Robert de Boron

Robert de Boron was a French poet of Anglo-Norman origin, who worked for the 13th century of 12 at the transition. He came from the village of Boron east of Montbeliard and enjoyed the promotion of the Crusader Gautier de Montbéliard († 1212 ).

Work

He is the author of Estoire dou Graal ( Story of the Grail ), a Gralsromans in 3500 verses, which he created about the same time as Chrétien de Troyes Perceval Gralsroman at the end of the 12th century. Roberts and Chrétien seals make the legend of the Holy Grail for the first time. Literary in form, but in content and substance history so completely different that it is unclear what has been the other of the two novels of the predecessor

In Roberts seal the Gralssucher Perceval does not occur. Instead, a strong Christian background history of the Gralskönigstums is told that continues in the apocryphal legend of Joseph of Arimathea.

The Grail is the chalice with Robert, has used the Christ at the Last Supper. In this chalice Joseph of Arimathea collects the blood of Christ at the crucifixion. Later, the chalice center of a cult of remembrance of the Lord's Supper. After Joseph protected his brother- Bron, who is "the Rich Fisherman " (Le Riche Pescheeur, V. 3345 ) is called the Grail. God proclaims that Brons grandson, the son of his son Alain, the third Gralhüter to be. Bron, Alain and their followers leave Palestine. Take the Grail with the West and want in the "valleys of Avaron " ( it vaus d' Avaron, 3123 ) await the arrival of Brons grandchildren.

It is questionable whether the fragmentary Merlin seal ( 504 verses about the birth of Merlin ), which follows in the only handwriting on the Estoire dou Graal, also comes from Robert.

Later versions of the Grail story

A substantive relationship between Chrétien's Conte du Graal and the Estoire dou Graal was not established until later. In the French prose romances further synthesis of the substance a few decades later were always taken ( Perlesvaus ), which until the late Middle Ages, the entire Arthurian legend included ( prose Lancelot, Queste del Saint Graal ).

For example, is found in two manuscripts a novel trilogy Joseph Merlin Perceval, purporting to be the work of Robert de Boron, but in truth is an anonymous compilation of three texts. In this novel cycle, a prose version of Robert's Estoire and a prose Merlin the redemption story of Perceval be preceded by the predicted grandson of Bron is here (so-called Didot - Perceval ). This prose cycle of about 1205 to 1210 is the oldest text, in which the search for the grail at the end of the Arthurian world ( Mort Artu ) associated.