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the program.

Hello in the world of medieval romance there are many weird and wonderful creatures, golden dragons and green

knights, sinister enchantresses and tragic kings, strange magicians and spears that bleed and talk.

Yet in all this panoply of wonder few figures are more mysterious than the Fisher King.

And trusted as the keeper of the Holy Grail itself, he resides in a castle made of magic where

he lies blighted by a wound that doesn't heal.

He's a complex and poetically magnetic figure and has meant many things to many people.

From the age of chivalry to that of psychoanalysis and beyond he's been Christian and

pagan tragic and enduring a sinner a fertility god and a symbol of sexual fear

and desire. With me to discuss the Fisher King are Stephen Knight, distinguished research professor in English literature at Cardiff University.

Juliet Wood, Associate Lecturer in the Department of Welsh, Cardiff University and Director of the Folklore Society,

and Caroline Larington, tutor in medieval English at St John's College, Oxford.

Caroline Larington, the first mention of the Fisher King in is in a late 20th century poem called Percival the Story of the Grail is by a poet called

Kretian de Trois. Can you tell us what story he tells?

...