Lancelot-Grail

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The Lancelot-Grail, also known as the prose Lancelot, the Vulgate Cycle, or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is a major source of Arthurian legend. It is a series of eight medieval French prose volumes (in the edition of Alexandre Micha) that tell the story of the quest for the Holy Grail and the romance of Lancelot and Guinevere. The major parts are early thirteenth century, but scholarship has few definitive answers as to the authorship. An attribution to Walter Map is discounted, since he died too early to be the author. This cycle of works was one of the most important sources of Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.

The work is divided into five sections. The last three were actually the first to be written; the first two apparently came later. They are:

The Estoire del Saint Grail (The History of the Holy Grail), about Joseph of Arimathea and his son Josephus bringing the Grail to Britain.
The Estoire de Merlin (also called the Vulgate or Prose Merlin), about Merlin and the early history of Arthur.
*To this section is added the Vulgate Suite du Merlin (Vulgate Merlin Continuation), adding more of Arthur's early adventures.
The Lancelot propre (Lancelot Proper), the longest section, making up half of the entire cycle. It concerns the adventures of Lancelot and the other Knights of the Round Table, and the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere.
The Queste del Saint Graal (Quest for the Holy Grail), about the Grail Quest and its completion by Galahad.
The Mort Artu (Death of Arthur), about the king's death at the hands of Mordred and the collapse of the kingdom.

The work was soon followed by the Post-Vulgate Cycle, a work based on the Vulgate but differing from it in many respects.

References

The Lancelot-Grail Reader (2000) edited by Norris J. Lacy ISBN 0815334192
Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate Cycles in Translation, 5 volumes, edited by Norris J. Lacy
Lancelot and the Grail: A Study of the Prose Lancelot, Elspeth Kennedy (Clarendon Press, 1986)
Lancelot Do Lac, the Non-Cyclic Old French Prose Romance, Two Volumes, edited by Elspeth Kennedy, Oxford, 1980.

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