1. The Holy Grail:
Background of the Legend
© 2004 Vicki Lague

2. Graal vs. Grail
 The word “grail” comes from the Old French
word graal, which itself comes from the Latin
gradale, meaning “in stages”; this word was
applied to dishes that were used to bring various
courses of food to the table.
 The word, therefore, at its simplest, means an
expensive “dish” or “plate” without any sacred
overtones.
 It was a common word in Old French, always
meaning a dish or serving vessel.

3. Chrétien de Troyes
 The word graal took on a sacred meaning in a
romance story call “Perceval: The Grail Knight”
by Chrétien de Troyes, who wrote in the 12th
century.
 Early in Chretien’s story, the word is used as a
common noun, but later the dish takes on sacred
overtones when, about 3000 lines of poetry
later, the Communion Wafer is the only food
placed on the grail.

4. Chrétien de Troyes
 The ancient king who eats the Wafer is sustained
over the years by it alone, partly because the
grail itself is holy and partly because he is so
spiritual.
 No one really knows how Chretien developed
the idea he applied to graal, but he may have
known about ancient myths of food-producing
vessels known as “cauldrons of plenty”.
 However it was done, Chretien provided the
foundation for the Legend of the Holy Grail.

5. Robert de Boron
 Some 10 to 15 years after Chretien, Robert de
Boron, another French romance writer, wrote
his own version of Perceval, The Story of the Holy
Grail, which he never finished.
 Robert was more exact than Chretien in
describing what the grail was all about.

6. Robert de Boron
 For Robert de Boron, the grail was:
 The vessel of the Last Supper that Joseph of
Arimathea used to catch the blood of Christ
 It was later placed at the center of an altar-
like structure where a kind of religious service
was held
 It was transported to Britain by Joseph’s
family to become The Holy Grail, a type of
chalice and a symbol of Christ’s real presence.

7. Robert de Boron
 The transition, therefore, was from a costly
serving platter to:
 The vessel of a Christian cult
 A chalice that produces nourishment for the
soul
 This was an obvious change that fit in with the
Christian symbolism of the period

8. Joseph of Arimathea
 In the Gospels, Joseph is a rich, prominent man
who obtained the body of Christ after the
Crucifixion and laid it in the tomb. According to
the Arthurian Legends:
 Joseph acquired the Grail and hid it in his
house.
 He was imprisoned for following Jesus.
 Christ appeared to him, gave him the Grail,
and taught him its mysteries.

9. Joseph of Arimathea
 The Grail sustained him for more than forty
years until he was released by the Emperor
Vespasian.
 He set off with companions on adventures
that brought him to Britain.
 Subsequent keepers of the Grail are
descended from Joseph

10. Joseph of Arimathea
 In another version of the tale, Joseph arrived
in SE England where he founded the
Christian settlement of Glastonbury
 The two versions of Joseph’s adventures were
combined by Alfred Lord Tennyson in the
19th century, though there are Medieval
references to a Christian sect without Joseph’s
name attached.

11. Other Medieval Romances
 There are many other works of poetry and
prose from the Medieval period that build on
the creation of Chretien de Troyes and Robert
de Boron’s grail in a variety of ways.
 One important Medieval tradition is that the
Grail possesses healing powers. This tradition is
used in two contemporary Grail films: Steven
Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
(1989), and Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King
(1998).

12. Galahad vs. Perceval
 As you have seen, Chretien de Troyes created
the character of Perceval, the Grail Knight, and
Robert de Boron built on the creation.
 There was another, English version of the Grail
Knight, who appears in Medieval Arthurian
romances.
 In the 14th century, Sir Thomas Malory, collected
many of the Arthurian stories into his book,
which has come to be called Le Morte d’Arthur,
The Death of Arthur.

13. Galahad vs. Perceval
 Malory drew on the French story The Quest for the
Holy Grail. In this version:
 Sir Galahad is the son of Sir Lancelot
 Galahad is the preordained hero of the Quest
because his is pure (virgin, a term applied to
both men and women during this period)
 He is physically beautiful and has great
prowess as a knight, which are indications of
his moral purity.

14. Galahad vs. Perceval
 The details of the story vary depending on the
author, but Malory’s version retains the French
details intact.
 In a notable German Medieval version, Wolfram
von Eschenbach’s Parzival, Perceval is the Grail
knight, who at first knows nothing about who
he really is and must travel through countless
adventures to learn the truth about himself.