La Lance qui saigne: Métatextes et hypertextes du ‘Conte du Graal’ de Chrétien de Troyes by Laurent Guyénot (review)

In this work, Laurent Guyénot endeavors to elucidate the cultural references that likely allowed Chrétien de Troyes’ public to comprehend and appreciate his texts. Taking into account the potential pitfalls of interpreting an era so far removed from our own, Guyénot challenges the modern notion that Chrétien and his contemporaries may have had little awareness of the meanings of the myths they were exploiting. Guyénot counters, for example, the contentions of Eugène Vinaver and C.S. Lewis that the romanciers borrowed arbitrarily from folklore with little sense of original meanings. Guyénot also disputes the ‘thèses celtisantes’ developed by Alfred Nutt and Roger Sherman Loomis, among others, who observe that the Arthurian romance emanates from distorted Celtic mythology. Guyénot argues that these conclusions are based on outdated conceptions inherited from the nineteenth century. The author posits, rather, that the Arthurian romanciers, and specifically Chrétien, fully shared conceptions of the otherworldly that oral tradition provided. Engaging with Chrétien’s work requires a consideration both of its underlying folklore (although Guyénot recognizes the problems posed by use of this term in a medieval context) and of popularized theology. The author identifies these sources, the folkloric and the Christological, as meta-texts of Le Conte du Graal. In analyzing the connection that Chrétien makes between orphic and Christic (a link that, according to the author, Chrétien’s reader would have clearly recognized), Guyénot underscores the inherently modern quality of Chrétien’s oeuvre.

Guyénot devotes the first two of ten chapters to a discussion of the two symbolic planes (orphic and Christic) present in Chrétien’s earlier work, Le Chevalier de la Charrette, postulating that this ‘double métatexte’ prepared Chrétien’s reader to interpret an even more nuanced composite of sources in Le Conte du Graal. Guyénot offers a well-organized appraisal of the plot elements in the Charrette—the abduction and liberation of Guinevere and her people—that frame the central theme, stressing its mythic and Christic provenances. The author stresses the connection between these traditions, a juxtaposition that, according to the author, demonstrates the modernism of Chrétien’s work.

Guyénot also provides a detailed examination of textual elements that, in addition to their explicit significance, carry implicit references to source texts and alternate versions. In addition to an appraisal of the grail, the sword, the Fisher King as father figure, and Gauvain, Guyénot devotes particular focus to the lance. He asserts that the object of his title, the lance with the bleeding tip, is presented as a symbol of vengeance while paradoxically serving as a critique of the violence espoused by knightly culture. According to Guyénot, Chrétien subtly reformulated the notion of vengeance into a question more directly relevant to ‘la religiosité laïque’ of the Middle Ages, that is, how to die ‘une bonne mort.’ In addition, Guyénot devotes considerable attention to the Fisher King, a figure that embodies the concept of demise brought on by sin and redeemed through conversion. In the eighth chapter, the author examines the oft-overlooked narrative of Gauvain within Le Conte du Graal in order to underscore the polarities of chivalric life. Guyénot makes mention of the otherworldly nature of Gauvain’s adventures, emphasizing the subversion of the concept of Christian paradise and the possible influence of Muslim tradition within this imagery. This point of inquiry, however, remains largely undeveloped.

In his ninth chapter, Guyénot examines the Continuations of Perceval, examining them through the lens of vengeance, and provides a detailed account of the metamorphosis of the lance. He traces, for example, the evolution from Chrétien’s lance with its dual meaning (as both a symbol of the Passion and...