Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This chapter addresses the role of narrative grace in William Langland’s Piers Plowman, arguing that, alongside its theological implications, the concept also entails literary-formal repercussions. It focuses on two heavily revised passages in which grace comes to the fore: the Mede episode (C.2–4/B.2–4) and Christ’s debate with Lucifer before hell’s gates (C.20/B.18). In both passages, grace is a contested and transformative term. Like Julian, Langland revised around grace, a concept that drives the poem’s revisionary aesthetic. Mede’s association with graceful surplus produces narrative fecundity, as she suspends and redirects plots, but she is a troubled form of literary grace, just as she is a troubled form of theological grace. Finally, Langland’s terminology of grace addresses the denouement of salvation history in the Crucifixion sequence. The appearance of grace ultimately models an open plot that avoids damnation: because of grace, there is more story, and its outcome is not foretold.</jats:p>