The Story of the Grail (Perceval) pgs 381-419

1) "He who sows sparingly, reaps sparingly, but he who wishes to reap plentifully casts his seed on ground that will bear him fruit a hundredfold, for good seed withers and dies in worthless soil" (381). The opening prologue to "The Story of the Grail (Perceval)" is much like "Erec and Enide" in its foreshadowing. This prologue teaches many lessons, but the first one that they teach is that the effort that you put in is the outcome that you will receive. Like the first line, if you plant a seed in good soil, it will grow plentifully. But if you throw a seed on the ground in hopes that it will grow, it won't. The prologue then states about the Count Philip of Flanders and how he believes in true justice, loyalty, and the Holy Church. It also quotes the Gospel, "let not your left hand know the good your right hand is doing." Chretien is bringing up a lot of these themes about possibly a higher love where love conquers all, no matter what your brain tells you to do. The prologue states that God knows what our desire is in our hearts and what we really want and that even though the left hand might not approve of it, the right hand has to do what its heart desires. The prologue also speaks about charity and how "he consults no one except his noble honest heart, which urges him to do good" (381). I believe that the prologue wants us to believe the get from the story the belief that love conquers all.

2) I absolutely loved the first scene where Perceval encounters the knights in the Waste Forest. In the text, Chretien portrays Perceval as a very naive child who seems to me to be very ADHD. He is incapable of staying on one topic because he is so starstruck by the knights. The knights are portrayed as very standoffish people who only care about one thing; where the 5 knights and 3 maidens ran off to. Perceval looks at the knights as a being larger than God itself. When he is asked questions about where the knights and maidens ran off to, he focuses more on materialistic things and does not answer their questions. When Perceval finds out their title as knights, he says, "would that I were like you, so shining and so well formed" (383) and asks about the things that he is carrying like swords and shields. Perceval is enthralled and is very materialistic, only caring about the look of the knights. It is very interesting how quickly his perception of the knights changes from when he firsts sees them. At first he is terrified and frightened by them, but then becomes amazed by their shields and swords, making him blinded by the whole thing. Chretien does this to emphasize the naivete of Perceval and how something to eye catching and wonderful, like a sword, or the vision of a knight, can make him so easily persuaded.

3) I thought that it was very interesting that at first when Perceval confronts his mother about meeting the knights and wanting to join, she practically passes out. I wasn't sure if she was upset or happy about his choice. Later on, she was telling Perceval about her lineage of knighthood and how his father was a knight, but he died. I think that Perceval's mother didn't want Perceval to find out about their background in knighthood because she didn't want to loose another one of her loves. She has lost her other sons and husband to knighthood and she didn't want to loose Perceval. To this, Perceval, like another teenage boy, asks for food and dismisses her worries and tells her that he is going anyway. He is very naive and does not understand the consequences in his actions and leaves his mother. His mother also gives him one last advice, and says that if a maiden is in need of help, then he must help her, but if she gives him her ring, he must leave her. to this, Perceval is very confused and asks things such as "what is a chapel," and "what is a church." Perceval is not very knowledgeable and I think that before he left, he should have paid more attention to his mother and found out the different things that could go wrong with leaving and becoming a knight.