Sorceresses of Gloucester

The Sorceresses of Gloucester are the adversaries whose past violence is revealed to underlie Peredur’s family losses and whose defeat fulfills a prediction of vengeance. Their identity comes to light through Peredur’s cousin, who links them to both the death of Peredur’s cousin and the laming of his uncle; in the final confrontation, the sorceresses recognize Peredur as the man destined to kill them, and Arthur’s company destroys them.

Identity and Crimes

The sorceresses are associated with Gloucester and act collectively in the account of Peredur’s revenge. His cousin identifies them as the killers of another cousin and as the ones who lamed Peredur’s uncle. These revelations make the sorceresses responsible for injuries reaching across Peredur’s family, though the account gives no further explanation of their motives or of the circumstances of those earlier acts.

Their crimes are disclosed alongside the explanation of signs that had appeared during Peredur’s adventures: a bloody head on a salver and a lance streaming with blood. The head is identified as Peredur’s cousin’s. The revelation recasts these striking objects as evidence of a specific family history and connects that history to the sorceresses, rather than leaving the signs as unexplained marvels.

Recognition and Revenge

After Peredur and Gwalchmai take counsel, they send for Arthur and his household to come against the sorceresses. During the fighting, one sorceress kills one of Arthur’s men in Peredur’s presence. Peredur tells her to stop; she kills another man, and he again restrains himself and orders her to forbear. When she kills a third man before him, he draws his sword and strikes her helmet, splitting its armor.

The wounded sorceress cries out to the others to flee. She identifies Peredur as the man who had learned chivalry with them and declares that he is the one destined to slay them. Her recognition turns the encounter into the fulfillment of the prediction previously disclosed by Peredur’s cousin. Arthur’s company then attacks, and the sorceresses of Gloucester are all killed.

Narrative Role and Ending

The sorceresses bind together revelations and events that had seemed separate: the family’s losses, the bloody head and lance, the prediction of vengeance, and Peredur’s eventual confrontation with them. Their recognition of him makes the revenge plot explicit at the moment of its completion. The episode ends not with one opponent’s defeat but with the destruction of the entire group by Arthur’s household, closing the account of the Castle of Wonders.