Perceforest is one of the largest and certainly the most extraordinary of the late Arthurian romances. It dates from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and is the subject of rapidly
increasing attention and research. Taking Geoffrey of Monmouth as his starting-point, and finally dovetailing his work into the romance tradition of the Lancelot-Grail, the author of
Perceforest/ draws on Alexander romances, Roman histories and medieval travel writing - not to mention oral tradition - as he gives, for example, the (distinctly racy) first written version of
the story of the Sleeping Beauty - to create a remarkable prehistory of King Arthur's Britain. The romance begins with the arrival in Britain of Alexander the Great, who is responsible for its
original settlement by Arthur's ancestors. The whole of the action takes place in the pagan period, and the remarkable depiction of the 'Supreme God' whom Alexander worships is the first of
many surprising inventions. Alexander's follower Perceforest is given the island, and finds it infested by the 'evil lineage' of Darnant the Enchanter. Magic plays a dominant part in the
adventures which follow, and Perceforest ousts Darnant's clan despite their supernatural powers. He founds the knightly order of the 'Franc Palais', an ideal of chivalric civilisation which
prefigures the Round Table of Arthur and indeed that of Edward III; but that civilisation is, as the author shows, all too fragile. Because of its enormous length - it runs to over a million
words - Nigel Bryant has provided here a version which gives a full account of every episode, linking extensive passages of translation, to make a manageable and highly readable version of this
remarkable and largely unexplored work. Nigel Bryant has worked as a producer for BBC Radio 3 and as head of drama at Marlborough College. This is his fourth major translation of medieval
Arthurian romance.
