As artimanhas do diabo em A demanda do Santo Graal

Abstract

The Quest for the Holy Grai, novel which belongs to the Post-VulgateCycle, during the thirteenth century served as a way of disseminating clerical concepts focused on the repression of human behavior related to the sins of the flesh. Galahad allegorizes the ideal of a new chivalry, renewed by a religious order through the combat mission and vigilance to defend the Church and Christianity. This fight, however, is also the single combat of man and himself, against the weaknesses inherent to the human and carnal condition, which makes him an easy prey to the biggest enemy of humanity: the devil. According to the moralizing purpose of this work, the knights seek adventures to prove their value; under the double assumption of this analysis: they face warrior tests which are revealed to be moral tests, aiming the salvation of the soul. This paper analyzes the symbolic character of these adventures that function as small exemplas to describe the diabolic tricks and strategies used to divert the knights from their goal. Reflections made by Bravo (2012), Le Goff (1989, 2006), Muchembled (2001), Baschet (2002) and Nogueira (2004) converge in this research. They help to demonstrate the symbolic relationship between the exemplary adventures, the diabolic temptations and the ideal of chastity and spirituality proposed by the work.