CHRETIEN DE TROYES:Academics will freely admit that this man was a troubadour. But what is a Troubadour? They were important to genesis of Cathar mystique for a certainty and Princeton people I will shortly quote will say that Chrétien was one of first Troubadours in this region. Surely they do not think it would be one of first involved in these arts. In point of fact they are very very ancient arts in training of a Druid, who would become a minstrel and jester before taking up involved study to be a Bard or Baird. Druids, Bairds and Ovates are best known appellations for those who completed these long and arduous studies which were already suffering and shortening by time of Pythagoras who was part of last known Dean of Studies in Mediterranean region. Abaris (Rabbi) Druid was that Dean and his name gives us a clue as to one of branches or systems which took over some of their training.
The Cathars were very Gnostic and open to Pharisaic Rabbinical message. In Caesar’s Journals we are told period of study was 20 years but it was 25 a millennium earlier and there were still other specialties one could study throughout their lives. One of those might lead to being called a Peryllat or ‘alchemist’. Many members of family of Jesus were alchemists and it is quite likely that Yeshua bar Joseph studied with Comarius who also tutored Cleopatra. Apollonius of Tyana is part of Jesus amalgam and Cathars kept most of Gaedhil/Gnostic learning alive. One of charges that Inquisition leveled against Cathars had to do with Dianistic or Tantric sexual practices and I believe sexual or Bhakti ‘union’ (Yoga) was part of their training and system which highly valued women including giving them high priestly functions and leadership roles including Esclarmonde de Foix who is reminiscent of Hypatia of Alexandria, who both should be studied as a great heroine for all time.
The Bairdic Educational system had included a seven year specialty in developing languages for their far flung colonies in second millennium BCE and they developed such codes and Gematria as you see in Hebrew and Aymará of Peru. I have delved into these Oghamic studies in many other books including one with title From OM to Ogham. Plato observed that knowledge was declining due to written word after Phoenicians gave them their refined alphabet. Some scholars think a few of poems attributed to Orpheus (a lesser Bard or Troubadour) are in fact writing of Pythagoras. The Grail myths are rich repositories of pre-Christian traditions.
“Little concerning person we call "Chrétien de Troyes" (fl. ca. 1160-1191) can be affirmed with certainty. What we know must largely be inferred from writings attributed to him. These include five romance narratives written in rhyming octosyllabic couplets during final third of 12th century (Érec et Énide [ca. 1165], Cligés [ca. 1176], Le Chevalier de la Charrette (Lancelot), Le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain) [ca. 1177? 1179-80?], and Le Conte du Graal (Perceval) [ca. 1190]); a sixth narrative, Guillaume d'Angleterre, has been attributed to him by some, although many scholars find this doubtful. At least two surviving lyric songs are said to have been composed by him (if so, he is oldest known trouvère with work closely related to that of Old Provençal troubadours). {The region is also known as Langue d’Oc or Languedoc. Occamy is ‘alchemy’ in one translation so we can see importance of Troubadour to Bairdic or Peryllat spiritual quest is tongue or language and codes of alchemy.}