Chapel perilous is a term best known fromThomas Malory's Arthurian compilationLe Morte d'Arthur[1] as the setting for an adventure in which the sorceressHellawes unsuccessfully attempts to seduce the knightLancelot. Malory was partially inspired by the chapel perilous adventure of the knightGawain inPerlesvaus, as well as corresponding ghost episodes featuringPerceval in Wauchier's and Manessier's respective continuations ofPerceval, and Gawain andHector de Maris in theVulgateQueste, that tend to combine it with the related theme of the perilous cemetery.[2] A similar motif (a perilous cemetery and a perilous chapel), but featuring Lancelot, also appears in theProseLancelot and in the romanceChevalier à deux Espées.[2]
The term as used in literature was explicated in detail byJessie L. Weston in her 1920 bookFrom Ritual to Romance.[2] It was defined by Thomas C. Foster as "the dangerous enclosure that is known in the study of traditional quest romances."[3] Foster cited the plot of the 1966 bookCrying of Lot 49 as an example.T. S. Eliot used it symbolically in his 1922 poemThe Waste Land. It was also used byEleanore M. Jewett in her 1946 bookThe Hidden Treasure of Glaston.Dorothy Hewett tookThe Chapel Perilous as the title for her autobiographical play, in which she uses "the framework of the Arthurian legend, Sir Lancelot, to create a theatrical quest of romantic and epic proportions."[4]
"Chapel perilous" is also a term referring to a psychological state in which an individual is uncertain whether some course of events was affected by a supernatural force, or was a product of their own imagination. It was used by writer and philosopherRobert Anton Wilson in his 1977 bookCosmic Trigger. According to Wilson, being in this state leads the subject to become either paranoid or an agnostic;[5] in his opinion there is no third way.[5] The term "chapel perilous" was used byAntero Alli, in his 1986 book,Angel Tech: A Modern Shaman's Guide to Reality Selection which is based onTimothy Leary'seight-circuit model of consciousness. In Alli's book,chapel perilous is a rite of passage, when moving between the four lower circuits of consciousness to the higher circuits.