Circle of Logres: Sir Perceval and Sir Galahad, Quest Knights

Main     Introduction     History     Arthur
Lady of Lake     Gawain     Morgan, Mordred, Avalon
Camelot     Tristan, Isolde     Grail     Guinevere
Round Table, Knights     Perceval, Galahad
Excalibur     Merlin     Lancelot     Compendium
Sources     Email Glyn Hnutu-healh

Sir Perceval and Sir Galahad,
Quest Knights of Logres

None of the line items that are included in the following outline are meant to be links.
The outline itself represents the material that is to be covered in the upcoming book known by the above title (available after June 2034).

Foreword by Anastasija Ropa

Introduction to Sir Perceval and Sir Galahad, Quest Knights of Logres
Sir Perceval, Quest Knight of Logres

Introduction to Sir Perceval, Quest Knight of Logres
Meaning, Origin, Existence, and Comparison: Perceval’s Name, Other Percevals, and Other (Wise Fools)/Knights/Warriors/Rescuers/Samaritans

Introduction to Meaning, Origin, Existence, and Comparison:
Perceval’s Name, Other Percevals, and Other (Wise Fools)/Knights/Warriors/Rescuers/Samaritans

The name Perceval — in all its orthographic and linguistic permutations — is amongst the most richly contested proper nouns in mediæval literature
Its variant spellings and cognate forms stretch across Welsh, Breton, Old French, Occitan, Middle High German, Italian, and beyond, each inflection carrying its own semantic freight
The question of what the name means is inseparable from the question of what the character means: the naïve, motherbound boy who blunders into the Grail Castle
and, through his failure to ask the healing question, sets in motion one of the defining narrative arcs of Western Christendom
This section examines the etymology and orthographic history of the name itself; catalogues those other figures — historical, legendary, and literary — who share the name or a recognisable variant thereof;
and compares Perceval with a broader international cohort of wise fools, knights errant, warrior-rescuers, and selfless samaritans whose stories exhibit structural, thematic, or mythological kinship with his own

Meaning and Origin of Perceval’s Name

Introduction to Meaning and Origin of Perceval’s Name

No settled consensus exists as to the ultimate etymology of Perceval
Scholars have proposed derivations from Celtic, Old French, Persian, Latin, and various combinations thereof
The multiplicity of mediæval spellings — many of which were themselves the result of folk-etymological reinterpretation — complicates the picture considerably,
for each scribal community tended to make sense of an unfamiliar name by reshaping it towards something intelligible in its own tongue
What follows is a survey of the principal name-forms and the etymological or interpretive traditions associated with each

(Peredur ab Efrawg)/(Peredyr/(hard spear) (Arueu Dur)/(steel-arms))/Pryderi/(worry, anxiety)/Praetor

The Welsh antecedent of Perceval is Peredur, hero of the Middle Welsh prose tale Peredur fab Efrawg, preserved in Mabinogion
The name Peredur is most plausibly analysed as a compound of per- (a prefix associated with a spear-point or head) and dur (steel, hard),
yielding something approximating “hard spear” or “steel spear”
— a martial sobriquet entirely in keeping with the heroic tradition from which the character springs
The epithet Arueu Dur (“Steel-Arms”), borne by the figure of Peredyr in Welsh Triads and related genealogical material,
reinforces this interpretation, presenting the name as descriptive of the bearer’s martial excellence

Pryderi

Scholars have further noted a suggestive proximity to Pryderi,

the ill-fated son of Pwyll and Rhiannon in Four Branches of the Mabinogi,
whose name means “worry” or “anxiety”
— a fitting designation for a child born under ominous circumstances and beset by loss throughout his life

The structural and thematic parallels between Pryderi’s story and Perceval’s
(the absent or slain father, the sheltering mother, the young man thrust unprepared into a hostile world)
have led some comparatists to posit a shared mythological substrate,
though direct derivation of the name Perceval from Pryderi is linguistically difficult to sustain

Praetor

A more speculative connection has occasionally been drawn to the Latin praetor

— Roman magistrate or military commander —
on the grounds that the Arthurian tradition was shaped partly by memories of Romano-British civic and military culture

The evidence for this etymology is thin,
but the suggestion is not entirely without interest in the broader context of how Latin administrative vocabulary was absorbed into the vernacular British nomenclature of the post-Roman period

Peronnik/Peronnique

Peronnik (also encountered as Peronnique) is the name of the Breton folk-tale simpleton who quests for the Golden Bowl and the Diamond Lance
— objects that correspond unmistakeably to the Grail and the Bleeding Lance of Arthurian tradition
The name is diminutive in form and affectionate in colouring, perhaps related to the Breton personal name Peron (itself a form of Pierre, id est, Peter)
Whether Peronnik preserves an archaic Breton form of the Perceval-name,
or whether it represents an independent folk-tradition that subsequently attracted Arthurian contamination, remains disputed
The tale was first recorded by Émile Souvestre in the nineteenth century, though the oral stratum it represents is likely considerably older

Per[les]chevaux/Perl(l)e(s)va(u)x/Perlesvaus/Pellesvaus/Pellesvax/(Par-lui -fet/-fais/-fez)/Par-qui-li-fez/Parfez

Introduction to Per[les]chevaux/Perl(l)e(s)va(u)x/Perlesvaus/Pellesvaus/Pellesvax/(Par-lui -fet/-fais/-fez)/Par-qui-li-fez/Parfez

This cluster of variant spellings derives chiefly from the Old French prose romance Perlesvaus (also known as The High History of the Holy Grail),
composed in the early thirteenth century and notable for its fierce, visionary religiosity
The name appears in the text in a variety of forms, each of which attracted its own folk-etymological gloss

Per[les]chevaux is translated as “Perle’s Horsemen”

One reading of Per-les-chevaux (literally “through the horses” or “by the horses”) has been fancifully rendered as “Perle's Horsemen”,
understanding per- as a proper name (Perle) and chevaux as French for “horses”
This reading is almost certainly a secondary etymological invention rather than an original meaning,
but it testifies to the creative ingenuity with which mediæval readers sought to impose sense upon an opaque name

perd-les-vaux (to lose one’s values) of Kamaalot, his heritage

A more morally freighted folk-etymology reads the name as perd-les-vaux — “loses the valleys”
— understanding vaux (valleys, lowlands) as a metonym for his patrimony, his heritage, and specifically his connexion to Kamaalot (Camelot)
In this reading, the name encodes Perceval’s central tragedy: the young man who, through innocence or negligence, forfeits what is rightfully his

Perles-vaux — Perle’s Valley

A variant of the above reads Perles-vaux as “the valley of Perle”
— understanding Perle either as a proper name or as French for “pearl”,
a stone with potent symbolic resonance in mediæval Christian tradition
(confer the Pearl poem, and parable of The Pearl of Great Price)
In this reading, Perceval is the guardian or quester of a sacred, luminous place or object

Perlesvaus as ‘Perceval Disinherited’

The romance itself appears to gloss the name as meaning “Perceval who has lost the vales”
— that is, Perceval Disinherited — situating the narrative as one of rightful recovery:
the hero must win back what his family has lost
This self-conscious etymology within the text is a notable instance of the author employing the hero’s name as a thematic programme

Parfez, meaning perfect

The variant Parfez (also Par-lui-fet, Par-qui-li-fez, and related forms) has been interpreted as deriving from Old French parfait or parfez
— “perfect”, “accomplished”, “made complete”
This reading casts the name as prophetic of the hero’s spiritual destiny:
he who will ultimately be made whole, or who will bring wholeness to others through the achievement of the Grail quest

Percevaus

Perceval in Occitan

Percevaus is the Occitan form of the name, encountered in the lyric poetry of the troubadour tradition,
where Perceval appears less as a fully narrated character and more as a byword for a particular type of courtly or spiritual aspiration
— the figure of the questing, earnest seeker

Appears in Bertolome(o) Zorzi’s En tal Dezir mos Cors intra (In such Desire my Heart enters)

Bartolomeo Zorzi (floruit late Thirteenth entury AD), the Venetian troubadour who composed in Occitan, invokes Percevaus in his canso En tal Dezir mos Cors intra (“In such Desire my Heart enters”),
employing the name as a touchstone of devoted, single-minded pursuit — a testament to the degree to which the figure of Perceval had penetrated the lyric imagination of the Occitan-speaking world by the later thirteenth century

Persevaus

Persevaus is a further variant spelling of the name, attested in several mediæval sources
Beyond its orthographic interest, it has attracted attention as possibly reflecting an independent transmission of the name within a separate textual community, distinct from the Perlesvaus tradition
Its precise phonological history is uncertain

Persavaus

Persavaus is the form used by the troubadour Rigaut de Berbezilh in his famous sirventes, where the name is deployed with pointed irony
The spelling suggests a distinct Occitan phonological tradition,
and its occurrence in an early lyric context (mid to late Twelfth Century AD) is significant for establishing how early the Perceval-figure had become a culturally intelligible reference point in southern France

Parzival/Parsifal/Perceval/(Percival(e) de Galles)

Introduction to Parzival/Parsifal/Perceval/(Percival(e) de Galles)

The Middle High German Parzival, as given definitive form by Wolfram von Eschenbach in his romance of c AD 1200–1210,
and the later operatic variant Parsifal employed by Richard Wagner in his sacred festival drama of 1882, represent the most philosophically elaborated treatments of the name’s significance

“Perce à Val”

The most widely cited folk-etymology, apparently endorsed by Chrétien de Troyes himself (or at least by the interpretive tradition that clustered around his romance),
reads the name as Old French perce à val — “pierce the valley”
The image is of a spear or lance driving through a lowland, a hollow, or a pass between hills

“piercing the valley” between two opposite peaks

An elaboration of the above interprets “the valley” as the liminal space between two contrary principles
— activity and passivity, knowing and unknowing, the sacred and the secular —
which Perceval must traverse and ultimately reconcile
The valley is thus not merely a geographical feature but a metaphysical one

“to pierce through the middle”

A related reading emphasises the median quality of Perceval’s piercing
— not to one extreme or the other, but straight through the centre
This has been linked to his characteristic position as a figure perpetually between worlds:
between childhood and manhood, between the court and the wilderness, between the Wasteland and the healed kingdom

Parsi + Fal = pure + fool

Wagner’s own proclaimed etymology for Parsifal, drawing on the Persian parsi (pure) and fal (fool), yields “the pure fool” (der reine Tor in German)
Whether or not this etymology is philologically sound
— and most scholars regard it as a creative anachronism rather than a genuine derivation —
it is thematically powerful, for Wolfram’s Parzival is indeed defined by a purity of heart that co-exists with, and is even constituted by, his initial foolishness

Parseh + Fal = poor + fool

A variant of the Persian etymology reads parseh (poor, impoverished) rather than parsi (pure), yielding “the poor fool”
— a reading that emphasises social marginality and dispossession rather than spiritual innocence
Whether this alternative is Wagner’s own, or belongs to the broader Nineteenth-Century AD orientalist scholarship that informed him, is not entirely clear

Pre(n)zevallo

Perceval in Italian

Prenzevallo (also Prezevallo) is the Italian form of the name,
encountered in the literature of the Italian communes during the Thirteenth Century AD,
when Arthurian matter was widely diffused throughout the Italian peninsula

Appears in Guittone d’Arezzo’s Non Chiedendo, ma Meritando si ottiene Guiderdone in Amore (Not by Asking, but by Deserving, one obtains Reward in Love)

Guittone d'Arezzo (c AD 1230–1294), the influential Tuscan poet and moralist, invokes Prenzevallo in his poem Non Chiedendo, ma Meritando si ottiene Guiderdone in Amore
The title itself — “Not by Asking, but by Deserving, one obtains Reward in Love” — resonates with extraordinary aptness against the central Perceval-paradox:
the hero who fails to ask the compassionate question at the Grail Castle, and must spend years in penance before he earns the right to pose it
Guittone’s use of the figure thus demonstrates a sophisticated literary awareness of the Perceval tradition’s thematic core

Existence of Other Percevals

Introduction to Existence of Other Percevals

The name Perceval and its cognates attach themselves not only to Chrétien’s hero and his direct literary descendants,
but to a surprisingly diverse array of historical, semi-historical, and legendary figures,
each of whom stands in a different relationship to the central Arthurian character
Some are probable or possible sources; some are distinct characters who have been conflated with the Arthurian Perceval through shared nomenclature;
and some are historical persons whose names happen to preserve the same etymological root
Together they constitute a remarkable onomastic web, bearing witness to the richness and antiquity of the tradition

Peredur — Son of King Morvid of Britain

Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his Historia Regum Britanniae (c AD 1138), includes a Peredur in his largely legendary list of the kings of Britain
This Peredur is the son of King Morvidus (Morvid), a brutal and ultimately ill-fated monarch who is devoured by a sea-monster
Peredur himself rules after a period of civil strife
This figure has no direct connexion to the Arthurian Grail tradition,
but his existence in Geoffrey’s royal genealogy attests to the currency of the name Peredur in the mediæval Welsh and Latin historiographical imagination
well before the full Arthurian Perceval-tradition crystallised

Peredyr (Arueu Dur)/(Steel-Arms)

King of Ebrauc

Peredyr, surnamed Arueu Dur (“Steel-Arms”),
appears in the Welsh genealogical and triadic tradition as a king associated with Ebrauc
— the northern British kingdom corresponding broadly to the region of York (Roman Eboracum)
He is reckoned among the notable warrior-kings of the Hen Ogledd (the Old North),the Brittonic-speaking kingdoms of what is now northern England and southern Scotland,
whose deeds and descendants were long preserved in Welsh memory

Son of Eliffer Gosgorddfawr

Peredyr Steel-Arms is recorded as the son of Eliffer Gosgorddfawr
— Eliffer of the Great Host (or Great Warband) —
an historical or semi-historical British chieftain of the Sixth Century AD
Eliffer is associated with the Triads and with post-Roman heroic tradition
His sons, including Peredyr, appear to have been celebrated warrior-figures whose fame was preserved in the Welsh poetic tradition long after their deaths

Peronnik/Peronnique

A foolish young man from Saint-Jean-de-Braie

In the Breton folk tale recorded and popularised by Émile Souvestre in the Nineteenth Century AD,
Peronnik is introduced as a simpleton — a young man of low social standing, regarded by his community as a fool — from the village of Saint-Jean-de-Braie, near Orléans
He is given the meanest tasks, fed poorly, and generally despised
His apparent foolishness, however, masks an innate resourcefulness and a courage that his betters entirely lack

Who became a fated knight

Peronnik’s quest — to obtain the Golden Bowl and the Diamond Lance from the enchanted castle of Kerglas,
where the sorcerer Rogéar dwells — transforms him from a despised fool into a knight of destiny
The tale follows the classic “wise foolИ trajectory: the unlikely hero, overlooked and underestimated, succeeds where trained knights have failed,
precisely because his simplicity disarms the enchantments that defeat the sophisticated
The structural parallels with Perceval are unmistakeable: the naïve young man, the magical objects (bowl and lance corresponding to Grail and Lance), the enchanted castle, and the final triumph

Perl(l)e(s)vax/Perlesvaus/Pellesvaus/Pellesvax/(Par-lui -fet/-fais/-fez)/Par-qui-li-fez/Parfez

Variation of Perceval (in Perlesvaus)

Within the Old French prose romance Perlesvaus itself, the hero’s name appears in a variety of orthographic forms — Perlesvaus, Pellesvaus, Pellesvax, and others — which are treated as equivalent
As noted previously, the romance explicitly glosses the name as encoding the hero’s disinherited status
What is significant here is that these variant spellings were understood by at least some mediæval readers as a distinct name, not simply an alternative spelling of Perceval, which had its own separate currency

Both Perceval and Perl(l)e(s)vax/Pellesvaus appear in Escanor

In the late Thirteenth-Century AD Arthurian verse romance Escanor, composed by Girart d’Amiens (c AD 1280), both Perceval and Pellesvaus appear as separate, distinct knights of Arthur’s court
This is a remarkable moment in the textual history, for it demonstrates that by the late Thirteenth Century AD the divergence between the two name-forms had grown so wide that a single author could treat them as two separate individuals
— a clear example of how scribal and literary variation generates new characters out of what was originally a single figure

Persevaus

Variation of Perceval

Persevaus represents yet another orthographic variant of the name,
attested in a small number of mediæval texts

Appears in Hartmann’s Erec as a separate character

In Hartmann von Aue’s Middle High German Erec (c AD 1180–1190, the earliest German Arthurian romance), Persevaus appears in a list of Arthurian knights as an apparently distinct figure, separate from the main Perceval of the Grail tradition
This testifies to the early diffusion of the Perceval-name into the German literary tradition, and to the confusion — or creative proliferation — of characters that resulted

Persavaus

Variation of Perceval

Persavaus is another variant form,
orthographically distinct and likely reflecting a specific Occitan phonological environment

Appears in Rigaut de Berbezilh’s Atressi con Persavaus (Atressi with Perceval)

Rigaut de Berbezilh (floruit c AD 1140–1163), one of the earlier troubadours, composed the canso Atressi con Persavaus, in which the speaker compares himself to Persavaus
— the Perceval-figure — in respect of his foolish conduct and his failure to speak when he ought to have done
This is one of the earliest lyric references to the Perceval-legend outside of the Chrétien tradition,
and it confirms that by the mid-twelfth century Perceval’s characteristic fault — the silence, the unasked question
— was already a culturally recognised topos in Occitania, available for ironic self-deprecation in amorous verse

Parzival/Parsifal

Son of Gahmuret

In Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival (c AD 1200–1210), the hero’s father is Gahmuret of Anjou, a restless, questing knight who fights in the service of the Baruc of Baghdad and who dies in the East before his son is born
Gahmuret is himself a figure of chivalric brilliance and tragic absence — a father whose glory casts a long shadow over the son who never knew him

And of Herzeloyde/(herze + leide = heart’s sorrow)

Parzival’s mother is Herzeloyde, whose name Wolfram himself glosses as herze (heart) + leide (sorrow, grief) — “heart’s sorrow” or “the sorrow of the heart”
Herzeloyde,

widowed before her son’s birth and terrified of losing him to the knightly world that killed his father,
raises Parzival in the wilderness of Soltane,
in deliberate ignorance of chivalry and the court

Her name thus encapsulates the maternal tragedy that is central to the Perceval-myth: the mother’s love, however devoted, becomes a form of deprivation, and the hero must eventually break free of it

Perceval — Father of Perceval

In certain branches of the Arthurian tradition, most notably within Perlesvaus and in some of the genealogical material associated with the Grail dynasty, the hero’s father bears a name closely related to, or identical with, that of the son
The transmission is unclear, and the identification varies across texts — in some versions the father is Alain li Gros, in others a figure whose name echoes Perceval or Peredur
This doubling of the name across generations may reflect a genuine genealogical tradition, or may be an artefact of scribal confusion; either way, it reinforces the sense that Perceval is as much a dynastic designation as a personal name

Perceval — A knight who served King Pellinore

In the Arthurian tradition as transmitted through Thomas Malory^#0146;s Le Morte d’Arthur and the broader Vulgate and Post-Vulgate cycles, there are references to knights associated with the lineage of King Pellinore — one of the great rival dynasties to the house of Lot
A knight bearing the name Perceval (or a close variant) is numbered among Pellinore’s followers or descendants, distinct from the Grail-achieving Perceval of the main narrative
The proliferation of Percevals within the same textual universe is a characteristic feature of the later Arthurian compilations, in which characters multiply and genealogies become extraordinarily intricate

Payne Peveril — Descendant of Owain D(d)an(t)(g)wyn

Payne Peveril (or Pagan Peverel) was a Norman knight of the late Eleventh and early Twelfth Centuries AD, associated with the Welsh Marches
He has attracted the attention of Arthurian scholars chiefly because of a tradition that linked his family, through intermarriage with Welsh aristocratic lineage, to the descendants of Owain Ddantgwyn
— Owain White-Tooth — a late Fifth- or early Sixth-Century AD British king whom some researchers (most notably Graham Phillips and Martin Keatman) have proposed as a possible historical candidate for the figure of King Arthur
The surname Peveril or Peverel is phonologically close to Perceval in certain Old French and Anglo-Norman pronunciations, leading to the suggestion that the Perceval legend may have absorbed elements of the Peveril family history
— or that the name itself may owe something to this Norman family’s prominence in the March
The connexion remains speculative, but it is an intriguing instance of the way in which Norman aristocratic history may have been woven into the fabric of the developing Arthurian romance tradition

Comparison of Other (Wise Fools)/Knights/Warriors/Rescuers/Samaritans to Perceval

Ninlil

Ninlil is the Sumerian goddess of air and grain, consort of the great god Enlil
Her myth — as preserved in the Sumerian hymn known as Enlil and Ninlil
— presents a young goddess of striking naivety, warned by her mother not to bathe in a particular canal lest Enlil see and desire her
Ninlil disregards the warning, and the sequence of encounters that follows results in the conception of the moon-god Nanna and, subsequently, of several chthonic deities
What connects Ninlil to the Perceval-archetype is not so much heroic action as structural position: the innocent figure who, through naivety rather than wickedness, enters a situation of profound consequence without fully understanding what is at stake
The unheeded maternal warning, the transition from innocence to a world of complex divine forces, and the ultimately generative consequences of an apparently foolish act — all of these resonate with Perceval’s narrative grammar

Fionn mac Cumhaill

Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool), the great hero of the Irish Fenian Cycle, begins his career as a young man of obscure origins, raised in the wilderness by a female guardian away from the dangers of the world
— a childhood concealment entirely parallel to Perceval’s upbringing in the forest under Blanchefleur’s or Herzeloyde’s protection
The defining moment of Fionn’s youth is his accidental acquisition of wisdom:
tasked with cooking the Salmon of Knowledge for the poet Finnegas, Fionn burns his thumb on the fish’s skin and, placing it in his mouth, instantly absorbs all the knowledge of the world
Thereafter he need only suck his thumb to access this knowledge
The motif of wisdom obtained involuntarily or accidentally — without the hero fully understanding what he has done — is a precise structural parallel to Perceval’s gradual, stumbling acquisition of understanding
Both heroes are also associated with bands of elite warriors (the Fianna; the Round Table) and with the defence of a kingdom against supernatural threats

Amadá(i)n M(h)ó(i)r

The Amadán Mhóir (“the Great Fool”) is a recurring figure in Irish Gaelic folk narrative, appearing in tales collected across Ireland and Scotland
In the most elaborate versions, the Amadán is a king’s son who has been kept in deliberate ignorance, typically by a mother or guardian, and who sets forth on a quest armed only with his native wit and an invulnerable simplicity
He encounters enchanted castles, sleeping kings or warriors, and tests that defeat all conventionally equipped heroes
His foolishness is a form of protection: he does not know enough to be afraid, and his innocence disarms enchantments that would destroy a knowing man
The Amadán Mhóir tradition is widely regarded by folklorists as the closest vernacular parallel to the Perceval-legend in the Gaelic world, and the possibility of direct influence
— in either direction, or from a common “Celtic” source — has been extensively discussed

(Brendan of Clonfert)/(Brénainn moccu Alti)/(Brénainn maccu Alti)/(Naomh Bréanainn)/(Naomh Breandán)/Brendanus/((heilagur) Brandanus)

Saint Brendan the Navigator (c AD 484–577),
known in Irish as Brénainn moccu Alti or Brénainn maccu Alti,
and in hagiographical Latin as Brendanus (with the Old Norse heilagur Brandanus representing the tradition’s reach into the Norse world),
was an Irish monk and abbot whose legendary sea-voyage in search of Terra Repromissionis Sanctorum (Promised Land of the Saints) is narrated in the Navigatio Sancti Brendani,
one of the most widely read texts of the mediæval Latin West
Brendan’s kinship with Perceval lies in the quest structure:
the hero who sets forth into an unknown and spiritually charged landscape (in Brendan’s case, the ocean; in Perceval’s, the Waste Land and the enchanted forest),
encounters marvels that test his faith and understanding, and is guided — imperfectly, haltingly — towards a sacred goal that is as much spiritual illumination as geographical destination
Brendan is also a rescuer in a broader sense:
his voyage brings healing and wonder to all who hear of it, and Navigatio was understood in the mediæval period as a form of exemplary spiritual pilgrimage, available to be undertaken imaginatively by the reader
Navigatio’s influence on the Arthurian tradition — particularly on the motifs of the enchanted island, the otherworldly feast, and the figure of the saintly voyager — has been widely discussed

Carduino

Carduino is the hero of an early Fifteenth-Century AD Italian cantare (Il Cantare di Carduino), which presents a classic “wild youth” narrative
Carduino is the son of Dondinello, a knight murdered when Carduino was an infant;
he is raised by his mother in the forest, in complete ignorance of knighthood and courtly life, until the day he encounters a group of Arthurian knights and is transfixed by their splendour
His subsequent career — seeking Arthur's court, undergoing knightly initiation, and ultimately breaking an enchantment by kissing a loathly lady who is transformed into a beautiful woman — follows the Perceval-archetype with considerable fidelity
The absent father slain before the hero's birth, the protective but ultimately limiting maternal upbringing, and the entrance into the chivalric world through a moment of naïve wonder:
all of these are recognisable features of the Perceval-tradition as they have been absorbed and reworked within the Italian vernacular context

Count Rotrou II of Perche

Son of Viscount Geoffrey II of Châteaudun, and Helvise de Corbon (who died 1 March AD 1080) daughter of Lord Rainard of Pithiviers

Rotrou II, Count of Perche, was the son of Viscount Geoffrey II of Châteaudun and of Helvise de Corbon, whose death on 1 March AD 1080 is documented in the Norman chronicles
Helvise was the daughter of Lord Rainard of Pithiviers
The family were Norman magnates with significant territorial holdings in the region of Perche
— the pays between the Île-de-France and Normandy —
whose name, some scholars have proposed, may be onomastically connected to the Perche- element in Perceval (id est, “Perceval of the Perche” or a figure whose name encodes a territorial origin in this region)

Died AD 1080

Rotrou II himself died in AD 1080, in the same year as his mother
The brevity and relative obscurity of his life makes his specific identification as a direct inspiration for the Arthurian Perceval problematic;
the connection is more properly geographical and onomastic than biographical. Nevertheless, the prominence of the Peverel/Peveril/Perche family cluster in the Norman aristocracy of the late Eleventh Century AD
— precisely the period during which the Arthurian tradition was being reshaped by the encounter between Welsh legend and Norman literary culture —
makes the region and its lords a plausible part of the cultural environment from which the Perceval-figure emerged

‘Solar Hero’

The Solar Hero is a comparative mythological archetype identified by scholars from Max Müller in the nineteenth century onwards,
and elaborated within the tradition of comparative mythology associated with figures such as Joseph Campbell, whose Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) and The Masks of God series gave the archetype wide currency
The Solar Hero’s trajectory mirrors the path of the sun:
he is born in obscurity (sunrise), rises to great deeds and glory (solar zenith), descends into darkness, defeat, or apparent failure (sunset and the underworld passage), and ultimately rises again in triumph (new dawn)
The pattern may be applied to Perceval with considerable cogency
His childhood in the forest corresponds to the solar pre-dawn; his arrival at court and early adventures to the ascending sun; his catastrophic failure at the Grail Castle
— the moment he does not ask the question —
to the solar nadir, the descent into the wasteland of self-reproach and futile wandering; and his eventual return to the Grail Castle, the asking of the question, and the healing of the Fisher King to the solar resurrection
Whether the Solar Hero archetype explains the origin of the Perceval legend, or merely provides a convenient descriptive template for a narrative that arose through historically specific cultural processes, is a matter on which scholars remain divided;
but the correspondence between Perceval’s career and the solar pattern is sufficiently close to warrant serious attention, particularly in the light of the character’s probable connexions to pre-Christian “Celtic” cosmology, in which solar symbolism played a central rôle

Beginnings

Family

Introduction to Family
Mother

Acheflour — Arthur’s sister
Yglais
Herzeloyde/(herze + leide = heart’s sorrow)

Compare with Rhiannon
Epona

Philosophine/Philosofine/Filleduch
Ragnell
unnamed

Father

Perceval
Alein/Aleyn/Ala(i)n/(noble) (le/li Gros)/(the thickset/fat)
Efrawg/Evrawg/Ef(ra)wc/Eburaco
King Pellinor(e)/Pel(l)ino(i)r(o)/Pellanor/Pelleore/Pelletor/Pollinor(/Belenos/(Beli Mawr)/Apollo)
Parlan/Pellehan(s)/Phellehen/Pellehem/Pelham/Pell(e)am(/Gron/Bron)
Elidur
Ragnal
Bliocadran
Gahmuret
Greloguevaus
Gales/Giles/Wales Lithauz, the/li Bald/Bold/C(h)au(f)s/Chans/Gaiz
Gawain

Sister — Dindra(i)ne/Dandrane/Agres(t)izia
Brothers

Gwrgi
Agloval(e)
Lamorak/Lamorat/Melodiam
Drian(t)
Dornar

Half-Brothers

Tor
Feirefiz

Cousin — Sigune
Wives

Lady Blanchefleur/Blancheflor/Blankiflur/Blanziflor/Flanziflor/Blathnat/Blodyngwyn/(white flower/lily) of Beaurepaire/Belrepaire/Pelrapeire

Compare with Olwen/Olwyn in Culhwch ac Olwen
and Sebile in Livre d’Artus

Queen Condwiramurs/(conduire + amour = channel of love)

Sons

Kardiess/Kardeiss
Lohengrin

Childhood

Perceval’s father and elder brothers die
Mother raises him ignorant of chivalry and its perils
At age fifteen, Perceval meets knights near his home

Adulthood — Knight of the Round Table

Proves his worthiness as a warrior
Invited to join the Knights of the Round Table

Early stories

Perceval meets the crippled Fisher King
Sees a grail
Fails to ask a question that would have healed the injured king
Upon learning of his mistake, Perceval vows to find the Grail castle again and fulfill his quest
Story continued in a number of different ways by various later authors

Late stories with Galahad

Perceval’s role in the later romances became diminished
He remained a major character
One of two knights (including Bors) who accompanied Galahad to the Grail castle
Completed the quest with him

Endings

Early stories

Perceval’s sweetheart was Lady Blanchefleur/Blancheflor/Blankiflur/Blanziflor/Flanziflor/Blathnat/Blodyngwyn/(white flower/lily) of Beaurepaire/Belrepaire/Pelrapeire
Perceval

Became the King of Corben(ic)/Corbenit/Corbin/Carbone(c)k/Corlenot/(Holy Vessel)/((Chastiaus del) Cor Beneit)/((Castle of the) Blessed Horn — cors benoiz/benôit)/((Castle of the) Blessed Body — cors benoit)/(the Land Beyond)
After healing the Fisher King

Late stories without Galahad

Perceval was a virgin who died after achieving the Grail
His son is Lohengrin, the Knight of the Swan

Occurrences of “Perceval” (by various names and descriptions) in Related “Literature”

de Berbezilh/Berbezill(o)/Barbesiu/Barbezieux, Rigaut/Rigaud(us)/Richart(z). Atressi con Persavaus (Atressi with Perceval). AD 1140/1163.
de Troyes, Chrétien. Perceval, or Le Conte del Graal (Perceval, or The Story/Tale of the Grail). late Twelfth Century AD (AD 1176/1180/1190/1191).
of Denain, Wauchier (Gauchier of Donaing). First Continuation of Chrétien’s Perceval. AD 1195/1200.
of Donaing, Gauchier (Wauchier of Denain). Second Continuation of Chrétien’s Perceval. c AD 1200.
(Historia Peredur, neu) Peredur (fab Efrawg/Efrawc) ((History of Perceval, or) Perceval (son of Ebrauc/Eburac/Ivory)),
mid Thirteenth Century AD (AD 1150).
von Eschenbach, Wolfram. Parzival (Perceval). late Twelfth/early Thirteenth Century AD (AD 1200/1210).
Perlesvaus, or Le/Li Hauz Livre(s) du Graal (The High Book(s)/History of the Grail).
early Thirteenth Century AD (AD 1192/1205/1220/1225).
de Boron, Robert. Didot(-)Perceval, or Romance of Perceval in Prose, or the Prose Perceval. AD 1200/1220/1230.
Vulgate Lancelot Propre (Lancelot Proper). AD 1210s/1215/1230.
Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal (Quest of the Holy Grail). AD 1210s/1215/1230.
Manessier. Third Continuation of Chrétien’s Perceval. c AD 1230.
de Montreuil, Gerbert/Gilbert. Fourth Continuation of Chrétien’s Perceval. c AD 1230.
Parcevals saga and Valvens þáttr (Perceval’s Saga and Valven’s Episode). AD 1204/AD 1263.
Post-Vulgate Huth-Merlin (Continuation of Merlin, or The Merlin Continuation). AD 1230/1240.
Post-Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal (Quest of the Holy Grail). AD 1230/1240.
de Gat, Luce and Helie de Boron. Tristan en prose (Prose Tristan). AD 1225-1235, second half of Thirteenth Century AD (AD 1276).
(de Troyes, Chrétien). Bliocadran Prologue. AD 1251/1529 (early Thirteenth Century AD).
(Roman van) Perchevael ((Romance of) Perceval). AD 1322/1323.
Sir Perceval of Galles (Sir Perceval of Wales). early Fourteenth Century AD.
Perceforest (Pierce the Forest). AD 1330/1344.
(The most complete of the four manuscripts known is “Manuscript C”.)
(It was written by David Aubert, c AD 1459/1460; for Duc Philippe de Bourgogne le Bon.)
Malory, Syr Thomas. (Le) Morte Darthur (The Death of Arthur, or, as originally titled, The Whole Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table).
This ‘Winchester Manuscript’ was published AD 1469/1470/1481/1483.
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte d’Arthur (The Death of Arthur). Printed by William Caxton in AD 1485.

Astrological Signs Associated with Perceval

Sagittarius — Jupiter+ — Fire
Libra — Venus+ — Air
Aquarius — Saturn+ — Air

Geography, Genealogy, and Timeline of Perceval

Geography of Perceval
Genealogy of Perceval
Timeline of Perceval

Sir Galahad, Quest Knight of Logres

Introduction to Sir Galahad, Quest Knight of Logres
Meaning, Origin, Existence, and Comparison: Galahad’s Name, Other Galahads, and Another Pure Knight/Warrior/Rescuer/Hero

Introduction to Meaning, Origin, Existence, and Comparison: Galahad’s Name, Other Galahads, and Another Pure Knight/Warrior/Rescuer/Hero

The figure of Galahad, as he appears in the great Vulgate Cycle of Thirteenth Century AD and subsequently in Malory’s Morte Darthur,
presents the scholar with a cluster of interrelated puzzles that bear directly upon the question of how mythological tradition preserves, transforms, and transmits historical memory
Before any analysis of Galahad’s symbolic function or narrative role can proceed with rigour, it is necessary to interrogate three preliminary matters:

first,

the meaning and etymological origin of the name Galahad itself,
which proves to be neither as simple nor as French as its surface form suggests;

second,

the existence of other figures bearing the same name or cognate forms thereof,
which implies that Galahad may have been a title, a dynastic name, or a recurring epithet rather than an individual coinage;

and third, a comparison of Galahad with a selection of other figures

— drawn from Welsh hagiography, dynastic genealogy, and crusading history —
who share his defining characteristics of martial excellence, spiritual purity, and a quasi-sacral mission of rescue or redemption

Taken together, these three enquiries illuminate the broader proposition that the Galahad of the romances is not an invention ex nihilo
but rather the crystallisation of a set of cultural ideals that had already found expression in historical and para-historical persons of the early and high mediaeval periods

Meaning and Origin of Galahad’s Name

Introduction to the Meaning and Origin of Galahad’s Name

The onomastics of Arthurian romance have long constituted a treacherous field,
beset on one side by the temptation of over-confident “Celtic” etymology
and on the other by the assumption that French redactors invented names freely without reference to older substrata
The name Galahad — appearing in Vulgate as Galaad and in Malory as Galahad — has attracted no fewer than three broad families of explanation:

a Welsh origin rooted in epithets for the hawk;
a transmission through Old French forms such as Galehod and Galahod;
and a biblical connexion to the place-name Gilead

Each of these hypotheses carries genuine evidential weight,
and it is probable that the name as it reaches us in the romances represents a confluence of at least two of these traditions,
the biblical form having been grafted onto or reinforced by a pre-existing “Celtic” appellation

Gwalhaved/Gwalhafad/Gwalchafed/Gwalcheved/(Hawk of Summer) ap Gwyar

Gwalchafed/Gwalhafad
- The most persuasive “Celtic” etymology derives the name from a Welsh original of the form Gwalchafed or Gwalhafad,
- The resultant meaning — “Hawk of Summer”
- The hawks of Welsh heroic poetry are not decorative; they denote the ideal warrior — acute, noble, and lethal at the precise moment
Gwalhaved/Gwalchafed ap Gwyar
- Critically,
- Gwyar
- This is an arresting convergence,
- That their names may both descend from a common Welsh root
Galehad/Galaad
- The phonological pathway from Gwalchafed to the French Galehad or Galaad is not without its difficulties,
- but analogous transformations may be observed in the transition of Gwalchmei to Gauvain/Gawayne and Gwenhwyfar to Guinevere
- The medial -lch- cluster, strange to continental ears, was regularly simplified,
- and the Welsh haf- element, once dissociated from its transparent semantic content, could readily be refashioned towards existing French or Latin sound-patterns

Galehod/Galahod/Galahad

Alongside the Welsh derivation, there exists a series of Old French nominal forms

— Galehod, Galahod, Galahaut, Galaad —
that point towards a parallel transmission, quite possibly through Breton intermediaries,
in which “Celtic” phonological substrate had already been substantially altered before the French redactors received it

The form Galaad, favoured in Vulgate Cycle, is graphically indistinguishable from the Old French rendering of the Hebrew place-name *Gil'ad* (Gilead),

the mountainous region east of the Jordan celebrated in scripture for its healing balm
(tsori Gil’ad, the balm of Gilead, in Jeremiah viii.22)

This coincidence

— if coincidence it be —
was certainly not lost upon Vulgate authors,
who were Cistercian or Cistercian-influenced clerics deeply versed in typological exegesis

For them, naming the Grail knight Galaad created an immediate resonance with the promised land of healing,

with the balm that could restore the wounded,
and with the Israelite geography through which the typological patterns of the Old Testament prefigured the redemptive work of Christ

Whether the scriptural name was consciously imposed upon a pre-existing Celtic appellation,

or whether the coincidence of form was seized upon as a providential sign and exploited accordingly,
the resulting hermeneutic richness was not accidental

The intermediate forms Galehod and Galahod are best understood as stages in this transmissional process,

representing moments at which the Celtic phonological pattern
and the emerging French orthographic convention had not yet fully stabilised

Their survival in texts that also feature Galehaut as a separate character further attests to instability of the onomastic field during the period of composition of great prose cycles

Existence of Other Galahads

Introduction to the Existence of Other Galahads

A name borne by only one individual is, in the context of mediaeval literary tradition, the exception rather than the rule
The Arthurian onomasticon is replete with instances of names shared between characters across different texts, different genealogical positions, and different narrative functions
What is striking about the name Galahad is not merely that it recurs, but that it recurs in contexts that are consistently associated with sanctity, lineage, or exceptional purity of purpose
The five figures enumerated below — besides the familiar Grail knight — collectively suggest that Galahad functioned within the tradition as a name of prestige and spiritual connotation, one that could be applied to

a forefather,
a baptismal alias,
a dynastic adversary,
an obscure genealogical figure,
or a narrative counterpart

The existence of these other Galahads does not diminish the literary Galahad;
rather, it contextualises him within a naming tradition richer and more complex than the romances alone would indicate

Son/Grandson of Joseph of Arimathea

Estoire del Saint Graal, the opening branch of Vulgate Cycle composed in the early Thirteenth Century AD,

introduces a figure named Galaad as a descendant
— in some recensions a son or grandson —
of Joseph of Arimathea,

the man who received the body of Christ from the cross
and, in the Grail legend, became the first guardian of the sacred vessel

This early Galaad is presented as a king,

the first Christian ruler of a certain territory in the East,
and the name of a city (sometimes identified as Sarras, the holy city to which the Grail ultimately returns) is said to derive from him

He thus stands at the originating point of the sacred genealogical line that will, across many generations and the entirety of British post-Roman history, culminate in the Arthurian Galahad
The significance of this doubling is theological as much as narrative:

the Grail knight is not merely a great individual but the embodiment of a covenant traced back to the Passion itself,
and the repetition of the name across the generations signals the typological fulfilment of an original promise

This early Galahad prefigures the later precisely as Old Testament figures of the Grail tradition — Evelake, Nascien, Maimed King — prefigure the ultimate redemption enacted by Lancelot’s son

Lancelot’s baptismal name

One of the more psychologically resonant disclosures of Vulgate Lancelot Propre is the revelation that Lancelot du Lac was baptised Galahad
He received the name in honour of the ancestral Galahad of the Grail lineage

(or, in some readings, of the city of Galaad itself),
and was subsequently renamed Lancelot

— derived from the Old French Lancelin or a cognate —
during or after his fosterage by the Lady of the Lake

When Lancelot's son is born and christened Galahad,

the name therefore passes from grandfather to grandson (in a spiritual sense) whilst skipping the father,
enacting a typological pattern familiar from Hebrew scripture:

the righteous ancestor,
the flawed intermediate generation,
the restored heir

Lancelot,

bearing the secret name of his son,
is thus simultaneously the agent and the obstacle of the Grail’s achievement
— the man who could have been Galahad but for his adultery with Guinevere

The recurrence of the name is not incidental decoration

but the structural hinge upon which the entire moral architecture of Vulgate Grail narrative turns

Saxon king

Several chronicles and minor Arthurian texts make mention of a Saxon leader or petty king bearing a name cognate with Galahad — rendered variously as Galahad, Galahalt, or analogous forms
The precise identification of this figure varies between sources, and the attribution may in some cases represent scribal confusion between the name of the Arthurian knight and names of actual Germanic leaders
Nevertheless, the possibility that Galahad or a close cognate was current as a name among populations in contact with Brittonic-speaking Britain during the sub-Roman period is not inherently implausible
The movement of names across cultural and linguistic boundaries in this era is well attested,

and it is not impossible that a Brittonic appellation of the Gwalchafed type was adopted or adapted by neighbouring peoples in the same fashion that Arthur itself appears,
in various orthographic disguises, beyond the strict boundaries of “Celtic” Britain

Son of King Hipomenes

A more obscure attestation

— preserved in a genealogical or pseudo-historical text drawing upon the elaborate fictive kinship-networks that mediaeval chroniclers constructed in order to connect British, classical, and biblical history —
presents a Galahad as the son of one King Hipomenes

The name Hipomenes is Greek, borne most famously by the youth who defeated Atalanta in the foot-race by means of the golden apples of Aphrodite
Its appearance in a British genealogical context reflects the persistent mediaeval impulse to root the nobility of northern Europe in classical or Trojan antiquity

— the same impulse that gave Britain a Trojan founder in Brutus (after Virgil's model)
and that encouraged chroniclers to trace royal lines back to figures of Homeric or Ovidian provenance

A Galahad son of Hipomenes thus sits within this tradition of creative genealogical synthesis,

his name marking him as an heir of both Celtic and classical prestige,
though the specific text in which he appears demands careful identification and contextualisation before further conclusions may be drawn

Alternative name for Duke Galeholt/Galahaut/Galehaut of Sorelois/Surluse

The great duke Galehaut — styled Galeholt, Galahot, or (in Malory) the ruler of Surluse — is one of the most compelling figures in the entire Lancelot cycle:

a king of kings who voluntarily submits to Arthur, not out of defeat,
but out of love for Lancelot, whose friendship he values above conquest itself

The proximity of Galehaut to Galahad is not merely orthographic;

in certain manuscript traditions the names appear to interchange or blur,
and it has been argued by several scholars that the two figures may ultimately descend from a single narrative or onomastic prototype that the redactors of the great prose cycles
subsequently divided into distinct characters serving opposed symbolic functions

Galehaut belongs wholly to the chivalric world of secular love and loyal companionship;
Galahad belongs wholly to the spiritual world of transcendence and virginal sanctity
Yet both names share their etymological root,

and the relationship between Galehaut’s passionate devotion to Lancelot and Galahad’s miraculous birth of Lancelot invites reading as two expressions of a single underlying theme:
the transformation that Lancelot inspires in those who encounter him at the extremity of their capacity for love

Comparison of Other Pure Knights/Warriors/Rescuers/Heroes to Galahad
1. Illtyd/Hildutus/Iltutus/Illtud(/Eltut) Farchog/(knight)/(horseman)
2. Rhun, son of Maelgw(y)n/Malgo and Gwallwen (daughter of Afallach/Avalloc/Avallach/Aballac/Abalech/Amalech/Amalach/Auallach/Evalac(h)/Evelake)
3. Godfroi de Bouillon

Beginnings

Conception

Fisher King

Pellam/Pelle(a)s/Pellé/(Afallach) of Carbonek/Corben(ic)/Corbin/(Holy Vessel)/(the Castle of the Blessed Horn/Body)/(the Land Beyond)
Receives magical foreknowledge of Galahad

Pelle(a)s seeks out Dame Brusen/Brisen for a magic ring
Elaine/Helaine/Amite/Helizabel/(Gwallwen), the Grail Maiden, takes on the form of Guinevere
Lancelot/(Maelgw(y)n/Malgo) and Elaine sleep together
Galahad is conceived
Lancelot does not marry Elaine
Lancelot returns to King Arthur’s court without Elaine

Birth

Galahad is born as a descendant of Bron
Placed in the care of a great/grand aunt
Galahad raised at a nunnery
Given Lancelot’s birth name — Galahad
Prophesied about by Merlin

Adulthood — Quest for the Holy Grail

Galahad reunited with Lancelot and is knighted
Goes to King Arthur’s court and sits in the Siege Perilous
Galahad pulls a sword from a stone and becomes a Knight of the Round Table

As it appears in In Obitum Jacobi Pursell Baronis de Luaghma
Machaera Sancta (literally, A Battle to Fight Holy; Holy Battle to Fight)
Linguistically derivative from μάχαιρα άγιος (literally, sword holy; holy sword)
Forged by Joseph of Arimathæa’s artisans

Holy Grail appears at court
Knights of the Round Table set out to find the Grail
Galahad sets out alone
Rescues Perceval
Galahad is reunited with Bors
Encounters Perceval’s sister
Bors departs their company
Galahad and Perceval reach the Fisher King Pelles of Corbenic
Galahad sees the Grail
Asked to take it to Sarras

Ending — Ascension to Heaven

Galahad makes request to die at his choosing
He is visited by Joseph of Arimathea
Galahad requests to die
Says goodbye for Perceval and Bors
Galahad ascends to heaven with angels
Since then there has been no knight capable of obtaining the Holy Grail

Occurrences of “Galahad” (by various names and descriptions) in Related “Literature”

Vulgate Lancelot Propre (Lancelot Proper). AD 1210s/1215/1230.
Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal (Quest of the Holy Grail). AD 1210s/1215/1230.
Vulgate/Post-Vulgate Estoire del Saint Grail (History of the Holy Grail), or L’Estoire de Merlin (The History of Merlin), or Prose Merlin.
early Thirteenth Century AD (AD 1220/1230s/1235).
Post-Vulgate Mort Artu (Death of Arthur). AD 1230/1240.
Post-Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal (Quest of the Holy Grail). AD 1230/1240.
La Tavola Ritonda (The Round Table). AD 1325/1350.
Perceforest (Pierce the Forest). AD 1330/1344.
(The most complete of the four manuscripts known is “Manuscript C”.)
(It was written by David Aubert, c AD 1459/1460; for Duc Philippe de Bourgogne le Bon.)
Pedwar Marchog ar Hugain Llys Arthur (The Twenty-Four Knights of Arthur’s Court) (mid Fifteenth Century AD)
Malory, Syr Thomas. (Le) Morte Darthur (The Death of Arthur, or, as originally titled, The Whole Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table).
This ‘Winchester Manuscript’ was published AD 1469/1470/1481/1483.
Cantare di Astore e Morgana (Sing of Hector de Maris and Morgan le Fay) (second half of Fifteenth Century AD)
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte d’Arthur (The Death of Arthur). Printed by William Caxton in AD 1485.
The Legend of King Arthur (Sixteenth Century AD)
(Baron Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King)

Astrological Signs Associated with Galahad

Sagittarius — Jupiter+ — Fire
Ophiuchus — Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn — Fire, Water, Earth, Air
Pisces — Jupiter- — Water
Virgo — Mercury- — Earth

Geography, Genealogy, and Timeline of Galahad

Geography of Galahad
Genealogy of Galahad
Timeline of Galahad

Afterword by ?

“There is more of Rome*, than of Romance, about Arthuriana” — Glyn Hnutu-healh

*and Achaea, Akkad, Alans, Anglia, Arameans, Armorica, Assyria, Babylon, Briton, Cambria, Canaan, Cornwall, Crete, Cumbria, Dalriada, Domnonia, Egypt,
Etruscans, ExtraTerrestrials, France, Frisia, Gaul, Greece, Hindavi, Hittites, Huns, Hurrians, Idubor, Ireland, Judaea, Jutland, Lydia, Macedonia,
Mesopotamia, Mycenaea, Narts, Norse, Persia, Phoenicia, Phrygia, Picts, Saxony, Scotland, Semites, Sumer, Ugarit, and Wales — to name a few

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