The High History of the Holy Graal

My latest kindle book was "The High History of the Holy Graal"  which was written in the 1200's in medieval French (although the author claims he's translating from Latin).  The kindle edition is a 19th century translation into modern (more or less) English.  That's the first piece of comment, the translation is deliberately archaic, filled with words that are obsolete and obscure.  I mean, I'm Mr. Obsolete and Obscure, but there was a plethora of words that I didn't know and irritatingly enough were not in the kindle dictionary.  I figure that a "launde" is a clearing in a forest or a meadow, but I still don't know what "maugre" is, and if I don't see "sith" and "sithence" again, I'll be happy.

Putting aside the translation, the plot itself was really weird.  The best description would be "rambling."  Damsel shows up, has some weird story, Perceval, Gawain or Lancelot follows her off and chops some guys up then sees something really weird and a hermit in the forest explains some complicated religious allegory.  On and on, over and over.  The heroes are alternatingly King Arthur himself, Gawain, Lancelot and Perceval, but Perceval is really the main hero.  The book would have been better if it had pruned away the King Arthur, Gawain and Lancelot bits away and stuck to Perceval the whole way through.

It was interesting to see this stage of the development of the story.   The first Holy Grail story was about 50 years earlier, by Chretien de Troyes and was full of weirdness too, but didn't have the heavy Christian allegory layered over it seen in "The High History."  It was also unfinished, with the ending/explanation being missing, which may explain the fascination with the grail since then.   "The High History" however is not the same grail story from Thomas Malory's version from the 1500's with which we are more familiar.

The final comment is about Perceval himself.  He's constantly called the Best Knight in the World and is supposed to be the best fighter and the most moral of the knights.  But, LORDY,  what a freaking badass!  Some of the times he slaughters evil knights who have surrendered to him and are begging for mercy are a little bit shocking.   The most vivid is when he captures the knight who has been persecuting Perceval's mother and sister.   He hacks off the heads of all the bad guy's henchmen, drains their blood into a big vat, and then hangs the guy (begging for mercy) upside down in the vat of blood until he drowns to death in the blood. 

A strange, strange book.