The Grail designates a wide and fairly deep dish. It also designates the Holy Chalice in medieval literature at the beginning of Christianity in the West. In this literature, the Grail is a symbolic object:it represents the mystery of Christianity, where the fact of going in search of it results in a personal revelation of the light of Christ replacing the initial chaos. Since then, the Grail has been the subject of many symbolic or esoteric interpretations and has given rise to many artistic illustrations.
Latin etymology
Originally the word "Graal" designates a wide and fairly deep dish, a hollow container. A supposed origin is that the word "Graal" would come from the medieval Latin cratella, "vase" which designates, in old French, a cup or a hollow dish. For others, the word "grail" or "grasal" refers to a hollow dish intended to serve meats rich in juice. Mario Roques discovered more than fifty forms, all derived from the Latin gradalis in the local dialects of the pays d'oïl, such as greal, greau, gruau, griau, grial, grélot, graduc, guerlaud, etc. Languedoc has retained grasal or grésal, which by metathesis has become from gradal the word gardale in the South-West. All these words refer to a hollow container with various uses. The word gradal was used with this meaning in 1150 as shown by Michel Roquebert. The word grail is also found with this meaning in 1204.
The Grail in medieval literature
More specifically, the Grail is, in the Christian medieval tradition, a mysterious cup with magical powers, and the object of a quest led by the Knights of the Round Table. The first written mention is given at the end of the 12th century by the novelist Chrétien de Troyes in his novel Perceval ou le Conte du Graal. Chrétien de Troyes died before he could finish this work which the Count of Flanders Philippe of Alsace had commissioned from him. Several authors took up and continued the story of Perceval and the Grail, which ended up giving a set of more than fifty thousand verses. The first continuation has been attributed to a certain Wauchier de Denain, followed by those of Gauvain, Manessier, Gerbert (probably from Montreuil). In reality, the name of the continuators is unknown, they have been given a name for convenience. Robert de Boron wrote on the same theme “Joseph ou l’Estoire dou Graal”, then appeared in Franco-Picard “Perlesvaus ou Haut livre du Graal” and finally Wolfram von Eschenbach’s “Parzival”. It should be noted that curiously and quite suddenly around 1230 the theme of the Grail no longer gave rise to new literary developments. For Michel Roquebert, all the developments around the quest for the Grail coincide with the crusade against the Cathars of Languedoc, and thus constitute an ideological war machine.
The nature of the Grail
The nature of this legendary object has undergone many evolutions:stone, cup, etc. Its cup shape would initially result from an evolution of the Dagda cauldron figure of Celtic mythology. This cauldron, full of boiling blood, was used to keep the "vengeful spear", a weapon capable of single-handedly devastating entire armies. It was not until the beginning of the 13th century that the vessel evoked by Chrétien de Troyes became Christianized:Robert de Boron assimilated it to the Holy Chalice of the Gospels (the cup used by Christ during the Last Supper), thus giving rise to the " Holy Grail ". Anchored in popular culture, the Grail will inspire a plethora of works. The avenging spear, also Christianized, became the spear of Longinus, the soldier who pierced the side of Christ.
A symbolic enigma
The Grail, which some consider to be a Christianized avatar of the Dagda cauldron - an ancient talisman from Celtic mythology - first appears in literary form in Perceval ou le Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes (12th century). Perceval, in the castle of the Fisher King (the "King Méhaignié") sees a valet holding a white spear with a drop of blood beading from its iron point, two other young men holding candlesticks of fine gold encrusted with niellos, a beautiful young lady holding a grail (which shed such light that the candles lost their sparkle), of very pure fine gold set with precious stones (Read a modern French translation of the passage concerning the procession of the Grail). Percival fails the test of the Grail since he remains silent before this apparition, instead of asking why the spear is bleeding and to whom this vessel is being brought (see text in Old French, below).
No significance of this symbolic enigma is put forward by Chrétien de Troyes. Its followers will each interpret in their own way, generally linking this container to the Christian sacred.
In this tale, when Perceval goes to the castle of the Fisher King:a valet of a chamber came, who held a white spear... the white spear and the tinplate, sat down a bloody taste... I. grail lair its .ii. hands a lady held him.... Perceval then relates this episode to the court of King Arthur:Chiés le Roi Pescheor alas, si veïs la lance qui sane, et si te fu then si grant painne d'ovrir ta boche et de parle que you can't ask por coi this taste of without jumping by the tip of the tinplate! And the grail that you saw, did not ask ne anqueïs what rich man the an an served., then to a hermit:Sire, shit the King Pescheor fled once, and saw the lance don li fers healthy sanz dowry, et del graal que ge i vi ge ne sai cui l'an an servi.
Vision of the Holy Grail Galahad, Bors and Perceval discovering the grail, here clearly identified with the Holy Chalice. Painting by William Morris (1890).
Vision of the Holy Grail
Galahad, Bors and Perceval discovering the grail, here clearly identified with the Holy Chalice. Painting by William Morris (1890).
A continuation of the text, Denain's Pseudo-Wauchier Short Redaction, explains that the Grail gives each the nourishment he desires, and associates it with the Holy Lance which pierced the side of Christ on the cross (whose li fius Diu fu even ferus tres among the costé). For Wolfram von Eschenbach, as he presents it in his Parzival, the Grail is a stone whose name does not translate:“Lapsit Exillis”. Some authors wanted to translate it as “Lapis Exilis” or “Lapis Ex Coelis”. Lapis exilis, lapis ex coelis, emerald fallen, according to legend, from the forehead of Lucifer, who, dug into a vase, collected the blood of Christ flowing from the five wounds. The emerald vase is the human being, the psyche, torn from the chaos of the absurdity of profane existence, which takes on the green color of growing nature so that the purple liquid can be prepared there, the vital, warm, overflowing abundance, the expanding force of love.
Finally, it was Robert de Boron, at the beginning of the 13th century, who explained in L'estoire dou Graal that the Grail is none other than the Holy Chalice, that is to say the cup with which Jesus Christ celebrated the Last Supper and in which his blood was then collected, a cup mentioned, without giving it a name, by numerous apocryphal writings such as the Gesta Pilati or the Pseudo-Gospel of Nicodemus.
Taken to distant lands (even to the island of Brittany) by Joseph of Arimathea, the "Holy Grail" (the Grail as Holy Chalice) becomes the center of a mystery (because the object is first hidden then lost) in which some elected officials participate around a round table - hence the integration into the stories of the Round Table. This Christianization of the legend of the Grail is completed by the Queste del Saint-Graal, an anonymous novel written around 1220, probably by a monk, who makes the Grail the divine Grace. Indeed, according to legend, whoever drinks from this cup has access to eternal life.
Legends around Joseph of Arimathea
Last Supper by Juan de Juanes in the 16th century at the Prado Museum in Madrid. In the center of the painting we can see the Holy Chalice, with which the Holy Grail is identified
The Last Supper by Juan de Juanes in the 16th century in the Prado Museum in Madrid. In the center of the painting we can see the Holy Chalice, with which the Holy Grail is identified
Robert de Boron wrote in verse, a Grail legend featuring Joseph of Arimathea (partly inspired by the Gospel according to Nicodemus), and which inspired other legends (the development of prose writing allowed the development of the writing of these legends).
According to some of these legends, a Jew (or a man of Pontius Pilate) stole the Holy Chalice from the Upper Room and then gave it to Pontius Pilate. Some legends even add that Pilate would have drawn there the water with which he washed his hands.
(Quote from Robert de Boron:
Uns Juis le veissel found
chiés Symon, took it and kept it,
because Jhesus fu d'ilec lead
and in front of Pilate deliver.)
In all these legends, Joseph of Arimathea collects in the Holy Chalice (which Pontius Pilate gave him or which he went to fetch from the Cenacle), some drops of blood emanating from the wound made in the ribs of Jesus by a spear thrust. (The Gospels speak well of this wound; the Gospel of Nicodemus gives the name of the soldier who inflicted the spear:Longinus. The fact that Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of Christ is only described in the legends.
There are also other captions that differ from this one:
* According to the legends of the Holy Blood, of which there is a supposed relic at the Abbey of the Trinity in Fécamp, the blood of Christ was collected by Nicodemus in a glove which he entrusted to a relative.
* In still other legends, the blood of Christ was collected with the help of the Holy Sponge).
Joseph of Arimathea is then captured and put in the dungeon (generally, the same evening (Good Friday), around the tenth hour, the Gospel according to Nicodemus indeed reveals this episode, that said some versions of the legend place his arrest three days afterwards, when we realize that Christ has disappeared from the tomb.
It is said that Jesus appeared to Joseph of Arimathea (Friday evening at midnight specifies the Gospel according to Nicodemus as well as certain legends).
In some legends, Jesus gives her the Holy Chalice (either giving it back to her or giving it to her for the first time).
While, in the Gospel according to Nicodemus, Jesus "teleports" Joseph of Arimathea to his home asking him not to move from there for forty days, in the legend he remains locked up in his dungeon for thirty to forty years (in some legends, a dove comes every day to deposit a cake in the cup).
The legend is generally linked to another legend, that of the illness of the Roman emperor Vespasian.
A pilgrim (in some legends, it is the angel Gabriel in disguise), tells Vespasian that he saw in Judea a prophet who performed many miracles. Although this prophet, Jesus, is dead, Vespasian can be healed if he touches something that belonged to him during his lifetime. He sends his men to search for such an object in Jerusalem. Saint Veronica learns of this (or is warned by Gabriel) and goes to Vespasian to bring him her veil.
In the legend of Joseph de Boron, Joseph of Arimathea transmits the Holy Chalice to his brother-in-law (Hebron, or Bron), husband of his sister (Enygeus), who in turn transmits it to his son, Alain, who transports to the Vales of Avaron, an unknown place that some interpret as the Isle of Avalon, itself identified with Glastonbury.
( Quote from Robert de Boron :
To his veissel and if took it,
And lau li sans couloit put it on,
That li fu opinion that better would be
The drops ki dedenz are looking for
Avaron will go away
And in this land will die
Enygeus by no called him;
And sen serourge by right no,
Quant wanted, called Hebron)
That said, in other legends, Joseph of Arimathea passes the Holy Chalice to his own son, Josephé (Josephus).
The different interpretations given to the Grail[edit]
The Grail and the alchemists
The work of the alchemist Fulcanelli The Mystery of the Cathedrals gives an initiatory interpretation of the Grail. Understanding expands on the sole condition of having received a Masonic initiation in the rules of the art. The purpose of the initiations is to awaken hidden symbols which are transmitted in a very particular way and often through pain. The Grail exists but in the experience of the initiate it is something so particular and terrible that it cannot be expressed. Not in the sense of fear of any punishment, but man is in touch with himself. He knows what he is and what he was. Any attempt at explanation is vain; the more he tries to explain, the more he is misunderstood to the point of feeling in front of judges.
The Grail and science
The quest for the Grail also has a much more concrete modern meaning:it describes an objective that is difficult to achieve, but which will bring new knowledge to the world or allow an original application to matter. Thus, in physics, the theory of grand unification (Theory of Everything) is called the “Grail of physicists”. Again, understanding the mechanism by which genes control the physiognomy of organs would be the "holy grail of geneticists".
The Grail, symbolic object
The Grail is a mysterious object:
* It is a hidden object:no one has seen it and it will only really fulfill its role after being found.
* It is a sacred object with powerful powers:only a pure being can find it and take possession of it.
* According to some legends, its discovery heralds the end of the Adventurous Times.
However, all the knights seek it, and the world will have peace only after its discovery, but, paradoxically, it is to the one who was not looking for it that it will be given to find it, according to Wolfram. We can thus give several interpretations to the quest of the knights:
* The energy expended and the trials encountered increase or reveal the qualities of the Knights of the Round Table, possibly allowing them to acquire new ones. It is therefore an initiatory quest and personal revelation.
* The search for a sacred object as a goal in life, and even at the risk of one's life, shows that the finality can be more important than one's own existence:Christian vision of earthly life, lived as a passage before a better world .
* The Holy Grail deposited by a knight in the center of the Round Table, meeting place of the powerful of the kingdom, symbolically marks the establishment of Christianity thanks to the temporal powers (political or military). It also shows the primacy of the religious over the temporal, since it justifies the efforts made by the knights.
* The ancient druidic Celtic civilization then chaotic pagan Middle Ages made of magic, sorcery and superstition ends to give way to the Christian civilization (humanist).
The Grail and its esoteric use
Sects take advantage of the fascination aroused by the mystery of the Grail. The magical and symbolic aspect of the Grail favors esoteric interpretation (see the plethora of Internet forums currently devoted to the Grail and its "true" interpretation).
In 1995, the Parliamentary Commission on sects in France notably identified the "Movement of the Grail in France" (500 to 2000 followers according to General Information) and "The Order of the Burning Grail" (50 to 500 followers).