Perceval, the Story of the Grail

Content Warning: These Chapter Summaries & Analyses include a brief description of violent antisemitic rhetoric, which is featured in Lines 6292-6296 of Perceval.

The first 68 lines of the poem function as a brief introduction (that Cline’s translation designates as the book’s Prologue), in which Chrétien de Troyes addresses his readers and dedicates the book to Philip of Alsace, the Count of Flanders. At the time, Count Philip was serving as regent for France’s young ruler, Philip-Augustus. Count Philip had apparently commissioned Chrétien to create an Arthurian tale in epic verse (as he had already done many times before, in his earlier works), to be used for courtly entertainment. It is possible, though unclear, that there may have been an earlier form of the Perceval story on which Chrétien based his work. In any case, Chrétien references Philip’s commission as a command that called for his highest skills and produced his best work:

[H]e has striven

at the command the count has given

and made endeavors manifold

to rhyme the best tale ever told

in any royal court (61-64).

Following the common practice of praising one’s patron, Chrétien portrays Count Philip as a moral exemplar, a statesman whose merit exceeds that of renowned conquerors like Alexander the Great.