Lancelot-Grail

The Lancelot-Grail, also known as the Vulgate Cycle or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is an early 13th-century French Arthurian literary cycle consisting of interconnected prose episodes of chivalric romance in Old French. The cycle of unknown authorship, presenting itself as a chronicle of actual events, retells the legend of King Arthur by focusing on the love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere as well as the quest for the Holy Grail, expanding on the works of Robert de Boron and Chrétien de Troyes and influencing the Prose "Tristan". After its completion around 1230–1235, the "Lancelot–Grail" was soon followed by its major rewrite known as the Post-Vulgate Cycle. Together, the two cycles constituted a highly influential and most widespread form of Arthurian romance literature during their time and also contributed the most to the later English compilation "Le Morte d'Arthur" that formed the basis for the legend's modern canon.
Composition and authorship.
Welsh writer Gautier (Walter) Map (c. 1140–1209) is attributed to be the author, as can be seen in the notes and illustrations in some manuscripts describing his claimed discovery of an archive of the chronicle of Camelot (supposedly dating from the times of Arthur) at Salisbury, and his translation of these documents from Latin to Old French as ordered by Henry II of England. Map's connection has been discounted by modern scholarship, however, as he died too early to be the author and the work is distinctly continental.
The Vulgate Cycle emphasizes Christian themes in the legend of King Arthur, in particular in the story of the Holy Grail. Like Robert de Boron's original poem "Merlin" (c. 1195–1210), the cycle claims that its first parts are derived from the "Livre du Graal", described as a text dictated by Merlin himself to his confessor . Next, following the demise of Merlin, the supposed original authors of the later parts of the cycle are named (in one of several spelling variants) as Arodiens de Cologne (Arodian of Cologne), Tantalides de Vergeaus (Tantalides of Vercelli), Thumas de Toulete (Thomas of Toledo), and Sapiens de Baudas (Sapient of Baghdad), the scribes who served Arthur and recorded the deeds of the Knights of the Round Table, including the grand Grail Quest, as relayed to them by the eyewitnesses of the events beings told. It is uncertain whether the contemporary medieval readers actually believed in the truthfulness of the "chronicle" characterization, or did they recognise it as a work of creative fiction.
The cycle's actual authorship is unknown, but most scholars today believe it was written by multiple authors. There might have been either a single master-mind planner, the so-called "architect" (as first called so by Jean Frappier, who compared the process to building a cathedral), who may have written the main section ("Lancelot Proper"), and then oversaw the work of multiple other anonymous scribes. One theory identified the initiator as French queen Eleanor of Aquitaine who would have set up the project already in 1194. Alternately, each part may have been composed separately, arranged gradually, and rewritten for consistency and cohesiveness. Regarding the question of the author of the "Lancelot", Ferdinand Lot suggested an anonymous clerical court clerk of aristocratic background.
Today it is believed by some (such as editors of the "Encyclopædia Britannica") that a group of anonymous French Catholic monks wrote the cycleor at least the "Queste" part (where, according to Fanni Bogdanow, the text's main purpose is to convince sinners to repent), as evident by its very Cistercian spirit of Christian mysticism (with Augustinian intrusions). Others doubt this, however, and a compromise theory postulates a more secular writer who had spent some time in a Cistercian monastery. Richard Barber described the Cistercian theology of the "Queste" as unconventional and complex but subtle, noting its success in appealing to the courtly audience accustomed to more secular romances.
Structure, history and synopsis.
The Lancelot-Grail Cycle can be divided into three main units (some categorizations have either the "Mort" or both the "Queste" and the "Mort" regarded as separate sections independent of the "Lancelot" for the total of five branches). The last one (or the last three in the other system) was actually the first to be written (beginning c. 1210–1215). The first two, serving as prequels, joined them later (before c. 1235).
"History of the Holy Grail".
The Vulgate "Estoire del Saint Graal" tells the story of Joseph of Arimathea and his son Josephus bringing the Holy Grail to Britain. It is derived from Robert de Boron's poem "Joseph" with new characters and episodes added. The overtly religious elements are most prominent in this part of the cycle.
"History of Merlin".
The Vulgate Estoire de Merlin, or just the Vulgate "Merlin", concerns Merlin and the early life of Arthur. It is a redaction of the Prose "Merlin", itself a conversion of Robert de Boron's poem by the same title. It can be divided into:
Prose "Lancelot".
The Lancelot en prose or the Estoire de Lancelot is the longest part, making up fully half of the entire cycle. The "Lancelot"–"Queste"–"Mort Artu" trilogy follows the adventures of the eponymous hero Lancelot and the other Knights of the Round Table. It is made of three main sections, of which tone the first (composed c. 1215–1220) can be characterized as colorful, the second (c. 1220–1225) as pious, and the third (c. 1225–1330) as sober:
Possible non-cyclic "Lancelot".
The "Lancelot Proper" part of the cycle is regarded as having been written first. It was perhaps originally an independent romance that would begin with Lancelot's birth and finish with a happy end of him discovering his true identity and receiving a kiss from Guinevere when he confesses his love for her. Elspeth Kennedy identified the possible non-cyclic Prose "Lancelot" in an early manuscript known as the BNF fr. 768. It is about three times shorter than the later editions and notably the Grail Quest (usually taking place later) is mentioned within the text as already completed by Percival alone.
Manuscripts.
As the stories of the cycle were immensely popular in medieval France and neighboring countries between the beginning of the 13th and the beginning of the 16th century, they survived in some two hundred manuscripts in various forms (not counting printed books since the late 15th century, starting with an edition of the "Lancelot" in 1488). The Lancelot-Graal Project website lists (and links to the scans of many of them) close to 150 manuscripts in French, some fragmentary, others, such as British Library Additional MS 10292–4, containing the entire cycle. Besides the British Library, scans of various manuscripts can be seen online through digital library websites of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France's Gallica (including these from the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal) and the University of Oxford's Digital Bodleian; many illustrations can be also found at the IRHT's Initiale project. The earliest copies are of French origin and date from 1220 to 1230.
Numerous copies were produced in French throughout the remainder of the 13th, 14th and well into the 15th centuries in France, England and Italy, as well as translations into other European languages. Some of the manuscripts are richly illuminated: British Library Royal MS 14 E III, produced in Northern France in the early 14th century and once owned by King Charles V of France, contains over 100 miniatures with gilding throughout and decorated borders at the beginning of each section. Other manuscripts were made for less wealthy owners and contain very little or no decoration, for example British Library MS Royal 19 B VII, produced in England, also in the early 14th century, with initials in red and blue marking sections in the text and larger decorated initials at chapter-breaks.
However, very few copies of the entire Lancelot-Grail Cycle survive. Perhaps because it was so vast, copies were made of parts of the legend which may have suited the tastes of certain patrons, with popular combinations containing either only the tales of Merlin or Lancelot. For instance, British Library Royal 14 E III contains the sections which deal with the Grail and religious themes, omitting the middle section, which relates Lancelot's chivalric exploits.
Post-Vulgate Cycle.
The Vulgate Cycle was soon afterwards subject to a major revision during the 1230s, in which much was left out and much added. In the resulting far-shorter Post-Vulgate Cycle, also known as the "Roman du Graal", Lancelot no longer is the main character. The Post-Vulgate omits almost all of the "Lancelot Proper" section, and consequently most of Lancelot and Guinevere's content, instead focusing on the Grail Quest. It also features characters and episodes from the Prose "Tristan".
Other reworkings and influence.
The Prose "Tristan" itself had partially incorporated the Vulgate Cycle by copying parts of it. Along with the Prose "Tristan", both the Post-Vulgate and the Vulgate original were among the most important sources for Thomas Malory's seminal English compilation of Arthurian legend, "Le Morte d'Arthur".
The 14th-century Dutch "Lancelot Compilation" added an original romance to a translation of the Prose "Lancelot". The cycle's elements and characters have been also incorporated into various other works in France, such as "Les Prophecies de Mérlin" and "Palamedes", and elsewhere. The 14th-century English poem Stanzaic "Morte Arthur" is a compressed verse translation of the Vulgate "Mort Artu". In the 15th-century Scotland, the first part of the Vulgate "Lancelot" was turned into verse in "Lancelot of the Laik", a romance love poem with political messages. Some episodes from the Vulgate Cycle have been adapted into the Third and Fourth Continuations of Chrétien's unfinished "Perceval, the Story of the Grail". Other legacy can be found in the many so-called pseudo-Arthurian works in Spain and Portugal.
Modern editions and translations.
Oskar Sommer.
H. Oskar Sommer published the entire original French text of the Vulgate Cycle in seven volumes in the years 1908–1916. Sommer's has been the only complete cycle published as of 1995. The base text used was the British Library Additional MS 10292–10294. It is however not a critical edition, but a composite text, where variant readings from alternate manuscripts are unreliably demarcated using square brackets. 
Norris J. Lacy.
The first full English translations of the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate cycles were overseen by Norris J. Lacy. Volumes 1–4 contain the Vulgate Cycle proper.
Daniel Poirion.
A modern French translation of the Vulgate Cycle in three volumes: