But I'm going to leave them now; from this point you're going to hear about the bold knight who went searching through many realms for the court that housed the bleeding lance. But he suffered so much toil and hardship before he succeeded in finding it that I couldn't possibly tell it all – he roamed very far and very wide: I'm turning now to perceval.

Perceval, so the story says, had lost his memory to such a degree that he'd quite forgotten God. April and May passed by five times – that's five whole years – without him setting foot inside a church or worshipping God or His cross. That's how he stayed for fully five years. That's not to say that he abandoned the pursuit of chivalrous deeds: he sought out strange, taxing, daunting adventures, and encountered so many that he tested himself well. But I'll say no more about that, for I told you earlier, and you'd be less than thrilled to hear the same again!

After taking communion and being cleansed of his sins, he took leave of his uncle, whose words he'd taken to heart. Then he roamed through many lands and met with many challenges and adventures that aren't recorded. But early one Saturday he was riding along a cobbled road at the edge of a fair and pleasant forest when he came upon a wasteland; and for two days then he had to carry on across a barren heath without anything to eat or drink. on the third day he found himself on an open plain and kept riding, it seems, till terce.

The Lord of the Horn

Then, as he looked around, very troubled, away to the left he caught sight of a fine, strong castle; but there was no other building of any kind outside its walls, which were unassailably high and mighty – though they had no ditch surrounding them.