Richard Barber

The Holy Grail

Imagination and Belief

Harvard University Press 2004

Stron XV+464, format: 16x24 cm

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The elusive image of the Holy Grail has haunted the Western imagination for eight centuries. It represents the ideal of an unattainable yet infinitely desirable goal, the possibility of perfection. Initially conceived in literature, it became a Christian icon which has been re-created in a multitude of forms over time even though the Grail has no specific material attributes or true religious significance.
Richard Barber traces the history of the legends surrounding the Holy Grail, beginning with Chretien de Troyes s great romances of the twelfth century and the medieval Church's religious version of the secular ideal. He pursues the myths through Victorian obsessions and enthusiasms to the popular bestsellers of the late twentieth century that have embraced its mysteries. Crisscrossing the borders of fiction and spirituality, the quest for the Holy Grail has long attracted writers, artists, and admirers of the esoteric. It has been a recurrent ■w theme in tales of imagination and belief which have laid claim to the highest ijr^ religious and secular ideals and experience. ■ From Lancelot to Parsifal, chivalric romances to Wagners Ring, T. S. Eliot to Monty Python, the Grail has fascinated and lured
the Western imagination from beyond the reach of the ordinary world.

Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgements xiii

A Note on Names xv

Introduction i

PART ONE: CREATING THE GRAIL: AUTHORS AND TEXTS

1. Imagining the Grail: Chretien de Troyes 9

2. Completing the Grail: Chretien continued 27

3. Sanctifying the Grail Hero: Robert de Boron 39

4. The Old Law and the New Law: The High Book of the Grail 46

5. Creating the Grail Hero: The Lancelot-Grail 53

6. Visions of Angels, Versions of Men: Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival 73

Epilogue to Part One 86

PART TWO: THE NATURE OF THE GRAIL: APOCRYPHA, THEOLOGY, ROMANCE

7. The Grail 91

8. The Setting of the Grail 104

9. Obscure Histories, Dubious Relics 116

10. The Eucharist and the Grail 135

11. The Holy Grail 148

12. The Secrets of the Grail 161

13. The Grail Outside the Romances 167

14. 'There is a thing that's called the Gral' 173

15. The Adventures of the Grail: The Later German Romances 187

16. The Adventures of the Grail: The Last Flowering 198

Epilogue to Part Two 222

PART THREE: NEW GRAILS FOR OLD: SECULAR IMAGES OF THE GRAIL

Interlude 227

17. The Scholars and the Grail 231

18. The Revival of the Grail 256

19. The Grail as Mirror 290

20. The Grail Today 321

21. The Question Answered? 356

Epilogue 367

Appendices

1. The Major Grail Romances 1180-12jo 373

2. Visual Images Relating to the Medieval Grail Stories 3 74

3. Theological Terms Used in Text 378

4. Use of the Term 'Holy Grail' in Major Newspapers, 1978-[zasłonięte] 20020

Bibliography 381

Abbreviations 412

Notes 414

Index 441