Secret_History

Chapter 9: Percy-ing the Veil 309
We don’t wish to go into all the versions and variation, as there are many fine
books that undertake such a task with excellent scholarship. The point we wish to
make here is that the grail legends are composed by different authors, at different
times, coming from different backgrounds, with different agendas, and for the
most part, the central mystery is obscured in alternating historicizations and
mythicization processes. The essential story is that of a hero who is destined to
achieve the quest for an otherworldly object with particular themes that repeat
whether the action is set in Britain, Wales, Scotland, Brittany, Southern France,
India, Egypt or the Near East.
Different authors, at different times, have set the story in any of these places,
giving a wealth of detail which lures the researcher to believe that there is a real,
physical object called the Holy Grail, waiting somewhere to be found, which will
bring the discoverer unlimited power and glory, or will “heal” the land, in any of a
dozen various ways.
The conception and birth of the hero, who is variously named Arthur, Gawain,
Peredur, Perlesvaus, Parzival, Perceval, Galahad, or Bors, is generally the result of
the mysterious conjunction of parents who possess unusual potency in some
respect that varies from story to story, but generally includes courage and purity.
The hero is reared under conditions of extreme restriction in some way. He often
lacks worldly comprehension, and is thus called a Fool. He is usually distinctive in
some respect, but not quite “acceptable” in polite company because he is a sort of
geek, or dork as they called them when I was young. There is always something
prodigious about him in terms of strength or intellect, and he always has an
impeccable pedigree. At some point, by some divine bestowal of gifts, he is
marked as the “Chosen one”, or “The Heir”.
The adventure of the Grail Quest has a number of elements that repeat often
enough to be considered an ensemble. The initiate-hero has to ask the “right”
question, avenge a wrong, win the Grail, remain pure even after his achievement,
and finally capture a castle. Through all of these actions, he is transformed, and the
environment is changed as well. A “wounded king” is healed, and the world
becomes a paradise.
After considering all of these issues, we still come back again to that most
annoying of simple-minded questions: Why Perceval? Why was the hero named
Perceval in Chretien’s original story, and was this based on some particular
meaning known to those who guided his hand in the construction of the tale?
As Littleton and Malcor point out, the notion that the figure of Perceval was
derived from an Iranian source was discussed amongst Arthurian scholars in the
early part of the 20 th century. It was even suggested that Wolfram’s Parzival was a
free translation from the Persian stories. Unfortunately, most of this scholarship
has been ignored in favor of the Celtic hypothesis advanced by Loomis. It is
proposed by some of those who follow the Celtic formation, that all of the Grail
manuscripts ultimately drew upon Robert de Boron’s Joseph as their source.
Littleton notes:
Although Perceval was well known in the continental Grail tradition, the British Sir
Perceval of Galles (ca. 1300-1340) makes no mention of the Grail, even though
images that employed the motif of the Chalice at the Cross were already known in
Britain at this time. This makes it unlikely that the Perceval branch of the Grail