The Perilous Castle

the final chapter but not final thoughts on Peredur, Percival and the Holy Grail

Sir Percival asked, “What ails the king?” He was told, and the spear and the chalice were explained. That was all it took: a question. And when the Fisher King was healed by the question, the land, too, was healed.

Welcome back friends old and new. Thank you to those who are helping me commit to this craft by helping out financially. I know there are millions of other places you could be, and I hope you find something you are looking for here.

This is the continuing Arthurian saga, well, ‘epic romance’ of Percival, or Peredur if we go way back to original sources, and the Holy Grail. We can assume that Peredur possibly predates Christianity, but that is where I believe the story starts. Over the centuries names were swapped out, and changed, as were their tasks in some versions. What I have been doing is combining some of these variants and versions into one, hopefully, coherent story. It is not true to any of the tales I have used, except, maybe, the Mabinogi.

Again, again, this is not a polished, finished piece. It is a summary of sorts to get the ideas down! A work in progress. A very first draft.

So, what’s been going on? If you want to start at the beginning, part one is here, and part two is here, and now we are about to finish off the tale. If you want to start from scratch, check out the link above. Otherwise, here is a recap:
Peredur left home to become a knight. Following and badly misinterpreting advise his mother and uncle have given him, he has stolen food from a knight, and a kiss and ring from a Lady. He kills and takes the armor of the Red Knight and takes off to find adventures. Peredur has visited the castle where his father (or uncle) is suffering from a never-ending wound in the thigh, and Peredur has not asked about the spear which drips blood, nor the grail which passes him by three times. Our knight leaves the castle, which vanishes. On his travels trying to find the castle again to ask the questions, he plays chess with an invisible opponent and meets Blanchefleur who he falls in love with. He also discovers the awful repercussions of the stolen food, kiss and the ring. Things are not that great with Peredur! Are you with me? (No? Part One. Part Two.) Yes? Good.

Peredur returned to the Chessboard Castle to see the love of his life Blanchefleur, but cannot stay, as he is still searching for Castle Perilous. He leaves, although Blanchefleur had fully inserted the key of love into the lock of his heart, as I said before. I do love that line! That’s from de Troyes.

For seven (or five, but I like seven) years he roams the woodlands and the plains, searching for the Grail Castle. He stops visiting places to worship, he ceases finding lodging at churches and he begins to lose his way. He finds his mind slipping, yet he continues to come across knights who insist on fighting, and he always wins, and when he does he sends the losers to pledge fealty to King Arthur, and to remind Cai, his punishment awaits. He comes across some men and women praying. When they see him in his armor they are frightened. “Why are you in armor?” they cry out. “Are you not a Christian man?”

“What are you talking about? Why are you praying here?”

“Do you not know what day it is? It is Good Friday, the day our Lord and Savior died on the cross, and you are armed! We have been studying with the hermit not far from here. We are praying in thanks for our teachings.”

Good Friday is a day of peace. Knights around the world would not suit up on Good Friday, yet here was Peredur dressed in his steel, carrying a lance. When he hears this, he dismounts and breaks down. “Where is this hermit? I need to seek his counsel.”

“Down the road a ways.”

Off Peredur goes and finds the hermitage and stripping off his armor enters, seeking out the man. “Help me! I have done wrong.” Peredur tells the hermit about the lady he kissed and whose ring he stole, and about messing up at Castle Perilous.”

“What is your name, knight?”

“Peredur.”

“No way! You’re my nephew! I am Joshua. I am really sorry but your sister died a year and a half ago.” In some versions of the story of Peredur and Percival, he has eleven uncles, and very few of them are named as far as I can tell. The family tree is messy. This uncle seems to have a name. “You should go back to your home,” says Joshua. “It is your inheritance.”

“How can I go home when everyone I loved there is dead? I need to find my grandfather, the Fisher King.”

“Okay, but first let me teach you this prayer. You can only use it when you are in extreme peril and your life is at risk.”

“But my life is at risk all the time; I am a knight!”

“You know what I mean. Listen.” And Joshua begins to whisper the prayer to Peredur until he knows it by heart. Peredur sets out again.

As he travels, he sees a train of wagons carrying all sorts of weapons. Lances by the dozen make a cart look like it has spines. The wagons are also filled with shields and weapons. Peredur asks one of the men, what is going on?

“There’s to be a tourney at the White Castle. There’s a beautiful lady there, and she’s stinking rich with money and lands, and many lords have tried to woo her, but she is not interested. She’s decided, or agreed to have a tournament and whomever wins will get the hand in marriage of her daughter. The event is being put on by Sir Melian. He really wants to marry the lady, but he knows he can win the daughter. He’s pretty bad ass. We’re his men. These are his weapons.”

“When is the tourney?”

“Starts tomorrow. Are you coming? Will you fight? You look like a strong knight.”

“Nar. I’m good.” Peredur rides on and comes to a small castle and outside on the drawbridge is the lord of the castle. They ‘hallo’ one another, and the lord asks Peredur if he is going to battle in the tournament, and if he wants to rest there at the castle for a while. “I was not thinking of fighting. I only just heard about it. But I would like somewhere to spend the night, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. Let’s sit and see who else comes along to fight at the tournament.” The two men sit and enjoy the day watching folks pass by. They hear that the whole of the Round Table will be there - Lancelot, Gwain, Gareth, Beduier, Mordred, even the seneschal Cai. Peredur smiles and asks how far away the White Castle is. “Just a few hours away. If you had not stopped, and I am glad you did, you would have been there before nightfall. Let’s eat.”

They enter the castle and food is already prepared. The lord’s wife and two daughters are there and are introduced to Peredur. The food is good and plentiful. Peredur’s bed is better than the forest floor by far. Over breakfast the following day, they talk about the tournament, and decide to go and watch.

The tournament is filled with thousands of knights from all over the country. It seems that there are two camps which are doing really well, and winning most of the challenges: that of Melian, and the Knights of the Round Table. By the end of the day, there are people saying that Melian should be declared the winner, but others say one of King Arthur’s knights should be named victor. So the Lady of the White Castle says another day of fighting will take place and the winner declared then. Melian is NOT happy! He decides to get together with Gwain thinking the two could beat everyone else, but folks are not too keen on that idea.

Back at the lord’s castle, they sup and talk about the tourney, and the eldest daughter asks if Peredur would fight in her name. He thinks about it and agrees. She tears a sleeve from her gown and hands it to Peredur to tie to his armor. The next day he and the lord go out together, but not in Peredur’s colours, but in the lord’s colours.

Other knights join to win the final battles. Again it looks like the Knights of the Round table are going to win, with the warriors of Melian. Peredur fights with knights lined up outside the castle, and when all the knights are lined up, he sees Melian leap into the field. Peredur launches himself at the knight. Peredur is harder and faster, and when the lances crash against shields Melian falls hard he nearly breaks his neck and is taken from the field. Peredur fights harder than the rest and wins more battles. Cai comes out against him and Peredur attacks so viciously that Cai flew through the air to land so hard he too was taken from the field with a broken arm and collarbone. It seems that Cai had been given the drubbing Peredur had promised. Sir Gavain and Sir Lancelot join together and the field sounded like thunder. The two sides were split, and those who had lodged at the castle (Melian and Knights of the Round Table) seemed beaten. But those without the castle could not get in. At that point Peredur said to the lord he had arrived with that they should return to his castle. They brought with them the spoils of the tournament, and Peredur had won a few horses which he planned to give to his host and his eldest daughter for the sleeve she had given him.

As they made their way to the castle an old woman with a short scythe hanging from her neck approached the two warriors. Her hair was matted into two braids, which provided a home for sticks and feathers. Her eyes were piercing, bright, and in some ways, rattish. When she smiled at the two men, they saw tusks and yellowed teeth. The woman took Peredur’s reins in her hands and spoke. “Idler. You should not have gone to the tourney.”

“What is it to you, old woman? What I do with my time is my concern.”

“It concerns me and another, but the words I have are for you alone.” She looked at Peredur and then at the lord. Peredur nodded and dismounted. He and the woman walked off a small distance and the woman spoke again. “If you travel back to the castle with that lord, a promise you made will be broken. Good can come to no one if you return there.”

“Who are you?” asked Peredur.

“I knew you before you were born. You need to find the Fisher King. Because you have spent more than one night in a dwelling, your promise was broken, and it would be worse if you spent another night with this lord, yet that is what is in your mind.”

“I had not thought about it. What can I do?”

“You will be pardoned for this indiscretion, if you travel on the road I tell you to ride. But this time you will ask the questions. You will be with your grandfather Bron before the year has passed and will ask the questions you failed to ask the last time you saw him. Then he will be healed. The lands will be healed.”

“A year? I want to be there sooner. I have been searching for my grandfather for years. Is there no way I will reach it more quickly? I have traveled and searched everywhere.”

The horse the lord was on skittered. The woman stared at the Lord and grinned. “Do not worry, I will not seek lodging with you,” she said. She pointed to the road which Peredur was to take and, nodding at Peredur, left. Peredur told the lord he would not be traveling further with him and to take the horses he had won and give what he chose to his eldest daughter. They shook hands and parted company, the lord to his castle, Peredur mounting his horse and heading down the road the woman had pointed to. Before nightfall Peredur came to his grandfather’s castle, Castle Perilous. ‘Before the year, she had said. I suppose that it is true,’ thought Peredur mulling over the woman’s words. He wondered who she was.

As the knight entered the castle of his grandfather, servants came and took his horse. They took his weapons, and removed his armor, and gave him a cloak to wear and was led into the hall. His grandfather was waiting for him, seated on a bed, leg bleeding. Peredur sat next to him, and they talked as before. He told his grandfather of his adventures, of the love of his life at the Chessboard Castle, of the deeds he had performed, both good and bad. They spoke, laughed and held hands. He learned about his father, his sister, and his older brothers. And more about his mother.

A meal was brought before them, and the Grail and lance passed by once, carried by the maid and the youths. Peredur asked, “What ails the king?” He was told, and the spear, the chalice were explained. That was all it took: a question. And when the Fisher King was healed by the question, the land, too, was healed. The grail gave off a light so bright it was as if the sun itself were in the hall. It gave off a fragrance so beautiful it felt the world would be healed. Peredur saw his grandfather’s leg heal and watched him as he stood. They embraced.

Bron took the vessel, the Holy Grail in his hands and said: “I have been looking after this all these years, protecting it, so the land would be strong, but I was wounded and since then the land began to suffer. Now I am healed. Now I can die whole and you will take over the task of looking after the Grail and the lance. It will be your duty.”

Bron handed the Grail to Peredur and he breathed in the scent the vessel gave off. He felt his heart was healed. The prophecy was fulfilled. Bron lived for three more days, although they wished for more time together. The enchantments on the world faded with the Grail in Peredur’s hands, and the world became a better place. Blanchefleur came to live with Peredur at Castle Perilous.

They say that Merlin traveled to Caerleon and told King Arthur the prophecy had been fulfilled and no doubt Cai grumbled about it and no one took any notice of him. Merlin then returned to Blayse, his mentor in Northumberland and the story was written down so none would forget it - how a lad from Wales at first wearing armor made of willow, saved the Fisher King and brought peace to the world.

Some of the work, and a book I just started with more of the story!

Well, did Blanchefleur come to the castle? Did the castle vanish again? That story was not written. At least I have not found it yet. Is there a grail out there still, or is that grail our own hearts? I asked the tree frogs outside but they did not have an answer for me.

Three books read (and about to start the one pictured above on the left - The Quest of the Holy Grail), loads of notes, research into family trees and names of characters, and here we are.

I hope you have enjoyed these words loosely thrown on the page. I have endeavored to bring the stories together, like an untwisted, and unknotted chain, to make some sort of sense, and to bring a little enjoyment to the modern reader, and maybe some understanding along the way.

Look after each other. (I have to go and look after Moe the Wonderdog.)

Peace,

Simon