Holy Grail

The Holy Grail became the source of the greatest quests in the Arthurian legends. The Grail was often called Sangreal, and san greal literally means "Holy Grail". However, through arrangement of the letter "g", sang real came to mean, "True Blood".

Chretien de Troyes was the first author to write about the Grail. In the Le Conte du Graal, Perceval was the hero who witnessed the procession of people carrying mystical objects. To Chretien, the grail was a platter or dish, not a chalice. When Perceval saw the Grail for the first time, he noticed that something in the vessel seemed to illuminate the room more brightly. We learned that the Grail contained a holy host that was able to sustain life (host, as in like the consecrated bread that is used in sacrament). It was the content that was important, not the vessel itself. Though Chretien said that the vessel was holy, he did not make an explicit connection between Christ and the Grail. It was unfortunate that Chretien never finished this tale.

Later, Arthurian authors were more concerned with the Grail itself than the contents in the Grail. Several writers tried to finish Chretien's works - these works were known as the Grail Continuations - by picking up where Chretien had left off.

The next most important author after Chretien was a French poet named Robert de Boron (or Borron). Boron wrote three books, with two of the books concerning the Grail itself. In Joseph d'Arimathie (or Roman de l'estoire du Graal), Boron wrote of the Grail's origin. Boron explicitly said that Grail was the cup or chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper, and later at the Crucifixion when Joseph of Arimathea used the Grail to catch the blood of Christ. However, the gospels (Bible) placed no special emphasis on the cup except that it was used at the Last Supper; the cup was never seen again in the Bible. There was no connection between Joseph and the Grail in the gospels. Boron also says that it was the Rich Fisher, named Bron, who was the brother-in-law of Joseph, and that it was he who brought the Grail to Britain. This is different from the Vulgate text (Estoire du Saint Graal and Queste del Saint Graal), where it was Joseph and his son Josephus who brought the Grail to Britain.

In Boron's second work called Merlin, the tale linked the first book with the last. In it, the wizard Merlin created the Round Table using Joseph's Grail Table as a model. The story included Arthur's conception, birth and fosterage before he drew the sword from a rock, to signify that he was the true successor of Uther, as king of Britain.

The third book called Perceval was lost; however, a prose or redaction version known as Didot Perceval used Boron's lost work as its source. It recounts the adventures of Perceval's quest of the Grail, where he eventually became the successor of the Fisher King (who happened to be his grandfather, Bron), and the hero became the last guardian of the holy vessel. The Grail (and the Lance) vanished with Perceval's death.

In 1225-1237, the Vulgate Cycle or Lancelot-Grail Cycle detailed the tale of Lancelot's love for Arthur's Queen (Guinevere) in the work called Lancelot or Lancelot Propre. This large volume prepared the way for a quest where Lancelot fathered a son named Galahad, who would eventually become the true Grail Knight who completed the quest in the Queste del Saint Graal. Like Boron's trilogy, the Grail was seen as the cup of Christ or the chalice.

Writers like Wolfram von Eschenbach who wrote Parzival (c. 1210) said that the Grail was a stone fallen out of the sky. This stone or Grail was called lapis exillas. The essence of the lapis exillas was so pure that it was able to nourish a person who stood before its presence, as well as sustaining a mortally wounded person for at least a week and slowing the age processes (though your hair would still turn grey).

In another German romance, Diu Krône (13th century), the hero was Gawain. Here, when Gawain first saw the Grail, it was a crystal vessel, but when he later completed his quest, it was a golden bowl adorned with precious stones.

In Perlesvaus or Le Haut Livre du Graal (c. 1212), he wrote that the Grail and Bleeding Lance had vanished when the Fisher King died, before Perceval could complete his quest. The quest had changed to where the hero had to find a golden circlet, instead of the Grail. This golden circlet was known as the Circle of Gold, but it was actually the crown of thorns that the Romans placed on Jesus' head when they tortured him, before crucifying him. The Grail, the Bleeding Lance and other holy relics reappeared only when Perceval's wicked uncle, King of Castle Mortal, died.

In the Welsh Peredur Son of Evrawy (c. 13th century, which is one of the tales in the Mabinogion), the grail was replaced with a severed head on a large platter. This head was Perceval's cousin, killed by the nine witches of Gloucester. Instead of a quest for a Grail, this tale ended with Perceval avenging his cousin by killing the leader of the nine witches; Arthur's men killed the rest of the witches. See Peredur Son of Evrawy.

Whatever Chretien had in mind about the grail, other writers had their own interpretation of what the holy object was.

Grail Sources	Object	Grail Castle	Grail King	Grail Hero
Conte du Graal (Chretien de Troyes)	dish	unspecified (castle of the Fisher King)	Fisher King	Perceval
Perceval Robert de Boron	chalice (cup of Christ)	unspecified	Bron	Perceval
Didot Perceval	chalice (cup of Christ)	unspecified	Bron (Fisher King)	Perceval
Perlesvaus	chalice (cup of Christ)	Castle of Souls (also Eden and Castle of Joy)	Messios (Fisher King)	Perlesvaus
Peredur (Mabinogion)	platter with a severed head	unspecified	unnamed uncle	Peredur
Parzival Wolfram von Eschenbach	stone - lapis exillas	Munsalvæsche	Anfortas	Parzival
Diu Krône Heinrich von dem Türlin	crystal vessel, later a golden bowl	unspecified	Parzival's uncle (unnamed)	Gawein
Queste del Saint Graal (Vulgate Cycle)	platter	Corbenic	Parlan (Maimed King) Pelles (Fisher King)	Galahad
Roman de Graal (Post-Vulgate)	silver basin	Corbenic	Pellehan	Galahad
Le Morte d'Arthur Sir Thomas Malory	chalice (cup of Christ)	Carbonek	Pellam (Maimed King) Pelles (Fisher King)	Galahad

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To understand the significance of the Grail (where the vessel was a cup or chalice), you need to know a little of the New Testament from the Bible.

The Grail was associated with the cup used by Jesus during the Last Supper [Matthew 26.26-29; Mark 14.22-26; Luke 22.14-20]. Jesus shared bread and wine with his apostles, saying that this was his last meal with them. Jesus broke the bread and said, "This is my body, which is given to you" [Luke 22.19]. With the wine in the cup, he said, "This cup is God's new covenant sealed with my blood, which is poured out to you" [Luke 22.20]. After the Last Supper, the cup was never mentioned again.

The new Covenant is the teaching of Jesus: repentance, baptism, salvation. The whole covenant allowed them to live in heaven after their death on earth. The new Covenant was meant to replace the old Mosaic Covenant of the Jews.

The Gospel of John is markedly different from the other three gospels (Synoptic Gospels), particularly when Jesus was crucified. At Jesus' death, one of the Roman soldiers pierced Jesus' side, [John 19.31-37]. Blood and water flowed from his wound.

There was no mention of the name of that Roman soldier. Nor did they mention Joseph of Armathea catching the Christ's blood in a cup of the Last Supper (Grail).

Jesus was buried, or entombed I should say, in a cave outside of Jerusalem, not too far from where he was crucified, at Golgotha (Place of the Skull). A rich Jew named Joseph from Arimathea prepared the tomb for Jesus. Joseph, with the help of Nicodemus, anointed the body with oil, spices and herbs, before wrapping the body with a shroud of made of linen. (See Joseph of Arimathea for more details.)

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The authorities of the Roman Catholic Church could never come to terms with the story of the Grail, because the Grail owed more to pagan origins than Christian beliefs. The magical restorative power of a cup was a common theme in Celtic myths, rather than the Bible. The predecessors of the Grail were the Celtic magic cauldrons, which appeared so frequently in Celtic literature.

In Irish myth, the Cauldron of Dagda was a large vessel on a wheel that had some powerful magical properties. It was always full. The food in the cauldron would satisfy a person's hunger, and refresh or renew his strength. It also had the magical ability of being able to heal a person. However, the Grail legend owed more to the Welsh literature than Irish myths.

In the Welsh myth, Preiddiau Annwfn (Spoils of Annwfn from the Book of Taliesin), Arthur and his companions went to the Annwfn (Annwyn) to steal a magic cauldron. Annwfn was the Welsh form of the Otherworld. The cauldron played an important part in Celtic myths, having magical properties. In this story, the food wouldn't boil for a coward. Here we have a connection between Arthur and the grail-like cauldron. We don't know if Arthur was successful or not. Of the three shiploads of warriors who had accompanied Arthur, only seven survived. See Spoils of Annwfn in Fabulous Voyages.

There is another story concerning a magic cauldron that may have influenced the Grail legend, in the Welsh myths – the story of Branwen Daughter of Llyr in the Mabinogion. Branwen was the daughter of Llyr and sister of Bran the Blessed (Bendigeidfran). Bran was the legendary king of the Land of the Mighty (Britain or England) who possessed the magic cauldron of rebirth. The cauldron could bring to life the dead. Bran gave this cauldron to his brother-in-law, King Mallolwch of Ireland. But war broke out when Bran heard that Mallolwch had mistreated his sister.

In the war, Bran could be identified with Arthur in the story of Spoils of Annwfn (which was already mentioned above), as well as with Bron the Rich Fisher, the brother-in-law of Joseph of Arimathea, in the Grail legend. According to Robert de Boron, Bron was the one who brought the Grail to Britain, and he was also said to be the grandfather of Perceval.

You should also notice that during the war against Ireland, Bran was called the Pierced Thighs; the Fisher King was sometimes described as being crippled because of his pierced thighs. Was this a coincidence? Or was Bran actually the origin of the Fisher King? Some experts also remarked on the similarity of the names – Bran and Bron; so they believed that Bran may have been the antecedent of Bron, the Rich Fisher. (See the Fisher King).

Another common themes in Celtic myths was asking the right question or finding the correct answer or solution. Such is the power of a question or answer, which could either restore the prosperity and fertility to a devastated land, or heal a maimed king (or both, because the land and the king are linked).

In Chretien's Perceval and many other Grail romances, the hero had to ask the right question in order for the Maimed King to be healed of his wound: "What rich man was served from the grail?" or "Why did that drop of blood flow from the tip of the white shaft?"

However with Galahad, in the Queste del Saint Graal (Vulgate), asking a question was no longer relevant in the Quest. There were many other changes to the Grail legend in the Vulgate Cycle.

The Queste del Saint Graal showed that the Arthurian world was flawed, because their heroes relied on worldly ideals such as chivalry, courtly love, bravery and prowess in arms. The Grail adventure was no longer about chivalric quests. The Grail quest was now a spiritual quest. Though the tale still has Celtic motifs and symbolism, the Quest was painted with Christian overtones.

Instead, the theme changed to the hero himself. To succeed in the quest, the criteria were purity of heart and virginity (or chastity). The new story says that the hero not only needed to be a knight, but also a monk. Perceval, the first Grail knight in the legend, was no longer sufficient. Perceval was not the true Grail knight in the new tale; his role was taken over by Galahad, the illegitimate son of Lancelot and Elaine, who was the daughter of the Fisher King.

Galahad was something like a saint, who had the ability to perform miracles such as banishing demons and healing the sick (which was why the Church was opposed to the Grail legend). The Celtic motif was less evident in this story than the previous ones; it had even larger Christian overtones.

Clearly, the author of this new quest was a monk. There is some speculation that the Queste del Saint Graal was written by White Monk, from the Cistercian order. These monks were the most mystical or at least believed in the mystical.