Perceval returns to the hermit uncle he had met in Chrétien’s romance, who gives him a
lesson on repentence. He finally recovers the stag’s head and dog and sets out to return
them to the maiden. En route, he encounters another maiden, who gives him her magic
ring and white mule to lead him to the Grail castle. But he turns aside to attend a
tournament at Proud Castle, where Arthur and his knights will also be. Perceval in
disguise defeats all of Arthur’s greatest knights, culminating with Gawain. Diverted by
the tournament from reaching the Grail castle, Perceval must return the ring and mule.
The poem continues with Gawain’s adventures for several thousand lines, including an
encounter with his son, Guiglain, the “Fair Unknown,” before returning to Perceval, who
finally reaches the Grail castle and joins the two pieces of the broken sword, leaving just
a tiny nick; the Second Continuation then breaks off before the Fisher King can explain
the meaning of the Grail symbols.
Like the First Continuation, the Second Continuation seeks to avoid closure by
multiplying adventures and introducing new themes and motifs; even more directly than
its predecessor, it insists on the Christian significance of the Grail, which has become the
vessel into which Christ’s blood flowed at the Crucifixion.
Most manuscripts continue immediately with Manes-sier’s Third Continuation (ca.
11,000 lines), composed between 1214 and 1227 (or between 1233 and 1237, according
to Corley) for Jeanne de Constantinople, count-ess of Flanders and Hainaut, the
grandniece of Philippe de Flandre, for whom Chrétien wrote his Conte du Graal.
Manessier’s continuation begins with the Fisher King’s explanation of the Grail
mysteries: the Lance is that of Longinus; the Grail was used by Joseph of Arimathea to
catch Christ’s blood; the trencher covered the Grail so that the Holy Blood would not be
exposed; the sword had been broken when the traitor Partinial of the Red Tower slew the
Fisher King’s brother, and in his grief the Fisher King crippled himself with the broken
pieces. Perceval sets out to avenge the Fisher King and soon joins up with Sagremor,
whom he helps to defeat ten knights. The story continues with Sagremor’s adventures,
and then Gawain’s, before returning to Perceval, who in a chapel battles the Devil
himself, in the form of a detached hand and black arm, and finally defeats him by making
the sign of the cross. He overcomes other demons and, eventually, in the company of the
Coward Knight, triumphs over Arthur’s knights at yet another tournament. Perceval
finally reaches the Red Tower and slays Partinial, then hastens to inform the Fisher King,
who is immediately healed and discovers that he is Perceval’s maternal uncle. Perceval
returns in triumph to Arthur’s court but is soon summoned to reign after the Fisher
King’s death. He restores the land in seven years, then retires to a hermitage, where he
lives another ten years, sustained only by the Grail. When he dies, the Holy Grail, Lance,
and trencher accompany his soul to Heaven and will never again be seen on earth.
Manessier finally brings to a close the adventures of the Grail, stamping them with a
religious tone even more marked than in the earlier continuations: demons assume a real
presence as physical adversaries of the hero; Perceval retires to a hermitage and
eventually becomes a priest; religious symbolism pervades the whole. It has been
suggested that Manessier’s continuation influenced the long version of the First
Continuation in its treatment of the Grail as a relic of the Last Supper and Crucifixion.
In addition to the four continuations, two manuscripts offer a preface of 1,282 lines,
composed late in the 13th century, of which the first 484 lines are called the Elucidation
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