Perceval's sister
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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 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, 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 kidnapper. She lives in the Castle of Souls (i.e. the 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).[1]
Castell Dinas Bran, the home of 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 features a corresponding character named Heliabel,[2] unrelated to Perceval, describing her as even more beautiful than Guinevere. In the expanded cyclic version, she became the figure of Galahad's mother, today best known as Elaine.
Grail heroine
Dindrane from Perlesvaus is not the same character as the sister of Perceval in the 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.[1] 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 Nynyve or Morgan le Fay."[3]
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 leprous mistress; told that only the blood of a maiden princess can cure the chatelaine's leprosy, Perceval's sister opts to donate hers, but succumbs to the blood loss and dies.[4] 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.[5]
See also
References
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External links
- Perceval's Sister at The Camelot Project