International Medieval Society, Paris
Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2008 Abstracts

Blood.  For many, the mere mention of this one syllable word conjures unsettling images.  Today we are inundated with gore-driven video games, spaghetti soaked slasher films and news feed of murder, suicide, and death which beg the question: can blood be beautiful? 

 In Chrétien de Troyes Le Conte du Graal every indicative reference to blood or the lack of blood is also inherently linked to beauty or hideousness.  With this paper, I intend to prove that there is significant importance in the perception of blood as beautiful in Chrétien de Troyes Le Conte du Graal.  Moving away from blood representative of death, chez Chrétien de Troyes we see blood that hypnotizes, blood that adds « une touche de vermeille » to the cheeks of a demoiselle, blood as essence, and in essence, beautiful blood. 

The reading of blood as beautiful in the Conte du graal is crucial to interpreting Perceval’s trance-like desire to become a knight « aussi beau qu’un ange », a subconscious return to his bloodline/lineage/destiny.  Blood is the driving force behind Perceval’s quest, and through an analysis of « merveilles » and « vermeille » I have discovered two different approaches to the reading of beautiful blood in the Conte du Graal. My analysis follows two axes:  beautiful blood as lineage and secondly beautiful blood as morality with emphasis in each category on the instances of blood portrayed as marvelous, hypnotizing, mesmerizing and on the interiority/exteriority of this « beautiful blood ».