Percival's sister

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Percival's sister is a role of two similar but distinct characters in the

Arthurian legend featuring the Grail hero Percival
(Perceval). The first of them is named Dindrane, the second is usually unnamed and is known today as the Grail heroine.

Dindrane

Dindrane (or Dandrane, Danbrann, Dandrenor, Dindraine, etc.) is a character in the

Pelles and widow of Alain "the Large", lord of the valley and castle of Kamaalot (Camelot).[1]

The pre-cyclic version of the

Prose Lancelot names her Heliabel,[2] describing her as even more beautiful than Guinevere. Heliabel later evolved into the character of Galahad's mother
.

Grail heroine

How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival were Fed with the Sanc Grael; But Sir Percival's Sister Died by the Way by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1864)

Contrary to popular notion, Dindrane in the 13th-century Perlesvaus is not the sister of

Tavola Ritonda
.

Though frequently left unnamed, Perceval's sister is a prominent figure in many of the Grail romances, sometimes dubbed the "Grail heroine". According to Anna Caughey, Thomas Malory's portrayal of Percival's sister in his 15th-century Le Morte d'Arthur characterizes her with an unusual "seizure of power and agency for a Malorian [good] woman that has previously been seen only in ambivalent or actively evil figures such as Nynyve or Morgan le Fay."[3]

She is first encountered upon her brother (sometimes half-brother)'s return to their mother's castle, where she tells him that their mother has died. Percival leaves her either in the care of their hermit uncle or (in other texts) at the

Tree of Life, and other aspects of her destiny. The travellers board the Ship of Solomon, intent to complete the mystical Grail quest. After leaving the ship, they encounter a castle with a leprous mistress; told that only the blood of a maiden princess can cure the chatelaine's leprosy, Percival's sister opts to donate hers, but succumbs to the blood loss and dies.[4] As per her dying wish, the damsel's body is set adrift in a boat (without a crew) to float to the holy city of Sarras. In some versions, Lancelot (Galahad's father) finds her vessel and buries her in Palais Esperitel; in others, she is interred by Galahad and Bors when they land at the port of Sarras, after which they proceed to win the Grail.[5]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. toponym
    possibly related to Dindrane, rendered as Danbrann in Y Seint Greal, the Welsh translation of the Vulgate Quest of the Holy Grail and Perlesvaus.

Citations

  1. ^ a b Bruce, Christopher W. (1999). "Dandrane". The Arthurian Name Dictionary. Retrieved 9 December 2012. [Dandrane] was kidnapped by Aristor of Amorave, who intended to marry and behead her, but she was rescued by Perceval. She lived out her days as a maiden in the Grail Castle. She is not the same sister of Perceval who appears, unnamed, in the Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal and as Agresizia in La Tavola Ritonda. [Perlesvaus]
  2. ISBN 978-0-19-283793-6
    .
  3. ISBN 9781843842811
    .
  4. ^ Sigurd Towrie (23 December 1996). "Re: Dindrane". Newsgroup: alt.legend.king-arthur. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
  5. ^ Newell, William Wells (1898). "The Legend of the Holy Grail". Journal of American Folklore. IV.
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