Wisdom and the Grail: The Image of the Vessel in the Queste del Saint Graal and Malory's Tale of the Sankgreal by Anne Marie D'arcy (original) (raw)

Arthuriana, 2002

Abstract

'knows' that he had an heretical (or 'near heretical') viewpoint or not, or whether he was actually trying to conceal anything from anybody or not; thus the notion that these authors had discovered how to 'conceal' under a veil ofallegory viewpoints which might have been 'dangerous' to state in other terms comes to seem essentially meaningless. Reader tolerance will vary for Chance's attempts to apply this sort ofpostmodern 'theory lite' to her texts. On balance it seems to me that the book's primary utility as a mythographic reference is actually little hindered by it, or by the naivety ofcertain aspects of her presentation. There are two reasons for this; first, the argument is pushed fairly lightly, and there are long segments where it is not pushed at all. The bulk of the book is really descriptive rather than analytical. Second, where it does get pushed hard (as in the chapter on Bersuire), its wrongness is generally selfevident. The mythographic texts themselves are treated fairly, and for the most part the aspects of her argument that are naive or imprecise can simply be ignored. The book remains a useful compendium of information.

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