Chapter I

The Feast of the Sovereign God

The great day was near; and Perceforest was at the windows of the Franc Palais giving thanks to the Sovereign God, for the weather was so perfect that ‘it seemed the creator of all things had specially arranged it to glorify his feast. No one could have complained of the heat, for the sky between heaven and earth was beautifully mottled with clouds. The small clouds seemed to those who beheld them to be white sheep grazing with joyful relish on the sun’s rays. And not only sheep: those who took pleasure in gazing skyward saw in the clouds all manner of men and women, animals, birds, valleys, mountains, woods and forests, not to mention strange and ominous things with heads before and behind, grimacing at each other.’

And as Perceforest and his queen looked down they saw the meadows filling with pavilions, tents and leafy bowers as a vast host of kings, queens, knights and ladies assembled for the feast, arriving in a magnificent procession, their crowns, jewels and arms all gleaming in the sun. The twelve knights who’d made the vows to the hermit Pergamon – now crowned kings – were there, all with their queens and some with newborn children, and all with escorts of at least a hundred knights accompanied by their ladies; Clamidés, lord of the Isle of the Golden-haired Giant, arrived with his wife the Fair Giantess and a company of two hundred; Troylus came with Zellandine, and her brother Zelandin with his lady Glone; Gloriande of Castle Darnant arrived with her husband; Sebile of the Red Castle with Vestige of Joy; and Estonné with his new wife Priande.

Then, as darkness began to fall, everyone saw an amazing sight: looking towards the forest they beheld the most magnificent pavilion any of them had ever seen. ‘Atop the pommel was a bay tree, round as an apple and green as an emerald, with forty torches blazing around it,’ their light all the brighter as the daylight faded; and ‘around the bay tree girls and squires were joyously dancing and singing. And that’s not all: the pavilion was filled with such a light that the images and friezes woven into its sides glowed out to the beholders like pictures in stained glass.’