Text Appearing Before Image: he saw, nor had he askedthe meaning of it. He then rode forth again in questof other adventures, which he had in bewildering abund-ance, and which have no particular relation to the maintheme. The mystery of the castle is not revealed tillthe last pages of the story. The head in the silver dishwas that of a cousin of Peredurs. The lance was theweapon with which he was slain, and with which alsothe uncle of Peredur, the fisher-lord, had been lamed.Peredur had been shown these things to incite him toavenge the wrong, and to prove his fitness for the task.The nine sorceresses of Gloucester are said to havebeen those who worked these evils on the relatives ofPeredur. On learning these matters Peredur, with thehelp of Arthur, attacked the sorceresses, who were slainevery one, and the vengeance was accomplished. The Contc del Graal The tale of Chrestien de Troyes called the Contedel Graal * or Perceval le Gallois launched the storyin European literature. It was written about the year4°4 4 Text Appearing After Image: The wailing and lamenting began even more loudly than before 404 THE CASTLE OF WONDERS 1180. It agrees in the introductory portion with Percdur/* the hero being here called Perceval. Heis trained in knightly accomplishments by an agedknight named Gonemans, who warns him againsttalking overmuch and asking questions. When hecomes to the Castle of Wonders the objects broughtinto the hall are a blood-dripping lance, a graal *accompanied by two double-branched candlesticks, thelight of which is put out by the shining of the graal, asilver plate and sword, the last of which is given toPerceval. The bleeding head of the Welsh story doesnot appear, nor are we told what the graal was. Nextday when Perceval rode forth he met a maiden whoupbraided him fiercely for not having asked the meaningof what he saw—had he done so the lame king (who ishere identical with the lord of the Castle of Wonders)would have been made whole again. PercevaFs sin inquitting his mother against her wish was the reaso
Note About Images
Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
This image was taken from Flickr's The Commons. The uploading organization may have various reasons for determining that no known copyright restrictions exist, such as:
The copyright is in the public domain because it has expired;
The copyright was injected into the public domain for other reasons, such as failure to adhere to required formalities or conditions;
The institution owns the copyright but is not interested in exercising control; or
The institution has legal rights sufficient to authorize others to use the work without restrictions.
Please add additional copyright tags to this image if more specific information about copyright status can be determined. See Commons:Licensing for more information.
No known copyright restrictionsNo restrictionshttps://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/false