Daniel Gittelman- "The Story of the Grail" (Outside Reading)

In the late 12th century, French poet Chrétien de Troyes wrote his unfinished romance “The Story of The Grail”. This romance is about the knight Perceval and his quest for the grail. I read this story during early fall, and I feel that it relates back to this class because of its inclusion of prayer and pilgrimage.

Prayer is not actually something that Perceval practices properly, but he attempts to because of his mother’s dying wish for him to pray. Before Perceval left on his quest, his mother told him “above all I want to beg you to pray to our Lord in chapel and church to give you honour in this world and grant that your deeds may ensure that you come to a good end” (de Troyes 388). The type of prayer that his mother wishes for him to practice is petition because she wants him to pray to God with the simple requests of honor and safety. These requests are not too self-centered because Perceval would not be asking about specific things, and particularly nothing materialistic. Perceval never reaches a point of kenosis, the decentering of the self, because he is a young man that is still learning. He progresses towards it but does not come close to actually reaching it.

Pilgrimage is a large part of this story because, in its entirety, Perceval is on a pilgrimage. Although it appears that he is searching for the grail, that was not his original intention. Young Perceval left his home with a focus on personal transformation. As he matures, Perceval never seems to perform any specific action for himself. He serves to fulfill his knightly duties and even had the realization that he should ask for the grail not because he wanted it, but because asking for it would have “brought great succour to the good king who is maimed” (de Troyes 425). Throughout this quest, Perceval is going a great distance while learning about himself and of a ‘higher good’. This reminds me of why people go on pilgrimages such as the Camino in order to find themselves and connect with the world around them. In addition, the grail is an element of Christianity at the end of Perceval’s pilgrimage, similarly to how the Santiago de Compostela is at the end of the Camino. Although Perceval has a much different experience, he is on a pilgrimage of his own.