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 God of the Sheer Mountain
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
The author's attitude to magic is ambiguous. The Fairy Queen, King Gadifer's wife, uses her skills in magic to manifestly good ends: she gives her son, young Gadifer, a magic ring that enables him to see through any illusion; and her knowledge of what the stars and planets predestine helps her to save her sons from wounds they deal each other with their lances. Magic – acquiring and using knowledge of nature's workings – is not, the author implies, in itself a bad thing; but what is to be avoided, he says, is for a ‘magician’ to become adept and imagine he's therefore godlike. In the following episode, young Gadifer has responded to a plea by a maiden named Pierote to undertake a mysterious mission; it leads him to encounter the enchanter Aroés, who has set himself up as God of the Sheer Mountain.
The master mariner was awestruck to hear that such a young knight as Gadifer had undertaken the mission to the kingdom of the Sheer Mountain.
‘Do you know what the adventure entails?’ he asked him.
‘I know nothing about it, truly,’ Gadifer replied. ‘The maiden Pierote died before she could tell me what I was engaged to do.’
‘I know nothing, either!’ the mariner said. ‘Nor do I see how you can enter the kingdom from any direction! It's a mountain about a hundred leagues in circumference, and on every side it soars sheer to the height of a bowshot: no bird can even find a perch! And the sea has worn away the land all round and pounds at its foot on every side.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Perceforest ReaderSelected Episodes from Perceforest: The Prehistory of Arthur's Britain, pp. 52 - 62Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012