Perceval

Chrétien de Troyes's unfinished romance of Perceval and the Grail, the poem that set the Grail legend in motion.

Core Characteristics

Written in the 1180s for Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders; left unfinished at Chrétien's death, about 9,000 verses.
The naive Perceval, raised in the woods, fails to ask the meaning of the Grail procession and dooms the Fisher King's land.
Its unfinished state drew four continuations and rival Grail works across Europe for a century.