PERCYVELL. Sir Perceval is the hero of the Grail legend. In Chrétien de Troyes's Le Conte de Graal, several versions of the legend come together. Perceval was reared in the Waste Forest by his mother after his father's death. He did not know his name because he was always called biaus filz, "fine son," or biaus sire, "fine sir." After meeting several of Arthur's knights, he decided to seek out the king, and his mother gave her reluctant consent. She told him that his father was the most renowned warrior of the islands in the sea and that he died of grief when his two older sons were slain. After many adventures, Perceval came to the Grail Castle, where the Fisher King lay suffering from an unhealed wound. Perceval failed to ask the question, "Whom does one serve with the Grail?" and the Fisher King remained unhealed of his wound. Because of his utter naiveté, he was given the name Perceval--"pure fool." The most famous version of the romance is the twelfth-century Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, inspired by Chrétien's poem. The Middle English romance Sir Perceval of Galles was written, c.1350-1400, in the North of England, in the sixteen-line tail-rhyme stanza form, each stanza linked to its preceding and following stanzas. The unique copy is that of the fifteenth-century Thornton manuscript.

Sir Thopas drinks water from the well as did Sir Perceval, Thop 915-916. In Sir Perceval of Galles, this incident appears twice: at the beginning where the poet describes Perceval's ancestry and upbringing and near the end when Perceval drinks water from the well while searching for his mother. [Thopas]

Percyvell, the northern ME variant, appears in final rhyming position, Thop 916.