The Holy Grail: Its Origins, Secrets and Meaning Revealed - Hardcover

Malcolm Godwin

3.63

86 ratings by Goodreads

9780747516620: The Holy Grail: Its Origins, Secrets and Meaning Revealed

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0747516626 ISBN 13: 9780747516620

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 1994

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Twelfth-century Europe was a time of unprecedented spiritual awakening. The Crusades to the Holy Land had returned with new esoteric secrets from the East. The Cathars were challenging the authority of a divided and corrupt Church of Rome, and women were at last accorded a new power and position, forming their own Courts of Love. Out of this extraordinary new age arose a legend which was to surpass all previous Western myths - that of a mystical object known as the Holy Grail and a knightly Quest in search of it. Between 1190 and 1220, there was an outpouring of stories about this sacred artifact. Deemed heretical by the Church and yet said to hold the blood of the crucified Christ, the Grail chalice was supposedly brought to Britain two thousand years ago. And although the legend is set in the Arthurian Britain of the sixth century, tradition traces the cup of the Last Supper to a Cathar stronghold in the Pyrenees, under the guardianship of the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem. The legend of the Holy Grail is not one story, but many, and this book explores the major and very different accounts which appeared within a thirty year period. - From the Publisher

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From Kirkus Reviews:

An extensive treatment of the various legends of the Holy Grail that ultimately falls apart because of its pursuit of flimsy speculation. Godwin (Angels: An Endangered Species, not reviewed) explores one of the most intriguing and persistent myths of Western civilization. He begins by outlining in detail nine principal cycles of legend involving the Grail, tracing them through three separate strata of stories. Beginning with the earliest written account of the quest for the Grail, the 12th-century ``Le Conte del Graal'' by Chr‚tien de Troyes, the author convincingly shows that the origins of the Grail legend are in ancient Celtic oral tales in which the object of the quest was a magical vessel of plenty. This vessel evolved into the more familiar Grail of Arthurian romance, that holiest of Christian relics--the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper and which was used to catch his blood as it poured out on the cross. It was this object that was supposedly brought to England by Joseph of Arimathea and hidden at Glastonbury. The third branch of legend explored is what Godwin calls the ``chymical.'' Here he retells the mystical tale of rebirth and transformation, ``Parzifal'' by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Dating from about 1220, it became the basis of the famous Wagnerian opera. In the concluding section, Godwin explores the Grail's meaning as ``a myth for our time,'' connecting the quest for the vessel to Eastern philosophies such as the Tao (Godwin also is known as ``Yatri'' from his time spent on an Indian ashram). He explores, too, various archetypal images present in the various legends. The work will appeal to Grail enthusiasts more interested in conspiratorial and mystical elements than in serious scholarship. Lavishly illustrated, it will make a fine coffee-table book. (180 color and b&w illustrations) -- Copyright �1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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