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The Holy Grail
The old legend of the Holy Grail is surely one of the most enduring
in European literature and history. The Grail was said to be the cup of
the Last Supper and at the Crucifixion to have received blood flowing
from Jesus Christ's side. It was brought to Britain by Joseph of
Arimathea, where it lay hidden for centuries. The search for the vessel
became the principal quest of the knights of King Arthur. It was
believed to be kept in a mysterious castle surrounded by a wasteland
and guarded by a custodian called the Fisher King, who suffered from a
wound that would not heal. His recovery and the renewal of the blighted
lands depended upon the successful completion of the quest. Equally,
the self-realisation of the questing knight was assured by finding the
Grail. The magical properties attributed to the Holy Grail have been
plausibly traced to the magic vessels of Celtic myth that satisfied the
tastes and needs of all who ate and drank from them.
The Holy Grail first appears in a written text in Chrétien de
Troyes's Old French verse romance, the Conte del Graal ('Story of the
Grail'), or Perceval, of c.1180. During the next 50 years several
works, both in verse and prose, were written although the story, and
the principal character, vary from one work to another. In France this
process culminated in a cycle of five prose romances telling the
history of the Grail from the Crucifixion to the death of Arthur. The
Old French romances were translated into other European languages.
Among these other versions two stand out: Wolfram von Eschenbach's
Parzifal from the 13th century and Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur
from the late 15th century
During the late Middle Ages, the Grail disappears until the nineteenth
century when medieval history and legend awoke the interest of writers
such as Scott and Tennyson and of composers, notably Richard Wagner.
The symbol of the Grail as a mysterious object of search and as the
source of the ultimate mystical, or even physical, experience has
persisted into the present century in the novels of Charles Williams,
C.S. Lewis and others.
DESCRIPTION
The Holy Grail is 17 cm high and is formed by a cup, the body (fust) and the foot or base.
The cup, carved out of a big piece of agate, is 9 cm in diameter. The
body composed of: a) a centred hexagonal column with a round nut in the
middle and topped by two small plates, the upper one holding the holy
chalice and the lower one supporting the whole base structure; b) two
lateral snake shaped handles, hexagonally carved, and c) the garniture
of the base, is all of gold.
The base is set with 28 pea-sized pearls, two balaxes and two emeralds. The rest of the body is finely carved.
The foot or base is composed by an elliptical cup of chalcedony (the
same material as the cup). An inscription is engraved on its back which
was first read and publicised by the archaeologist Antonio Beltran.
ARCHEOLOGICAL
The cup is a very ancient work and nothing can be said against the idea
that it was utilized by the Lord during the first Eucharistic consecration.
The base is as well a very old cup. Perhaps a further study on the
inscription would give be a better understanding.
It seems that the body contains elements and remembrances of on older
antiquity which during the Middle Age were transformed specially on the
base setting, at the end of XIV century.
HISTORY
According to some documents, it is evident that the Holy Grail stood at
Saint Juan de la Pena Monastery, at least in 1399. On September 26th of
the same year, King Martin the Human brought it to the chapel of the
Royal Palace at the Alfajeria in Zaragoza (Aragon Crown Archives,
Barcelona Collection Martin el Humano, Parchment, 136).
Upon the King's death, in September 1410, is was found in the inventory of his properties in Barcelona.
In Valencia, Martin V's successor. Alphonse V el Magnanimo, transferred it to his Valencia Royal Palace about 1424.
His brother, Dan Juan, King of Navarra, presented it to the Valencia
Cathedral on March 14th 1437.
From the Valencia Cathedral it was taken out only two times: during the
Independence War (March 1809 to September 1813). It was moved to
Alicante and then to the towns of Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca, fleeing
from possible plundering and during the National Uprising (July 21st,
1936 to April 9th, 1939) it was hidden in Valencia and also in the
village of Carlet, thus escaping from destruction or loss.
Until today it is securly kept again, behind armoured glass, in the Cathedral of Valencia
- the most up to date books about the Grail are by
Hesemann, Michael:
Die Entdeckung des heiligen Gral. Das Ende einer Suche.
383 S., 60 meist farb. Abb. Gebunden.
Pattloch Verlag 2003 - ISBN: 3-629-01659-6
Richard W. Barber:
The Holy Grail: A Study in Imagination and Belief
Hardcover 360 pages (April 2004)
Publisher: Harvard U.P. - ISBN: 0674013905
- and the most recent one is the fictional story by:
Dan Brown:
The Da Vinci Code
Hardcover 419 pages (October 2, 2004) with many photographs
Publisher: Bantam Press, - ISBN: 0593054253
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