Well Maidens & Wastelands
From abundance to eco-grief: The Elucidation
I loved the Arthurian legends as a child, but it wasn’t until I learned of a version told through the lens of eco-grief that I was drawn to revisit them.
The Elucidation is a little known poem from the 13th century, written as a prologue to our oldest recorded telling of the grail legend, Chrétien’s Perceval, le Conte du Graal. The text is brief, yet it creates a profound context for the story to come, situating it within transgenerational, ecological and spiritual devastation—and thus making it relevant to our contemporary spirits and bodies in a way that chivalrous knights can’t, and inspiring the origins of my current creation.
In this turning of the tale, Britain was once a land of freely flowing abundance, in part due to the sacred wells and their Well Maidens. Anyone could visit them and be nourished, and this magic fed the surrounding land as well. Until one day a king and his followers decided to hoard this for themselves…
Find most of the poem presented below, with occasional synopses provided by me.
The Elucidation
The Wasteland is introduced, as well as what preceded it—an idyllic realm where anyone could visit the wells for nourishment, provided by maidens who not only lived there but were the voice of the wells themselves. These Well Maidens are therefore more like water spirits than simple attendants. This is also the first clue of how tightly interdependent the beings and behaviors are within this tale.
Now listen to me one and all
And you will hear a tale…
The kingdom went to ruin,
The land was so dead and desolate
That it wasn't worth two bits;
They lost the voices of the wells
And the maidens who dwelled in them.
Indeed, the maidens served a very important purpose:
No one who wandered the highways,
Whether at night or in the morning,
Ever needed to alter his route
In order to find food or drink;
He had only go to one of the wells.
He could ask for nothing
In the way of fine and pleasing food
That he would not have forthwith,
Provided he asked reasonably.
At once a damsel would come forth
From the well, as I understand:
Travelers could not have asked for one more beautiful!
In her hand she'd be bearing a golden cup
With bacon, meat pies, and bread.
Another maiden would come carrying
A white towel and a gold and silver
Platter, in which was
The food that had been requested
By the man who'd come to be fed.
He was warmly received at the well;
And if this food did not please him,
She would bring a number of others,
Joyfully and generously,
According to his desires.
One and all, the maidens
Happily and properly served
All those who wandered the highways
And came to the wells for food.
[Content warning: Sexual assault]
A king rapes one of the Well Maidens, and steals her and her golden bowl away, so he might solely possess them. His followers start behaving the same, and so the Well Maidens leave.
King Amangon was the first to violate their hospitality:
He behaved wickedly and underhandedly;
Afterwards many others did likewise
Because of the example given
By the king who should have protected the maidens
And guarded and kept them safe.
He forced himself upon one of the maidens
And deflowered her against her will
And took the golden bowl from her
And carried it off along with the girl,
Then had her serve him ever afterwards.
Ill luck was to come of it,
For no maiden served again
Or came forth from that well
To help any man who happened by
And requested sustenance there;
And all other [travelers] followed [the king's example].
God! Why didn't the other vassals
Act according to their honor?
When they saw that their lord
Was raping the maidens
Because of their beauty,
They likewise raped them
and carried off the golden bowls.
Never afterwards did any maiden serve
Or come forth from any of the wells;
Know that this is the truth.
But this isn’t the only consequence of the violence and greed of Amangon and his people. Rather than grow their abundance, they lose everything. The earth, bereft of the Well Maidens, becomes barren, and another symbol of the land’s wellbeing is lost: the court of the Rich Fisher. We will learn later that this figure is an echo of the Well Maidens, a faerie king in possession of a mystical Grail, whose presence also ensures abundance of the wider kingdom.
My lords, in this way
The land went into decline
And the king who had so wronged them
And those who'd followed his example
All met a dreadful end.
The land was so wasted
That no tree ever bloomed there again,
The grasses and flowers withered,
And the streams dried up.
Afterwards no one could locate
The court of the Rich Fisher,
Which had made the land resplendent
With gold and silver, splendid furs,
Precious brocaded silks,
Fine foodstuffs and cloth,
Gerfalcons and merlins,
Goshawks, sparrowhawks, and falcons.
In earlier days, when the court could be found,
There was throughout the land
Such an abundance of riches,
Of all those I've named here,
That everyone, rich or poor,
Was awestruck at the wealth.
But now it has lost everything.
Now we advance to the time of Arthur. He and his knights learn of this sad tale and resolve to “restore the wells” by bringing the Well Maidens under their care and reeking vengeance upon the descendants of Amangon. They make progress on the vengeance part, but cannot find the water spirits or their voices.
In the kingdom of Logres [Britain]
Were all the riches of the world;
The peers of the Round Table
Came there in the time of King Arthur;
None so good have been seen since then.
These were such good knights,
So worthy and so strong and so bold,
So sturdy and so brave,
That as soon as they heard
Tell of the adventures
They wished to restore the wells.
They all swore an oath together
To protect by their arms
The maidens who'd come forth
And the bowls they'd be carrying,
And to destroy the lineage
Of those who had so harmed them
That they had stopped
Coming forth from the wells.
Whenever they captured one
They had him hanged or slain.
The knights gave alms and prayed
To God that He might restore
The wells to the state
In which they had been originally;
And for the honor they would thus pay them
They intended to request their service.
But no matter how hard they searched
They could never find them;
They could never hear any voices
And no maiden ever ventured forth.
There are, however, ancestors of the Well Maidens who reside in the forests, the brothers defending their sisters from any who approach. (Again the suggestion is that these are supernatural beings, bound to the land and living apart from but close to civilization.) One of these brother-knights is captured, and regales Arthur’s court with wondrous tales, culminating in the pronouncement that they must seek out the lost Fisher King and his mystical Grail.
Yet they did find something
That greatly amazed them,
For in the forests they found maidens
More beautiful than you could wish;
With them were knights
Heavily armed and on their chargers;
They stood beside the maidens
And fought against anyone
Who wished to carry them off,
Killing many a knight.
Because of the maidens, I believe,
There were many battles in the land.
King Arthur could not keep
From losing many a good knight there,
But he gained many a good one too,
As the story will tell you.
The first knight captured
Was named Blihos Bliheris;
Sir Gawain captured him,
Thanks to the great prowess he possessed,
And sent him to surrender to Arthur.
Blihos mounted his horse and rode without delay
To the court, where he surrendered.
But the king did not recognize him,
Nor did anyone else;
Yet such good stories did he tell
That no one grew tired
Of listening to his words.
The members of court asked him
About the maidens who rode
Through the forest; since they'd never
Been there, they had every reason
To ask and inquire.
The knight told his stories so well
That they gladly listened to him,
And the maidens and knights
Stayed awake many a night
To hear and question him.
He said to them: "You wonder indeed
About the maidens you see
Going through these forests,
And you can't stop asking
Where we were born.
I'll tell you the truth:
We are all offspring of the damsels—
There will never be any more beautiful in the world—
Whom King Amangon raped.
The wrong will not be righted
So long as this world lasts.
The peers of the Round Table
In their nobility and honor,
In their worthiness and strength,
Made a great effort to restore
The wells that the squires,
The knights and the gentlemen—
I'll just tell you the essentials—
The men all travel together,
Along with the maidens
Who have returned to that land.
Through forest and countryside
They must to wander thus
Until God allows them to find
The court from which will emanate the joy
That will bring splendor back to this land.
Such adventures will come to those
Who seek the court
As were never before experienced
Or recounted in this land."
Since the Rich Fisher is magical, the knights separate so they can seek him out no matter how he might shapeshift. While it is known that Gawain finds him, it was in fact Perceval who encounters him first.
What he told and related to them
Was most pleasing and agreeable to all.
Soon afterward
The good knights of the court
Met to discuss this matter:
Let each knight equip himself,
Then all will seek earnestly
For the court of the Rich Fisher,
Who was so skilled in magic
That he could take on a hundred shapes;
Some would seek him in one guise
And others in another.
My lord Gawain found the Rich Fisher
During the reign of King Arthur,
And truly went to his court.
Later you will be told
Of the joy he brought about there,
Which restored the whole kingdom.
But even before Gawain
A very young knight
Had discovered it first,
And no one could find in all the world
A braver knight than he.
Afterwards the young man of whom
I've just spoken came to the Round Table;
His deeds outshone those
Of all knights who'd come before
Or who could still be found in all the world.
First he was held in low esteem,
Then found to be of noble estate;
The knight who was seeking the court
Sought so long throughout the land
That he found it, it's true,
And many among you know of him:
He was Perceval the Welshman.
Perceval braves a phantasmagoria in the mysterious castle, and while he withstands a number of encounters, both fearsome and enchanting, he fails the most important test—to ask the key question that would liberate the Fisher King.
He asked what purpose the Grail
Served, but he failed to ask
Why the lance bled
When he saw it, or about the sword
Of which half was missing
And the remainder lay in the bier
Upon the corpse, or the manner
Of the great disappearance.
But I tell you in no uncertain terms
That he asked who the dead man
Was who was in the room
And about the precious silver cross
That led the procession.
Three times a day for three hours
There were such loud lamentations
In the room that no man would have been so brave
As not to have been frightened by the noise.
Then, after they had finished the service,
They hung four censers
On four precious candelabra,
Which stood at the corners of the bier.
The cries immediately ceased;
At that point, everyone lay in a faint.
The long and wide room
Remained empty and frightful;
The stream of blood flowed
From a vase that held the lance
Through the precious silver conduit.
Then the palace completely filled
With people and knights
And the most sumptuous feast
In all the world was prepared.
Then the unknown king
Came forth in splendid array;
He came forth attired from a chamber.
He arrived so magnificently attired
That no one could describe
His robe or adornments,
So splendid were they;
On his finger he had a beautiful ring;
His sleeves were tightly laced
And on his head was a golden circlet—
Its stones were worth a fortune;
He wore a belt with a beautiful buckle;
No one could ever find
A more handsome man alive.
Anyone who had seen him earlier
That day dressed as a fisher
Would rightly be uneasy.
As soon as the king took his seat
You would have seen all the knights
Seated at the other tables.
The bread was served immediately
And the wine set before them
In large gold and silver bowls.
Afterwards you would have seen the Grail
Come through a chamber door
Without servant or attendant
And serve from itself most properly
Onto precious gold platters
Worth a great fortune.
It placed the first course
Before the king, then served
All the others who were present;
The courses that it brought them
And the foodstuffs it gave them
Were a marvel to behold.
Then came the great marvel
To which no other can compare.
But you'll never hear me speak of it
Because Perceval must tell it
Later in the story.
The Grail is eventually restored, causing once more the springs to flow and the earth to turn green. But then the descendants of the Well Maidens emerge from the forest and settle in expansive castles and cities. “Full of bitter resentment,” they wage war upon Arthur for years, though he eventually halts their rebellion.
This adventure brought about
Joy, whereby the population multiplied
After the great destruction.
Through these adventures the court
And the Grail were truly found again,
And through them the kingdom was so replenished
That the streams that had stopped flowing
And the springs that had surged forth
Long ago but were now dried up
All flowed again through the meadows;
The grass was once more green and thick
And the woods leafy and shaded.
On the day the court was found again,
Throughout all the land
The forests became so dense and deep
And so beautiful and thickly grown
That everyone who was traveling
Through the land marveled.
But then there returned a band of people
Full of bitter resentment:
Those who had come from the wells
But were not recognized.
They built castles and cities,
Towns, villages and strongholds,
And for the damsels they built
The magnificent Castle of Maidens;
They built the Perilous Bridge
And the great Proud Castle;
Nobly and graciously
They set over them a troop
Of peers from the rich household;
In their great pride they set up
In opposition to the Round Table;
This became known to everyone.
Within the castle each knight had his ladylove;
They led a splendid existence.
There were three hundred sixty-six
Defenders of the castle,
And each of these had lordship
Over twenty knights;
The total number I'll not fail
To give: they came to
Seven thousand six hundred eighty-six.
They exerted themselves mightily, but in vain;
Know well, all you who live in the world,
That you wouldn't find any of them alive today.
They rode through that land
And made war on King Arthur;
The good knights left the court
To fight against them;
I know that when they captured one
They held him prisoner rather than free him.
King Arthur wanted to go there
To sap and destroy the castle;
But everyone who hated him in those days
Attacked him at that point
And made mighty war against him.
It was pointless to seek war elsewhere.
At that time the wars were so intense
That they lasted a good four years—
So the story tells us,
As does he who wrote the book.
I tell them to you one by one
Because he wishes to show each of you
What purpose the Grail served,
For the service it performed
Was revealed to him by the good master.
The good purpose it served will no longer
Be hushed or hidden, for he will
Teach it openly to all.
So you have heard from me
About King Arthur, how he
Was at war for four years
Against the people of his land;
But he brought all this to an end
In such a way that no vassal or neighbor
Failed thereafter to do his will,
Either freely or by force;
This is the proven truth.