Eternal Chalice

The Enduring Legend of the Holy Grail

Juliette Wood

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9780857730909
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Denominazioni cristiane

What is the secret of the Grail?' So intoned a heavenly voice to Sir Percival in John Boorman's stylish and influential film 'Excalibur' (1981). The sacred allure of the Holy Grail has fascinated writers and ensnared knights for over a thousand years. From Malory to Monty Python, the eternal chalice - said to be the very cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper - has the richest associations of any icon in British myth. Many different meanings have been devised for the Grail, which has been linked to the Celts and King Arthur, the eucharistic rites of Eastern Christianity, ancient mystery religions, Jungian archetypes, dualist heresies, Templar treasure and even the alleged descendants of Christ himself and Mary Magdalene. The common thread running through all these stories is the assumption that the Grail legend has a single source with a meaning that - if only we could decode it - is concealed in the romances themselves. That meaning has become the subject of coded, secret documents and is the central feature of a vast conspiracy supposedly stretching back to the dawn of western civilization. Juliette Wood here reveals the elusive and embedded significance of the Grail story in popular consciousness - as myth, medieval romance, tangible holy relic and finally as the centre of an esoteric theory of global conspiracy. The author shows how various interpretations of the Grail, over the centuries, reflect changing cultural needs and desires. Her book will enthral those who, like Sir Percival, seek to unlock the mysterious secrets of western mythology's most extraordinary and tantalising enigma, and will delight students of history, myth and religion alike.

CHAPTER 1

Romances and Relics

THE STORY OF the Holy Grail is a rich and complex narrative set in the context of Arthurian tradition and the medieval world of knighthood and chivalry. These romances reflected the lifestyle and aspirations of an elite, the men and women who dominated the feudal world. The narratives produced during this relatively brief period have a universal appeal, and subsequent readers have interpreted them in different ways. Whatever the conclusions about the origins and meaning of the legend of the Holy Grail, however, they are rooted in the texts of the medieval romances.

It can be something of a surprise to readers new to the Grail story, that medieval romances describe the Grail and the adventures of the knights in so many different ways. About a dozen romances include material about the Grail, and they have come to be regarded as a special class of fiction. However, no consistent ‘Grail story’ ever emerges from these romances, and the Grail episode is not always the main plot line. Chrétien de Troyes’s French romance written about 1180 is the earliest literary work to mention it. All subsequent romances which incorporate Grail material are based to some extent on Chrétien’s tale. Even this apparently clear starting point can be deceptive. The romances never formed an orderly cycle with one taking up where the other left off. The dates of composition overlap, and it is not possible to establish a clear timeline. Material was borrowed and new themes introduced. Some romances are fragmentary or exist only as prose redactions of the original poetry, while sections, and even whole romances, have been lost. Some writers probably could not read Chrétien’s original French poetry, and many would not have had access to all the available sources. The idea of a body of work about an object called the Grail is a recent one, and it is only with modern editions that scholars have had access to all the romances and are able to understand the ways in which they relate to one another.

The fact that no consistent ‘Grail story’ emerges from the romances is frustrating, and has undoubtedly contributed to the number of speculative theories about its origin. However a basic story outline would be something like the following:

A mysterious vessel or object which sustains life and/or provides sustenance is guarded in a castle which is difficult to find. The owner of the castle is either lame or sick and often (but not always) the surrounding land is barren. The owner can be restored only if a knight finds the castle and, after witnessing a mysterious procession, asks a certain question. If he fails in this task, everything will remain as before and the search must begin again. After wanderings and adventures (many of which relate to events which the young hero failed to understand the first time), the knight returns to the castle and asks the question which cures the king and restores the land. The hero knight succeeds the wounded king (usually called the Fisher King) as guardian of the castle and its contents.

Five knights search for the Grail. Perceval (also called Peredur and Perlesvaus) begins as a gauche boy unaware of his connections with the guardians of the Grail. He fails to ask whom the Grail serves when he first observes the Grail procession. He is reproached for this failing by a loathly damsel figure, and sets out again in despair. After many adventures he meets a hermit and finally accepts his knightly role. He returns to the castle of the wounded king, asks the proper question and takes over the role of Grail king. The suave sophistication of Gawain is a perfect foil for Perceval, but his character is also refined by the Grail search. The two present a contrast between more earthly (Gawain) and more spiritual (Perceval) aspects of chivalry, and many romances alternate descriptions of their adventures. Both visit the Grail castle and fail to ask the correct question and both have a chance to make amends. Sir Bors accompanies Perceval and Gawain on their journey and is the third knight to see the Holy Grail. He is also the one who returns to Arthur’s court to recount the events of the Grail adventure. As the best of Arthur’s knights, it should really be Lancelot who finds the Grail, but as the Grail quest became more spiritual, Lancelot’s adultery with the queen became a problem. Lancelot achieves only a partial vision of the Grail, although it does cure him of madness. Later romance tradition introduced the perfect Grail knight, Galahad, the son of Lancelot and the Grail maiden, daughter of the Fisher King. Galahad is the perfect knight. He occupies the Siege Perilous, the seat at the Round Table intended for the man who will achieve the Grail quest, and his experience of the Grail transforms him completely.

The Fisher King is an evocative image whose interpretation reflects different streams of Arthurian criticism. Is he originally a Celtic deity and ritual figure or is he Christian? In the earliest Grail romance, he is ‘Le Roi Pecheur’. Robert de Boron’s romance trilogy, Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin and Perceval, provides background for this pivotal figure. Before the Grail was taken to Britain, Hebron (Bron), the brother-in-law of Joseph of Arimathea, caught a fish and placed it on the Grail table. He became known as the Rich Fisher and is by extension the Fisher King when he becomes lord of the Grail castle in Britain, a title he sometimes shares with his son, Alain. In some romances the Fisher King is identified with the Grail King, in others, they are separate. The Fisher/Grail King is often wounded or sick and can be healed only when the pre-ordained visitor to his castle asks the proper question. The link between the king and land differs depending on the romance. Sometimes the king’s sickness is reflected in the state of his kingdom, which has become a wasteland. In the earliest Grail romance, Perceval’s failure to ask the question means that the king’s wound is not healed, and the land remains barren and undefended. The wasteland motif is frequently invoked in anthropological and ritual interpretations as an example of the link between a king and the fertility of his kingdom, and the motif is popular in modern literature as a metaphor for alienation and the emptiness of modern materialism.

Another motif important in ritual interpretations is the relationship between the male characters and a mysterious female figure identified as a sovereignty goddess, the supernatural consort of the rightful ruler. The appearance of these women, whether ugly or beautiful, mirrors the health of the kingdom and the fitness of the king. This figure is represented in the Grail romances by a loathly lady who berates the Grail heroes for their failure to ask the right question, and by various beautiful women who help him and fulfil the function of consort. In some modern treatments of the legend, these characters have merged with notions of the sacred feminine and speculations about a lost goddess culture repressed by Christianity. The figure of Mary Magdalene as the hidden bride of Christ has come to represent this lost sacred feminine in many modern conspiracy treatments of the Grail.

An object referred to as the Grail or the Holy Grail occurs in a number of medieval romances written between the end of the twelfth and the end of the thirteenth century. Despite the vast antiquity claimed for the material, its appearance in literary form occurred within a single century. The author of the first Grail romance called his work The Story of the Grail (Le Conte del Graal). We know him as Chrétien de Troyes. No fewer than five Arthurian romances are attributed to him, and the sheer volume of manuscripts containing copies of whole or fragmentary romance texts, with illuminations or without, demonstrate the popularity his works enjoyed. The Story of the Grail, for example, appears in more than a dozen manuscripts.

Of the author’s personal history, we know only what he reveals in the prologues to his works and what we can discern in the texts themselves. Medieval authors often adopted a fictional persona, but some of what Chrétien tells us rings true. The town of Troyes, in the Champagne region of France, may have been his birthplace, and some medieval scholars have detected traces of local dialect in his French. At the very least, it puts Chrétien in the courtly world of north-east France and Flanders in the twelfth century. The Story of the Grail was written for Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders, who went on crusade in 1191. Chrétien would most likely have begun this romance before Philip’s departure, and either Philip’s death or his own would account for why the romance remained unfinished. Other references indicate that, like his contemporaries, he translated and adapted material. He may have had some contact with the court of the Angevin king, Henry II of England and his queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor’s daughter, Marie of Champagne, was also Chrétien’s patron and Marie’s uncle by marriage was Henry of Blois, an important Anglo-Norman Abbot of Glastonbury (1126–71). The search for Arthur’s grave at Glastonbury was prompted by King Henry’s interest in the Arthurian legends and the political influence it could bring. Abbot Henry of Blois also had contacts with Geoffrey of Monmouth and William of Malmesbury, both of whom helped popularize the Arthurian legends. These links with Chrétien are tempting if not susceptible to proof, but a writer who evidently wrote for different courts in north-east France and Flanders might well have had moved in similar aristocratic circles in England.¹

Chrétien de Troyes’s The Story of the Grail (Le conte del graal) was probably composed some time between 1180 and 1190.² Copyists, however, often used the name of the hero, Perceval. The hero first appears as an immature youth living in the wilderness with his mother, who has sought refuge there after the death of her husband and other sons. Reluctantly his mother sends him off to fulfil his true vocation. A series of misadventures brings him to Arthur’s court from which he sets out in pursuit of the Red Knight who has stolen a cup from Queen Guinevere. Perceval becomes squire to a nobleman who advises him on the modest behaviour expected of a knight. He encounters two men fishing in a river; one of them offers him hospitality for the night, and Perceval finds himself at the Grail castle, home of the Fisher King. Before dinner he is presented with a sword, then a youth bearing a bleeding lance crosses the room followed by two more boys carrying candlesticks, and finally a maiden carrying a bejewelled Grail that emits such light, it dims the candles. Mindful of his mentor’s commands about modest behaviour, Perceval does not ask his host about these wonders. Next morning he leaves the empty castle and returns to Arthur’s court, where he redresses some of the chaos caused by his previous impulsive behaviour. Later, a loathly maiden denounces Perceval for failing to ask the proper question during the banquet, and thereby leaving the king in misery and his land prey to marauders. Both Gawain and Perceval leave Arthur’s court. Gawain’s search for the bleeding lance parallels Perceval’s Grail adventure. On Good Friday Perceval visits his uncle, a hermit, who explains the meaning of the Grail procession. A wafer from the Grail sustained the old king, Perceval’s maternal uncle, and his son, the Fisher King who is Perceval’s cousin.

The Grail, called graal, in Chrétien is not a relic, but a large jewelled serving dish. Nevertheless, the romance calls it ‘a holy thing’, and it contains the Mass wafer which sustains a wounded king. However, the king’s illness is the result of a battle wound, and the land is jeopardized because the ruler is unable to defend it, not blasted in any magical way. Even in its unfinished state, the Grail does not dominate the romance plot completely, and the sword also symbolizes Perceval’s development as a knight.

Four attempts, called Continuations, were made to complete Chrétien’s romance. In the course of these very different attempts to finish the work as the original author might have intended, the Grail gradually became more sacramental.³ The First Continuation, completed some time before 1200 by an unknown author, concentrated on the adventures of Gawain. By this time, the bleeding lance in the Grail procession had become identified with the Lance of Longinus, the Roman centurion who pierced Christ’s side at the Crucifixion. A bier with a broken sword was added to the procession, and Gawain was given the task to mend it. On his second visit to the castle, the ‘rich Grail’ floats about the hall and provides food for all, but Gawain falls asleep and fails to ask the question. The author of the Second Continuation (1200–10), Wauchier de Danaing, shifted the focus back to Perceval. Although many adventures do not relate directly to the Grail, they reflect Perceval’s growing appreciation of the requirements of knighthood. He sees candles burning in a forest, but does not recognize this as a sign of the Grail’s presence. At the Fisher King’s castle, maidens carry both the Holy Grail and the lance and a youth brings in the broken sword, although Perceval cannot mend it completely. It was left to Manessier, the author of the Third Continuation (1210–20), to complete the adventures of Perceval and Gawain. In this version, the broken sword is as important as the Grail. It wounded both the Fisher King and his brother, and it becomes the means for Perceval to avenge his family once it is repaired. In this procession the Grail is covered, making it resemble even more strongly a chalice covered by the protective paten, as it would be during the mass. The Fisher King explains that the lance belonged to Longinus and the cup was used by Joseph of Arimathea to collect Christ’s blood. The Grail makes several appearances. An angel heals Perceval’s wounds with it, and, after he avenges his family, he witnesses the Grail procession at the castle. The Grail brings abundant food when Perceval succeeds the Fisher King, and when he dies the Grail, lance, paten, and by implication the sword, go with him. These four objects gave rise to the modern idea of four Grail hallows. In the Fourth Continuation, Gerbert de Montreuil (c. 1230) adopts a strong moralizing tone and offers an alternative ending. He takes up the story after Perceval’s first failure to repair the sword and interpolates a long series of adventures before Perceval’s final successful return to the Grail castle.

The attempts to complete Chrétien’s text are a mark of the popularity of the story, but they did not create a smooth and coherent narrative. The same period produced two attempts to explain the background in the form of prologues, in the manner of modern prequels. The Bliocadran Prologue (1200–10) presents the history of Perceval’s family.⁴ His father, Bliocadran, was the last of twelve brothers and after his death in a tournament, his wife took the infant, Perceval, to a forest in an effort to protect him from the dangers of knighthood’s fighting code. The Elucidation Prologue (1200–10) is an altogether more unusual piece.⁵ It begins with a folktale episode about a group of female well attendants, who are raped and whose golden cups are stolen. Folktales about women whose lives are bound up with water sources are fairly common, but not in the Grail romances. In some romances, the Red Knight steals a golden cup from Guinevere, and Perceval goes in pursuit, but in this prologue, Arthur’s knights avenge the women. The Grail moves automatically at feasts and brings sustenance to all in mysterious ways. Confused though it is at times, the Prologue reflects the events in the Continuations rather than the supposed distant, mythic sources of the stories.⁶

Other writers completed the knightly adventures of Perceval and Gawain, which began in Chrétien’s romance. Robert de Boron, a Burgundian poet writing in the first decade of the thirteenth century, introduced a significant innovation to the Grail story by identifying the Grail with the cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. Robert evidently planned his verse romance, The History of the Grail (L’histoire del Graal), as a trilogy intended to trace the Grail through the wanderings of Joseph of Arimathea into the world of Arthur and Merlin and through the adventures of Grail knights such as Perceval.⁷ He completed the first two romances and a prose version, the Roman du Graal,⁸ follows his planned history of the Grail from its origins in the New Testament Passion story to its achievement by Perceval. According to the only complete surviving romance, Joseph of Arimathea, Pilate gave the cup used at the Last Supper to Joseph, and the Grail sustained Joseph in prison. The Joseph of Arimathea material derives from the biblical Apocrypha, specifically part of the Gospel of Nicodemus known as the Acts of Pilate.⁹ In the Apocrypha, Joseph is imprisoned, but there is no mention of a Grail. Robert de Boron’s verse romance added details and created a kind of apocryphal gospel within the romance to emphasize the role of the Grail.

The Holy Grail is first named at the Grail feast celebrated by Joseph of Arimathea and his followers. Robert de Boron placed this feast at a symbolic midpoint between the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper and the Round Table of Arthur’s court. The Grail brings joy to all who sit at table, but it also served to distinguish the true followers from the corrupt ones and paralleled the Last Supper story even to an outcast figure. Joseph’s brother-in-law, Hebron (Bron), caught a fish for the sacred feast, and it is he wh...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author biography
• Title page
• Dedication and Copyright page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Romances and Relics
• Chapter 2 The Grail at Glastonbury
• Chapter 3 The Grail in Welsh Tradition
• Chapter 4 Celtic Origins and the Grail Romances
• Chapter 5 Secret Relics and Hidden Codes
• Chapter 6 The Religion of the Grail
• Conclusion The Grail Legend Today: Conspiracy and Beyond
• Notes
• Further Reading