"Why is This Knight Different from All Other Knights?"
Jews, Anti-Semitism, and the Old French Grail Narratives

by Lisa Lampert-Weissig, University of California, San Diego


For those interested in the representations of Jews and Judaism in the Middle Ages, the genre of chivalric romance, especially Arthurian romance, does not, at first glance, appear to offer particularly promising sources. One certainly does find the occasional reference to Jews sprinkled in among the recounting of adventures, quests, and love affairs, but other genres, such as sermons, drama, or Miracles of the Virgin, for example, seem immediately to yield far richer material. In this essay I will focus on Old French Grail narratives, Chrétien de Troyes's Conte du Graal, Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (late twelfth or early thirteenth century), the Perlesvaus (thirteenth century) and the Queste del Saint Graal of the Vulgate Cycle (thirteenth century) to show how we can locate the haunting presence of the Jew through two related master narratives that shape Grail romance: the master narratives of the Passion and of Christian supersession, the triumph of the New Law over the Old.