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 Adventures of Claudius and Estonné
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 has many deep and intriguing themes. It is also – perhaps even first and foremost – a rich and thrilling entertainment, featuring numerous sequences of which the director of a modern ‘action movie’ would be proud. The adventures of two knights as they search for the missing King Perceforest offer some particularly memorable examples.
After dividing from Alexander and the others in the search for Perceforest, the English knight Claudius and the Scottish lord Estonné rode for three days without incident – or indeed food. They were hungry – unsurprisingly, though the people in those days were of a stronger constitution and were not so richly fed. But Estonné caught sight of a herd of deer and, being an excellent hunter, quickly made a kill. Then he cut off a leg and said:
‘Now, my noble companion, you shall eat – and so shall I!’
‘We would indeed, if we had a fire,’ said Claudius.
‘By my father's soul,’ said Estonné, ‘I'll prepare and cook it in the manner of my country, well suited to a wandering knight.’
And he drew his sword and stepped up to a tree; he made a deep cut in a branch and split it open for a good two feet and rammed in the leg. Then he took the halter from his horse and bound it round the branch and pulled so tight that the blood and fluids were squeezed from the flesh to leave it sweet and dry, and finished by skinning it to leave the meat as white as a capon's.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Perceforest ReaderSelected Episodes from Perceforest: The Prehistory of Arthur's Britain, pp. 19 - 23Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012