PROPHÉCIES DE MERLIN
. Not to be confused with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Prophetiae Merlini, with which it has
nothing in common beyond the title, the Prophecies de Merlin dates from the 1270s and
is attributed to Maistre Richart d’Irlande. The prose work, purporting to record Merlin’s
conversations with his scribes, has the magician make prophecies that are actually
references to political events of the 12th and 13th centuries. It is found in at least a dozen
late medieval manuscripts and was first printed in 1498 by Vérard.
Norris J.Lacy
[See also: ARTHURIAN COMPILATIONS]
Bertholet, Anne, ed. Les prophesies de Merlin (Cod. Bodmer 116). Geneva: Droz, 1992.
Paton, Lucy, ed. Les prophecies de Merlin. 2 vols. New York: Heath, 1926–27.
PROSE ROMANCE (ARTHURIAN)
. The turn of the 13th century marks a crucial shift in the writing of Arthurian romance,
when, due to reasons not yet fully understood, prose becomes a viable medium for telling
stories of love and adventure. Previously, Old French prose, like its Latin counterpart,
had been reserved largely for recording legal and religious truths. It appeared in juridical
texts, charters, religious writings, translations of the Bible, and sermons. Prose was also
used to document historical events in the chronicles of Villehardouin, Robert de Clari,
and Henri de Valenciennes. But fictive tales of Arthurian knights had before this time
appeared only in verse. By the 13th century, the Arthurian adventure story had undergone
significant thematic changes, incorporating within the realm of chivalric exploits the
spiritual quest for the Holy Grail. Following the examples set in Chrétien de Troyes’s
verse Perceval (ca. 1181–90) and Robert de Boron’s even more christianized Joseph
d’Arimathie (ca. 1200), the Arthurian adventure story moved into the 13th century with
an expansive prose format that matched its expanded narrative scope.
As Robert de Boron’s Joseph and the fragmentary verse Merlin appended to it were
recast into prose beginning ca. 1210, they emerged sometimes in a trilogy, the Roman du
Graal, that recounts the history of the Grail vessel (Joseph d’Arimathie), its arrival in
Great Britain along with the discovery of the future King Arthur (Merlin), the quest for
the Holy Grail, and the subsequent demise of Arthur’s world (Perceval, known as the
Didot Perceval). This basic pattern is followed with variation in subsequent prose
rewritings of the ever-popular Grail material. The Arthurian Vulgate Cycle (ca. 1215–35)
offers an expanded version of the literary scenario, transforming the Joseph into the
Estoire del saint Graal, the Merlin into the Vulgate Merlin, and the prose Perceval into
the Queste del saint Graal and Mort Artu. To these, the Vulgate adds an elaborate and
lengthy version of the Lancelot story. Known generally as the Prose Lancelot, this cyclic
romance must be distinguished from the noncyclic Prose Lancelot conceived, it is
thought, in a more secular vein to stand independently of the highly religious Queste del
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