The plot is similar to that of Marie de France's lai of Lanval. Graelent, a knight of Brittany, rebuffs amorous advances from the queen, who retaliates by manipulating the king against Lanval. Graelent's wages are suspended, reducing him to poverty. Graelent dejectedly rides into the forest, and while tracking a white hind, he stumbles upon a beautiful lady bathing in the fountain, attended by two maidens. Graelent sneaks up and clutches the articles of clothing she has disrobed upon a bush. The lady cries out his name, demanding their return. Graelent does not comply, and bargains for her to emerge from the fountain, and asks for her love. She is at first scornful at the suggestion, but Graelent woos her with words, and in a quick turnabout she is more than willing to become his amour, and even reveals this was her design in the first place. She would appear to him whenever he wills it, but the relationship must be kept a strict secret, and the couple are to abide in the country for one year while avoiding detection from comrades. Graelent receives from the lady a magnificent war horse, and large sums of gold and silver. He repays his debt to the burgess's hostel where he stayed, and begins entertaining many knights, regaling them with food and harpers' music. He spends other hours of the day and nights with his lady. Graelent is now extricated from financial difficulties, but another ordeal is awaiting. A year goes by, and at the king's annual Pentecost feast, all present are expected to praise the beauty of the queen as being greater than any other that they know. Graelent refuses, blurting out that he knows a woman thirty times as beautiful. The enraged queen dares him to produce this woman on pain of punishment, and the king orders him thrown in prison. The lady does not appear at his whim as she has always done before, and Graelent is struck by remorse, but gains no reprieve until the next Pentecostal feast, when he is given a last chance to ride out and find his lady. Graelent returns empty-handed, and resigns himself to trial, but just then beautiful damsels arrive in court, with the message that the lady will soon be present to acquit Graelent of his veracity. Unlike Lanval, the "fairy mistress" here does not immediately take him back, and sets off on the journey back to her world beyond the river. Graelent follows mounted on the white horse she has given him, and ignoring her warning, begins to ford the river but is unhorsed and begins to drown. At the entreaty of her attendant damsel, the lady relents and pulls him up to safety. The couple disappear, never to be seen again. The horse left behind remains at the bank neighing after his master, and can still be heard at this time of year.
Related texts
Graelent is closely resembles the plotline to Lanval by Marie de France, and the texts are considered interrelated. However, there has been considerable disagreement over the years among commentators regarding their authorship, the chronological order, and mutual relationship. Graelent was initially published by as a work by Marie de France by Jean-Baptiste-Bonaventure de Roquefort in 1820, and subsequently translated as one of her works by Eugene Mason, but this attribution is considered erroneous. Although some early scholars such as Gaston Paris considered Graelent to antedate Lanval, and later William C. Stokoe, Jr. continued to argue it as the source of Lanval, many have voiced dissent, and the contrary opinion is the recent consensus, according to Glynn S. Burgess:
The definitive view of these three lays, chronologically and thematically, is that of R. N. Illingworth, who concluded that they were composed in the order Lanval, Graelent, and Guingamor, with Graelent and Guingamor drawing on Lanval, but Guingamor also drawing on Graelent. Moreover, although the narratives were taken largely from Marie, the two anonymous lays integrated into their stories, independently of Marie, material stemming from "a nucleus of genuine Celtic tradition".
The protagonist robbing the bathing lady's garment is a common swan maiden folklore motif, and William Henry Schofield felt this was borrowed specifically from the story of Wayland the Smith, which survive in the Middle High GermanFriedrich von Schwaben and the Eddic poemVölundarkviða. Schofield also discerned borrowings from the Irish narrative Noinden Ulad.
Medieval adaptations
Graelent was translated into Old Norse as Grelent, one of the Strengleikar; this text has value for tracing the textual history of the French lai. In its turn, this translation seems to have influenced the Icelandic romance-sagaSamsonar saga fagra and the rímurSkíðaríma, both of which include characters called Grelent. The Middle English Sir Launfal by Thomas Chestre is considered a composite, based on Lanval with elements added from Graelent.
