Article: 'Li anemis meismes': Satan and synagogue in 'La Queste del Saint Graal.'

The identification of the Jewish people with 'serpens antiquus qui vocatur Diabolus et Satans'(1) is a cherished theme of medieval polemicists, and a close examination of the Queste del Saint Graal (c. 1220) reveals evidence of such an association on the part of the author. Reference is explicitly made to `la grant durte des Gyeus',(2) a topos of the adversus Judaeos tradition associated with the hardness (duritia) of their hearts, which Christ referred to in Matthew xix.8.(3) The three knights of Arthur's court who are proved worthy of attaining an open vision of the Grail (Perceval, Boort and Galaad) also encounter diabolical foes in the course of their spiritual ...

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