community in Chrétien's time. However, other scholars
155
Joseph Ward Goering, The Virgin and the Grail: Origins of a Legend (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
Press, 2005), xi.
156
Goering, The Virgin and the Grail: Origins of a Legend, xi.
157
Goering, The Virgin and the Grail: Origins of a Legend, 157.
158
Eugene J. Weinraub, Chretien's Jewish Grail: A New Investigation of the Imagery and Significance of Chretien
de Troyes's Grail Episode Based upon Medieval Hebraic Sources (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina
Press, 1976), 50-6.
159
Lacy, A History of Arthurian Scholarship, 31.
56
such as Harry F. Williams have refuted this idea due to the fact that no interpretation of
―Gois‖ or goy as either ―Jew‖ or ―Gentile,‖ meaning a convert to Christianity from Judaism,
existed in Old French. The generally accepted translation of this phrase is "Chrétien de
Gouaix," referring to a town near Provins in Brie where Chrétien may have been born or
originated before his association with Troyes, which, if not his place of birth, was the site of
one of Marie de Champagne´s castles during her patronage of Chrétien.160 Norris J. Lacy is
skeptical of the idea that Chrétien or, by extension, Perceval was a Jewish hero, noting ―The
logic of the importation of Jewish imagery into a romance where the Grail is called 'such a
holy thing' with evident Christian connotations - it contains a single host - remains
inexplicable.‖161 In fact, the story corroborates the anti-Semitism of the day when Perceval
approaches a group of pilgrims who are walking on Good Friday to make penance for their
sins. They tell him casually, ―Les Juifs rendus cruels par leur jalousie – on devrait les abattre
comme des chiens – firent leur proper Malheur, et notre Bonheur, quand ils Le mirent en
croix. Ils se sont perdus et ils nous ont sauvés‖ (840) [―The wicked Jews, who we should kill
like dogs, brought harm to themselves and did us great good when in their malice they raised
Him on the Cross: they damned themselves and saved us‖ (458)]. It seems unlikely, given the
vehemence of this statement, that Chrétien was making a case for religious equality,
especially in light of what Paul E. Szarmach describes as ―anti-Semitic tonalities‖162 present
in Chrétien´s other works.
A final, more radical idea comes from Leonardo Olschki, who believes that features
such as the secular setting and unconsecrated host of the Grail procession is meant to criticize
the religious rituals of the Jewish community, in accord with ―the religious policy of Philippe
of Flanders, [which was]aimed at the extermination of all Jews and heretics.‖163 For Olschki,
the Grail was significant and undeniably Christian.
The episode of the Grail shows us that he wished to bring into play, discreetly and yet
with sufficient emphasis, the religious aberrations that menaced the orthodoxy of
courtly society, not only in his own country but in the whole of contemporary
Christian Europe. … The total Christianization of his 'Graal' did not begin until after
his death. It was the work of men who wished to erase every suspicion of heterodox or
heretical elements.164
160
Duggan,
c
f
, 9.
Lacy, A History of Arthurian Scholarship, 31.
162
Paul E. Szarmach, ed., Aspects of Jewish Culture in the Middle Ages: An Overview and Synthesis (Albany, NY:
State University of New York, 1979), xix.
163
Olschki, The Grail Castle and Its Mysteries, 62.
164
Olschki, The Grail Castle and Its Mysteries, 45.
161
57
Like the previous theory of Jewish influence, Lacy is not convinced, citing the positive
portrayal of the Grail and its procession within the story: ―Even discounting the dangers of
interpreting Chrétien in light of the way in which is story was developed, it is clear that the
Grail ceremony is a test that leads to Perceval's spiritual awakening, and to make of it
something he must later reject is to strain the meaning of the text beyond credible limits.‖165
While Chrétien was a fine storyteller with an appreciation for human interaction and higher
emotion which shines through his work, it is not clear whether or not he intended to engage in
social commentary of any kind regarding the persecution of Jews in twelfth century France.
These theories provide cultural and historical evidence for the inclusion of the Grail in
Le Conte du Graal (Perceval), an entirely new element in an otherwise typical chivalric
romance. Though some are viewed with skepticism by scholars today, it should be noted that
all four explanations for the origins of the Grail and its accompanying relic, the Bleeding
Lance, suggest a cultural blending of elements from the shared pagan past to those inspired by
elements French culture, from the artwork of a few small churches in the Pyrenees in the
south to the Jewish communities of northern France. Though these other belief systems, such
as Judaism, were considered heretical at the time, they undoubtedly had an impact on culture
and religious ritual. Though Chrétien was probably not Jewish himself nor writing
deliberately about the Jewish faith, he may have heard of certain elements of their worship via
the community of Troyes and found inspiration for his mysterious Grail procession therein.
165
Lacy, A History of Arthurian Scholarship, 31.
58
3. ANALYSIS OF PARCEVALS SAGA
To begin, Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia provides valuable general
information on the saga and its source material, concluding that ―Parcevals saga focuses on
the educative aspect of the story, with detailed and sometimes amplified attention paid to
those episodes where the hero receives instruction in chivalric theory and practice.‖166Another
work by Barnes, ―Parcevals saga: Riddara Skuggsjá?,‖ highlights this very notion, arguing
that the story is not a tale of religious failing and (possibly, due to its unfinished state)
redemption, as the French version is, but a prince´s mirror: ―What we get in the Old Norse
version of Perceval is a laudatory account of the education of a hero who passes all tests with
flying colors, not one who remains almost as ignorant at the end of the work as he does at the
beginning or who proceeds from blunders through follies to spiritual crises.‖167
In the article ―The Parcevals Saga and Li Contes del Graal,‖ Henry Kratz notes the
lack of scholarly interest, saying that the only detailed examination of the relationship of saga
and þáttr to their source before his work is in articles by Eugen Kölbing dating from the 19th
century.168 Kratz went on to conclude that, in total, the translation of Le Conte du Graal
(Perceval) to Norwegian is approximately 2/5 as long as the French original, which ―may
reflect the impatience of the courtly audience in Norway with tedious detail.‖169 Cultural
influences with regard to reception of chivalry and other late medieval social norms are also
discussed in Carolyne Larrington´s ―A Viking in Shining Armour? Vikings and Chivalry in
the Fornaldarsögur.‖ One example of such is that ―The identities, behavior and status of
knight and of Viking hero are largely divorced from economic and political considerations –
how much land they hold of how much silver they possess. Identity and status are established
in the first instance through lineage and then maintained by their word-of- mouth reputation in
battle, almost always known by those whom they encounter.‖170 In other words, the
chivalrous and sophisticated society of France was not so different from the rougher
Scandinavia in many ways.
Suzanne Marti´s dissertation ―Kingship, Chivalry and Religion in the Perceval Matter:
An Analysis of the Old Norse and Middle English Translations of Le Conte du Graal‖ studies
portrayals of selected elements within the narrative to conclude ―Parcevals saga was
166
Phillip Pulsiano and Kirsten Wolf, eds., Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland, 1993),
497.
167
Geraldine Barnes, “Parcevals saga: Riddara Skuggsjá?,” Arkiv för Nirdisk Filologi 99:1 (1984): 61.
168
Henry Kratz, “The Parcevals Saga and Li Contes del Graal,” Scandinavian Studies 49:1 (2009): 13.
169
Kratz, “The Parcevals Saga and Li Contes del Graal,” 45.
170
Carolyne Larrington, “A Viking in Shining Armour? Vikings and Chivalry in the Fornaldarsögur,”Viking and
Medieval Scandinavia 4 (2008): 278.
59
composed with an aim of introducing chivalric ideals and popularizing a feudal organization
of court,‖171 siding with Barnes. However, in her work "Translation or Adaptation?:
Parcevals Saga as a Result of Cultural Transformation," Marti maintains that, no matter
which of these two hypotheses are the correct, ―an examination of Parcevals saga in relation
to its Old French model reveals that the translation was by no means made as haphazardly as
has sometimes been suggested. In addition to remaining faithful to the source text, the
translator displays a systematic attempt to render the material in such a way as to make it
accessible and acceptable to his audience.‖172 Careful examination of how and to what extent
this material was made accessible allows us to understand how different the approach to these
concepts of chivalry, charity and religious trials in French and Norse-Icelandic societies may
have been.
The Parceval of Parcevals saga is a very different individual from his French
counterpart. Though the overall portrayal of Parceval is remarkably similar to the original
French material, small differences can be noted throughout the narrative. Major changes
include the lack of the famous prologue and significant departure from the source material
during the climactic scene between the knight and the priest who grants him partial salvation
from his great sin.
3.1 The Psychology of Parceval in Parcevals saga
In examining Parcevals saga for emotional and religious content, it is important to note that it
is an adaptation and hence relies on the original. Therefore, our investigation must rely upon
variations from the French text and the possible motivations for those amendments. The
examples discussed here are not intended to be an exhaustive list, but rather a representative
sample meant to show the difference in Parceval´s psychology as compared to his French
counterpart. In general, the Norse Parceval is a much more educated and courtly individual
throughout the story than Perceval, based on several changes made to the text.
The Mirror Stage
As we have stated, Parceval´s development cannot begin until he has experienced the
mirror stage; however, there is every reason to believe that the Norse Parceval has already
experienced it. The saga begins: ―Hér byrjar upp sögu ins prúða Parcevals riddara, er enn var
einn af Artús köppum. Svá byrjar þessa sögu at karl bjó ok átti sér kerlingu. Þau áttu son at
einberni er hét Parceval.‖ (108) [Here begins the story of the proud knight Parceval, who was
171
Marti, “Kingship, Chivalry and Religion in the Perceval Matter,” 224.
Suzanne Marti, "Translation or Adaptation?: Parcevals Saga as a Result of Cultural Transformation,"
Arthuriana 22:1 (2012): 49.
172
60
another of Arthur´s champions. The story begins like this: there lived a man and he had a
wife. They had a son, an only child, who was called Parceval‖ (109)].173 Already, the Norse
Parceval is on much more solid mental ground. His name is given immediately, unlike the
long search for identity that encompassed two-thirds of the French narrative.
Moreover, Parceval‘s father was an impressive man ―var bóndi at nafnbót, en riddari
at tign‖(108) [―who was known as a farmer, but in rank was a knight‖ (109)]. More detail is
given of the Norse Parceval´s parents: "Hann hafði verit allra kappa mestr. Hann hafði tekit
kóngsdóttur at herfangi ok settiz síðan í <ó>bygð þvíat hann þorði eigi millum annara manna
at vera"(109) [―He had been the greatest of all warriors. He had taken captive in war a king‘s
daughter, and had later settled down in the wilderness because he could not risk being among
other people‖ (109)]. This stands in contrast to what we know of the French Perceval‘s
family, who were forced into exile amid political strife following the death of Uther
Pendragon. Parceval‘s parents were very well respected and wealthy, but chose life away
from society when their ―eyddiz þá ok okkarr kostr‖ (110) [―resources were exhausted‖]
(111).
Gone, too, are the childish responses Perceval makes in conversation with his mother.
Rather than the impetuous rudeness of his French counterpart, Parceval responds to his
mother‘s statement that he is ―ofveykr verðr þú í vápnaskipti‖ (110) [―too feeble for combat‖
(111)] with a logical and practical point: ―Móðir,‖ sagði hann, ―engi er með slíku borinn, ok
nám kennir fleira en náttúra. Mikit kennir ok venja, ok dirfiz maðr af manni‖ (110) [―Mother,
no one is born with such abilities and nurture teaches more than nature. Practice too teaches
much, and one man grows bold from another‘s example.‖ (111)] In the French version,
Perceval is sorely lacking a male role model until he meets Gornemant, but Parceval has
already had the instruction of his own father, counted "var æ talin með inum beztum riddurum
er í þessu landi váru" [―among the best knights in this land,‖ (111) ] who taught him ―skot ok
skylmingar‖ [―archery and swordplay‖ (109)] and, presumably, how to ―gaflökum at skjóta
svá at þrjú váru á lopti senn‖ (108) [―throw javelins so that three were in the air at once‖
(109)]. When Parceval´s father is taken into account, his effect on his son´s psyche can only
be substantial in comparison to the French Perceval, whose father died before he was born
and all information about whom was kept from him by his fearful mother. Indeed, the
173
All quoted material herein comes from the translation “Parcevals saga with Valvurs þáttr,” by Helen
Maclean, edited by Marianne E. Kalinke. This version is based primarily on the manuscript Stockholm Perg. 6
4to (ca. 1400, Royal Library, Stockholm) with some material taken from NkS 1794b 4to (ca. 1350, Royal Library,
Copenhagen) to replace a missing leaf between 45v and 46r. Quotations will be followed by page numbers
corresponding to this edition.
61
implication in the Norwegian story is that Parceval father has died relatively recently, as
Parceval is 12 years old and ―sem faðir hans var andaðr, þá hefði Parceval þat til siðar, at
hann reið á skóg með fola sinn ok gaflök ok skaut dýr ok fuga‖ (108) [―after this father´s
death, he was in the habit of riding into the woods on his pony with his javelins and killing
animals and birds‖ (109).] Parceval is still hunting as a way of expressing his grief, which
would indicate that his father´s death is not so far in the past that he does remember him and
mourn his loss. Freud was clear on the importance of one´s father in the early years of one´s
development: ―I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father´s
protection.‖174 Hank Hillenaar and Walter Schönau elaborate this idea, noting ―Freud
described the positive and loving feelings toward the father during the pre-Oedipal years in
boys as well as in girls; he also linked the need to be protected … to the relationship with the
´Oedipal´ father … contributing to the development of conscience and ideals in the son.‖175
According to Abelin, the father´s earliest role is to provide an ´early triangulation´ for the
child when it is around eighteen months. In this way, the child becomes aware of a set of
relations, involving himself, his mother, and another person (e.g. his father). The father as the
third party of this triad helps the son transition from mirroring by providing an early example
of something Other than mother and child, which the child can use to understand the outside
world of which he will become a part.176 Hillenaar and Schönau conclude ―this internalized
representation is … related to characteristics attributed to the father, and [will affect] the selfimage, feelings and behavior of a person … orientating the subjects interactions with other
people later in life.‖177
Taken together, these events could indicate that self-actualization has already occurred
in Parceval before the beginning of the story, judging by the more practical upbringing he
seems to have received from both parents. He seems comparatively more mature in his
responses to others. Though the scene with the knights in the woods remains significant,
rather than being the moment of Parceval´s mirror stage, it could instead be evidence of the
latency period, placing the Norse Parceval further along in his psychosexual development
than Perceval.
174
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, 11.
Hank Hillenaar and Walter Schönau, eds., Fathers and Mothers in Literature (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1994),
176.
176
Hillenaar and Schönau, Fathers and Mothers in Literature, 176; Michael J. Diamond, “Fathers with Sons:
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on ´Good Enough´ Fathering Throughout the Life Cycle,” Gender and
Psychoanalysis 3 (1998): 261.
177
Hillenaar and Schönau, Fathers and Mothers in Literature, 176.
175
62
Perhaps, in viewing the magnificently attired knights, it awakens a desire in him to
join their ranks and be counted as a noble and good knight of the court, as his father once was.
Freud supports the idea that a child would be moved to do so, saying, ―These new object
choices, however, are still under the influence of the early choices, so that there remain
similarities between the desired objects chosen after puberty and the child´s earliest object
choices, the parents.‖178 In other words, the father traditionally has tremendous psychological
impact upon his children and the memory of his departed father´s accolades may have
motivated Parceval to leave home and seek out a new life as a knight, seeking renown in the
manner of his patriarch. In the latency stage, the child has already separated from his mother,
the first love-object of his life, and formed a healthy bond with his same-sex parent, as we
have seen that Parceval was able to do before the death of his father. David S. Nevid notes
"the latency stage is so named because of the belief that sexual impulses remain latent
(dormant) during this time - a time when the child´s psychological energies are focused on
other pursuits such as ... making friendships and acquiring skills."179 Because there is no
obvious sexual component to Parceval´s desire to become a knight, we can conclude that this
is what he is doing.
The scene where Parceval encounters the knights is entirely different than the French
version. Where Perceval is driven to ask questions without bothering to listen to the answers,
Parceval avoids the knights out of simple shyness (109). The exchange between knight and
boy is far more matter-of-fact, ending when Parceval asks the knight if King Arthur might be
willing to gift him with arms. The knight says,"Þess mátt þú freista" (109) [―You can try it,‖
(110)] and Parceval goes home to tell his mother the news. There is no judgment on the part
of the knight, who in the French original declares that ―Les Gallois sont tous par nature plus
bêtes que le bétail des pâturages‖ (691) [―all Welshmen are by nature more stupid than beasts
in the field‖ (384)]. Instead, it reads as a straightforward request for information by one who
is uneducated in the ways of chivalry, but not stupid.
Parceval´s relationship with his mother is also quite different in the Norse story.
Where Perceval is impatient and rude, cutting off his mother´s near-hysterics at the idea of his
departure, Parceval and his mother engage in a reasonable conversation, where she attempts to
dissuade him from leaving due to his ignorance and lack of training, to which he sensibly
replies that he will try to learn as well as he can (111). Parcval´s mother is resigned if not
178
Jean-Michel Quinodoz, Reading Freud: A Chronological Exploration of Freud's Writings (New York:
Routledge, 2005), 62.
179
David S. Nevid. Psychology: Concepts and Applications, 4th ed. (New York: Cengage Learning, 2013), 483.
63
enthusiastic about her son´s departure. Having accepted its inevitability, she makes clothes to
keep him warm and dispenses her advice, whereas the French mother faints multiple times
and clings to her son, doing all she can to delay him in his journey. The Norse Parceval says
thank you upon leaving her, a small display of courtesy where Perceval had no kindness at all
for his mother at this time. One can almost imagine that Parceval´s mother fainted and died
due to an undiagnosed heart problem rather than grief, so rationally does she handle their
parting in comparison to the French character.
The Oral Stage
Just like the markers I have noted for Perceval´s mirror stage, his experience with the oral
stage is also changed drastically in the Icelandic manuscript. The initial references to oral
fixation, such as when he asks his mother to make him something to eat before he sets out to
find King Arthur, are omitted. Descriptions of food and eating are trimmed and edited for
content, as are Parceval´s experiences with the fairer sex. Instead, Parceval is revealed to be
focused on his goal of achieving knighthood rather than ignorantly following his mother´s
advice without applying logic to the task.
The Norse-Icelandic scribe, possibly realizing the unreasonable notion of Perceval
kissing the maiden in the tent after she has told him no, because ―c´est ce que m´aa enseigné
ma mere‖ (702) [―my mother instructed me to,‖ (389)] when in truth his mother told him to
accept a kiss from a maiden only ―si elle vous accorde un baiser‖ (699) [―if she gives it‖
(388)] changes his mother´s advice to be more explicit on the matter. In the Norse version,
she instructs Parceval that it he should "en þó at þik lysti til nokkura konu, þá tak eigi meira af
henni nauðigri en einn koss" (110) [―take no more from her than an single kiss,‖ (111)]
changing the character from a boy, incapable of understanding what he has been told and
intent on sexual assault, to a young man bound by a cogent code of behavior, who heeds his
mother´s advice well.180
Furthermore, when Parceval defeats the Red Knight, he no longer resorts to a lusty
eating imagery wherein he says he will carve the knight into ―steaks‖ to get at his armor,
instead saying that he will have to burn the knight to cinders to get the armor off. This is
possibly a translation choice made by the scribe; the French Perceval uses the word
―brochettes‖ (713) (―skewers‖181] or pieces of meat grilled on an open fire for which the
Norwegian translator substituted the more common Icelandic expression of burning: ―En nú
180
181
Barnes, “Parcevals saga: Riddara Skuggsjá?,” 55.
Translation mine.
64
verð ek at brenna þann er dauðr er at köldum kolum, áðr ek ná þeim‖ (118) [―I shall have to
burn the dead man to cold ashes,‖ (119)].
Another instance of oral imagery is the many sumptuous feasts Perceval and Gawain
enjoy over the course of their combined journeys. Henri Kratz notes,
In keeping with the terse style of the indigenous sagas, long descriptive passages in
Chrétien are generally reduced quite drastically. Often they have to do with eating and
drinking, for Chrétien appears to enjoy descriptions of the sumptuous meals replete
with choice viands and exotic drinks. The saga sometimes omits these descriptions
altogether, or reduces them to a laconic announcement that a meal took place. Often
the details are changed – one dish substituted for another, etc. Possibly in some
instances the objects described were unknown in the less sophisticated Scandinavian
countries; or, if known to the translator, possibly he thought they would be unknown
and therefore incomprehensible to the bulk of his audience. Or – and I think this most
likely in many instances – he either did not understand the French words, or could find
no Norse equivalents for these products of a different culture.182
For example, the feast between the Fisher King and Perceval describes ―venison cooked in its
fat with hot pepper,‖ (421) clear, strong wine, loaves of flat bread and more. Though these
changes were made for practical reasons, their loss reduces the juicy gustatory pleasure of the
scenes in which the meals occur and also moderates important characterization of Perceval,
who is caught between his guileless experience of new things and his sudden duty to obey the
dictates of chivalry, which he is still in the process of learning. Hélène Cixous notes,
―Perceval is absolutely happy, eating extraordinary delicacies, as he can be,‖183 but that the
Grail problem exists within the realm of absolute law and not the simple pleasures of food.
There is little of this moral juxtaposition in the Icelandic version, which simply states,‖Komu
þá fyrir þá almargir réttir með inum bezta drykk‖ (150) [―There came before them a great
many dishes together with the finest drink‖ (151)].
The final example of oral fixation from the original text is Perceval‘s kissing of
Blancheflor the night before he defends her castle from the villainous Clamadeu. Chrétien
makes a point to explain that ―l´on peut trouver dans un lit sont donc offerts au chevalier cette
nuit-là, à l´exception du plaisir qu´aurait pu lui offrir une jeune fille que lui aurait plu, ou un
dame, síl en avait eu. Mais il était encore innocent, et n´y pensait pas le moins du monde‖
(733) [―the knight had all the comfort and delight one could hope for in a bed, except the
pleasure of a maiden‘s company, if he pleased, or a lady‘s, had it been permitted. But he knew
nothing of these pleasures, and never thought of them at all‖ (405)]. This was possibly made
explicit in order to downplay what occurs between Perceval and Blacheflor next: ―Et il lui
182
183
Kratz, “The Parcevals Saga and Li Contes del Graal,” 31-2.
Hélène Cixous, La risa de la medusa: ensayos sobre la escritura (Barcelona: Anthropos Editorial, 1995), 176.
65
donnait des baisers en la tenant serrée dans ses bras. Puis il l´amise sous la couverture, très
doucement et délicatement. Et elle se laisse embrasser, je ne pense pas que cela l´ennuie. Ils
sont restés couches ainsi côte à côte, bouche à bouche, jusqu´au matin, à l´approche du jour‖
(736) [―And he kissed her and held her tightly in his arms. He placed her gently and
comfortably beneath the coverlet, and she let him kiss her, and I do not believe it displeased
her. Thus they lay side by side with lips touching all night long, until morning came and day
dawned‖ (407)]. In his other stories, Chrétien does not shy away from writing about sex;
therefore, his decision to be ambiguous in the case of Perceval and Blancheflor must have
been deliberate. In Érec et Énide, the author writes at length of the physical pleasure the two
find in the marriage bed, which only began with kissing. The scene ends with the words,
―Before she arose again, she had lost the name of maiden; in the morning she was a new
lady‖184 leaving no doubt as to their sexual relationship. Again, when Lancelot and
Guinevere consummate their adulterous love, it is clear to the audience what has occurred:
Now Lancelot had his every wish: the queen willingly sought his company and
affection, as he held her in his arms and she held him in hers. Her love-play seemed so
gentle and good to him, both her kisses and caresses, that in truth the two of them felt
joy and wonder the equal of which has never been heard or known … Lancelot had
great joy and pleasure all that night, but the day‘s arrival sorrowed him deeply, since
he had to leave his sweetheart‘s side.185
It is possible, then, that Chrétien wished to demonstrate Perceval‘s inadequacy in this area as
compared to his other heroes. Even if Perceval and Blancheflor engaged in sex, as scholars
such as Barnes hold true,186 it could not have been the transcendent emotional experience
between two adults as it was between Érec and Énide or Lancelot and Guinevere; instead, the
election of Blacheflor as a love-object this early in Perceval‘s psychosexual development
(where he has only achieved the Oral Stage) would be an opportunity for anxiety and neurosis
at best. Freud‘s psychoanalysis maintains that a person can only choose a love-object once the
individual has reached psychological maturity, otherwise problems are likely. 187 In fact, Freud
might attribute Perceval´s ―precocious sexual maturity‖ in this scene to ―an excess of parental
affection,‖188 which we have seen his mother exhibit in her doting.
184
Carroll and Kibler, trans., “Erec and Enide,” 62.
Carleton W. Carroll and William Kibler, trans., “The Knight of the Cart (Lancelot),” in Chrétien de Troyes
Arthurian Romances (London: Penguin Books, 1991), 264-5.
186
Barnes, “Parcevals saga: Riddara Skuggsjá?,” 55.
187
Sigmund Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, trans. James Strachey (New York: Martino Fine
Books, 2011), 91.
188
Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, 89.
185
66
For the Norse version, Parceval‘s innocence is not remarked upon, suggesting that he
is better equipped, psychologically, to elect a love-object. The rest of the story supports this
idea, as I have shown that the Norse Parceval is at least at the latency stage of development
when the story begins. In fact, it is possible to see that Parceval is better equipped to deal with
things of a sexual nature as well as emotional trauma than his French counterpart. The
Hideous Damsel, who takes Perceval to task in front of the entire court who witnesses his
shame, is greatly reduced in the Norse version. Henry Kratz notes,
The Laide Pucele, [English: Hideous Damsel]when she addresses Perceval, curses him
for six lines (4646-51), details his failings at the Grail Castle for 18 lines (4652-69),
and then for an additional 14 lines (4670-83) outlines what the results would have
been if he had acted properly. The saga compresses this entire tirade into five lines.189
As I have noted in my analysis of the French story, the zeal with which the Hideous Damsel
castigates the hero may in fact be a psychological manifestation of the depth of his shame,
since he had already been told at that point in the story. Therefore, its reduction in the Norse
version indicates that perhaps Parceval did not feel such overwhelming shame or that by this
time in the story, he may have been able to deal with it in a more emotionally healthy way
than the French Perceval.
Parceval finishes his tale in the Norse adaptation by claiming his noble destiny as lord
and ruler of Blankiflur´s kingdom (183). This, the story suggests, is a more fitting end for
Parceval than to be charged with the search for the Grail. Of the holy artifact, the hermit says
in the Norse adaptation, ―En þat er einn heilagr hlutr, er inn ríki maðr lætr bera fyrir sér til
hugganar ok upphalds sálu sinnar ok lífs; er þessi inn heilagi hlutr andligr, en eigi líkamligr‖
(180) [―That is a holy thing which the mighty man causes to be borne before him as a
consolation and sustenance for his soul and his life; the holy thing is of the spirit, not of the
flesh‖ (181)]. The dialogue here suggests that the burden of the Grail and the injured Fisher
King is a spiritual one that belongs to him alone and is not Parceval´s responsibility. It is
implied that Parceval should instead be concerned with his own personal salvation, not in
saving the Fisher King: "En þú, frændi, gæt nú héðan af sálu þinnar ok gakk jafnan til kirkju
fyrr en í nokkurn stað annan ok hlýð messu með lítillæti til guðs. Ver lítillátr ok þjónustufullr
öllum þurftugum" (180) [―But you, kinsman, take care of your soul from now on and always
go to church before you go to any other place, and hear Mass with humility towards God. Be
humble and obliging to all needy people‖ (181)]. The story suggests that Perceval is
189
Kratz, “The Parcevals Saga and Li Contes del Graal,” 31.
67
successful in these endeavors with the words, "Ok svá gerði hann ... ok lifði síðan sem góðr
kristinn maður" (182) [―And so he did, … and lived ever after as a good Christian man‖
(183)]. Claudia Bornholt comments on this scene,
The epilogue supplies a satisfactory and harmonious ending to the story of Parceval,
an ending that is lacking in Chrétien´s unfinished romance. It explicitly stresses the
husband´s worldly achievements as husband, king and model knight. As happens in
Chrétien´s account, Parceval´s spiritual journey had already come to a conclusion at
the end of his stay with the hermit on Easter Sunday. … In the French romance the
account of Perceval´s adventures ends abruptly after the hero has received
communion. The plot them returns to Gawain´s adventures and never returns to
Perceval. The Norse version remedies this unresolved ending of Parceval´s story by
inserting an epilogue that lists all of Parceval´s accomplishments in respect to God, his
wife, and his role as a king and a knight. It thus combines the two realms that are
central to the subject matter, and confirms that the hero has achieved an understanding
of and success in both.190
Where Perceval´s story is left unfinished, with Perceval still bound by his vow to search for
the Grail Castle until he can once more ask the necessary questions, Parceval is a fully
realized, independent adult who has reached all necessary personal, spiritual and social goals
in life. He has made peace with God and become a good person, a good Christian, a good
husband and "ágætr höfðingi" (182) [―splendid ruler‖ (183)] of his land.
3.2 Portrayal of Other Important Figures in Parcevals saga
In contrast to Perceval‘s mother in Le Conte du Graal (Perceval), the Norse
Parceval‘s mother was made of sterner stuff. She does not faint at the notion of her son‘s
departure, nor does she cling to him and try to dissuade him from his objectives by drowning
him in her tears. Like her French counterpart, she does not like her son´s plan, but once she
accepts that he intends to go, she makes no further attempt to delay his leaving. As a result,
the tone of her scenes in the story, including the dispensation of her famous advice, is
altogether different than the French version. Carolyne Larrington notes
The advice of Parceval´s mother in Parcevals saga perhaps comes closest in terms of
imparting an understanding of the ethics of chivalric behavior, yet, as Geraldine
Barnes has shown, the wisdom the mother offers in the saga is largely derived from
such texts as Hugsvinnsmál (the Icelandic translation of the Latin Disticha Catonis)
and the Norwegian Konungs skuggsjá, both strongly influenced by European didactic
literature. Thus she departs considerably from the advice given in the Contes del
Graal, equipping her son with a ´highly practical code of conduct´.191
190
191
Bornholdt, "The Old Norse-Icelandic Transmission,” 105-6.
Larrington, “A Viking in Shining Armour? Vikings and Chivalry in the Fornaldarsögur,” 279.
68
For this section of the story, much is changed from the original French in reflection to their
differing cultures of their respective audiences. Larrington finds the mother‘s advice in
Parcevals saga to be a reflection of the vikingalög, a set of ethics developed in the later
medieval period which is similar to the chivalric code of behavior and designed to align them
with behaviors of the courts to the south.
Parceval´s mother´s advocacy of restrained behaviour with respect to women is
ostensibly a good parallel to the chivalrous treatment of women in the vikingalög, but
in fact it is the one piece of counsel which survives from Chrétien. Yet her more
(forcefully), and on the importance of granting mercy to one´s opponents recall the
provisions of both lög and Malory´s oath.192
Henry Kratz asserts that this information was edited by the translator to fit the expectations of
the Norse audience, and the more level-headed, task-oriented nature of this advice fits what
we have seen of women in the indigenous sagas, as I have explained above.
The mother‘s advice in the Norse version is much broader and more practical. … Of
the original advice, little remains intact except the injunction not to take anything
more than a kiss from a girl by force. The acceptance of a ring or purse in Chrétien the
translator changes to (presumably) the taking of property willy-nilly from a woman,
but then adds the strange rationalizing sentence that he must then promise to
recompense her. The advice having to do with taking another‗s lover or taking up with
prostitutes has no counterpart in the original and sounds decidedly unchivalric. The
advice not to kill someone bested in combat is gratuitous on the part of the translator
and is more adapted to real life in Norway than to the Arthurian romance. The
translator removes many of the more extravagant details of a chivalric nature, or at
least those aspects which must have seemed too unnatural, or perhaps too unpalatable
for his audience.193
Changes to the women of the story, particularly Parceval‘s mother, could have been
made by either the original Norwegian adaptors or the Icelandic copyists who came later;
therefore, we can assume that in a general sense, both Norway and Iceland‘s scribes viewed
women differently than those in France. As Claudia Bornholt points out,
The new beginning of the story has been situated in the realm of folklore tradition, not
least because of the specific choice of words, as Parceval´s father and mother are
introduced as karl (man, commoner) and kerling (woman, wife). It has been suggested
that the new introduction was not part of the original Norwegian translation, but
instead that it is a later Icelandic addition that was modeled after Icelandic tales of
abducted brides in which the couple are forced to live in exile, such as, for example, in
Viglundar saga and Orkneyinga saga. This explanation is quite plausible and, yet
again, is nearly impossible to locate these changes with certainty in Iceland. The motif
of the abducted bride could have just as well have been borrowed from one of the
192
193
Larrington, “A Viking in Shining Armour? Vikings and Chivalry in the Fornaldarsögur,” 279-280.
Kratz, “The Parcevals Saga and Li Contes del Graal,” 23-4.
69
bridal-quest stories in Þiðreks saga, a saga that was certainly known and presumably
also composed in Norway in the mid-thirteenth century.194
Furthermore, Parceval‘s interactions with other females are altered in this version of the tale,
such as the crying maiden he meets in the woods the morning after his spiritual gaffe, who is
revealed to be his cousin and informs him not only of his sin but also that his mother has died.
In the dialogue of the scene with his grieving cousin, F. Regina Psaki notes
The translator links the deaths of Parceval´s mother and the red knight as instances of
his single-minded pursuit of knighthood without charity. Even once Parceval had
learned to care about other people, he still did not care about God in a way that confers
meaning on love of neighbor; and this imbalance results in the self-absorbed lack of
compassion to which the cousin links his failure to ask about the Grail.195
In addition, there is also the Hideous Damsel who exposes Parceval‘s shortcomings
before the court, though as we have noted, it is significantly changed from the French version.
Scholars such as Psaki believe that, when taken as a whole, the women of P rcev ’s s g are
the ―primary voices and advocates‖ of the version of chivalry it espouses to its NorseIcelandic audience.
Parcevals saga offers a skeptical view of knighthood and knight-errancy, of education
and training, and of a paradigm associated uniquely with masculine traits and
behavior. It offers as well a subtly-inflected presentation of Christianity vehicled in
Parceval´s mother and the hermit, both tellingly isolated from the social and chivalric
order which Parceval values above all. While the representation of Christianity is not
entrusted in the saga uniquely to women, they are its primary voices and advocates, as
well as (perhaps) its primary beneficiaries; Parceval´s mother enjoins him to serve
maidens and women, imposing upon him the Christian ideology of the Beatitudes over
and against a martial ideology of conquest.196
This may be reflected in the culture of Viking Age Norway and Iceland in several
ways, any of which would support the idea that women had a potentially advantageous
position in culture in Norse areas. First, the Scandinavian and Germanic tribes had a tradition
of female leaders in pagan religious cults which were replaced by men when Christianity was
adopted in these areas. In folklore and other sources, Freyja was, for example, an important
goddess and priestess who embodied both culture and religion. Ynglinga saga, which dates to
approximately 1225, describes Freyja with the words ―Hon var blótgyðja Hon kenndi fyrst
194
Bornholdt, "The Old Norse-Icelandic Transmission,” 104-5.
Psaki, "Women´s Counsel in the Riddarasögur: The Case of Parcevals Saga," 209
196
Psaki, "Women´s Counsel in the Riddarasögur: The Case of Parcevals Saga," 217.
195
70
með sum seið, sem V num var títt‖197 [―She was a blót goddess. She taught the Æsir magic,
which was usual for the Vanir‖].198According to these beliefs, the Æsir, or Nordic gods,
would know nothing of sacrifice and magic, which at that time comprised the central tools of
religious worship, without this woman‘s help. Existing accounts of early Germanic culture,
such as Tacitus´ Germania, written in the 1st century AD, have several examples of femaleled cults of worship such as the Germanic tribe Æstii. ―[They] use the same customs and attire
with the Suevians; their language more resembles that of Britain. They worship the Mother of
the Gods‖199 a title which later became associated with powerful goddesses such as Freyja.
Though the time of female-led worship was long over by the time Parceval and the women of
his saga appeared, this would have impacted the culture and made it more open to female
influence within the community and in the home than perhaps one which was more strongly
dominated by men and the Church. There are, however, notable exceptions to these rules even
in France, such as Marie de Champagne, Chrétien´s first patron. The daughter of Eleanor of
Aquitaine, herself one of the wealthiest and most powerful queens of the Middle Ages, Marie
acted as regent when her husband and son were away on Crusade and again after her son´s
death.200
In terms of secular culture, women in Norway and Iceland historically had the ability
to participate in social and political decisions indirectly, and could potentially wield great
influence. Though they were denied the ability to approach ruling bodies such as the þing in
Iceland without a male to speak for their interests, ―strong type women‖ could be involved in
politics, according to Helgi Þorláksson; he notes ―They are active, not subordinate, and can be
of the older Scandinavian model as found, for example, in the Icelandic sagas.‖201 A lack of
direct access to law, possibly coupled with society´s unspoken approval of these strong type
women, seen in the relative breadth of rights granted them in comparison to France, may have
led women to encourage blood vengeance in so many of the sagas. Susan Elizabeth Rivenbark
believes this is due to the fact that ―they had little economic incentive to seek compensation
compared to the incentive they had for protecting their familial honor. Men, in contrast, stood
197
Snorri Sturluson. Ynglinga saga, Íslenzk fornrit XXVI, ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnson, 4th ed. (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka
fornritafélag, 2002), 13.
198
Translation mine.
199
Cornelius Tacitus, Germania, trans. Thomas Gordon (Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2004), 18.
200
Ffiona Swabey, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Courtly Love, and the Troubadors (Westwood, CT: Greenwood Press,
2004), 14.
201
Helgi Þorláksson, “Friends, Patrons and Clients in the Middle Ages” In Friendship and Social Networks in
Scandinavia, c. 1000-1800, eds. Jón Viðar Sigurðssonand Thomas Småberg (Turnhout, Belgium: Turnhout
Brepols Publishers, 2013), 308.
71
to gain honor in public life by settling a case amicably and peaceably.‖202 In other words,
wives and mothers would use whatever methods were available to them in order to
accomplish their duty of defending the family honor; denied the right to approach the þing for
judgement, they saw no value in achieving compensation or peace through lawful means. It is
reasonable to assume that these cultural values which were developed over centuries of
religious worship and social interaction still held sway, even as Scandinavian society began to
conform to the norms set forth by medieval Europe. The reason for this is that, culturally,
women in Nordic culture, particularly Iceland, had a different societal role than those in
continental Europe. Jesse L. Byock notes, ―To a degree unusual in continental medieval
regions of the West, women maintained a measure of independence and control over their
own lives, including the right to own property.‖203 Under the Viking Age Icelandic law code
Grágás, women also paid the same tithes as men, and received the same punishments for
murder as a man regardless of the gender of either victim or perpetrator.204 The very structure
of society allowed women this independence. The reason for a lack of aristocracy and manorholding systems in Iceland was due to a lack of need to bind together in defensive units under
an aristocratic (presumably military-commanding) lord; therefore, the early huge farmsteads
slowly broke apart over time into many farms with little to separate farmer from chieftain in
terms of power or obvious wealth.205 It seems natural that this social equality in Iceland, at
least, potential for it, should be extended to women in the absence of another model which
would force them to take submissive roles. Byock comments, ―The Icelandic writings expose
the multiplicity of women´s roles. They offer portraits of women involved in contention,
coping with insult, injury, and limited resources while practicing a form of Realpolitik.‖206
Carol J. Clover echoes the general consensus of scholars that women had a specific role to
play within feud dynamics of Iceland and early Norway to remember insults and encourage
vengeance, a job no less important than the duty of men to act in defense of their honor:
―Failure to extract due vengeance for a slain kinsman occasions some of the choicer insults of
cowardice in Icelandic literature. If this was the common ethic, it is no surprise that women
should share it, and that they should further perceive themselves, and be perceived by others,
202
Susan Elizabeth Rivenbark, ““Ek Skal Hér Ráða”: Themes of Female Honor in the Icelandic Sagas” (MA thesis,
Appalachian State University, 2011), 13.
203
Jesse L. Byock, "Defining Feud: Talking Points and Iceland´s Saga Women," in Feud in Medieval and Early
Modern Europe, eds. Jeppe Buchert Netterstrøm and Bjørn Poulsen (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2007),
103.
204
Byock, "Defining Feud: Talking Points and Iceland´s Saga Women,” 103.
205
Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas and Power (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press,
1988), 56.
206
Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas and Power, 111.
72
as having their own role to play in the task of just retaliation.‖207 Cultural opportunities to
influence in the actions of men would have afforded women a clearer voice than in other
cultures, where men were unquestionably dominant. Perhaps that is why the Norse Parceval´s
mother and other female characters do not hesitate to voice their thoughts to him in a clear,
practical manner. Though women did not have overt social power in law and government, by
the time Christianity was adopted in 1000 A.D. in Iceland, women had had a long tradition of
being important members of the household and community, in a way that was different from
the women of France.
3.3 Portrayal of Religion in Parcevals saga
In general, religious references and phrasing are removed from Parcevals saga entirely, with
no attempt to replace or change the content for a Norse-Icelandic audience, implying that this
audience placed less value on Christian material in comparison to listeners in France.
Examples include the description of what a church is and who Jesus is, explained to Perceval
by his mother and the hermit´s prayer, which he teaches to Perceval to be used only in times
of dire need. Both scenes are greatly condensed in the Norse-Icelandic version.208 Suzanne M.
Marti identified 84 formulaic expressions relating to religious matter in Le Conte du Graal
(Perceval), of which ―almost 2/3 have no counterpart‖209 in the Old Norse translation. While
it is easiest to point to cultural differences and say that the Norse-Icelandic court did not place
the same emphasis upon this didactic material, other reasons for its deletion include deference
to the more spare style of saga writing, which does not allow for long soliloquies or emotional
language, unfamiliarity with some of these expressions which would have been easily
understood in France, references that Chrétien may have included for dramatic effect but that
the translator considered redundant, or even the fact that scribes left out more and more
material with each copy, as approximately 150 exists between the time it was imported to
Norway and the writing of the Icelandic manuscript currently used for analysis.210
In a similar fashion, the Norse-Icelandic version seems to have stripped away much
of the mystical elements related to Perceval´s destiny, such as the Grail and the inhabitants of
the Grail Castle. Phillip Pulsiano and Kirsten Wolf note
207
Carol J. Clover, “Hildigunnr´s Lament” In Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature: New Approaches to
Textual Analysis and Literary Criticism VC3, eds. John Lindow et al. (Odense: Odense University Press, 1986),
144.
208
Kratz, “The Parcevals Saga and Li Contes del Graal,” 29.
Marti, “Kingship, Chivalry and Religion in the Perceval Matter,” 199.
210
Marti, “Kingship, Chivalry and Religion in the Perceval Matter,” 200-1.
209
73
The Norse version eliminates the blood tie between his family and the Grail King´s,
and, although providing a conclusion to the story, offers no answer to Chrétien´s
unresolved question of the restoration of the Fisher King´s health and lands. The
saga´s perplexing definition of the Grail as a gangandi greiði (possibly "walking
purveyor of hospitality") has elicited a number of suggestions as to how the saga
writer conceived it.211
It may or may not be significant that the Norse translator was so baffled by the Grail that he
simply referred to it as ―þeir í völsku máli kalla braull‖ (148) [―something which they call in
the French language a grail‖ (149)]. Because this story marks the origin of the Grail, Phillip
M. Mitchell believes that it can only be assumed that the French also misunderstood this
heretofore unknown relic.212 Overall, Suzanne Marti suggests that the continual omission of
religious material from Parcevals saga indicates ―a diminished emphasis, on the more
institutionalized aspects of faith, such as visiting places of worship and attending mass;‖ in
general, it can be concluded that religious instruction was not considered necessary by the
translator, who may have had a different objective in mind.213
211
Pulsiano and Wolf, eds., Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, 496.
Mitchell, "Scandinavian Literature," 468.
213
Marti, “Kingship, Chivalry and Religion in the Perceval Matter,” 201-2.
212
74
4. PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND ITS APPLICATIONS
Many studies support the conclusion that religion has specific and measurable effects on the
individual (or group) psyche, though the field of psychology of religion is a relatively new
one, unexplored until the 20th century. Selvam tells us that early psychologists were
concerned with the relationship between the two, but that Freud´s generally negative outlook
on religion may have dampened the scholarly discussion until more recent times.214 Allport´s
Individual and his Religion, published in 1950, could be considered a turning point in the way
of thinking about religion within the field. In his work, Allport criticized previous
psychologists and methodologies for failing to properly examine ―psychologically healthy
religiousness,‖215 implying that it is indeed possible to integrate religion into one´s life in a
way that does not cause mental or emotional distress. In 1976, psychology of religion became
a division within the American Psychology Association (APA) under the name Psychologists
Interested in Religious Issues.216
Early scholarly consideration of religion and psychology was dominated by Freud´s
views that God is nothing more than a representation of the Oedipal father figure to be dealt
with.217 However, with this acceptance of religion as a viable area of study, the question
became how to scientifically record what is generally a private and therefore unverifiable
matter. David M. Wulff´s Psychology of Religion: Classic and Contemporary explains that
religion is quantified ―either as observable behavior or as the outcome of biological processes.
Modelled more or less after the physical and biological sciences, the psychologies in this
cluster aspire to explain, predict, and control behavior,‖218 before describing notable experts,
methods and findings in this field. In acknowledgement of the idea that religion does not lend
itself well to pure scientific study, Faith Martin´s ―Psychology, Religion and Development: A
Literature Review‖ states that ―It is obvious that psychology alone cannot explain religion,
though psychology has a role to play in understanding beliefs and practices and differences
between individuals. … The study of psychology and religion must be embedded in the
214
Sahaya Selvam, "Positive Psychology as a Theoretical Framework for Studying and learning about Religion
from the Perspective of Psychology." (Lecture, Teaching and Studying Religion Symposium: London, January 1,
2011).
215
Andrew Reid Fuller, Psychology and Religion: Eight Points of View, 3rd ed. (Lanham, MD: University Press of
America, 1994), 115.
216
Mary Reuder. "A History of Division 36 (Psychology of Religion)."Society for the Psychology of Religion and
Spirituality: Division 36.“ Accessed February 4, 2015.
217
Sigmund Freud, The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, trans. James
Strachey (London: Hogarth Press, 1953-1974), 293.
218
David M. Wulff, Psychology of Religion: Classic and Contemporary, 2nd ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1997), 18.
75
cultural and historical and not solely in individual perspectives.‖219 This is why a crosscultural framework is being applied to the examination of religion and shame in two cultures
rather than another, more universal theory of emotion; without taking into account possible
historical, social and cultural effects, the experience of religion is to nebulous and ephemeral
to analyze with any meaningful results.
4.1 Guilt vs. Shame
For the purposes of this analysis, we must define shame and guilt before we may make a
judgment regarding the presence of such emotion in the two narratives of Perceval. The
reason for this is that although shame and guilt are similar emotions, they differ in origin and
purpose. As we have noted, respected scholar Paul Ekman classifies them as distinct emotions
in his work, though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably elsewhere in scholarly
discussion. Michael Ferrari and Robert J. Sternberg write,
The close relationship between shame and guilt is indicated by the fact that the
different individuals may respond to the same event with either shame or guilt,
whereas some individuals are prone to one or the other response. The primary
cognitive factor differentiating the response seems to be the actor's perception of his or
her own competence or incompetence, responsibility or lack of responsibility for the
violation. This differentiation is consistent with the notion that shame is akin to
overwhelming, helpless fear leading to flight or freezing, whereas guilt is akin to
moderate but manageable fear leading to appeasement gestures.220
Therefore, we see that Perceval, in both versions of the narrative, feels shame rather than
guilt, as his extreme reaction to confrontation by the Hideous Damsel over what he has done
is to flee Arthur´s court after making a vow never to rest until he has asked the rightful
questions.
The key element of Perceval´s reaction is the audience. Again, Perceval is actually
confronted twice with his great sin; the first time, he is informed by the crying maiden in the
woods, who is revealed to be his cousin. As her horror mounts at realizing that he asked no
questions in the presence of the Grail, she calls him ―wretched‖ and ―unlucky,‖ in the same
manner of the Hideous Damsel later. As I have already noted, Perceval takes her
condemnation in stride, only displaying emotion at the ―bien triste histoire‖ (775) [―terrible
news‖ (425)] that his mother is dead and quickly deciding that there is no reason to continue
his journey home. Therefore, it is not the weight of the sin itself which causes Perceval such
219
Faith Martin, “Psychology, Religion and Development: A Literature Review,” Religions and Development
Research Programme (Oxford: University of Oxford, 2008), 12.
220
Michael Ferrari and Robert J. Sternberg, Self-awareness: Its Nature and Development, (New York: Guilford
Press, 1998), 125.
76
pain, but the knowledge that his grave error has been witnessed by the king and his court.
Ferrari and Sternberg comment:
In contrast to guilt, shame engenders feelings of sadness and depression. Unlike guilt,
shame is associated with feelings of helplessness owing to fundamental inability or
defectiveness or incompetence. It seems to impel its experiencers to avoid those who
have witnessed their shameful appearance or deed, and thereby to reduce contact with
them. It may also impel its experiencers to change their behavior by avoiding the
appearance and actions that elicited their shame. The worst aspect of shame comes
from the experiencers' feeling that they are irreparably, overwhelmingly or globally
inadequate and therefore unable to remedy the situation. In extreme cases, shame may
lead individuals to exile or even suicide.221
Though there is no mention of suicide in Perceval, Chrétien was no stranger to using it as a
literary device, and both Lancelot and Yvain attempted suicide in times of despair within their
own stories. At the very least, it is easy to see how Perceval´s manic pursuit of chivalric and
knightly deeds in the five years he spent away from Arthur´s court, forgetting God, could
have been motivated by a desire to regain his feeling of adequacy and worthiness which were
lost that day at court in which his personal spiritual failings were laid bare. Indeed, the scene
appears to underscore that Perceval´s feeling of shame is something he feels is being levied
against him, but which is not reflected in the outward behavior of those present. No one
acknowledges Perceval´s deeds for good or ill verbally or through gestures. In fact, Perceval´s
leaving is not noted in the French version of the story; presumably, he leaves with the other
knights, who have all sworn to take up various adventures remarked upon by the Hideous
Damsel.
Perceval is partially able to reclaim his self-worth with the help of the hermit in Le
Conte du Graal. Certainly it is this character who inspires Perceval to reenter the civilized
world by seeking forgiveness for his sins through confession, which the pilgrims he
encountered on the road told him he would find with the hermit (458). The episode ends after
Perceval has received emotional comfort and spiritual healing from the ministrations of the
hermit and has taken communion. However, it is clear that Chrétien did not consider
Perceval´s journey complete; this section ends with the words ―Le conte s´arrête ici de parler
de Perceval; vous m´entendrez beaucoup parler de monseigneur de Gauvain avant que vous
m´entendiez de nouveau parler de Perceval‖ (845-6) [―The tale no longer speaks of Perceval
at this point; you will have heard a great deal about my lord Gawain before I speak of
Perceval again,‖ (461)] implying that there was more Perceval must do in order to become a
221
Ferrari and Sternberg, Self-awareness, 111-3.
77
true spiritual hero and that seeking forgiveness and being indoctrinated into the Church was
only the first step.
In contrast, Parcevals saga treats this scene not as another step in the hero‘s journey
but as the end of it altogether, allowing Parceval to settle into the role of king, knight, and
husband now that his spiritual crisis has been solved by doing penance for his sins, not by
locating the Grail and asking the necessary questions. Claudia Bornholt attributes this as a
desire to create a true ending by the original translators:
In the French romance the account of Perceval´s adventures ends abruptly after the
hero has received communion. The plot then returns to Gawain´s adventures and never
returns to Perceval. The Norse version remedies this unresolved ending of Parceval´s
story by inserting an epilogue that lists all of Parceval´s accomplishments in respect to
God, his wife, and his role as a king and a knight. It thus combines the two realms that
are central to the subject matter, and confirms that the hero has achieved an
understanding of and success in both. Parcevals saga harmonizes both realms
inasmuch as Parceval first makes peace with God and then settles into secular life as
husband, king and exemplary knight.222
The reasons for the Norse Parceval‘s shame are effectively laid to rest within the saga.
Though the hermit in both versions explains the relationship between the Fisher King and the
Grail, specifically it is he who is served by it, answering one of the charitable questions at
last, only the Norse version seems to make a distinction between spiritual matters and worldly
duties. Perceval‘s psychological path to self-actualization and also his spiritual voyage to rid
himself of shame may still be ongoing, while for the Norse Parceval, he is both a
psychologically healthy adult and spiritually unburdened by the shame of his actions.
4.2 The Relationship between Shame and Religion
When speaking of modern psychoanalysis and emotion, one feels obligated to begin
with Freud, if only to acknowledge his great contributions to the field and to recognize that
many of his suppositions have been discredited over time. Freud rarely commented directly
on emotions such as shame, except to say that they stemmed from psychical trauma; ―Any
experience which calls up distressing effects - such as those of fright, anxiety, shame or
physical pain - may operate as a trauma.‖ 223 However, in The Interpretation of Dreams,
Freud acknowledges shame as a singularly adult burden, linking the existence of shame
within the psyche and the influence of culture:
The age of childhood, in which the sense of shame is unknown, seems a paradise when
we look upon it later, and paradise itself is nothing but the mass-phantasy of the
childhood of the individual. This is why in paradise men are naked and unashamed,
222
223
Bornholdt, "The Old Norse-Icelandic Transmission,” 105-6.
Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud, Studies on Hysteria, trans. James Strachey (London: Basic Books, 1957), 6.
78
until the moment arrives when shame and fear awaken; expulsion follows, and sexual
life and cultural development begin.224
After religion was established as a concept worthy of psychological study, scholars
began to turn to specific emotions such as shame and their effects in social relationships and
religion, a construct which is communal in structure and behavior. Thomas J. Scheff´s
―Shame and the Social Bond: A Sociological Theory,‖ named shame as ―the premiere social
emotion‖225 and called for ―systematic empirical studies of the effect of individual and
collective shame on social solidarity and alienation.‖226 Lisa Guenther´s article ―Shame and
the Temporality of Social Life,‖ is one such work which explored the social impact of ―the
burning feeling of shame, the sense of being out of place, judged by others as unworthy,
unwanted or wrong—not only in this or that particular action but in one‘s very existence—
leaves the shameful subject nowhere to be, and yet nowhere to hide or escape.‖227 Thomas J.
Scheff´s earlier piece, called ―Shame and Conformity: The Deference-Emotion System,‖
takes this idea further, using Durkheim´s work to assert that society exists as a ―complex and
highly efficient system of informal sanctions that encourages conformity,‖ using emotions
like shame and pride to continuously regulate and enforce proper behavior even in the
absence of obvious rewards and punishments.228 The book , Self-awareness: Its Nature and
Development verifies our intense ―desire to understand and be understood, to be part of a
group – whether it be the village, school, family, or kibbutz – [which] would appear to be as
universal a trait of the human species as any.‖229 If the desire to belong is universal and the
degree to which we belong manifests itself in feelings such as shame and pride which guide
our behavior, then the experiences of Perceval and Parceval in both versions of the story of
the Grail can show readers what qualities are needed, generally speaking, to belong to their
respective cultures and what penalties may be levied on those who do not conform. Richard
A. Shweder notes,
Cultural communities differ in their ideas about what is good, true, beautiful, and
efficient and in the customary social, political, economic, and family life practices (the
"way of life") that they value and endorse because of those ideas. Different ways of
life and different ways of thinking about the world may well occasion greater or fewer
224
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, trans. A.A. Brill, ed. Janet B. Kopito (Mineola, New York: Dover
Publications, Inc., 2015), 186.
225
Thomas J. Scheff, “Shame and the Social Bond: A Sociological Theory,” Sociological Theory 18:1 (2000), 84.
226
Scheff, “Shame and the Social Bond: A Sociological Theory,” 98.
227
Lisa Guenther, “Shame and the Temporality of Social Life,” Continental Philosophy Review 44 (2011): 23-4.
228
Thomas J. Scheff, “Shame and Conformity: The Deference-Emotion System,” American Sociological Review
53:3 (June 1988): 395.
229
Michael Ferrari and Robert J. Sternberg, Self-awareness: Its Nature and Development, (New York: Guilford
Press, 1998), 38.
79
opportunities (what some psychologists call "affordances") to experience some
culture-specific manifestation or variety of a mental state such as "shame."230
Though religion can often bring comfort and a sense of community in times of
emotional upset, it can also be a source of negative feelings and even darker compulsions due
to these feelings of shame, which we see in the story when Perceval exiles himself from
Arthur´s court. Julie Juola Exline, Ann Marie Yali and William C. Sanderson´s ―Guilt,
Discord and Alienation: The Role of Religious Strain in Depression and Suicidality,‖ focuses
on serious depression and suicide resulting from a feeling that one has failed God, saying,
―Depression was associated with feelings of alienation from God and, among students, with
interpersonal conflicts on religious domains. Suicidality was associated with religious fear
and guilt, particularly with the belief in having committed an unforgivable sin.‖231 Without
the aid of modern science, Chrétien correctly predicted his character´s feelings of despair
upon committing his great sin, providing an emotional portrait we can use to evaluate how
closely connected each culture considered God to be in their lives, and therefore, how
devastating alienation from God would be.
Going further, Gunter Bierbrauer´s article ―Reactions to Violation of Normative
Standards: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Shame and Guilt," attempted to find cultural markers
for feelings of shame and guilt by examining German, Lebenese and Kurdish peoples and
their relationships to religion. Drawing on ideas from T.S. Lebra´s article "The Social
Mechanism of Guilt and Shame: The Japanese Case,"232 to look for cultural effects upon
individuals when feeling guilt or shame, Bierbrauer concludes:
Across these cultures, it seems that individuals who are more collectivistic show more
shame than guilt reaction. Again this supports the notion that shame functions
basically for those individuals who define their identity in terms of their ingroup. In
this case individuals react to criticism from others in terms of shame rather than guilt.
Also independent of culture, religious individuals show a higher degree of guilt and
shame than non-religious individuals.233
Though Perceval is a fictional creation, in the French and Norse-Icelandic versions of his
story that he, too, feels alienated from the Heavenly Father and goes mad in response to what
he perceives as his unforgiveable sin.
230
Richard A. Shweder, "Toward a Deep Cultural Psychology of Shame," Social Research 70: 4 (2003): 1116.
Julie Juola Exline, Ann Marie Yali and William C. Sanderson, “Guilt, Discord and Alienation: The Role of
Religious Strain in Depression and Suicidality,” Journal of Clinical Psychology 56:12 (2000): 1481.
232
Lebra, T.S. "The Social Mechanism of Guilt and Shame: The Japanese Case." Anthropological Quarterly 44
(1973): 241-245.
233
Bierbrauer, “Reactions to Violation of Normative Standards”: 192.
231
80
Existing research gives a number of reasons to propose a link between religious strain
and negative emotion. Religion centers on existential issues that can have a profound
psychological importance. Beliefs about the nature of God, the meaning of life, and
the possibility of an afterlife are often central to a person´s view of the world. Positive
religious coping often involves the perception of a close, collaborative relationship
with God. In fact, some have argued that feelings of attachment to God can take the
place of other interpersonal attachments. 234
The notion that feelings of attachment to God can supersede other relationships is reflected in
Perceval´s exile, in which the story tells us that he forgot God. This appears to be the most
significant detail, as others left behind are not mentioned. In the details and subtle variations
of the translation, it is easy to see that the Norse Parceval does not have quite the same
experience after failing God.
4.3 Cross-Cultural Psychology: Religon and Emotion in French and Norse Culture
As a general rule, Perceval and the Norse Parceval feel and display the same emotions at the
same points in the narrative, it is only a matter of degree which defines their emotional
experiences. As discussed below, the Scandinavian romance reflects an undemonstrative
attitude toward emotion, with greater emphasis placed upon correct actions when
circumstances demand them. The French version features Perceval neglecting to ask the
question because ――il craignait, en posant cette question, de se conduire grossièrement‖ (765)
[―he was afraid that if he asked they would consider him uncouth,‖ (420)] showing his desire
to be seen as courteous. On the other hand, the Norse Parceval´s reasons for staying silent
show a desire that his behavior not reflect badly on others: he recalled what Gormanz had
taught him about not talking too much, ―ok fyrir því hræddiz hann at spyrja ok vildi eigi angra
þá er honum viettu beina‖ (148) [―and for that reason he was afraid to ask; and furthermore he
did not wish to trouble the man who had granted him hospitality‖ (149)]. Parceval, then,
wishes to be seen as courteous out of respect for his teacher and host. Though the emotions
(fear of asking a question) and the antecedent conditions (a desire to be thought courteous) are
the same, Parceval does not wish to offend his host. This may also support Paul Ekman´s
theory of universal emotions, though we have no physical evidence to support these ideas
which are instead based on literary analysis.
Second, we must perform appraisals of significance to evaluate the manner in which
people of a given culture evaluate the situations which cause emotions and the way they
interpret those situations that may change, extend or shorten the emotional experience. In
Perceval, characters are notably uniform in the speed and vociferousness with which they
234
Exline, Yali and Sanderson, “Guilt, Discord and Alienation,” 1483.
81
condemn Perceval for his infractions. With the changes that have been made to the Norse
narrative, characters are equally unemotional and ambivalent to religious matters; however,
other differences become apparent. The Weeping Maiden, the French Parceval‘s cousin, is the
first to inform him of his failure at the Grail castle. She tells him that his mother ―car elle est
mort de la doleur‖ (774) [―who has died of grief‖ (425)] on account of his leaving, but in the
Norse version this has been changed to the more active ―þú drapt móður þina af harmi, þá er
þú hljópt frá henni at óvilja hennar‖ (152) [―you killed your mother with grief when you ran
away from her against her will‖ (153)]. According to F. Regina Psaki, this fits what we know
of Norse-Icelandic culture, because ―the active verb not only emphasizes Parceval´s
culpability,‖235 but it underscores the fact that Perceval did not take the correct action that was
needed to preserve his personal honor, and so now he is shamed. As we have previously
discussed, the moderation of the Hideous Damsel´s diatribe against Parceval seems to
mitigate the importance of his task and therefore the feelings of shame which may result from
it. Finally, the hermit appears less judgmental of Parceval upon meeting him in the Church,
and places fewer conditions upon his forgiveness in the eyes of God.
Another significant element of this scene is the fact that neither Perceval nor his Norse
cousin seem particularly troubled to hear that his mother has died, apparently causing the grief
of losing a loved one to be cut short because it cannot be changed. While this fits with the
Norse trend of unemotional response to antecedent conditions, It is not clear why Perceval
does not display outward evidence of mourning beyond commenting on this ―terrible news‖
and stating the hope that God will have mercy on her soul. Interestingly, Parceval is slightly
more explicit in the saga, declaring that these are ―hörmulig tiðindi‖ (152) [―sad tidings‖
(153)]. Both Percevals immediately decide there is no point in going home, and turn back to
Arthur‘s court.
Thirdly, we must perform normative social appraisals to see if people of a given culture
are alike or different in the social value of displaying the emotion; namely, is it acceptable to
acknowledge the emotion that is felt, and to what extent or depth is it acceptable? The literary
audience of France appears to value displays of emotion as signs of religious contrition, based
on the high emotions of the confession scene with the hermit. In contrast, the Norse Parceval
appears much more unemotional. K.T. Kanerva notes ―In saga culture, the face and body were
directly connected to the person's inner state. It was typical for the saga authors to describe
only what could be seen, whereas emotions and other inner, mental states could not be easily
235
Psaki, "Women´s Counsel in the Riddarasögur: The Case of Parcevals Saga," 209.
82
described, if at all.‖236 One example is Perceval‘s meeting with the abused maiden, whose
suffering he caused as a result of kissing her in her tent and taking her ring in the beginning of
the story. The display seems odd because Perceval blushes with shame even as he denies any
knowledge of her identity. In the saga, the Norse Parceval´s reaction seems more a
subconscious acknowledgement of his wrongdoing, as he says "eigi minnir mik at ek hafa fyrr
sét þik" (154) [―I do not remember that I have seen you before,‖ (155)] rather than the French
narrative´s line, ―je ne pense ni que ne crois vous avoir jamais vue ou vous avoir nui en quoi
que ce soit‖ (779) [―I‘m absolutely certain I have never seen you before or done you any
harm‖ (427)]. In another example, the hermit of Le Conte du Graal sighs upon hearing
Perceval‘s name, having recognized him as his nephew. The Old Norse hermit simply
declares their kinship. This stoicism in the face of great trials has led some scholars to
conclude that the Norse culture had an entirely different concept of emotions. William Ian
Miller declares the gentler emotions all but dead. ―One might well wonder whether the
cultivated nonchalance and understatement in the face of death that is the hallmark of the
heroic style does not reveal a socialization very successful in killing some of the softer types
of sentiment rather than simply covering genuinely felt feelings with cool wit and
taciturnity.‖237
The women are the more emotional of the sexes, suggesting that in either culture
female displays of emotion are more acceptable than those of men. Still, the emotional
displays of women in the Norse version are also toned down in comparison to the French. In
the French original, Perceval‘s mother is quite emotional, first expressing joy upon his return
home for the day, fainting when she hears he has seen the knights, and expressing despair
upon her revival, ―Ah! Woe is me, what misfortune!‖ The tent maiden reacts similarly to her
abuse at the hands of the Haughty Knight in both tales,"ok hún full angrs ok tára, þvíat hún
hafði þolt allskyns vesöld" (154) [―overwhelmed by grief and tears because she had suffered
every kind of misery‖ (155)]. Blancheflor and Blankiflúr both weep piteously at the thought
of another day at war with Clamadeu/Klamadius and his men. Perceval‘s cousin, the Weeping
Maiden, and the Hideous Damsel both use similar language in both stories when condemning
his actions, or lack thereof, at the Grail Castle. This is reflective of both a similar
psychological purpose in levying judgement on Perceval privately in the case of the lady and
publically by the actions of the Damsel, and a comparable tolerance for women expressing
emotion in both cultures. In fact, the diatribes of the two women may have been seen as
236
237
K.T. Kanerva, “Ógæfa as an Emotion in Thirteenth-century Iceland,” Scandinavian Studies 84:1 (2012): 6.
Miller, Humiliation, 97.
83
analogous to the role of the lamenter and the whetterer, respectively, in saga literature to the
Norse audience, who was accustomed to these tropes in the literature. Sarah M. Anderson
believes that, by doing so, these women ―are engaging in one of the few speech acts
represented by the literature open to them, and they are speaking on behalf of the customs of
their society – not in monstrous aberration from them.‖238 In both stories, the Weeping
Maiden bemoans the knight´s choices with sadness and regret. The Hideous Damsel is a
whetterer in the sense that she comes to court specifically to harangue Perceval and spur him
and the other knights to action as she lists many unresolved crimes and people in need in
various kingdoms which the knights could aid. The Hideous Damsel‘s actions here, appearing
and doling out disdain for Perceval as well as announcing that ―s´il veut faire un prouesse
chevaleresque: qui la cherche sûr de la trouver en cet endroit‖ (801) [―anyone wishing to
perform deeds of chivalry will find opportunities there for the asking‖ (438)]. In so doing, she
passive-aggressively shames the knights of Arthur‘s court, who should have been out
searching for deeds of chivalry already. Tellingly, the knights immediately begin boasting
loudly that they will go and return victorious. Joseph J. Duggan notes,
In cultures in which responsibility is collectively shared according to societal conventions
such as the solidarity of the kin group, shame often plays a dominant role in the
sanctioning of good and evil. Twelfth-century French society is just such a culture. Guilt
is present in Chrétien´s romances, but it plays a peripheral role compared to shame. It is a
question, not of opposing the concepts ―guilt culture‖ and ―shame culture‖ but of which of
the two, shame or guilt, is the most common and important sanction in a given society or
depiction of society. For the Arthurian world as Chrétien depicts it, shame is by far the
most forceful and most frequent sanction.239
Again, guilt is an inner notion of wrongdoing. If the knights had felt guilt over their inaction,
they would have gone out to seek adventure and made the attempt to correct the problem on
their own. Perceval, in particular, would have felt guilt upon meeting the Weeping Maiden.
Instead, King Arthur‘s men required a woman to point out their unmanliness before they were
moved to act.
The most introspective scene in the story is found in the scene in which Perceval
enters a trance upon viewing three drops of blood on the ground. This scene can be interpreted
as either a latent sexuality or a burgeoning shame in Perceval, due to its connections to both
Blacheflor‘s physical beauty and the religious connotations of blood. However, the Norse
Parceval reacts in a typically more taciturn fashion than the French character, telling Gawain
238
Sarah M. Anderson, “Introduction: ´Og eru köld kvenna ráð,’” in Cold Counsel: Women in Old Norse
Literature and Mythology, eds. Sarah M. Anderson and Karen Swenson (New York: Routledge, 2002), xii-xiii.
239
Duggan,
c
f
, 128-9.
84
that Keu and Sagremor, who approached him in order to fetch him to the king and became
angry at his unresponsive state, robbed him of his meditation. In contrast, the French Perceval
gushes that he had a ―une belle enluminure‖ (795) [―most pleasing thought‖(435)] about his
lady love which he proceeds to describe for the other knight. Both cultures support the idea
that, when Perceval is approached by unknown parties who ―vildu nauðga mér at fara til
kóngs, sem þeir hefði mik hertekit ok vápmsótt‖ (164) [―wanted to force me to go to the king,
as though they had captured and conquered me,‖ (165)], it is acceptable to respond to this
threat with immediate violence. This scene also illustrates the importance of being able to
respond to a threat with proper skill to defend oneself. Both Keu and Sagremor‘s first
response to the unreactive Perceval is to yell and threaten him. In turn, Perceval reacts by
knocking Sagremor from his horse and breaking Keu‘s arm.
Proper courtesy is modeled for the audience immediately. Gawain reacts with empathy
toward Perceval and approaches him kindly, guessing that ―le chevalier avait peut-être perdu
quelqu´un et cela le rendait triste, ou bien son amie lui avait été enlevée, et cela lui causait
peine et chagrin‖ (793) [―the knight was contemplating some loss he had suffered, or perhaps
his lady has been carried off and he is sad and dispirited‖ (434)]. Gawain engages in problem
solving before he approaches Perceval after he has seen the results of Keu and Sagremor‘s
decision to rush the armed man. As a response to his words, Arthur praises the knight for
speaking ―most courteously‖ (435). Valvur, the Norse Gawain, does not attempt to guess at
what is bothering Parceval and merely greets him as a brother and explains his purpose.
Valvur is instead praised for being ―vitr‖ (164) [―sensible‖ (165)] and ―vel stiltr‖ (164)
[―level-headed‖ (165)]. This suggests that while empathy and awareness of emotion was
optimal in courtly France, it was possibly more valued in Norse culture to be rational and
goal-oriented. In terms of shame, though both Percevals are motivated to leave society as a
form of self-punishment, the details of their return to civilization in the scene where the
character seeks confession reveal slightly different motivations. The Norse Parceval´s words
to the hermit imply that his reaction is motivated more by problem solving whereas Perceval
is possibly engaging in seeking approval from the hermit due to the fact that he begs and
cries, perhaps showing remorse more clearly for the benefit of the audience.
To diverge from unhappy emotions, which generally mark the narrative, Perceval does
feel happiness during his time with Gornemant in both stories, finding a mentor in the skilled,
generous knight. However, a critical difference in the text appears. In the French romance,
Gornemant‘s skill with weapons came from nature and his own heart, implying a divine origin
for his nobility and the expertise that supposedly came with it. The saga character names
85
something different as the source of his skill: ―Allt má nema, sagði hann. Ef maðr leitar við og
leggr hug á. En með því at þú hefir eigi fyrr sét að slíku farit, þá er þér þat engi skömm, at þú
kunnir eigi. En nú síðan þú hefir sét, þá hefir þý skömm ok skaða ef þú neitar at nema‖ (124)
[―Everything can be learned,‖ said he, ―if a man tries hard and puts his mind to it. But
inasmuch as you have not seen such things done before, then it is no disgrace to you that you
are ignorant of it. But now since you have seen it, you will incur disgrace and injury if you
refuse to learn‖ (125)]. This presents a sharp deviation between the two cultures. Where in
France, Perceval‘s prowess is a random gift of Nature (or divine reward) due to his noble
destiny, The Norse Parceval has the opportunity to learn whatever skill he wishes to know and
earn much renown if he is able to learn it well. This sentiment clearly exposes the entrenched
class values of the nobility in France, whereas in Norway and especially Iceland, it was likely
easier to succeed without the aid of noble lineage if one could prove his worth in other ways.
Finally, we must decide if people are alike or different in the ways they respond to
displays of emotion in others, such as mirroring the emotion as a show of empathy,
withdrawing or, most interestingly to this research, collectively shaming an individual. The
prime example of this is Perceval‘s reaction to his mother‘s extreme upset when he informs
her of his intention to seek out knighthood at Arthur‘s court. Her weeping and fainting is
mostly ignored by her uncouth son, who changes the subject to his own selfish needs when he
asks for something to eat. Typically, the Norse Parceval and his mother set aside emotions
and engage in a discussion. Both mothers believe that their sons will come to grief as they are
uneducated and ill-equipped to appear at court, but the French Perceval tells his mother that
he does not care, whereas the saga character patiently informs her that he will learn what he
should know eventually. Another added detail is that the Norse Parceval thanks his mother
before leaving, displaying a modicum of courtesy despite his greater sin of abandoning her. A
woman‘s tears as well as her laughter provoke a response in men. Women can use emotion to
manipulate men for their own purposes in either; both Blancheflor and the Norse Blankiflúr
cry and promise to kill themselves at the dawn of another terrible day under siege, stirring a
sympathetic response in their respective Percevals, who comfort them with kisses and
embraces as well as promises to help. It can be surmised from this episode that, while it is not
advantageous for a Viking to show emotion in public or in the company of other men, it is not
a problem to show the softer emotions in private.
Earlier in the story, a maiden at court who laughs upon seeing Perceval in accordance
with a prophecy that she will laugh in the presence of the supreme lord of all knights (394).
The Norse translator omits the laugh. When the Norse Kæi kicks the fool, it is because he has
86
said the same thing as did the girl (117).240 The French version allowed Keu to take out his
anger at a perceived insult from the girl not only on her, but on an innocent bystander. The
saga changes this to a more reasonable reaction on the Norse Kæi‘s part; he is ―mundi springa
af angri ok reiði‖ (120) [―bursting with anger and rage‖ (121)] because both have insulted the
court by declaring that Perceval will one day be the greatest knight in the world.
From this analysis, we can see that while the culture of France and Norse-Iceland have
common elements as displayed in the two narratives, there are also alterations made to the
Old Norse version which highlight the differences between the two cultures. While Perceval
does not ask charitable questions for fear of seeming ill-mannered, the Norse Parceval also
does not want his actions to reflect poorly on his host and teacher. In the same manner, while
the Hideous Damsel condemns both Percevals, the character may have taken on the added
significance of the feud whetterer, a familiar duty of women in Norse culture. Religious
matters and the commission of sin is paramount to the French culture as portrayed in the
story, whereas the Old Norse version downplays its role considerably. Likewise, non-verbal
expressions of emotion such as sighing and weeping are important forms of expression to the
French, whereas the Norse-Icelandic culture seems to have preferred to keep these elements to
a minimum or, if necessary, bound by private spaces. In general, the French original seems to
value emotional expression and empathy among characters, whereas the Old Norse characters
treated each other fairly and rationally, earning praise for their wisdom and level-headedness
instead.
4.4 Durkheim and Role of Religion and Shame in Shaping Society
Now we can explore ideas of religion put forth by Emile Durkheim, which holds that social
institutions such as religion exist in order to meet certain needs in a given society; in effect,
the way a society conceptualizes God illustrates the ideal form of that society.241 By
examining the construction and reception of religion in the societies of France and NorseIceland as portrayed in the two versions of the Perceval romance and supported by secondary
historical sources, we can then evaluate the relationship between religion and shame in each
society. In addition to definite ideas about religion and its role in society, Durkheim strongly
believed that emotions and collective sentiments were responsible for the creation of social
solidarity through moral community.242 In essence, the emotions we feel and the commonality
240
Kratz, “The Parcevals Saga and Li Contes del Graal,” 27.
W. S. F. Pickering, Durkheim's Sociology of Religion: Themes and Theories, 73.
242
Scheff, “Shame and the Social Bond: A Sociological Theory), 84.
241
87
of when we feel them creates a sense of community and togetherness through this shared
experience. Thomas J. Scheff notes,
Durkheim bequeathed to modern social thought a theoretical building block: the idea
that the force of social influence is experienced by individuals as exterior and
constraining. Although he argued that the individual experiences social influence as an
absolutely compelling force exterior to self, he did not spell out the causal sequence
implied. What are the steps that lead individuals to experience social control as
exterior and constraining? This is an important question because exterior constraint
has become a basic premise for modern sociologists.243
Durkheim also believed shame to be a social emotion, levied against those who have acted
immorally by others in the society. In the story, Perceval is not bothered upon committing the
sin of silence when he does not ask the Grail questions, for he is ignorant of his crime. Even
upon being told of his wrongdoing by the crying maiden in the woods, Perceval is not
particularly anguished; it is only upon being insulted in front of the entire court by the
Hideous Damsel, an exterior source of judgement rather than an interior one, that Perceval is
motivated to make amends for his actions. It is significant, then, that the Norse Parceval does
not place the same importance upon the Hideous Damsel as the French Perceval. In
downplaying her hideousness, he seems to be less disturbed by her presence and by the
physical embodiment of his wickedness.
Once Perceval has been made aware of his breach of morality, he exiles himself and
leaves society as a form of punishment, even though his audience in both versions of the tale
makes no comment on his actions. Arthur, the head of the court, makes no judgment on
Perceval, nor does anyone ask him to leave. This, too, is supported in Durkheim´s notions of
shame as a mechanism of conformity in society. Scheff articulates that conformity to social
norms can be levied against a person even without obvious censure:
There is wide agreement that conformity is encouraged by a system of sanctions: we
usually conform because we expect to be rewarded when we do and punished when
we do not. However, conformity usually occurs even in the absence of obvious
sanctions. Durkheim's formulation refers to the ubiquity of conformity. The reward of
public acclaim and the punishment of public disgrace rarely occur, yet the social
system marches on. Formal sanctions are slow, unwieldy, and expensive. In addition
to the formal system, there must be a complex and highly efficient system of informal
sanctions that encourages conformity.244
243
244
Scheff, “Shame and Conformity: The Deference-Emotion System,” 395.
Scheff, “Shame and Conformity: The Deference-Emotion System,” 395.
88
This is illustrated several times in the story of Le Conte du Graal, from the aforementioned
scene in which the hero is condemned by the Hideous Damsel and again, when he meets
pilgrims on the road on Good Friday and is encouraged by them to conform to the social ritual
of confessing one´s sins on this holiday. Perceval feels some emotion deep in his heart and is
moved to enter the church.
However, the scene is presented differently in the French and Norse versions of the
story. In the French romance, Perceval sighs ―au fond du cœur, parce qu´il se sentait coupable
envers Dieu, et il s´en repentait‖ (841) [―deep within his heart because he had sinned against
God and was very sorry for it‖ (459)]. This Perceval is also more emotional than his Norse
incarnation, crying because he is very afraid ―d´avoir offensé de Dieu‖ (842) [―that he has
sinned against Almighty God‖ (459)]. Perceval begs the hermit for help and absolution, ―car il
en a grande besoin‖ (842) [―for he felt in great need of it‖ (459)]. The hermit seems harsher
with this Perceval, informing him that he would ―il n´aura de remission qu´après confession et
dans le repentir‖ (842) [―never be forgiven if he did not first confess and repent‖ (459)]. Here,
the hermit seems to be the arbiter of social approval, the gatekeeper waiting to levy judgement
upon Perceval and decide if he should be allowed to return to the civilized world. Likewise, it
seems that Perceval has been driven here to seek society´s approval by a number of negative
emotions. Emotional upheaval is common with religious belief, particularly when one
believes that he has committed an unforgiveable sin; in fact, the scene may have been
intended to show Perceval´s spiritual growth. According to Julie Juola Exline, Ann Marie Yali
and William C. Sanderson, ―A certain degree of strain may be inherent in religious life. … In
fact, most major religions would contend that such hardship contains the seeds of spiritual
maturity: Growth results not from a lack of suffering, but from a constructive response to
it.‖245 In coming to the priest, Perceval was able to make a constructive choice rather than
continuing to punish himself in exile.
In contrast, the Norse Parceval is similarly "þá komzt hann við mjök í hjarta sínu"
(180) [―touched in the heart‖ (181)] by the same urge to visit the hermit, but it is not attributed
to distressed feelings at having sinned. Instead, a more logical explanation that it "ok kom
honum í hug hversu ferliga hann hafði lifat" (180) [―came into his mind how abominably he
had lived,‖ (181)] and he took action to change this element of his life. Rather than begging,
Parceval declares to the hermit that he is in need of "hans heilræða til umbóta sinna synda"
(180) [―his healing counsel for the amending of his sins‖ (181)]. The hermit assents to hearing
245
Exline, Yali and Sanderson, “Guilt, Discord and Alienation,” 1493-4.
89
his confession without a need for threats that he would never be forgiven if he did not follow
instructions. In general, Parceval appears less affected by emotions, which is typical for Old
Norse literature. This implies that clear-headed, unemotional decision making was preferred,
even in the case of religion, whereas it may not be the case in France. There, it seems, one is
meant to subjugate oneself before the priests and, by extension, God, begging instead of
asking and being denied the ministrations of the Holy Church unless one has obtained
forgiveness. Durkheim´s work supports this idea, due to the fact that ―social control involves
a biosocial system that functions silently, continuously, and virtually invisibly, occurring
within and between members of a society. Cultural taboos on the acknowledgement of pride
and shame seem to lead to pathological states of shame, which give rise to the rigid or
excessive conformity.‖246 As we have seen, French culture in this period of history was
particularly subject to the dictates of the pope and Church as that institution vied for power
against the emerging states of Europe.
In order to maintain its impact in society, religion must not only dictate proper
behavior through shame and praise, but it must also be possible to repeat those experiences so
as to create positive feelings in its adherents and reinforce the value of maintaining its – and
society´s – dictates. Durkheim writes,
Whoever has really practiced a religion knows very well that it is the cult which gives
rise to these impressions of joy, of interior peace, of serenity, of enthusiasm which are,
for the believer, an experimental proof of his beliefs. The cult is not simply a system
of signs by which the faith is outwardly translated; it is a collection of the means by
which this is created and recreated periodically.247
At his moment of greatest need, Perceval experiences some relief when he participates in the
Christian ritual of confession and receives forgiveness from the hermit; though it is not
explicit, he does not cry or display distressed behavior afterwards, conversing normally with
the hermit. Presumably, should Perceval sin again, he could recreate his feelings of peace by
confessing again. In the course of his ministrations, the hermit also gives Perceval a list of
daily activities which he should perform as a demonstration of his remorse: He should go to
church each day to do penance, hear Mass, and stay there until the priest has ―ait tout dit et
chanté‖ (844) [―said and sung it all‖ (460)]. He must also honor noblemen and women, and
help widows, orphans and maidens. The hermit tells him that only after all this will he earn
true forgiveness: ―Si tu en as volonté, tu pourras encore rentrer en grâce et trouver place au
paradis‖ (844) [―If you do this with a true heart, you will yet improve yourself and win
246
247
Scheff, “Shame and Conformity: The Deference-Emotion System,” 406.
Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, 417.
90
honour and salvation,‖ (460)]. The priest tells him he must do all these things in order to
complete full penance and to ―retrouver la grâce de Dieu comme autrefois‖ (844-5) [―regain
the graces you used to enjoy,‖ (460)] implying that Perceval is not forgiven until he does them
all. Unfortunately, Perceval´s part in the the story ends without the audience knowing if
Perceval is completely forgiven or if he is forever doomed to be an outcast and sinner. Again,
though the Norse Parceval also participates in confession and Communion, the general
omission and shortening of religious elements in his story supports the idea that religious
rites, and any peace granted by their performance, are not meant to be the focus of his actions.
The hermit´s list of directives is reduced to a instructions to ―take care of his soul,‖ and to
always attend Mass and help those in need. After spending two days with the hermit Parceval
departs and lives ―siðan sem góðr kristinn maðr‖ (182) [―forever after as a good Christian
man‖ (183)]. In Norse society, forgiveness appears to have been easier to obtain or, perhaps,
unconditional once it is obtained.
One idea from Durkheim which seems to illuminate one of the central themes of
Perceval story is that a society which leads man to act in order to change the society for the
better ―has made him acquire the need of raising himself above the world of experience and
has at the same time furnished him with the means of conceiving another.‖248 Perceval
experiences this through the trials of his romance, in which he begins as an ignorant fool
unaware of the rules and strictures of human civilization. In learning and becoming ―the
greatest knight in the world,‖ he has raised himself to a position above that of other men, and
may now conceive of an ideal world, personified by God and the ideology of Christian
religion. Though Chrétien was unable to finish Perceval‘s progression, those who later penned
the famous Continuations thought this was the case, sending Perceval on all manner of
spiritual adventures until he ascends to a kind of divine being and removes himself from
humanity altogether. On the contrary, the saga promotes the idea that the ideal of manhood is
not to move beyond humanity by becoming closer to some divine principle, but to
successfully integrate all parts of the self into one capable, powerful person. Rather than
having the power to rise above the world of experience, the Norse Parceval can now lead
others in making it better. Taken as a whole, Perceval‘s story appears to advocate leaving
behind the world of men for divine ideals whereas the Norse Parceval champions the idea of
self-actualization which allows us to make the world better. This can only be speculation, due
to the unfinished state of the story.
248
Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, 423.
91
5. CONCLUSION
There were many reasons why a given element was changed in the course of
translation or adaptation into a new audience. Variations may appear for reasons of
information change, in which an element is changed to fit more closely the expectations of the
audience, as changes to jousts and tournaments were adapted to use the general language of
battle for the Norse-Icelandic audience, for whom large-scale tournaments and related
activities such as jousting were unknown. A second reason for change would be to make
certain details of the story more explicit so that the audience would understand possibly
unfamiliar aspects. Another reason for change is emphasis change, in which the importance
of a given element is made more or less important. The translator of Parcevals saga chose to
emphasize scenes of education, particularly in battle and weaponry. The Norse Parceval´s
journey as a man elevated from the status of idle farmer in the forests outside of civilization to
a well-respected and powerful lord with his own lands and hall, a fine wife, and reputation as
a good Christian and good man.
This particular example of emphasis change appeared to be so deliberate and sharply
defined that it led to decades of scholarly debate, led by Geraldine Barnes, who believes that
the story was intentionally created as a king´s mirror, like Konungs skuggsiá, meant to
educate its audience as to how to properly carry out the duties and social expectations of
Parceval´s rank. On the other hand, Marianne Kalinke advocates the position that it was
intended only for entertainment in a culture which thrived on the adventures of saga heroes. I
would argue that, in a general sense, all stories are meant to entertain the audience, but that
Chrétien´s intended purpose for all his works was to educate his audience of truths he
considered worthy. He declares as much in the prologue to Érec et Énide, wherein he says, ―a
man does well to make good use of his learning according to whatever standing he has, for he
who neglects his learning may easily keep silent something which would later give much
pleasure.‖249 A common theme of his other works is to find balance between two essential
forces in one´s life, such as love of one´s wife and duty to one´s liege, though the focus of this
essay is restricted to Perceval´s tale. This moral would seem to fit the plot of Le Conte du
Graal (Perceval) as well. Perceval is at first ignorantly blissful and must enter the world of
the court and find a balance between the demands of human society and the spiritual realm, in
order to transcend from one to the other. Chrétien maintains that the guiding factor in such a
journey is Nature, possibly another word for divine favor, and his noble lineage. The
249
Carroll and Kibler, trans., “Erec and Enide,” 39.
92
translator, tasked with adapting this material to a Norse-Icelandic audience, did so faithfully
and by his actions, the educational purpose remains. However, the emphasis changes which
caused the religious didactics to be toned down severely have changed the moral.
The Norse Parceval is a man who must integrate these same elements within himself
in order to achieve what is best in life: to defeat his enemies in honorable combat and live as a
good husband, good Christian and capable lord. The progression of his character shows that
education from an early age is invaluable in achieving one´s goals. Perceval´s education
seems designed to allow him to move beyond the trappings of the material world on his path
to spiritual understanding, illustrated by the fact that, with the knowledge he has gained
through suffering and confession, he is now equipped to ask the questions properly when
confronted once more with the Grail. Though it is difficult to be definitive with an unfinished
manuscript, the fact was noted and embellished by those who wrote the Continuations. By
contrast, the Norse Parceval´s journey and his triumphs seem firmly rooted in the physical
realm, in the manner of all practical Nordic heroes who define success as earning their own
lands and leadership gained through courage, rational action and reputation.
This knowledge informs the second half of this work, in which we examine the
romance and the translated saga for its depiction of guilt or shame in relation to religious
failing. In doing so, we find that guilt is more private, often triggered by inner
acknowledgements of wrongdoing which motivate the person to make changes to solve the
problem. Shame is considered to be a ―social emotion‖ in which judgment comes from an
outside source (e.g. one‘s family or friends). As such, the impact of shame can be
overwhelming and cause one to feel alienated from one‘s community, which we see is true in
Le Conte du Graal (Perceval). Even in the absence of shaming words or actions by the court,
the fact that the people have witnessed the accusations of the Hideous Damsel is enough for
Perceval to flee in disgrace and separate from society for five years before a chance meeting
allows him to achieve a partial sense of peace. In Norse-Iceland, though, shame is conceived
in another way, not as an emotion but as a circumstance which must be taken seriously to
prevent loss of reputation or feud. Shame is something which happens to you, not something
you feel. Because of this, it is something that can be countered with decisive action rather
than a more indirect process of confession and forgiveness from God.
Modern research on the connection of shame and religion suggests that it is common
for serious adherents to feel shame if they feel they have disappointed God or behaved
improperly. It is not so much the seriousness of their actions but the feeling that they are cut
off from God‘s love due to their failure that causes anguish. These feelings often lead the
93
person to commit suicide if he or she feels the relationship between them cannot be salvaged.
From the text, we can infer that the concept of shame relating to religion was similar in
medieval France, as Perceval behaves just this way upon revelation of his great sin, leaving
the court behind and isolating himself from their (perceived) judgment and ―forgetting God‖
for five years, after which he is able to, in his own perception, reconnect with the divine.
Though the romance does not mention suicide, it is not unknown for the hero to attempt such
in other works by this author, particularly Lancelot and Yvain.
As already stated, the relationship between shame and the individual in NorseIcelandic was quite different as a concept. It was not so related to violation of God‘s law, but
in dishonorable action toward fellow man. The Norse culture had a much less entrenched
Church, being a mix of pagan and Christian until at least the middle medieval period (and
likely unofficially well beyond). Though Christianity was increasingly appealing as Norway
and Iceland sought to restructure its society to include an aristocratic class like that of France
and other European courts, the old ideals of the value of small communities, strong alliances,
and the right to earn one‘s place in society through merit still held sway on the culture. With
this reorganization, the Church became increasingly appealing, not only because it had power
and influence it could wield on behalf of a king such as Hákon, who wished to cement his
claim to kingship, but because ideas of divine right to rule had already become ingrained in
the aristocracies of Europe. To be the true king, one must have the King of Heaven in one´s
corner. For the majority of society in Iceland, however, meaning those not vying for power at
the end of the Commonwealth period, their adherence to Christian rituals was less rigid and
performed for social and political reasons rather than in response to a large-scale moral or
intellectual shift. This may also have been the case for France and other states of Europe, due
to the long history of the Church´s presence in political matters stretching back to Antiquity.
However, by the time the French romance was written, religious practice had become a
deeply ingrained part of the cultural tradition and therefore, more based on feelings of
connection to the past and the comfort of repeated rituals.
Though this research is brief and only compares the French romance Le Conte du
Graal (Perceval) and the Norse translation, Parcevals saga, the topic could easily be
expanded to include other translations of this story, or similar comparisons between
Chrétien´s other works and their translations. Chrétien was a popular author and his works
were translated and adapted into German and Welsh as well as Old Norse. It would be
interesting to see what interpretations could be made of emotions within those cultures.
Additionally, it would be useful to focus on emotions other than guilt and shame, to advance
94
psychological and sociological understanding of the medieval psyche. Another avenue of
study opened by this work is a comprehensive evaluation of the state of decline in Arthur‘s
Court, which is depicted in glowing terms in Chrétien‘s earlier works but troubled by the time
of Perceval‘s arrival at Logres. By examining the five stories as if they were part of a
deliberate and collective story arc, we may discover some deeper purpose to the author‘s
seemingly pessimistic portrayal of Arthur‘s reign in Le Conte du Graal as it reaches its end.
In trying to understand what statement Chrétien may have been making about society,
chivalry and the apparent fall of the once and future king, we may enhance our understanding
of Arthurian literature and contribute to the field of literary analysis as a whole.
With the evidence I have presented, it is possible to conclude that, according to the
worldview presented in the characters and behaviors of the two Perceval stories, the cultures
of France and Norse socieities as depicted in the narratives show a different expectations for
displays of emotion, societal structure and attitudes toward religion. Culturally, the noble
class of France was entertained by stories with much more emotion-based and spiritual
response to hardship while the Norse audience for the Perceval story appreciated practical
wisdom and taking action to solve problems. In France, it is possible for Perceval to achieve
greatness by simply having noble lineage, natural talent and a willing heart, while the
characters surrounding the Norse Parceval expected hard work on the part of the young man
to learn the necessary skills to form alliances, face enemies and win a good reputation. The
Norse society and particularly Iceland was designed to be a community of interdependent
family groups surviving via strong friendships and displays of wealth. In France, a deepseated devotion to God at the highest levels of politics and society created an expectation that
shows of emotion were the proper way to show one´s admiration and love for one´s leige,
one´s lady love, or God; conversely, shows of negative emotion revealed the truth of one´s
convictions and abhorrence of wrongdoing as the knight rode into battle to vanquish an
enemy. This reasoning did not hold true in Norway and Iceland, though. There, actions were
more desired than emotional displays, although courteous treatment would take you far.
Unsurprisingly, it appears that it was acceptable for the Norse male to be more expressive in
private, away from the eyes of those whose judgment could lead to insults and violence.
While a Frenchman might be so overcome with emotion that he composes a beautiful piece of
rhetoric, brimming with the eloquence of the ages, in the spirit of such luminaries as Aristotle
and Gelasius, to express the fullness of his thoughts on fate, the Divine, and the nature of
95
man, a Norseman might simply say, ―Hver er sinnar gæfu smiður" ["Each one makes his own
luck"250].
250
Translation mine.
96
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