Nigel Bryant 
The Legend of the Grail 

A single, consistent and accessible narrative of the Grail story, constructed from the principal motifs and narrative strands of all the original Grail romances.


The quest for the Holy Grail is one of the most important elements in the story of King Arthur. Yet even among the many interested in the stories of the Round Table, very few have read at first hand the medieval masterpieces whichover a period of some forty years, in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, together became the foundation of the legend of the Grail.

These romances, full of bewildering contradictions and composed by a numberof different writers with very different preoccupations, dazzle with the sheer wealth of their conflicting imaginative detail. In this new compilation, the enthralling material becomes truly accessible through his interweaving ofthe principal motifs and narrative strands of all the original Grail romances to construct a single, consistent version of the Grail story, while clearly tracing the development of its enigmatic and potent theme. All the mystery and drama of the Arthurian world are embodied in the extraordinary adventures of Perceval, Gawain, Lancelot and Galahad in their pursuit of the Grail. Told here as a unified, coherent narrative, the Grail legend reasserts its relevance as one of the great works of imaginative literature of the middle ages.

NIGEL BRYANT’s previous Arthurian books include
The High Book of the Grail (Perlesvaus), Chretien de Troyes’
Perceval and its Continuations, and Robert de Boron’s
Merlin and the Grail.

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NIGEL BRYANT is well known for his lively and accurate versions of medieval French works. His translations of Chrétien de Troyes’ Percevaland all its continuations and of the extraordinary late Arthurian romance Perceforest have been major achievements; he has also translated Jean le Bel’s history of the early stages of the Hundred Years War, and the 13th- and 14th-century biographies of William Marshal and Bertrand du Guesclin. He was awarded the 2019 Norris J. Lacy Prize for outstanding editorial achievement in Arthurian studies.