. 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 saint Graal. A noncyclic and highly elaborated version of the Perceval story is found in the early 13th-century Perlesvaus, a tale that mixes familiar exploits of Gawain, Lancelot, and Perceval with political intrigue and savage bloodshed.
The Vulgate Merlin, characterized by a historical “suite” that details Arthur’s military successes under Merlin’s guidance, is rewritten with a more fanciful “suite” in the Post-Vulgate Roman du Graal (ca. 1230–40). Formerly known as the Pseudo-Robert de Boron Cycle, this corpus contains a remodeled Vulgate Estoire, Queste, and Mort Artu, portions of the Vulgate Lancelot, and the revised Merlin (known as the Huth Merlin).
Dating from the second and third quarters of the 13th century, the Prose Tristan expands the earlier Grail narratives by adding to the world of Arthur’s knights King Marc, his wife, Iseut, and nephew, Tristan. Another character introduced here is Palamedes, who also appears in a prose romance called either Palamedes, Meliadus, or Guiron le Courtois. This romance, which predates the cyclic version of the Prose Tristan, chronicles the deeds of an older Arthurian generation, following the fathers of Palamedes, Arthur, Tristan, and Erec. In the 14th century, the Middle French Perceforest details the pre-Arthurian history of Britain from the time of Alexander the Great, including the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea in Britain and incidents involving the Holy Grail.
