We have, also, a group of visits to the Perilous Chapel, or Perilous Cemetery, which appear to be closely connected with each other.  In each case the object of the visit is to obtain a portion of the cloth which covers the altar, or a dead body lying upon the altar.  The romances in question are the Perlesvaus, the prose Lancelot, and the Chevalier à deux Espées.[5] The respective protagonists being Perceval’s sister, Sir Lancelot, and the young Queen of Garadigan, whose city has been taken by King Ris and who dares the venture to win her freedom.

In the first case the peril appears to lie in the Cemetery, which is surrounded by the ghosts of knights slain in the forest, and buried in unconsecrated ground.  The Lancelot version is similar, but here the title is definitely Perilous Chapel.  In the last version there is no hint of a Cemetery.

In the Lancelot version there is a dead knight on the altar, whose sword Lancelot takes in addition to the piece of cloth.  In the poem a knight is brought in, and buried before the altar; the young queen, after cutting off a piece of the altar cloth, uncovers the body, and buckles on the sword.  There is no mention of a Hand in any of the three versions, which appear to be late and emasculated forms of the theme.

The earliest mention of a Perilous Cemetery, as distinct from a Chapel, appears to be in the Chastel Orguellous section of the Perceval, a section probably derived from a very early stratum of Arthurian romantic tradition.  Here Arthur and his knights, on their way to the siege of Chastel Orguellous, come to the Vergier des Sepoltures, where they eat with the Hermits, of whom there are a hundred and more.

“ne me l’oïst or pas chi dire Les merveilles del chimetire car si sont diverses et grans qu’il n’est hom terriens vivans qui poist pas quidier ne croire que ce fust onques chose voire."[6]

But there is no hint of a Perilous Chapel here.

The adventures of Gawain in the Atre Perilleus,[7] and of Gawain and Hector in the Lancelot of the final cyclic prose version, are of the most banal description; the theme, originally vivid and picturesque, has become watered down into a meaningless adventure of the most conventional type.

But originally a high importance seems to have been attached to it.  If we turn back to the first version given, that of which Gawain is the hero, we shall find that special stress is laid on this adventure, as being part of ‘the Secret of the Grail,’ of which no man may speak without grave danger.[8] We are told that, but for Gawain’s loyalty and courtesy, he would not have survived the perils of that night.  In the same way Perceval, before reaching the Fisher King’s castle, meets a maiden, of whom he asks the meaning of the lighted tree, Chapel, etc.  She tells him it is all part of the saint secret of the Grail.[9] Now what does this mean?  Unless I am much mistaken the key is to be found