View source for Perceval's sister

{{Short description|Character in Arthurian legend}}
'''Perceval's sister''' is a role of two similar but distinct characters in the [[Holy Grail]] stories within the [[Arthurian legend]] featuring the Grail hero [[Percival|Perceval]] (Percival). The first of them is named '''Dindrane''', the second is usually unnamed and is known today as the '''Grail heroine'''.

==Dindrane==
Dindrane (alternatively ''Dandrane'', ''Dandrenor'', ''Dindraine'') is a character in the 13th-century [[Old French]] Grail romance ''[[Perlesvaus|Perlesvaus, or The High Book of the Holy Grail]]'', an anonymous prose altered adaptation of (and a sequel to) [[Chrétien de Troyes]]' unfinished poem ''[[Perceval, the Story of the Grail]]''. Here, she is sister of [[King Arthur]]'s knight Perlesvaus (i.e. [[Perceval]]), who rescues her from an evil [[Bride kidnapping|bride kidnapper]]. She lives in the Castle of Souls (i.e. the [[Corbenic|Grail Castle]]) together with their mother Yglais, a sister of King [[Pelles]] and widow of Alain the Large, lord of the valley and castle of Kamaalot (i.e. [[Camelot]], but in this case not King Arthur's own domain).<ref name="Bruce">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Bruce |first=Christopher W. |encyclopedia=The Arthurian Name Dictionary |title=Dandrane |url=http://gorddcymru.org/twilight/camelot/bruce_dictionary/index_d.htm |access-date=9 December 2012 |year=1999 |quote=[Dandrane] was kidnapped by Aristor of Amorave, who intended to marry and behead her, but she was rescued by Perceval. She lived out her days as a maiden in the Grail Castle. She is not the same sister of Perceval who appears, unnamed, in the Vulgate ''Queste del Saint Graal'' and as Agresizia in ''La Tavola Ritonda''. [''Perlesvaus'']}}</ref>

[[Castell Dinas Bran]], the home of [[Bran the Blessed|Bran]], one original source for the [[Fisher King]], is a Welsh [[toponym]] possibly related to Dindrane, whose name is rendered as '''Danbrann''' in the Welsh ''Perlesvaus'' version ''Y Seint Greal''. The pre-cyclic version of the [[Prose Lancelot|Prose ''Lancelot'']] features a corresponding character named '''Heliabel''',<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eI5_Bxx8dg8C&pg=PA422|title = Lancelot of the Lake|year = 2000| publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn = 978-0-19-283793-6}}</ref> unrelated to Perceval, describing her as even more beautiful than [[Guinevere]]. In the expanded cyclic version, she became the figure of [[Elaine of Corbenic|Galahad's mother]], today best known as Elaine.

==Grail heroine==
[[File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival Were Fed with the Sanct Grael.jpg|thumb|250px|''How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival were Fed with the Sanc Grael; But Sir Percival's Sister Died by the Way'' by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] (1864)]]

Dindrane from ''Perlesvaus'' is not the same character as the sister of Perceval in the [[Lancelot-Grail|Vulgate]] ''Queste del Saint Graal'' (''Quest for the Holy Grail'') and the derived works, who helps her brother and his companions in their quest for the [[Holy Grail]]. She is a prominent figure in such Grail romances, sometimes dubbed the "Grail heroine". Though usually left unnamed, she is named as '''Agresrizia''' in the Italian ''[[Tavola Ritonda]]''.<ref name="Bruce" /> According to Anna Caughey, [[Thomas Malory]]'s portrayal of Percival's (Perceval's) sister in his ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'', based on the Vulgate ''Queste'', characterizes her with an unusual "seizure of power and agency for a Malorian [good] woman that has previously been seen only in ambivalent or actively evil figures such as [[Lady of the Lake|Nynyve]] or [[Morgan le Fay]]."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Clark |first1=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hcPtirDJv9wC&pg=PA168 |title=Blood, Sex, Malory: Essays on the Morte Darthur |last2=McClune |first2=Kate |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=2011 |isbn=9781843842811}}</ref>

She is first encountered upon her brother (sometimes half-brother)'s return to their mother's castle, where she tells him that their mother has died. Perceval leaves her either in the care of their hermit uncle or (in other texts) at the [[Castle of Maidens]]. She later meets up with Perceval, [[Galahad]] and [[Bors]], telling them who she is (she does not mention her name prior to this). She proceeds to inform them of the Sword of the Strange Belt, the magical Ship of [[Solomon]], the [[Tree of Life]], and other aspects of her destiny. The travellers board the Ship of Solomon, intent to complete the mystical Grail quest. After leaving the ship, they encounter a castle with a [[leprosy|leprous]] mistress; told that only the blood of a maiden princess can cure the chatelaine's leprosy, Perceval's sister opts to [[Blood donation|donate]] hers, but succumbs to the blood loss and dies.<ref>{{cite newsgroup |title=Re: Dindrane |author=Sigurd Towrie |date=23 December 1996 |newsgroup=alt.legend.king-arthur |url=https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.legend.king-arthur/nKHEXDnqO18/tB-p2Nq32cQJ |access-date=9 December 2012}}</ref> As per her dying wish, her body is set adrift in a boat (without a crew) to float to the holy city of [[Sarras]]. In one version, [[Lancelot]] (Galahad's father) finds her vessel and buries her in Palais Esperitel. In the other version, she is interred by Galahad and Bors when they land at the port of Sarras, after which they proceed to win the Grail.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Newell |first=William Wells |author-link=William Wells Newell |year=1898 |title=The Legend of the Holy Grail |journal=[[Journal of American Folklore]] |series=IV |url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-533609}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Elaine of Corbenic]]

==References==
'''Footnotes'''
{{Reflist|group=Notes}}

'''Citations'''
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/theme/percivals-sister.html Perceval's Sister] at The Camelot Project

{{Arthurian Legend}}

[[Category:Arthurian characters]]
[[Category:Fictional characters introduced in the 12th century]]
[[Category:Holy Grail]]