Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- How Perceforest earned his name
- The Perilous Temple
- The Adventures of Claudius and Estonné
- The Wonders at Gadifer's Coronation
- King Gadifer's Wound
- Zephir the Trickster
- Troylus in love
- A New Order of Chivalry – the ‘Franc Palais’
- The God of the Sheer Mountain
- The Fish-Knights
- The Sleeping Beauty
- The Marvellous Child
- The Death of Caesar
- The Adventure of the Red Sword
The Perilous Temple
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- How Perceforest earned his name
- The Perilous Temple
- The Adventures of Claudius and Estonné
- The Wonders at Gadifer's Coronation
- King Gadifer's Wound
- Zephir the Trickster
- Troylus in love
- A New Order of Chivalry – the ‘Franc Palais’
- The God of the Sheer Mountain
- The Fish-Knights
- The Sleeping Beauty
- The Marvellous Child
- The Death of Caesar
- The Adventure of the Red Sword
Summary
Perceforest is set in the pre-Christian past. The pagan Alexander is a paragon of every chivalrous quality, and the ‘old gods’ he worships are undoubtedly abroad and functioning in the world; but there is a fascinating tension throughout the romance between this old religion and the ‘New Law’ of Christianity which is to be brought to Britain at the story's end. Perceforest is shortly to learn of a new ‘Sovereign God’ at a mysterious round temple, but in this earlier passage Alexander encounters the temple's terrors before him.
Alexander and Floridas rode all day until they met a cowherd at the foot of a steep mountain. He told them it was the Mount of the Marvel, where none but knights ever ventured. Intrigued, they climbed to the top and found it planted thick with oaks, and the grass came up to their horses' knees. They rode along the mountain top and came across a great expanse of holly trees so dense that they couldn't see a foot inside. The king said to Floridas:
‘Here's a sturdy hedge indeed!’
They rode along the outside till they found a narrow gap where horses had passed quite recently, but they had to dismount and pull their horses by the reins and walk some distance through the dense holly-wood, and they reached the other side covered in scratches. But they emerged to find themselves in a beautiful spot, in the middle of which stood a round temple.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Perceforest ReaderSelected Episodes from Perceforest: The Prehistory of Arthur's Britain, pp. 11 - 18Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012