Perceforest is one of the largest and certainly the most extraordinary of the late Arthurian romances and is almost completely unknown except to a handful of scholars. But it is a work of exceptional richness and importance and has been justly described as an encyclopaedia of 14thcentury chivalry and a mine of folkloric motifs. Its contents are drawn not only from earlier Arthurian material but also from romances about Alexander the Great from Roman histories and from medieval travel writing