Gloucester is linked in the narrative to the Nine Sorceresses of Gloucester, whose violence against Peredur’s family gives his adventures a thread of personal vengeance. The text names the city through the sorceresses’ association with it, but does not describe Gloucester itself or place their final defeat there.

Gloucester in the narrative

The city enters the account not through a description of its streets, buildings, or inhabitants, but through the name of the sorceresses associated with it. Their connection to Gloucester identifies the group behind earlier harms to Peredur’s family; the confrontation that resolves that history is narrated without being located in the city.

Crimes attributed to the sorceresses

At the Castle of Wonders, a yellow-haired youth reveals that the bloody head previously carried on a salver belonged to Peredur’s cousin, who was killed by the sorceresses. He also says that they lamed Peredur’s uncle. These disclosures connect the marvels encountered during Peredur’s travels to injuries inflicted on his kin, and the youth reports a prophecy that Peredur is destined to avenge them.

Recognition and defeat

Peredur and Gwalchmai send for Arthur and his household to confront the sorceresses. During the fighting, one sorceress kills a man in front of Peredur; he first tells her to stop, and does so again when she kills another. After she kills a third man, Peredur strikes her helmet. She recognizes him as the man who had learned chivalry among the sorceresses and who was destined to destroy them, then urges the others to flee. Arthur and his company attack, and the sorceresses are all slain. Gloucester’s narrative significance rests on this association with the antagonists and the family wrongs that make their defeat an act of vengeance.