ABSTRACT
Some twenty-five years after Chrétien wrote his Perceval, one or, more likely, several, authors began to elaborate a massive Arthurian prose cycle, known now as the Lancelot-Grail or the Vulgate Cycle of Arthurian Romance, dated ca. 1215–35. The cycle began with a greatly expanded account of Lancelot’s adventures and his love affair with Guenevere. To that were appended The Quest for the Holy Grail (the final section of which appears below) and then The Death of Arthur. Soon after that, or perhaps simultaneously, a History of the Holy Grail and a Merlin romance were composed, and a Suite [“continuation”] du Merlin (see below, Chapter 7) linked the Merlin to the Lancelot, completing a cycle of five romances running to many hundreds of pages in the modern editions. However, only a few manuscripts preserve all five romances; many contain the initial three, and some present only the Lancelot, without a thematic link to the Quest.
