SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES: FOOTNOTES

1 She need not even ask for them (the slaughtered animals)

2 Regardless of whoever had stood between them

3 That I should continue living after the one / Who, it seems to me, looked like you (i.e., Perceval's father)

4 For with a ring he had / The maiden who had the land

5 I say there will be no more pathways to walk (i.e., your career is ended)

SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES: NOTES

1 Lef, lythes to me. The opening formula links this poem to the minstrel tradition which often included a bid for attention, followed by the announcement of a subject. Minstrels favored tail-rhyme romances that could be more easily memorized and heard. The poet's contention that he will speak "two wordes or thre" sets a comic tone for a poem that continues for 2,288 lines.

7 This line is imitated by Chaucer in The Tale of Sir Thopas - "Hymself drank water of the well, / As dide the Knyght sire Percyvell" VII(B2), 915-16 - which appears to be, in part, a takeoff on the more creaky features of this poem. See Introduction and see also note at lines 2141-43.

23 The English poet is unique among romance writers in giving Arthur a sister named Acheflour. The name is perhaps a corruption of Blanchefleur, who in Chrétien's Perceval, is said to be Arthur's sister and the hero's mother.

26 Arthur provides dower for Acheflour. According to medieval law, the husband would control the "broad lands" and the wife would receive one-third of her husband's estate. The lands given by Arthur would revert to Acheflour upon her husband's death.

46 Jousts à plaisance (jousts of "pleasure"), peaceful skirmishes, were commonly held on occasions of celebration, such as a marriage, the birth of a son, or a coronation. Lances with slanted tips were used to reduce the chance of injury. The object was to unhorse one's opponent or to splinter his weapon, not to kill him.

78 was he. The line is a stress short. Holthausen emends it to was that fre.

95 he. MS: it. Holthausen's emendation.

152 And stonayed that tyde. "And stunned at that time" seems anticlimactic. Perhaps the sense is 1) "And, on that occasion, destroyed him" (as in "smashed with a blow"); or 2) "And put an end to that lifetime"; or 3) "And dumbfounded the people celebrating his son's birthday."

160 Mills emends to [v]aylede and glsses the word as "helped."

179 This line might imply that Acheflour left her family and her king (raye). But raye was also a type of striped cloth popular among the nobility in the fourteenth century. Perhaps the point is that Lady Perceval abandoned both her kin and her finery when she left for the wild "wodde" (line 180).

200 French and Hale suggest that this "wande" is a kind of magic dart, which alone has power to bring down the Red Knight.

248 day. A hole in the MS obliterates the a.

261-3 Ewayne fytz Asoure (also spelled "Yvain") is a member of Arthur's court who stars in his own romance by Chrétien (see the Middle English translation/ adaptation in this volume), but also plays a minor role in Perceval of Galles. His father is usually said to be Uriens. Gawain is Arthur's nephew, being the son of Arthur's sister (or half-sister), Anna (as in Geoffrey of Monmouth), and, therefore, is Perceval's first cousin. He is often known for his bravery and courtesy. Kay, Arthur's seneschal, is a dark character, often, as here, a rude troublemaker and foil to noble knights of the court.

275 Perceval is traditionally portrayed as having exceptional physical prowess but being deficient in reason. Because his mother sheltered him as a child, he is also naive. As will become apparent, he has not learned courtly manners.

289 In Middle English fole did not necessarily carry the strongly negative connotations it does today, but, rather, simply comments on Perceval's naiveté.

302-05 Although bukke may mean body (i.e., Gawain's body), French and Hale delete he (line 302) to read: Bot a grete bukke had bene, thus implying that a buck stepped in between Perceval and Kay, thwarting Perceval's rude behavior. Stags frequently appear in fairy tales. Either way, the sense of the lines is obscure.

320 The top corner of the MS is frayed, obliterating most of the line. Reconstructed by Halliwell-Phillipps and others on the basis of the line following, which presumably repeats the key words according to tail-rhyme principles. All that remains of the line is To . . . te his awenn.

326 stode. A place where mares are kept for breeding. The word is derived from the German die Stute (mare).

339 Holthausen emends the line to read Scho will telle [me] the name, an emendation followed by French and Hale to maintain the meter.

356 The implication of be moughte ("must be") is that the mother knew her son would inevitably take the route of his father one day.

362 The reconstruction of is in "thiselfe" is Halliwell-Phillipps' suggestion. There is a hole here in the manuscript and an ink blot as well.

393 I.e., Christmas day. Coincidentally, as Arthur was popularly supposed to have held court on Easter, Ascension, Whitson, All Saints, and Christmas, the first day of the season would have been an opportune time for Perceval to set out in hopes of meeting him.

397 MS: nuttoure. French and Hale's emendation.

410 French and Hale gloss payre as "sets."

432 At this point the scribe interjects the words "Here is a ffyt of Percyvell of Galles." The next line begins with a large capital "0," extending over four lines.

434 The sudden appearance of a castle or hall to a travelling knight in a medieval romance often prepares the reader to expect some enchantment. Here Perceval will receive the magic ring that will figure heavily in his future actions.

493 ff. A strange knight riding into the king's hall on horseback was a common episode in medieval romances. See Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Chaucer's Squire's Tale.

606 The blood-red clothing worn by this character seems to indicate that he (like the green-clad figure in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) is an enchanter against whom everyone is powerless except the one whose destiny it is to slay him.

611 French and Hale emend inwith to the more familiar "within."

617 Although the story of the cup is elliptically treated here, one may assume that this is no ordinary drinking vessel. Earlier critics suggested that it is somehow linked to the health of Arthur's kingdom, which will decline without it and, in this respect, is akin to a secularized grail trope. In line 1062, Arthur is said to have gone to "care-bedd," and even though this is supposedly on account of his concern for the safety of Perceval, it might earlier have been linked more directly to the stolen vessel.

633 Fyve. Holthausen emends to fyftene, imagining that the Red Knight has assailed Arthur every year since the death of Perceval senior.

642 I. Halliwell-Phillipps' emendation, which saves the meter and the sense and is followed by Holthausen and French and Hale.

657 MS: wih.

660 The unarmed "childe" (Perceval has only his dart) fighting and overcoming the armed and experienced foe smacks of the David and Goliath story that Chaucer also parodies in lines 807-27 of the Tale of Sir Thopas. Noting the short stanza, lines 557-60, Mills suggests that twelve lines have been omitted by the scribe. The text in the MS is continuous.

682 French and Hale note that in the Middle Ages, during the twelve days of the Christmas season, all fighting was forbidden. Casting one's foe in the marsh, however, seems to have been acceptable.

872 Mills suggests that Thornton's exemplar might have read: To tham will I te ("go"), which makes more immediate sense.

899 MS: Thou hase the moste foo slayne, which breaks the rhyme scheme, thus the emendation.

921 The brother who was slain fifteen years ago is the elder Perceval, and this man (unnamed) is thus young Perceval's uncle. Line 1050 alludes to this relationship.

977 Sowdane. A "Sultan," the chief ruler of a Muslim country, but the term is seldom used with much precision in medieval literature. Such a character was pagan, powerful, and, therefore, evil, and is commonly a foil to the hero.

1021 The. MS: He. The emendation is Halliwell-Phillipps'.

1043 sprongen of a stane. I.e., alone, as if he were just created. See Franklin's Tale line 1614: cropen out of the ground. The allusion is to the myth of Pyrrha and Deucalion and the repopulation of the world from stones thrown behind them.

1068 Arthur's concern for Perceval, which might seem excessive considering that he has never seen the boy before, can be explained in part by the king's affection for Perceval's father. But Arthur was also Perceval's maternal uncle. Thus he and the boy form that most special of medieval relationships, the avuncular - Arthur's blood most assuredly ran through Perceval's veins.

1165 French and Hale gloss fade as "determined." It could also mean "weak." But see line 616, where MED glosses the word as "eager for battle."

1173 Mills glosses this line as "Let anyone who can narrate [this story] in company [say that]. . . ."

1177 MED notes instances of spede used to imply "ease" or "alleviation," which seems to be the sense here. The point is that Perceval's spear is very busy.

1229-36 The sense of these lines is that Lady Lufamore, eager to find out who has slain the Saracens, asks that he come forth so that she might reward him. No one from inside the castle comes to claim the reward.

1294 Perceval's disposition to ignore the slaughter might be seen as a sign of his modesty, though more likely it signals his frustration at not having carried out his mission, namely, to slay the Sowdan, as he doggedly explains in lines 1298-1300.

1392 Although kene can mean "acrimonious," it also means "brave" or "bold," and it seems that the author intended one of the latter senses here, since Kay is not now playing his usual caustic role.

1540 The manuscript has been damaged so that only the beginnings of the last words recorded from lines 1537-39 remain at this point. The text continues with no space left for the sixteenth line. The omitted lines, the equivalent, perhaps, of the sixteenth line and the first four lines of the next stanza, tell of Lady Lufamore's greeting of King Arthur. They are missing apparently because of the scribe's oversight and not because of the damage to the manuscript.

1576-80 The beginnings of these lines were reconstructed by Holthausen. The lower left corner of the leaf is missing.

1589 Then. MS: The. Emendation by Halliwell-Phillipps.

1595 In the Middle Ages, a knight bent on peace did not wear shoes - only soft socks (see the Green Knight in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, line 160); but a knight intent on battle wore both shoes and spurs. Arthur seems to be saying here that with the death of the Sultan, Perceval would have proven his battle skills to the fullest - i.e., he would be worthy of the shoes of a knight.

1615 The Sultan seems to be asking whether the slayer of his men (i.e., Perceval) is alive to fight with him.

1620 French and Hale note the break in rhyme to suggest the right reading is probably "with hym to fyghte."

1659 The sense of the line is uncertain. It perhaps refers to the distance the Sultan was hurled from his horse, since "land" was a unit of measure. See, for example, "ploughland" (MED, OED), indicating the amount of land one could cultivate with one plough.

1693 The sense of this line seems to be that Perceval stood where he was and thought, an activity somewhat rare for him. The fact that the "mere" was actually a "steed" has come as a revelation.

1698 Then. MS The.

1755 French and Hale emend the line needlessly by adding [wedded] after he had.

1769-92Although the interval might vary, a year was the usual length of time for a mortal to stay in fairyland before longing to return to the world.

1774 with the gres. The point seems to be that without Perceval to hunt for her, she now lives as a vegetarian, a detail that astonishes the narrator (lines 1778-80), but is nonetheless true - without lesyng!

1799 MS: bot.

1830 The noble lady is the same one with whom Perceval exchanged rings earlier in the poem, while she lay sleeping in the castle. Her magic ring protected him in battle, and it is thus much more valuable than the one he left with her.

1836 in lande. An expletive, used vaguely in ME poetry, comparable to in towne. Here, perhaps, it implies a situation or predicament. See Sir Ferumbras, line 2793, Welawo to longe y lyve in londe, where the sense is "on earth." Chaucer toys with the vacuous phrase in The Tale of Sir Thopas (CT VII 887), along with in towne (CT VII 793).

1839 dighte. The author's frequent use of this term pays rich dividends here. The lady is hidden, adorned (with the chains), clothed (in shame), prepared (for humiliation), placed (tied, etc.) - all meanings the poet has previously affiliated with dighte.

1963 Giants were popular creatures of medieval romance. See W. F. Bryan and Germaine Dempster, eds., Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" (New York: Humanities Press, 1958), pp. 530-54.

1985 thay. Holthausen and French and Hale read thyn, without acknowledging emendation, though the MS clearly reads thay.

1996 French and Hale gloss: "I gave it away." Mills emends the line to read: [That] toke it fro me. MED cites instances of I functioning as the pronoun he.

2027-08 And one was behynde apparently means that the iron clasp binding the head of the axe to the handle weighs another stone (c. 14 pounds), making the total axe weight 23 stone, or about 322 pounds in all.

2032 It is perhaps worth noting that lome is used in ME as a metaphor for the penis. Certainly, to this giant, his playlome (2013) or cloblome (2053) is a figure of his potency. Cf., MED lome (n.) 1.c.

2084 Perceval's is black comedy here; obviously a giant without a left foot cannot "leap," unless hopping is leaping.

2138 MS: wonnade. Holthausen's emendation.

2141-43 See Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas (VII, 748-50): And so bifel upon a day, / For sothe, as I yow telle may, / Sire Thopas wolde out ride.

2209-12 Critics such as Brown and Speirs contend that in earlier versions of this story, Perceval's mother was a water fairy, thus her repeated association with wells. Seen in this light, it is not surprising that she appears to her son just after he has taken a drink.

2251 The use of a magic portion to induce sleep and thus to restore one to the "proper" state of mind was commonplace in medieval romance.

2257-61 A v-shaped tear at the top center of fol. 176r deletes the end word of the first three long lines of the first column.

2257 hir by. French and Hale's reconstruction.

2258 sekerly. Halliwell-Phillipps' reconstruction, followed by Holthausen and French and Hale.

2261 state. Holthausen's reconstruction, followed by French and Hale. Halliwell-Phillipps supplies wate.

2272 Green is associated with vegetation, but it is also a restorative color, thus fitting for the reinstatement of the relationship between mother and son.