La tradizione cavalleresca come via delluomo al rosso/en

The chivalric tradition — chivalry in English, chevalerie in French, Ritterstand in German, cavalleria in Italian — constitutes, in the formulation of Julius Evola (The Mystery of the Grail 1937 and Revolt Against the Modern World 1934), one of the main operative forms of Western hermetic initiation. It is not the medieval folklore of tournaments and heraldic shields (this is the external mask), nor the 19th-century romantic ideology of "gentle chivalry" (this is its popular mythology). It is the way of man to the red in arms — the initiatic discipline of the warrior who transforms into a King, of the King who recognizes himself as a node of the golden chain (cf. Alchimia e Magnetismo sec. II), of the initiate who actively integrates his virility by realizing it in the spirit.

For the wiki cluster, the page serves as an operative synthesis of a transversal axis that crosses many already published pages: the Templars as guardians of the Grail, the Fedeli d'Amore as a "Ghibelline militia" according to Dante, the 18th-century Strict Templar Observance, the 19th-century Neo-Chivalry, the Celtic-Arthurian chivalry underlying the Grail cycle, and — the pivotal point — the alchemical rubedo read as sacred kingship of the present man (cf. Il Risveglio sec. VIII-bis).

I. The thesis: knight = man to the red in arms

Pivotal point articulated in Il Risveglio sec. VIII-bis: the alchemical rubedo = man present to himself, the Re-initiated. Chivalry is the operative form of this state — its historical incarnation in arms.

For Evola, the King-knight pair is a single initiatic figure in two aspects. The King is the accomplished state, the integration achieved: "not with that [appellation] of 'Saint', but always with the warrior one of King, is designated by the 'Sons of Hermes' he who has been reintegrated by the Art" (Evola, KRUR 1929, cited in Evola e Reghini e la Tradizione Ermetica and Il Risveglio). The knight is the active phase that precedes and continues kingship — not as an instrument of the King but as a King-becoming who continually tests himself in deeds.

Distinctive points of the initiate-knight:

• Virtus + aretè — not "moral virtue" in a devotional sense but realized virility (Lat. virtus from vir, Greek aretè = excellence of being). The knight is excellent in his function — he fights, commands, decides, loves, guards — because he has integrated his virility in the spirit
• Armed wisdom — chivalry does not separate contemplation and action. The knight acts while contemplating, contemplates while acting. In chivalric legends, the deeds are simultaneously feats and initiations
• Service and kingship — the knight serves a King (earthly or celestial — Arthur, Christ cosmocrator, the ideal Emperor) but is also a King in potential: the apparent paradox is resolved by the fact that the knight's kingship is the kingship of Wisdom (cf. Dante's Veltro: "sapienza, amore e virtute")
• Woman as fulfillment — the knight's lady is not a 19th-century sentimental figure, she is the transcendent part of the knight himself awaiting him at the completion of the work (sec. III of this page)

II. The three Evolian typologies: Olympian, Heroic, Titanic

[VERIFIED] Evola in The Mystery of the Grail (ch. on the Bronze Age) and in Revolt Against the Modern World distinguishes three fundamental human types of the initiatic tradition, in correlation with the four ages of tradition (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron):

1. Olympian Type (Golden Age)

The sacred sovereign of the primordial Hyperborean tradition. King-pontiff (Lat. pontifex = bridge builder between the divine and human), integrally vigilant, integrally regal, integrally sacerdotal. It is the pure state of rubedo without mediations: the Re-initiated by nature, not by conquest.

In mythical texts: Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gītā, King Numa in the archaic Roman tradition, King Arthur before the wound, Prester John of the hidden eastern kingdom, Frederick II of Swabia according to Evola's Ghibelline reading (cf. Il Mistero del Graal secondo Evola sec. IV).

2. Titanic Type (Bronze Age)

The degraded opposite of the Olympian type. The pure warrior who rebels against the sacred sovereign, identifying with his material virility and using it against the spirit. Typical of the "descent into the Bronze Age".

[VERIFIED] «Any insurgence of a wild and materialized virility against such spiritual forms characterizes the Bronze Age. This age is characterized by the degradation of the warriors' caste and by its revolt against him who represents the spirit. [...] The Bronze Age is also marked by the unleashing of the principle proper to the warriors' caste, namely, pride, violence, war. The corresponding myth is the Titanic or Luciferian revolt, or the Promethean attempt to steal the Olympian fire». The age of the "giants", or of the Wolf, or of the "elementary beings", is equivalent.

The corresponding myths: the Titans against Zeus in Greek mythology, Lucifer fallen in the Christian tradition, Prometheus stealing the fire, Adam eating the forbidden fruit, the Giants of the antediluvian Genesis. In every case: virility detached from the spirit that claims to replace the spirit.

3. Heroic Type (middle way)

The intermediate type — the warrior who recognizes his condition of the Bronze Age (no longer a sacred sovereign by nature), but does not surrender to Titanic degradation. He seeks Olympian reintegration through a double condition:

[VERIFIED] «In order to implement a positive solution to the dilemma, that is, to attain an Olympian transformation as the reintegration of the primordial state, it is necessary to fulfill a double condition. First of all, it is necessary to show the proof and the confirmation of the virile qualification; thus in the epic and knightly symbolism we find a series of adventures, feats, and fights. This qualification should not become a limitation, a hubris, a closure of the "I", and it should not paralyze the capability of opening oneself up to a transcendent force, in function of which alone can the fire really become light and free itself. Second, such liberation should not signify a [...]».

The two Evolian conditions of the heroic type — the double proof of the knight — are:

1. Prove the virile qualification through adventures, deeds, battles — the knight demonstrates that he is not weak, cowardly, evasive. He has conquered his virility in the form of courage, perseverance, the ability to face death, physical and mental strength. This is the work in black of the chivalric path: the nigredo of the candidate who transforms into a knight by proving he can survive the trials
2. Open oneself to a transcendent force without the qualification becoming hubris, closure of the "I", impediment to openness. The force the knight has conquered transforms into light only if he surrenders it to a higher principle. This is the work in white and red of the chivalric path: the transmutation of the warrior into the Re-initiated

Pivotal point: chivalry is the historical path of the heroic type. The knight is not a sacred sovereign by birth (Olympian type — available only in the primordial tradition), he is not a secularized warrior (Titanic type — degraded), he is the warrior who recognizes his condition and sets out on the path towards Olympian reintegration.

Types of hero in the tradition:

• Heracles (Greek) — paradigmatic figure for Evola: a warrior who, after the twelve labors (the proofs of virility) obtains Hebe (divine youth, figure of the transcendent part) as his wife and ascends to Olympus
• King Arthur (Celtic) — wounded-sleeping Olympian sovereign whose restoration requires the Grail Quest of the Knights of the Round Table
• Parsifal (Germanic, Wolfram) — hero who grows in innocence (der reine Tor, "the pure fool"), overcomes the trials, conquers the Grail — complete figure of the heroic type
• Galahad (Christianized, late Breton cycle) — Christian version of Parsifal, "pure" hero who sees the Grail
• Cuchulainn (Irish) — archaic Celtic hero
• Siegfried (Germanic, Saga of the Nibelungs) — hero of the dragon-treasure-betrayal line
• Dietrich von Bern (Germanic) — figure of Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths, hero of the Nibelung cycle

III. The Knight's Woman

[VERIFIED] Point developed by Evola in The Mystery of the Grail (ch. 6 «On the "Hero" and the "Woman"»). The knight's woman — the lady, the beloved, the promised bride — is not a sentimental figure nor a biographical character. She is the external figuration of the transcendent part of the knight himself, his "force of destiny" and victory.

[VERIFIED] «Hebe, the Olympian youth, was given in marriage to Heracles as a wife. In Egyptian figurations, divine women offer to the kings a lotus, which is a symbol of a rebirth and the "key of life." Like the Iranian fravashi, the Nordic Valkyrie are a figuration of transcendental parts of warriors, the forces of their destinies and victories. The Roman tradition knew of a Venus Victrix who was credited with generating an imperial stock (Venus Genitrix); the Celtic tradition mentioned supernatural women who take warriors to mysterious islands to make them [immortal]».

The knight's woman appears in all initiatic traditions:

• Hebe — Olympian bride of Heracles after the apotheosis
• Fravashi — in the ancient Iranian tradition, transcendent part of the warrior individual, his "celestial matrix"
• Valkyries — in the Nordic tradition, female figures who choose fallen warriors to lead them to Valhalla
• Venus Victrix / Venus Genitrix — in the Roman tradition, imperial figure of victory and the generation of royal lineages
• Celtic women of the mysterious islands — Morgana, the Lady of the Lake, Niniane — who take away the warrior towards Avalon
• Beatrice / Pargoletta / Selvaggia / Donna Unica of the Fedeli d'Amore — see I Fedeli dAmore for the complete treatment
• Isis / Myriam / Sophia — Marian-Isiac figures of the Italian magnetic-hermetic tradition (cf. Kremmerz e Ordine Osirideo Egizio)

Operative point: the knight's lady is not a biographical woman. She is one's own luminous part awaiting reunion — the hermetic rebis, the alchemical androgyne (cf. Evola e Reghini e la Tradizione Ermetica sec. III). The "conquest" of the lady by the knight is the final coniunctio of the work in red. Cecco d'Ascoli (Fedeli d'Amore): «Dunque io sono Ella» — explicit formulation of the final convergence between knight and lady (= between initiate and his own transcendent part).

[VERIFIED] Evola also emphasizes the danger of the lady: «[when the woman's possession means] danger that a heroic adventure can lead to a titanic fall. In this case, the woman represents the seductiveness of transcendent power and knowledge when its possession means [violation of the order]». The knight who conquers the lady in the wrong way (with violence, with hubris, outside the initiatic design) falls into Titanic hybris instead of realizing the Olympian transformation.

Important operative point for the School: the relationship with the woman in the chivalric tradition is a rigorous initiatic operation, not romantic liberality. The lady must be recognized (not confused with the ordinary woman), honored (not seduced), served (not possessed), conquered (through one's own trials, not through her submission).

IV. The chivalric cycles: operative symbols

The chivalric tradition produced, between the 12th and 14th centuries, a vast initiatic literature which — as Reghini and the Fedeli d'Amore have shown (cf. I Fedeli dAmore sec. II-III) — must be read as a coded text of a living initiatic school, not as courtly literature in the modern sense.

Arthurian-Breton cycle

The Arthurian cycle (King Arthur, Knights of the Round Table, Quest for the Grail, Lancelot, Galahad, Percival, Gawain, Mordred) constitutes the most complete matrix of Western initiatic chivalry. Operative centers:

• King Arthur — Olympian sovereign wounded-sleeping in Avalon, awaiting restoration. Figure of the decadent Olympian type who requires the Quest of his knights to restore him. Cf. Il Mistero del Graal secondo Evola sec. IV (Arthur in the initiatic series with Frederick II, Prester John, Dante's Veltro)
• Round Table — geometric figure of the initiatic Lodge: 12 (or 24, 50, 150 according to the versions) knights around Arthur sharing a common state. Convergent with Le Catene Magnetiche di Loggia as an Arthurian antecedent of the Masonic lodge chain
• Quest for the Grail — initiatic operation to bring back sacred sovereignty. The knights who leave the court and cross the Adventurous Forest (figure of the astral plane, the dimension of trial) to reach the Castle of the Fisher King
• Fisher King (Roi Pêcheur) — the only character who knows the Grail but is wounded (inguinal wound = sterility of the kingdom = decadence of the Age). Only the pure knight who asks the right question heals him
• «The right question» — in Chrétien's Perceval the knight must ask: "Whom does the Grail serve?". The question is an initiatic operation: recognizing that the Grail serves (= has a recipient, a cosmic function), it is not (a fetish-object in itself). Percival's error: not asking when he first sees the Grail. Consequence: the kingdom remains sterile

Carolingian cycle (Chanson de Roland, Orlando)

The Carolingian cycle — Orlando, Rinaldo, Olivier, Ganelon — is less initiatic than the Breton one (more historical-heroic-religious), but preserves elements:

• Orlando paladin of Charlemagne — hero who dies alone at Roncesvaux, figure of the warrior's sacrifice for the imperial cause
• Durendal — Orlando's sacred sword, consecrated object that identifies him as an initiate-knight
• Oliphant — the horn that calls the emperor, word of the knight to the celestial sovereign

In the Renaissance, the Carolingian cycle was reworked in an initiatic key by Ariosto (Orlando furioso 1516-1532) and Tasso (Gerusalemme liberata 1581) — both in Italian environments with explicit hermetic accents. In the Orlando furioso, Orlando's madness for Angelica is a symbolic reading of the warrior who falls into Titanic hybris before the lady.

Nibelung cycle (Germanic)

The Germanic cycle — Siegfried, Brunhild, the Nibelungs, Dietrich von Bern — is the most tragic of the three major cycles. Siegfried obtains the treasure and the lady, but is betrayed and killed. Initiatic reading: the knight who does not correctly integrate his conquest — his success becomes an occasion for betrayal and the ruin of the entire kingdom.

The major late work — Richard Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen (1848-1874) — is an explicit initiatic re-reading of the Germanic material in the 19th century. Wagner also integrates Parsifal (1882) with Templar-Rosicrucian elements that attracted Nietzsche's attention (positive until 1872, polemical after). Cf. Neo-Chevalerie nel XIX secolo for context.

V. The Templars as organized initiatic Chivalry

Important axis for the cluster: the Knights Templar (Order of the Temple, founded in Jerusalem in 1118, suppressed in 1314 by Philip the Fair with the complicity of Clement V) are the organized initiatic chivalry of the medieval Christian tradition.

Operative points (cf. Stretta Osservanza Templare for the complete historical treatment):

• Double structure — external (military-religious order in the service of the King of Jerusalem and then the Papacy) + internal (initiatic school with symbols, rituals, and a chain of transmission)
• Material wealth — the Templars became the first international bankers of Europe. The Order's wealth is an operative element (it allows for sustenance, crusades, commanderies, constructions) but also a cause of its suppression (Philip the Fair suppressed them to appropriate their treasure)
• Architecture — the Templars built round churches (Temple Church in London, Temple in Paris, etc.) in imitation of the Temple of Jerusalem. Roundness is a figure of perfection, the Round Table, the lodge chain
• Connection with the Grail — [VERIFIED] Wolfram explicitly places the «Templeisen» as guardians of the Grail in Parzifal: «sie lebent von einem steine», they live from a stone (the Grail itself as a "stone of light"). Cf. Il Mistero del Graal secondo Evola sec. VI on the Templar-Grail-Ghibellinism identity
• Hidden continuity — the suppression of 1314 does not close the tradition: the survivors take refuge in various ways (in Scotland according to one legend, in other orders according to other versions). The 18th-century Strict Templar Observance of von Hund (1751) and other Lodges claim an unbroken chain of transmission from the Templars of 1314

VI. Dante and the Fedeli d'Amore as Spiritual Chivalry

Pivotal point documented by Reghini and Evola (cf. I Fedeli d'Amore sec. III and VII): the Fedeli d'Amore of the 13th-14th century Italian-Provencal-Belgian area are a form of spiritual chivalry even if not military. The knight of the Fedeli no longer carries arms but carries the pen as an instrument of coded initiation.

[VERIFIED] Ch. 26 of The Mystery of the Grail is explicitly titled «Dante and the Love's Lieges as a Ghibelline Militia» — Dante and the Fedeli d'Amore are a "Ghibelline militia" in the literal sense: a secret chivalric organization that continues the Templar-Grail chivalry after its suppression in 1314 (the repression of the Templars is contemporary with the composition of the Commedia and the texts of the Fedeli — Dante in his canticles strikes at Philip the Fair as responsible for the suppression).

The spiritual chivalry of the Fedeli:

• The weapon is the coded word (Stilnovist poetry read as code)
• The lord is the ideal Emperor (Ghibelline program) or Christ cosmocrator (theological program)
• The lady is divine Wisdom (Beatrice, Pistis Sophia, Donna Unica)
• The deeds are the coded ascents in the Commedia, the internal threshold-events described as real encounters

VII. The sword as an operative symbol

Transversal point for the cluster: the sword is the main symbolic-operative object of initiatic chivalry. It is not just a weapon — it is the knight's seal, constant reminder of his condition, instrument of trial.

Aspects:

• The sword in the stone (Arthurian Excalibur) — only the legitimate King can draw it. Initiatic figure of the verification that recognizes the pure knight
• The sword from the stone that comes from heaven (Grail cycle) — the sword as a gift from Above, not as human fabrication
• The broken sword to be reforged (Narsil/Andúril, present in various traditions) — figure of the knight who reforges the broken kingship. The sword is reforged when the knight is ready
• Durendal of Orlando — sacred sword that the knight cannot separate from himself
• The Master's naked sword in 18th-19th century Masonic rituals — the sword present without being used in lodge works (cf. Le Catene Magnetiche di Loggia)

Technical point: the sword is a figure of the knight's discriminating will. A will that cuts (not in the sense of violence but of clear separation between the true and the false, the essential and the accessory), that protects (the King, the lady, the kingdom), that consecrates (the youth into a knight by investiture, the new initiate by the Master).

VIII. Chivalry in Egyptian Masonic rites

Initiatic chivalry is a central element of the 18th-19th century Egyptian Rite, in particular:

• Rite of Cagliostro — the Cagliostrian initiate at the high degrees is a knight of the Sagesse Triomphante, receives investiture with the sword, receives an initiatic chivalric name
• Rite of Misraïm (87°-90°, cf. Arcana Arcanorum) — the system makes explicit reference to chivalry
• Stretta Osservanza Templare of von Hund (1751) — explicit Templar chivalric degrees
• Neo-Chevalerie of the 19th century — late revivals

The investiture of the knight — colée (blow of the flat of the sword on the shoulder) — is a true initiatic ritual in the high lodges: transmission of the magnetic fluid of the Master to the neophyte through the sword as a conductor (cf. Alchimia e Magnetismo sec. XII.2 on vital fluids in the UR/KRUR volumes).

IX. Chivalry and Awakening: the chivalric rubedo

Pivotal point that reconnects this page to the cluster's theme-axis (Il Risveglio):

Chivalry is one of the operative forms of rubedo — the work in red in arms. The accomplished knight is the man present in action: not an ascetic withdrawn from the world, not a mystic dissolved in passive contemplation, but a man who operates in the world while remaining awake.

The chivalric path is particularly significant for the cluster because:

1. It integrates action and contemplation — the knight is neither the monk nor the magician. He fights, governs, loves, builds — but consciously, presently, initiated. It resolves the false dualism "action-contemplation" which is one of the diseases of degenerated spirituality
2. It preserves the virile dimension — important point for Evola: initiation does not depower virility (error of the lunar path, of passive religiosity, of feminizing devotional piety) — it realizes it in its highest form. The King-knight is virile, in the full sense of the term
3. It works with the body — differently from Wolinsky (cf. Wolinsky e la deconcettualizzazione sec. II), the chivalric path is eminently corporeal. The knight trains (weapons, horsemanship, endurance), disciplines (diet, sleep, rule), exposes himself to trials (battles, journeys, pilgrimages). The body is not just the athanor of transmutation: it is the instrument of initiatic action in the world
4. It integrates with spiritual chivalry — the Fedeli d'Amore (chivalry of the word), the Templars (chivalry of the Order), the Grail cycle (mythical chivalry of the Quest) are three extensions of the same path. The Paret-ISI-CNV School operates primarily on the hermetic-magnetic Kremmerzian path but recognizes in spiritual chivalry an operative model of reference

The realized knight is not the warrior of the Bronze Age (Titanic). He is not the monastic saint (lunar-passive, according to the Evolian diagnosis). He is not the abstract philosopher (intellectual detached from life). He is the man to the red in arms — the initiate who acts in the world while remaining awake and aware that the kingship he exercises is not his individually but is the kingship of universal Consciousness operating through him.

X. Living practice in the School

Declared section: living practice of the Paret School (ISI-CNV).

The School recognizes the chivalric tradition as one of the main operative models of the Western initiatic path. While not being a chivalric order (the School is hermetic-magnetic in the Kremmerzian line), it integrates chivalric elements into its own practice:

1. The principle of the Evolian double condition — the student is invited to (a) prove his qualification (responsibilities assumed and maintained, organized life, mastery of one's states, ability to face one's weaknesses) + (b) open oneself to a transcendent force (not identify with one's personal strength, recognize that the consciousness that operates is universal)
2. The relationship with the Lady — recognition of the inner luminous part as one's own Lady (Isis-Myriam-Beatrice in the different formulations). The practice rejects both womanizing (consumption of women as objects) and lunar pietism (passive submission to the woman as divine mother). The Lady is one's own transcendent part that demands honor and service, not worship nor conquest
3. The inner sword — the student cultivates the discriminating will as a working tool: clearly say yes or no, distinguish the true from the false, cut what is not needed, protect what is essential
4. The integration of body + action — the School's practice is not only meditative: it includes physical training, discipline of the body, exposure to the world, operative action (cf. Kremmerz's Avviamento alla Magia in Alchimia e Magnetismo sec. XII.3)
5. The way of man to the red in arms — the underlying orientation: realize the rubedo in the world, not outside the world. The initiate of the School operates in the profession, in relationships, in civil life — remaining awake and remembering that the kingship he exercises is the kingship of Wisdom
6. The memory of the chain — the School places itself in the Italian chivalric chain (in a symbolic, not ordinistic sense): Frederick II of Swabia, the Ghibellines, Dante, the Fedeli d'Amore, Palombara of the cenacle of Christina of Sweden, Cagliostro in Lyon, Kremmerz in Naples. The ideal continuity of seven centuries of Italy is a constant spiritual reference

XI. Paul-Georges Sansonetti — the alchemical-imaginal reading of Perceval

[VERIFIED] Paul-Georges Sansonetti — author of the same current of thought as Robert Giudicelli (cf. La Doctrine du Corps Immortel) and Rémi Boyer (cf. Arcana Arcanorum and Il Lavoro sui Quattro Corpi dellUomo) — published in 2002 by Éditions ARMA-Édire of Menton (the same publishing house as Giudicelli and part of Boyer's work) the book Chevalerie du Graal et Lumière de Gloire (607 KB of text, a paper edition of over 600 pages), the systematic reading of Chrétien de Troyes's Perceval according to a double alchemical-imaginal key. Pivotal page for the wiki cluster on chivalry because:

• It is the most complete modern doctrinal source on initiatic chivalry read as an operative school
• It is published in the Édire-ARMA current (the same as Giudicelli, Boyer, and other Francophone authors of the living initiatic tradition)
• It constitutes the theoretical basis of the operative path of the Chevalerie Spirituelle practiced today (sec. XII of this page)

Origins and method

[VERIFIED] Sansonetti's preface declares: «Ce livre a pour origine un travail de doctorat relevant de la Littérature comparée présenté en mars 1980 à l'Université des Lettres de Grenoble. D'éminents chercheurs composaient le jury: Gilbert Durand, alors président et fondateur du Centre de Recherche sur l'Imaginaire, Madame Simone Vierne, qui devait lui succéder à la direction de cette institution et Jacques Ribard, doyen de l'Université de Picardie».

The book is therefore a 1980 doctoral thesis, refined and published 22 years later. The double methodological key:

1. Gilbert Durand's Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary — a tool of comparative mythology that organizes all images produced by the human psyche into three Regimes of the Image (Diurnal-heroic, Nocturnal mystical, Nocturnal synthetic-dramatic)
2. Alchemical thought — reading of Perceval as a coded text of the Great Work, with its sequence of colors, trials, substances, states

To these two keys, Sansonetti adds Indo-European traditions (particularly Celtic and Germano-Scandinavian) and Christian symbolism as complementary interpretative materials.

The five chapters and the structure of the Magistery

The work is in five chapters that reconstruct the initiatic path of Perceval in Chrétien's text:

1. CHAPITRE PREMIER: Vision du Vermeil — vision of the Vermilion (red). Pivotal point: the drop of blood fallen on the snow, contemplated by Perceval, is the first alchemical revelation of the red = of the royal color = of the completed work. Sansonetti reads it as a visual anticipation (Diurnal Regime) of the ultimate term of the journey
2. CHAPITRE II: La Lumière et l'Épée — Light and Sword. Perceval's sword (given by the Fisher King, broken, to be reforged) is a device of the discriminating will (cf. sec. VII of this page). The light revealed to the knight is the Lumière de Gloire of the Iranian tradition (Xvarnah, Glanz) documented by Henry Corbin — the luminous source that recognizes the legitimate sovereign
3. CHAPITRE III: Perception d'un autre corps — perception of another body. Direct convergence with the page Il Lavoro sui Quattro Corpi dellUomo of the cluster. Perceval, going through the trials, perceives that he is other than the ordinary material body: he discovers his own subtle body (lunar-aerial-luminous). Sansonetti explicitly links this section to the Norse tradition of multiple bodies (hamr as "subtle form or garment", hamingja as "spirit attached to the individual", fylgja as "female guide double" — cf. sec. XII of this page)
4. CHAPITRE IV: Formes et Puissances — Forms and Powers. Catalog of the entities the knight encounters and dialogues with (magical animals, supernatural women, hermits, guardians of the Grail). Sansonetti analyzes the Nordic hamr / hamingja / fylgja as technical tools for reading these figures
5. CHAPITRE V: Gen