Empress of Cristinobyl the Great

The Empress of Cristinobyl the Great is a ruler whose court turns valour into the measure of worth: she seeks the most courageous knight, not the richest, and offers her hand through a tournament. Her domain also becomes a setting for Peredur’s tests beyond the tournament, where her prized chessboard and the safety of her lands are caught up in his adventures. Though the narrative gives few details of her private character or government, her decisions shape both the contest and the obligations Peredur carries forward.

Identity and Court

The Empress is presented as the sovereign of Cristinobyl the Great, and her court is the destination of a vast gathering of challengers. The numbers create an immediate practical problem: food cannot be brought in for the thousands assembled, so water-mills and windmills have been built to supply them. The scale of this preparation makes the tournament more than a private courtly occasion; it is an event requiring the infrastructure and resources of a whole realm.

Her choice of champion is explicitly based on courage rather than wealth. She will have the man who proves most valiant, and riches are not what she requires. That standard gives Peredur’s victories their meaning at court: they establish his claim through action, not through possessions or rank. The Empress’s authority is also visible in the tournament’s aftermath, when those Peredur defeats are sent to her prison.

The Tournament and Peredur

Peredur first spends his time at the tournament watching a beautiful maiden in a tent, rather than entering the contest. For two days he borrows money from the chief miller to pay for food and drink, promising repayment; the miller lends it despite his wife’s anger. On the third day, the miller strikes Peredur with the edge of an axe and tells him to turn away or fight. Peredur responds by entering the tournament and overthrowing everyone who encounters him.

He sends the men he defeats to the Empress as prisoners, while their horses and arms go to the miller’s wife as payment for the loans. The exchange links his sudden success in the contest to a concrete debt: his victories discharge an obligation to the household that sheltered him. The Empress sends for the Knight of the Mill, but Peredur does not come in response to either of her first two messages. When a hundred knights are sent to bring him against his will, he defeats them, binds them, and throws them into the milldyke.

A wise man from the Empress’s counsel then approaches Peredur himself. He asks him, for the sake of the lady he loves, to visit the Empress, and Peredur goes with him and the miller. At their first meeting Peredur sits in the tent’s outer chamber; there is little conversation before he takes his leave. The next day, the tent’s chambers are described as equally decorated, leaving the company unsure where he will sit. Peredur chooses the place beside the Empress and speaks courteously with her. The progression from summons and resistance to a face-to-face visit marks a change in their contact, although the account does not describe a political agreement between them.

Trials at the Empress’s Court

During the visit, three challengers arrive in succession with wine vessels and demand that the Empress give each vessel only to someone willing to fight its bearer. Peredur asks for each gift, drinks the wine, and passes the vessels to the miller’s wife. The objects differ: the first is a goblet, the second is fashioned from a wild beast’s claw, and the third is a bowl. Their repeated presentation turns hospitality into a challenge, while Peredur’s decision to send each vessel to the miller’s wife continues his repayment of the household that lent him money.

The following day Peredur arms himself, goes to the meadow, and kills all three men. The Empress then reminds him of the faith he pledged when she gave him a stone and he killed the Addanc. Her reminder places his service to her within a longer chain of obligation: the tournament and its challengers are not the whole of their connection. The story says that she entertains Peredur for fourteen years, giving the relationship an unusually extended duration without describing the details of his stay.

The Empress’s Domain and Narrative Role

The Empress’s possessions and dominions continue to matter when Peredur reaches the Castle of Wonders. There, a chessboard is playing by itself; when the side Peredur favours loses, he angrily gathers up the chessmen and casts the board into the lake. The black maiden identifies the board as the Empress’s and says she would not have lost it for all her empire. To recover it, Peredur must go to the Castle of Ysbidinongyl and defeat a black man who lays waste the Empress’s lands. Peredur initially spares him on condition that he restore the board, but, when the board has not been returned, he goes back and kills him.

The Empress is not present in this episode. Instead, the black maiden controls Peredur’s access to her: after the chessboard incident, she says he will not see the Empress unless he kills a destructive stag. The animal damages the forest, kills other creatures, and drinks the water from the fish-pond at night, leaving the fish exposed. A little dog belonging to the Empress guides Peredur to the stag, which he kills; a mounted lady then appears and reproaches him for killing the fairest jewel in her dominions. These episodes associate the Empress’s rule with valuable objects and lands vulnerable to disorder, while also showing that encounters with her are mediated by others. Across the tournament and the later quest, her court supplies both the reward of recognition and the obligations that propel Peredur onward.