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According to with a Celtic Myth of a Cauldron endowed with special powers. The development of the Grail legend has been traced in detail by cultural historians: It is a legend which first came together in the form of written romances, deriving perhaps from some pre-Christian folklore hints, in the later 12th and early 13th centuries. The early Grail romances centered on Percival and were woven into the more general Arthurian fabric. Some of the Grail legend is interwoven with legends of the Holy Chalice . , 1917]] ORIGINS OF THE GRAIL The Grail The Grail plays a different role everywhere it appears, but in most versions of the legend the hero must prove himself worthy to be in its presence. In the early tales, Percival 's immaturity prevents him from fulfilling his destiny when he first encounters the Grail, and he must grow spiritually and mentally before he can locate it again. In later tellings the Grail is a symbol of God's grace, available to all but only fully realized by those who prepare themselves spiritually, like the saintly Galahad . Early forms of the Grail There are two veins of thought concerning the Grail's origin. The first, championed by Roger Sherman Loomis , Alfred Nutt , and Jessie Weston , holds that it derived from early Celtic Myth and folklore. Loomis traced a number of parallels between Medieval Welsh Literature and Irish material and the Grail romances, including similarities between the '' Mabinogion '''s Bran The Blessed and the Arthurian Fisher King , and between Bran's life-restoring cauldron and the Grail. Other legends featured magical platters or dishes that symbolize otherworldly power or test the hero's worth. Sometimes the items generate a never-ending supply of food, sometimes they can raise the dead. Sometimes they decide who the next king should be, as only the true sovereign could hold them. On the other hand, some scholars believe the Grail began as a purely Christian symbol. For example, Joseph Goering of the University Of Toronto has identified sources for Grail imagery in 12th century wall paintings from churches in the Catalan Pyrenees (now mostly removed to the Museu Nacional D'Art De Catalunya , Barcelona ), which present unique iconic images of the Virgin Mary holding a bowl that radiates tongues of fire, images that predate the first literary account by Chrétien De Troyes . Goering argues that they were the original inspiration for the Grail legend.Goering, Joseph (2005). ''The Virgin and the Grail: Origins of a Legend''. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10661-0. Rynor, Micah (October 20, 2005). [http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/051020-1720.asp "Holy Grail legend may be tied to paintings" . www.news.utoronto.ca. Another recent theory holds that the earliest stories that cast the Grail in a Christian light were meant to promote the ). Most scholars today accept that both Christian and Celtic traditions contributed to the legend's development, though many of the early Celtic-based arguments are largely discredited (Loomis himself came to reject much of Weston and Nutt's work). The general view is that the central theme of the Grail is Christian, even when not explicitly religious, but that much of the setting and imagery of the early romances is drawn from Celtic material. Etymology of ''grail'' The word ''graal'', as it is earliest spelled, appears to be an Old French adaptation of the Latin ''gradalis'', meaning a dish brought to the table in different stages of a meal. According to the '' Catholic Encyclopedia '', after the cycle of Grail Romances was well established, late Medieval writers came up with a False Etymology for ''sangréal'', an alternative name for "Holy Grail". In Old French , ''san graal'' or ''san gréal'' means "Holy Grail" and ''sang réal'' means "royal blood"; later writers played on this pun. Since then, "Sangreal" is sometimes employed to lend a medievalizing air in referring to the Holy Grail. This connection with royal blood bore fruit in a modern best-seller linking many historical conspiracy theories ( See Below ). THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GRAIL IN LITERATURE Chrétien de Troyes The Grail is first featured in '' Perceval, Le Conte Du Graal '' (''The Story of the Grail'') by Chrétien De Troyes , who claims he was working from a source book given to him by his patron, Count Philip Of Flanders . In this incomplete poem, dated sometime between 1180 and 1191 , the object has not yet acquired the implications of holiness it would have in later works. While dining in the magical abode of the Fisher King, Perceval witnesses a wondrous procession in which youths carry magnificent objects from one chamber to another, passing before him at each course of the meal. First comes a young man carrying a bleeding lance, then two boys carrying candelabras. Finally, a beautiful young girl emerges bearing an elaborately decorated ''graal'', or "grail". Chrétien refers to his object not as "The Grail" but as ''la graal'', showing the word was used, in its earliest literary context, as a common noun. For Chrétien the grail was a wide, somewhat deep dish or bowl, interesting because it contained not a pike, salmon or lamprey, as the audience may have expected for such a container, but a single Mass wafer which provided sustenance for the Fish King’s crippled father. Perceval, who had been warned against talking too much, remains silent through all of this, and wakes up the next morning alone. He later learns that if he had asked the appropriate questions about what he saw, he would have healed his maimed host, much to his honor. The story of the Wounded King's Mystical Fasting is not unique; several saints were said to have lived without food besides communion, for instance Saint Catherine Of Genoa . This may imply that Chrétien intended the mass wafer to be the significant part of the ritual, and the Grail to be a mere prop. Robert de Boron Though Chrétien’s account is the earliest and most influential of all Grail texts, it was in the work of Robert De Boron that the Grail truly became the "Holy Grail" and assumed the form most familiar to modern readers. In his verse romance ''Joseph d’Arimathie'', composed between 1191 and 1202 , Robert tells the story of Joseph Of Arimathea acquiring the chalice of the Last Supper to collect Christ’s blood upon His removal from the cross. Joseph is thrown in prison where Christ visits him and explains the mysteries of the blessed cup. Upon his release Joseph gathers his in-laws and other followers and travels to the west, and founds a dynasty of Grail keepers that eventually includes Perceval. The Grail in other early literature After this point, Grail literature divides into two classes. The first concerns King Arthur’s knights visiting the Grail castle or questing after the object; the second concerns the Grail’s history in the time of Joseph of Arimathea. The nine most important works from the first group are:
Of the second class there are:
Though all these works have their roots in Chrétien, several contain pieces of tradition not found in Chrétien which are possibly derived from earlier sources. IDEAS OF THE GRAIL , Bors , and Percival achieve the Grail]] The Grail was considered a bowl or dish when first described by Chrétien de Troyes. Other authors had their own ideas; Robert de Boron portrayed it as the vessel of the Last Supper, and ''Peredur'' had no Grail per se, presenting the hero instead with a platter containing his kinsman's bloody, severed head. In ''Parzival'', Wolfram von Eschenbach, citing the authority of a certain (probably fictional) Kyot The Provençal , claimed the Grail was a stone that fell from Heaven, and had been the sanctuary of the Neutral Angels who took neither side during Lucifer 's rebellion. The authors of the Vulgate Cycle used the Grail as a symbol of Divine Grace . Galahad, illegitimate son of Lancelot and Elaine , the world's greatest knight and the Grail Bearer at the castle of Corbenic , is destined to achieve the Grail, his spiritual purity making him a greater warrior than even his illustrious father. Galahad and the interpretation of the Grail involving him were picked up in the 15th Century by Sir Thomas Malory in '' Le Morte D'Arthur '', and remain popular today. Various notions of the Holy Grail are currently widespread in Western society (especially British, French and American), popularized through numerous medieval and modern works (see below) and linked with the predominantly Anglo-French (but also with some German influence) cycle of stories about King Arthur and his knights. Because of this wide distribution, Americans and West Europeans sometimes assume that the Grail idea is universally well known. The stories of the Grail, however, are totally absent from the folklore of those countries that were and are Eastern Orthodox (whether Arabs, Slavs, Romanians, or Greeks). This is true of all Arthurian myths, which were not well known east of Germany until the present-day Hollywood retellings. Nor has the Grail been as popular a subject in some predominantly Catholic areas, such as Spain and Latin America , as it has been elsewhere. The notions of the Grail, its importance, and prominence, are a set of ideas that are essentially local and particular, being linked with Catholic or formerly Catholic locales, Celtic mythology and Anglo-French medieval storytelling. The contemporary wide distribution of these ideas is due to the huge influence of the pop culture of countries where the Grail Myth was prominent in the Middle Ages. THE LATER LEGEND Belief in the Grail and interest in its potential whereabouts has never ceased. Ownership has been attributed to various groups (including the Knights Templar , probably because they were at the peak of their influence around the time that Grail stories started circulating in the 12th and 13th centuries). There are cups claimed to be the Grail in several churches, for instance the , which was obtained during the Crusades at Caesarea Maritima at great cost, has been less championed as the Holy Grail since an accident on the road, while it was being returned from Paris after the fall of Napoleon , revealed that the emerald was green glass. In Wolfram von Eschenbach's telling, the Grail was kept safe at the castle of Munsalvaesche (''mons salvationis''), entrusted to Titurel, the first Grail King. Some, not least the monks of Montserrat, have identified the castle with the real sanctuary of Montserrat in Catalonia , Spain . Other stories claim that the Grail is buried beneath Rosslyn Chapel or lies deep in the spring at Glastonbury Tor . Still other stories claim that a secret line of hereditary protectors keep the Grail, or that it was hidden by the Templars in Oak Island , Nova Scotia 's famous " Money Pit ", while local folklore in Accokeek, Maryland says that it was brought to the town by a closeted priest aboard Captain John Smith 's ship. MODERN INTERPRETATIONS Casual metaphor The legend of the Holy Grail is the basis of the use of the term ''holy grail'' in modern-day culture. This or that "holy grail" is seen as the distant, all-but-unobtainable ultimate goal for a person, organization, or field to achieve. Modern retellings ]] The story of the Grail and of the quest to find it became increasingly popular in the nineteenth century, referred to in literature such as 's painting (''illustrated''), in which a woman modelled by Jane Morris holds the Grail with one hand, while adopting a gesture of blessing with the other. Other artists, including George Frederic Watts and William Dyce also portrayed grail subjects. The Grail later turned up in movies; it debuted in a silent ''Parsifal''. In ''The Light of Faith'' ( 1922 ), Lon Chaney attempted to steal it, for the finest of reasons. '' The Silver Chalice '', a novel about the Grail by Thomas B. Costain was made into a 1954 movie (in which Paul Newman débuted), that is considered notably bad by several critics, including Newman himself. '' Lancelot Du Lac '' ( 1974 ) is Robert Bresson 's gritty retelling. In vivid contrast, '' Monty Python And The Holy Grail '' ( 1975 ) (adapted in 2004 as the stage production '' Spamalot '') deflated all pseudo-Arthurian posturings. '' Excalibur '' attempted to restore a more traditional heroic representation of an Arthurian tale, in which the Grail is revealed as a mystical means to revitalise Arthur himself, and of the barren land to which his depressive sickness is connected. '' Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade '' and '' The Fisher King '' place the quest in modern settings, one a modern-day treasure hunt, the other robustly self-parodying. The Grail has been used as a theme in fantasy and science fiction; 's ''Knight'' trilogy, which depict King Arthur reappearing in modern-day New York City, in particular the second and third novels, ''One Knight Only'' and ''Fall of Knight''. The grail is central in many modern Arthurian works, including Charles Williams collections of poems about Taliessin , ''Taliessin Through Logres'' and ''Region of the Summer Stars'', and in feminist author Rosalind Miles ' ''Child of the Holy Grail''. The Grail was also the central focus of the Anime Fate/Stay Night , in which seven sorcerers with their summoned servants battle it out to obtain the Holy Grail. Non-fiction The Grail has also been treated in works of Non-fiction . According to the notorious Italian traditionalist philosopher Julius Evola (1898-1974), the Holy Grail was an initiatory " Hyperborean mystery" and also "a symbolic expression of hope and of the will of specific ruling classes in the Middle Ages (namely, Ghibellines ), who wanted to reorganize and reunite the entire Western world as it was at that time into a Holy Empire , that is, one based on a transcendental, spiritual basis."Hansen, H. T. '' The Mystery Of The Grail '', p. vii. Some scholars consider Evola's ideas on the Holy Grail as sources for Pierre Plantard 's later claims about a " Priory Of Sion ".Richardson, Robert (2000). "The Priory of Sion Hoax" . alpheus.org. Originally published in ''Gnosis'' (No. 51, Spring 1999), pp. 49-55. Retrieved March 29, 2007. In '' attempts to connect themes of the Grail to other Indo-European myths, including Osiris , Adonis and the Greek Dionysos in his book ''Warriors of the Wasteland''. Grigsby interprets archaeological discoveries as relating to the Arthurian mythos, for instance he believes the Lindow Man was a victim of the Iron Age sacrificial rite that underlies the wounding of the Fisher King . Grigsby, John (2003). ''Warriors of the Wasteland: A Quest for the Pagan Sacrificial Cult Behind the Grail Legends''. London: Duncan Baird Publishers. ISBN 1-84293-058-3 , Stained Glass panel, depicting the Holy Grail) and the Coat Of Arms of Sir Robert Bell ]] These works of non-fiction have inspired a number of works of modern fiction. The best known is Dan Brown 's bestselling novel '' The Da Vinci Code '', which, like ''Holy Blood, Holy Grail'', is based on the idea that the real Grail is not a cup but the womb and later the earthly remains of Mary Magdalene (again cast as Jesus' wife), plus a set of ancient documents telling the "true" story of Jesus, his teachings and descendants. In Brown's novel, it is hinted that Jesus was merely a mortal man with strong ideals, and that the Grail was long buried beneath Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, but that in recent decades its guardians had it relocated to a secret chamber embedded in the floor beneath the Inverted Pyramid near the Louvre Museum . The latter location, like Rosslyn Chapel , has never been mentioned in real Grail lore. Yet such was the public interest in this fictionalized Grail that for a while, the museum roped off the exact location mentioned by Brown, lest visitors inflict any damage in a more-or-less serious attempt to access the supposed hidden chamber. SEE ALSO
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