Didot-Perceval

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Merlin prophesies the book title of the cycle to his scribe Maître Blaise:
"Li livres dou Graal"

Under the titles Didot-Perceval , Modena-Perceval or Prosa-Perceval , Romanists understand the third part of the so-called “Small Grail Cycle ” , a longer old French text that was probably written before 1202 and has been handed down in two manuscripts. The philological tradition ascribes this first, concise Arthurian cycle to Robert de Boron . More recent research, however, casts doubt on Boron's authorship.

The text of the medieval manuscripts speaks in a self-referential metafiction about its own creation. The magician and prophet Merlin , one of the protagonists of the novel, prophesied the title that the cycle would bear: "Li Livres dou Graal", "The Book of the Grail". Merlin had commissioned his scribe Maître Blaise to work out this novel and bring it to a close. "The Book of the Grail" will be read and praised until the end of days and all over the world:

«Tant com li mondes durera, tes livres li livres dou Graal sera molt volentiers oïz. »

"As long as the world lasts, your book, The Book of the Grail , will be heard with pleasure."

- Alexandre Micha (ed.): Robert de Boron. Merlin, Critical Edition, p. 101, after Hs. Paris, BnF, NAF747.

"Perceval", part of the "Little Grail Cycle"

The first two parts of the “Little Cycle” are prose resolutions of previous Arthurian verse novels by the author Robert de Boron, prosaic adaptations of his “Joseph d'Arymathie”, also called “Li romanz de l'Estoire dou Graal” , and his “ Merlin Poem ”, a fragment of which only the first 502 verses have survived.

The remanieurs, the transformers, the prose writers , wanted to bring Boron's Grail Tales to a conclusion. After Umbearbeitung in prose of "Joseph" and "Merlin" They therefore left a "prose Perceval", about whose sources since Walther Hoffmann's dissertation from 1905 medievalists to the present disagree.

This third part of the Little Cycle, the “Prose-Perceval”, is generally called “Didot-Perceval” after the owner of the first known manuscript . It includes a brief search for the Grail (“Queste del Saint Graal”) and a “Mort Artu” (Arthur's death), a short story about the fall of the Arthurian Empire and the end of the table knights .

This trilogy , "Joseph-Melin-Perceval", is of particular importance in literary history . It is the first evidence of French prose poetry and at the same time the first Arthurian novel cycle.

"The first literary monument of French prose: the trilogy of 'Joseph d'Arimathie', 'Merlin', and 'Perceval' derived from Robert de Boron's unfinished Livres dou Graal ."

"The first literary evidence of French prose: the trilogy 'Joseph d'Arimathie', 'Merlin', and 'Perceval', derived from Robert de Boron's unfinished Livres dou Graal ."

- E. Jane Burns, in: Romance Philology, vol. 39, no. 3, 1986, p. 376

Even if the authorship of the “prose perceval” is controversial, the French novelist Bernard Cerquiglini, with respect for the manuscript tradition , “in deference to the MS tradition” , holds in the title “ Robert de Boron . Le roman du Graal. Manuscrit de Modène ”of his old French edition of the entire trilogy based on the ms. Von Modena implicitly confirms the authorship of Robert de Boron, even if in his introduction he critically discusses Robert de Boron's authorship and ultimately questions it.

The number of only 307 pages, which the transcription of the Modena manuscript comprises, underlines the brevity of this “Little Grail Cycle” compared to the oversized Vulgate cycle of several thousand pages , the “Prosa-Lancelot Cycle”, and the “ Post-Vulgate cycle ”(1235–1240), to which the later continuers, reworkers, (1215–1235), also prose writers, expanded and changed the content of the Grail tales. In this “Great Grail Cycle” Lancelot will be the protagonist, and Galahad , Perceval's son, will see the mystery of the Grail instead of his father.

In the 15th century, Thomas Malory made the old French Vulgate cycle known in the Anglophone world through his compilation “ Le Morte Darthur ” . It served as a basis for screenwriters, for example for the film Excalibur .

Lore

Two manuscripts, the Parisian ms. “D” and the Modena Hs. "E" contain the complete "trilogy". Following the “Prosa-Joseph” and the “Prosa-Merlin”, they are seamlessly followed by a “Prosa Perceval” , the so-called “Didot Perceval” , without clear text boundaries .

The two manuscripts differ greatly from one another. Since the first discovered manuscript, Paris, BnF , NAF 4166, under the name of its former owner Firmin Didot was known, in the Romanist literature the designation "Didot manuscript" naturalized, abbreviated to the Sigel "D" for "Didot ". This explains the title "Didot-Perceval" of the last part of the trilogy. A second manuscript, which only became known later, is in the Biblioteca Estense Universitaria di Modena , under the signature E. 39. This "Modena-Hs." Is abbreviated in the specialist literature with the symbol "E" for "Estense" .

The title Didot-Perceval of the manuscript tradition avoids confusing this “prose-Perceval” with Chrétien de Troyes ' verse novel “Perceval” or “ Li Contes del Graal ” . This masterpiece, which remained unfinished because of Chrétien's death in 1190, was the starting point for all literary Grail tales:

"Mais, encore une fois, il n'y aurait pas eu de matière du Graal sans le roman de Chrétien."

“But I'll say it again. Without Chrétien's novel there would have been no Grail tales. "

- Michel Zink : Littérature française du Moyen Age, PUF , Paris 2001, p. 157.

Robert de Boron was the first continuer of Chrétiens who wanted to bring the "Perceval" Chrétiens to an end. A plethora of remanieurs and transformers have followed him up to the present day .

content

"Perceval reaches the Grail Castle"
"The Grail Procession"
Miniature: BnF, ms. fr. 12577, fol. 18v

In the first part of the Little Grail Cycle, the "Prose Joseph", the Christian origin of the Grail is emphasized and the reader learns how this mysterious sacred object came to Celtic Britain.

The second part of the cycle, the "Prose Merlin", tells the supernatural birth of the magician and prophet Merlin , son of a virgin and an incubus . He reports about Arthur's upbringing by his adoptive father Antor, about the sword trial , the introduction of the table ronde, the round table by Merlin, about his prophecies of the rise and fall of the Arthurian Empire.

The “Prosa-Perceval”, the third and last part of the Small Cycle, follows on from the “Prosa-Merlin” without a clearly defined text boundary . The editorial tradition has him begin with the chapter entitled:

"Ci palle li conte coment artus fust sacrez a roi par la volonté de touz le peuple"

"Here the story tells how Arthur was crowned king by the will of the entire people."

- Didot manuscript, Paris, BnF, NAF 1466: fol. 93v (first column, in red lettering).

The first sentence of this chapter, and thus the incipit of the "Didot Perceval", reads:

"Quant Artus fust sacrez et la messe fust chantée ..." (When Arthur was crowned and the mass was sung ...).

The “Prose-Perceval” starts with the coronation of the young Arthur as King of Celtic Britain , as King of the imaginary Royaume de Logres . The chosen table knight is Perceval, who after numerous adventures successfully passes the search for the Grail. He asks the questions that he did not dare to ask in Chrétien's version, heals the Fisher King and succeeds him. As the new keeper of the Grail, Perceval has achieved his spiritual goal of perfection . The protagonist's terrestrial knighthood has come to an end.

The "Queste del Saint Graal", the table knights ' quest for the Grail, has now come to an end. In order not to lose his warriors and with them the knightly ideals , Arthur looks for new challenges. He victoriously wages war against the King of France and against the Roman Emperor. Meanwhile, he entrusts the rule of Britain to his nephew Mordred . However, when he learns that Mordred has betrayed him, usurped the crown and married the queen, he returns to England.

The prose perceval has no happy ending .

King Arthur's death
"La Mort Le Roi Artu" (afr.)

In the final part of the “Prose Perceval”, called Mort Artu , Arthur first defeated the Saxons allied with Mordred. But there is a duel between uncle and nephew, with Mordred being killed by Arthur. King Arthur is seriously injured. He says goodbye to his followers with the words:

«Seygnors, je me ferai porter en Avallon por garir ma plaie à Morguen ma suer. »

"Gentlemen, I will be taken to Avalon to have my sister Morgan heal my wounds ."

- Édition Eugène Hucher, page 502 - on Gallica.

Thereupon King Arthur is picked up by a boat and transferred to Avalon , in the " Other World ", from which he will never return.

The prophet and magician Merlin also withdraws forever from the earthly world, because:

«Que nostre sire ne vouloit que il demorast au peuple, ne il ne pooit mie morir devant le deffinement du siecle ... atant s'entorna Merlin et fist son esplumeor et entra dedenz, ne oncques puis ne fust véu au siecle. »

“Our Lord does not want him to show himself to the people. But he couldn't die before the end of days ... then Merlin turned around, opened his ›esplumoir‹ [Merlin's magical abode], went inside and was never seen again. "

- Édition Eugène Hucher, pages 502/503 - on Gallica.

With the departure of the three heroes of the novel Perceval, Merlin and Artus, the fall of the imaginary Celtic kingdom of Logres and its world of knights is sealed.

The explicit of the "Prosa-Perceval" after the Didot-Hs. reads: "Ci finist le romanz des prophecies Merlin" - "This is where the novel of Merlin's prophecies ends ."

From this final formula of the copyist of the Didot manuscript and from the flowing transitions, the missing text boundaries, it becomes clear that there were no three different novels for the medieval reader. From his point of view there was only a short prose Joseph followed by a long prose Merlin. Medievalist Patrick Moran wrote in his essay from 2017:

«Un lecteur médiéval naïf ne verrait que deux textes, dans les manuscrits Didot et Modène: un court Joseph, suivi d'un Merlin beaucoup plus long qui englobe aussi l'histoire de Perceval, sa quête du Graal et la chute du royaume arthurien… Le philologue verra donc trois romans, Joseph, Merlin et Perceval, et appellera leur conjonction une trilogie. Le lecteur du Moyen Âge, en revanche, ne verra que deux textes. »

“An impartial medieval reader would see only two texts in the manuscripts of Didot and Modena: a short Joseph, followed by a much longer Merlin, which also includes the story of Perceval, his search for the Grail and the fall of the Arturian Kingdom ... The Philologist will see three novels, Joseph, Merlin and Perceval, and call their conjunction a trilogy. The medieval reader, on the other hand, only sees two texts. "

- Patrick Moran: La trilogie arthurienne de Robert de Boron et les aléas de la pattern recognition, 2017, p. 38 ( doi: 10.7202 / 1040896ar '' Volltext '' - on erudit.org).

Patrick Moran argues that Robert de Boron attributed "trilogy" "Joseph Merlin Perceval" a construct is of modern Romance languages, the medieval through study, comparison and editing texts were adept in long medieval manuscripts " patterns ," structures to recognize. For medieval readers it was only a "two-part", a short Joseph and a long Merlin, and not a three-part.

swell

According to Walther Hoffmann, who devoted his dissertation from 1905 to the question of sources in the Didot Perceval , six works come into consideration:

  • The Versjoseph and the Versmerlin by Robert de Boron,
  • the prose resolutions of these poems, i.e. Prosajoseph, Prosamerlin,
  • Chrétien de Troyes' "Perceval" ("Li Contes del Graal"), and its "Second Continuation", also called "Continuation Perceval" . Presumed author: Wauchier de Denain,
  • Geoffrey von Monmouth's " Historia Regum Britanniae " (Old French translation in verse by Robert " Wace : Le Roman de Brut "),
  • the poem "Le Bel Inconnu" by Renaut de Beaujeu,
  • Chrétien de Royes verse novel Erec et Enide .

Bibliography

Lexicons

Bibliographies

Manuscripts

  • “Didot manuscript” ( Sigel “D”) - “Le romanz des prophecies Merlin” or “roman de Joseph d'Arimathie, la vie de Merlin et la Quête du Saint-Graal”. Paris, BnF , NAF 4166.

The BnF offers a substantive aperçu of the manuscript.

The complete digitized version of the Didot Hs. is available online on Gallica: fol. 93v - 126v .

Incipit : fol. 93v (left column in red :) "Ci palle li conte coment artus fust sacrez a rois par la volonte de touz le peuple".

Explicit : fol. 126v: «Ci ​​finist le romanz des prophécies Merlin…».

Editions

1875: Edition HUCHER Perceval or La Quête du Saint Graal by Robert de Borron based on the Didot manuscript

  • Eugène Hucher: Le Saint Graal, ou Le Joseph d'Arimathie, première branche des romans de la Table Ronde, Volume 1, Au Mans, Éd. Monnoyer, Paris 1875. In it: Perceval ou La Quête du Saint Graal by Robert de Borron. D'après le manuscrit unique de M. Ambroise Firmin Didot, Membre de l'Institut, pages 415–505 - accessible online on Gallica.

1881: Critical Edition WEIDNER of the prose version of Joseph von Arimathia, the first part of the trilogy

  • Georg Weidner (ed.): The prose novel by Joseph von Arimathia . Eugen Franck's Buchhandlung Oppeln, 1881, digitized - on Internet Archive. On page II, 3 , G. Weidner describes the Didot manuscript NAF 4166, which completely reproduces the text of the prose Joseph. It bears the year of its composition: 1301.

1909: Edition WESTON: The Prose Perceval according to the Modena MS

  • Jessie Laidlay Weston: The Legend of Sir Perceval: Studies Upon Its Origin Development and Position in the Arthurian Cycle. Volume 2: The Prose Perceval according to the Modena MS. London 1909. Full text - on Internet Archive.

1941: Critical Edition ROACH The Didot Perceval, according to the manuscripts of Modena and Paris.

  • William Roach (Ed.): The Didot Perceval, according to the manuscripts of Modena and Paris. edited by William Roach. University of Pennsylvania press, Philadelphia 1941, (Reprint Slatkine, Geneva 1977). limited preview in Google Book search.
    • Review: Arthur Långfors : In: Neuphilologische Mitteilungen. vol. 48, no. 4, 1947, pp. 171-175. ( Full text - on JSTOR)
    • Review: Bossuat Robert. In: Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes. 1948, tome 107, livraison 1, pp. 126-128. ( Full text - on Persée.)

1981: Edition CERQUIGLINI of the entire trilogy "Joseph-Merlin-Perceval" based on the Modena manuscript "E"

  • Bernard Cerquiglini (Ed.): Robert de Boron : Le roman du Graal. Manuscrit de Modène. Union Générale d'Édition, 10/18 series, Paris 1981, ISBN 2-264-00336-7 . (Old French edition of all three parts of the “Little Grail”, the Prose-Joseph, the Prose-Merlin and the Prose-Perceval ).
    • Review: E. Jane Burns. In: Romance Philology. vol. 39, no. 3, 1986, pp. 376-378, full text on JSTOR

2000: Critical edition of the "Merlin en prose"

  • Alexandre Micha (Ed.): Robert de Boron. Merlin: roman du XIIIe siècle, critical edition, Droz publishing house, Geneva 2000, ISBN 978-2600004282 . (after Hs.Paris, BnF, NAF 747, from fol. 77r - on Gallica).

Secondary literature

  • Karl Otto Brogsitter: Arthurian epic. (= Metzler Collection . M 38). 1971, ISBN 3-476-10038-3 , limited preview in Google Book Search
  • Carol Dover (Ed.): A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle . Arthurian Studies, Volume LXIV, DS Brewer , Cambridge 2003, ISBN 978-1843842453 .
  • Walther Hoffmann: (Dissertation) The sources of Didot-Perceval. Hofbuchdruckerei by CAKaemmerer &. Co, Halle a, S. 1905. (Reprint: Kessinger 2017, ISBN 978-1-168-95990-4 .)
  • Volker Mertens : The Grail. Myth and Literature . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018261-1 , pp. 95-103.
  • Patrick Moran: La trilogie arthurienne de Robert de Boron et les aléas de la pattern recognition. In: Etudes françaises. Vol. 53, No. 2, 2017, pp. 27-49. doi: 10.7202 / 1040896ar
  • Elisabeth Schmid: Family stories and salvation mythology: The kinship structures in the French and German Grail novels of the 12th and 13th centuries. (= Supplements to the journal for Romance philology. Volume 211). Habilitation thesis. de Gruyter, 1986, ISBN 3-11-093550-3 . limited preview in Google Book search
  • Michel Zink : Littérature française du Moyen Age. 2nd, revised and improved edition. PUF , Paris 2001, ISBN 2-13-051478-2 , in particular pp. 179/180.

References

  1. ^ Philippe Walter (Ed.): Le Livre du Graal. Volume 1: Joseph d'Arimathie - Merlin - Les Premiers Faits du roi Arthur . Paris, Gallimard 2001, ISBN 978-2-07011-342-2 , p. XIX.
  2. ^ Karl Otto Brogsitter: Artusepik, Metzler Collection M 38, 1965, 1971, pp. 71/72, ISBN 978-3476100382 , limited preview in Google Book Search
  3. ↑ Georg Weidner: The prose novel by Joseph von Arimathia, foreword, p. 1 - Internet Archive.
  4. ↑ Brief aperçu of the manuscript Didot BnF, Manuscrits, NAF 4166 , one of the two handwritings that pass on this text.
  5. ↑ Patrick Moran: La trilogie arthurienne de Robert de Boron et les aléas de la pattern recognition. In: Etudes françaises Vol. 53, 2 (2017), p. 33, PDF (on erudit.org).
  6. ^ Philippe Walter (Ed.): Le Livre du Graal. Volume 1: Joseph d'Arimathie - Merlin - Les Premiers Faits du roi Arthur . Paris, Gallimard 2001, ISBN 978-2-07011-342-2 , pp. XVII / XIX
  7. ↑ Walther Hoffmann: (Dissertation) The sources of Didot-Perceval, Hofbuchdruckerei von CAKaemmerer &. Co, hall a. S. 1905. Reprint Kessinger 2017, ISBN 978-1168959904 .
  8. ↑ Baumgartner Emmanuèle (review): Robert de Boron, Merlin, Roman du XIIIe siècle, édition critique par Alexandre Micha, 1979. In: Romania, tome 101 n ° 404, 1980. pp. 538-543; Page 538 - on Persée.
  9. ^ E. Jane Burns, in: Romance Philology, vol. 39, no. 3, 1986, p. 376
  10. ↑ Bernard Cerquiglini (ed.): Robert de Boron . Le roman du Graal. Manuscrit de Modène, Union Générale d'Édition, series 10/18, Paris 1981, ISBN 2-264-00336-7 .
  11. ↑ Patrick Moran: La trilogie arthurienne de Robert de Boron et les aléas de la pattern recognition. In: Etudes françaises Vol. 53, 2 (2017) pp. 37/38 - PDF (on erudit.org).
  12. ↑ Édition Eugène Hucher: 415 - online on Gallica.
  13. ↑ Volker Mertens : The Grail. Myth and Literature . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 978-3-15-018261-1 (pp. 95-103.).
  14. ↑ fol. 126r Didot manuscript, NAF 4166, left column - on Gallica)
  15. ↑ Ed. Eugène Hucher: Page 502/503 - on Gallica.
  16. ↑ fol. 126v - Didot manuscript, NAF 4166
  17. ↑ Walther Hoffmann: (Dissertation) The sources of Didot-Perceval, Hofbuchdruckerei von CAKaemmerer &. Co, hall a. S. 1905. Reprint Kessinger 2017, pp. 8/9, ISBN 978-1168959904 .
  18. ^ "NAF" = Nouvelles acquisitions françaises
  19. ↑ Robert de Boron, Joseph d'Arimathie, Merlin en prose, Perceval en prose ( French ) bnf.fr. Retrieved June 10, 2020.