Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/804

 GRAIL

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GRAIL

the so-called "Didot Perceval "or "La petite queste" and the lengthy and prolix "Perceval le Gallois", also known as " Perlesvaus ". . The poem of Chrestien, regarded by many as the oldest known Grail romance, tells of Perceval's visit to the Grail castle, where he sees a Graal borne in by a damsel. Its accompaniments are a bleeding lance and a silver plate. It is a precious vessel set with jewels, and so resplendent as to eclipse the lights of the hall. All the assembled knights show it reverence. Mindful of an injunction not to inquire too much, Perceval does not ask concerning the significance of what he sees, and thereby incurs guilt and reproach. Undoubtedly Chrestien meant to relate the hero's second visit to the castle, when he would have put the question and received the desired information. But the poet did not hve to finish his story, and whether the explanation of the Graal, offered by the continua- tors, is that which Chrestien had in mind, is doubtful. As it is, we are not informed by Chrestien what the Gi-anl signifies; in his version it has no pronounced religious character. On the other hand, in the Early History versions it is invested with the greatest sanc- tity. It is explained as the dish from which Christ ate the Paschal lamb with his disciples, which passed into possession of Joseph of Arimathea, and was used by him to gather the Precious Blood of Our Saviour, when His body was taken from the Cross. It becomes identified with the Chalice of the Eucharist. The lance is explained as the one with which Longinus pierced Our Lord's side, and the silver plate becomes the paten covering the chalice. The quest in these versions assumes a most sacred character, the atmos- phere of chivalric adventure in Chrestien's poem yields to a mihtant asceticism, which insists not only on the purity of the quester, but, in some versioiLs (Queste, Perlesvaus), on his virginity. In the "Cjueste" and "Grand St. Graal", moreover, the hero is not Perceval but the maiden-knight, Galaad. But the other knights of the Round Table are also made to participate in the quest.

The early history of the Grail is intimately con- nected with the story of Joseph of Arimathea. When he is cast into prison by the Jews, Christ appears to him and gives him the sacred vessel, through which he is miraculously sustained for forty-two years, until liberated by Vespasian. The Grail is then brought to the West, to Britain, either by Joseph and Josephes, his son {Grand St. Graal), or by Alain, one of his kin (Robert de Boron). Galaad (or Perceval) achieves the quest; after the death of its keeper the Grail vanishes. According to the version of the " Perles- vaus" Perceval is removed, no one knows whither, by a ship with white sails on which is displayed a red cross. In the Guiot-Wolfram version we meet with a conception of the Grail wholly different from that of the French romances. Wolfram conceives of it as a precious .stone, lapsit exillis (i. e. lapis or lapsi ex coelis 7) of special purity, possessing miraculous powers conferred upon it and sustained by a consecrated Host which, on every Good Friday, a dove brings down from heaven and lays down upon it. The angels who remained neutral during the rebellion of Lucifer were its first guardians ; then it was brought to earth and entrusted to Titurel, the first Grail king. It is guarded in the splendid castle of Munsalvaesche {mons salvationis or silvaticusl) by a special order of knights, the Templeisen, chosen by itself and nour- ished by its miraculous food-giving power.

The relationship of the Grail versions to each other, especially that of Chrestien to those of Robert de Boron and the " Queste ", is a matter of dispute. Nor is their relative chronology certain. But m all these versions the legend appears in an advanced state of development, the preceding phases of which are not attested by literary monuments, and can, therefore, only be conjectured. The origin of the legend is in-

volved in obscurity, and scholars are divided in their views on this point. An Oriental, a Celtic, and a purely Christian origin have been claimed. But the Oriental parallels, like the sun-table of the Ethio- pians, the Persian cup of Jamshid, the Hindu paradise, Cridavana, are not very convincing, and Wolfram's statement, that Kyot's source was an Arabic manu- script of Toledo, is open to grave doubt. It is differ- ent with the Celtic theory. There are undoubtedly Celtic elements in the legend as we have it ; the Perce- val story is probably, and the Arthurian legend cer- tainly, of Celtic origin, and both of these legends are intimately connected with the quest story. Talis- mans, such as magic lances and food-giving vessels, figure prominently in Celtic myths and folk-tales. According to this theory the "Mabinogion", with its simple story of vengeance by means of talismans and devoid of religious significance, would yield the ver- sion nearest to the original form of the legend. Back of the quest-story would be some pre-Christian tale of a hero seeking to avenge the injury done to a kinsman. The religious element would then be of secondary origin, and would have come into the legend when the old vengeance-tale was fused with the legend of Joseph of Arimathea, which is essentially a legend of the con- version of Britain.

Those who maintain the theory of a purely Chris- tian origin regard the religious element in the story as fundamental and trace the leading motifs to Christian ideas and conceptions. It is derived from the apocry- phal Gospel of Nicodemus, which is known to have had a great vogue in the twelfth century, particularly in Britain. There we read how Joseph, whom the Jews had imprisoned, is miraculously fed by Christ Himself. Additional traits were supplied by the " Vindicta Sal- vatoris", the legendary account of the destruction of Jerusalem. Furthermore, Joseph was confused with the Jewish historian, Josephus, whose liberation by Titus is narrated by Suetonius. The food-producing properties of the vessel can be explained, without re- sorting to Celtic parallels, by the association of the Grail with the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which gives spiritual nourishment to the faithful. The purely Christian legend which thus had arisen was brought into contact with the traditional evangeliza- tion of Britain, and then developed on British soil, in Wales, and thus the Celtic stamp, which it undeniably bears, is accounted for. In connection with the leg- endary conversion of Britain it is noteworthy that the literary accounts of this event are connected with the famous Abbey of Glastonbury, which is also inti- mately associated with the legend of Arthur, Glaston- bury being identified in William of Malmesbury's account with the mythic Avalon. So scholars are iri- clined to connect this British sanctuary with the ori- gin of the Grail romances. Possibly Walter Map, who died as Archdeacon of Oxford in 1210, and to whom is ascribed the authorship of a Grail- Lancelot cycle, got his information from that abbey. The first Grail ro- mance was then probably written in Latin and be- came the basis for the work of Robert de Boron, who was an English knight under King Henry II, and a contemporary of Chrestien and of Map.

The fully developed Grail legend was later on still further connected with other legends, as in Wolfram's poem with that of Lohengrin, the swan-knight, and also with that of Prester John, the fabled Christian monarch of the East. Here also the story of Klin- schor, the magician, was added. After the Renais- sance the Grail legend, together with most medieval legends, feU into oblivion, from which it was rescued when the Romantic movement set in at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The most famous modern versions are Tennyson's "Holy Grail" in the "Idylls of the King" (1869), and Wagner's music-drama, the festival-play, "Parsifal", produced for the first time at Bayreuth in 1882.