NIGHTBRINGER | The Arthurian Encyclopedia

Bliocadran


Perceval’s father, as named in a prologue to Chrétien de Troyes’s Perceval written after Chrétien’s death.

Bliocadran’s twelve brothers were all killed in tournaments, but Bliocadran refused to pay heed to his wife’s pleas to avoid tournaments himself. On the eve of his son’s birth, he journeyed to a tournament in Wales and was mortally wounded there. He died as his son Perceval was born.

The fate of Bliocadran drove his wife to despair, and she fled her court for the forest, raising Perceval in seclusion, ignorant of knighthood, so that he might avoid his father’s fate.

Bliocadran’s story was recast by Wolfram von Eschenbach as the story of Gahmuret. As Perceval’s father, Bliocadran’s counterparts also include Alain the Large and Pellinore.


Source
Bliocadran Prologue | Early 13th century