International Medieval Society, Paris
Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2008 Abstracts

Blood plays a crucial role in medieval medicine, law, religion, historiography and literature. It is conspicuous, for example, in the famous grail legend, where it drips from a miraculous lance, where blood-drops in the snow remind the grail knight of his beloved, and where the shared blood of kinsmen does not prevent bloodshed. This paper will investigate the use of blood both in Chrétien’s Conte du Graal (c. 1180-90) and in Wolfram’s Parzival (c. 1200-10). Unlike Quast (2003), who sees a progression from natural to ambiguous signs in Wolfram’s plot, I argue that blood in these romances is always essentially a sign that the characters have to interpret. If correctly read, it is credited with the power to reveal indisputable truth. This presentation of blood as a sign is not specific to fiction, but deeply embedded in medieval culture. I will set it in the context of French historiography, in particular of Suger’s Deeds of Louis the Fat (c. 1150), Guibert of Nogent’s memoirs (c. 1115) and the Annales Bertiniani (c. 830).

The unasked grail question around which the plot revolves, for example, mostly aims at the blood on the lance, and the bleeding king. The fact that it cannot be instantly posed or even answered might indicate that a process of empathetic grieving over time is here required both of the characters and of the recipient (rather than a simple sacrifice, where one blood automatically makes good another). In historical sources, too, blood sets in motion processes of either retaliation or empathy, and in any case needs skilful interpretation to then reveal allegedly universal facts of history: the saving power of faith; the connectedness of all living beings (who share one blood); and the necessity of violence.