Grail Legend

The quest of the Holy Grail was considered to be the greatest adventure in Arthurian legend. However, the man who first wrote about the grail never completed this story. The great French poet Chretien de Troyes was the first to introduce the grail to Arthurian legend.

His story exerted great influence to later writers of this legend. His hero was the Welsh youth named Perceval. Other writers have Perceval as the hero, though some wrote that Gawain was the Grail hero or at least played an important role in some of the romances. It wasn't until the Vulgate Cycle in the second quarter of the thirteenth century that a new hero emerged. This hero was named Galahad.

It was for this reason that I have divided the "Grail Legend" into four separate pages.

The first page (this page you are reading) is a sort of introduction to the Grail. The first group of linked articles give a little background on the Grail. They also mention other artefacts found in the legend (the Bleeding Lance, the Broken Sword, etc), as well as information on the Grail Castle, Joseph of Arimathea and the Fisher King.

In the second set of links, the first page concerns the history of the Grail, set during the time of Joseph of Arimathea, the first Grail Keeper.

The second and third pages are the grail romances that follow two separate traditions. One tradition (the 2nd page) had Perceval as the main grail hero. The last (3rd) page followed the tradition with Galahad as the hero.