This is the last, unfinished work (circa 1181) of the great adventure and romance novelist Chrétien de Troyes. A paradox of a fruitful death. A riddle that remains intact. The work is rich in traditions: biblical and Augustinian, ancient and rhetorical, Celtic and fairytale. Is it a coming-of-age novel or the mystery of initiation? Does it shine through crystalline language or through the wonder of a woman? This new edition, with a critical translation and the discovery of an unknown copyist of the Bernese manuscript, are efforts to restore to the modern reader the depth and ecstasy of the Champenois master's great masterpiece.