In myths, sagas and sacred religious texts of various countries and peoples, you can find many stories about miraculous objects that were left to people or donated to them by the gods. Among these legends, perhaps the most mysterious are the Holy Grail texts.
The authors of medieval chivalric novels and chronicles did not doubt the real existence of this relic, knights and adventurers went in search of it, people fought and died for it, but the paradox is that we do not have a single testimony of anyone who I saw this mysterious object with my own eyes. Moreover, it is not even known what he really was …
The emergence of the Grail
For the first time, the Grail is mentioned in the late 12th century French poetic knightly novel, written by Robert de Voron. There we are talking about the Cup, in which Joseph of Arimathea allegedly collected the blood of the crucified Jesus. Then this shrine was preserved by the magician of the British Celts Merlin and his pupil King Arthur.
However, in Celtic folklore there is another version of the appearance of the Grail in the British Isles: in the ancient sagas, it is said that King Arthur, during his journey to Annon (the other world), obtained a magic cauldron, which he then installed on his famous Round Table. At this table, King Arthur's best knights gathered. It should be emphasized that most historians consider Arthur, King of the Britons, a real historical figure who lived in the late 5th - early 6th centuries AD.
Finally, there is a third version of the appearance of the mysterious Grail. As N. K. Roerich writes, in the Iranian poem of the 5th century AD "Percy Val Nam" it is about the Grail and its guard Percy Valais, who later, in the knightly novels of the 12th-13th centuries by Chrétien de Trois, Wolfram von Eschenbach and others, turned into Parsifal. One of these authors, Wolfram von Eschenbach (early 13th century), provides this remarkable explanation of exactly where the Grail came from:
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It is very interesting that the folklore of the Celts links the Grail with Merlin and other druid priests. It is known that these priests possessed secret sciences, understandable only to initiates. The same popular Celtic legends, for example, connect the construction of Stonehenge and other mysterious megalithic structures in England and Ireland with the activities of the druid priests. It should be added that the Celts themselves today are a great mystery to historians. It is unknown where they come from.
Today, the various dialects of the Celtic language are spoken by about six million people. These are the predominantly rural population of Scotland and Wales, the Bretons of northwest France and the majority of the rural population of Ireland.
But two or two and a half thousand years ago the Celts occupied a vast territory - from the Volga to the Atlantic Ocean, and N. Roerich believed that in antiquity they lived much further to the east. During his famous Himalayan expedition, he found traces of them in Tibet and in the Ladakh mountains. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that we see common themes and images in the legends of such seemingly distant peoples as the inhabitants of Iran in the 5th century AD and the Celts of the time of King Arthur.
But back to the Grail. From the knightly novels of the XII-XIII centuries it follows that at that time the Grail was not in Britain. Most often, the place of its storage is associated with the mysterious castle Monsalvat, located somewhere in the East or South. Parsifal, his son Lohengrin and other noble knights, the heroes of the novels of this cycle, are engaged precisely in the search for the Grail. It follows from the texts that only a person of extremely high moral qualities, a defender of goodness and justice, the one who, for the sake of this lofty goal, refuses an excellent life and becomes an ascetic, can find him.
Those who were lucky enough to find the Grail, they write these novels, could "see the unseen and hear the unheard of." The knight, who wanted to find the Grail and devote his life to its protection, had to master an almost inhuman concentration and purposefulness, to discard all unnecessary, all that could distract and relax on the way to the Great Goal. Because serving the Grail gave hope for the victory of good - not for oneself, but for all people, the whole world. It is not surprising that anyone unworthy who approached this shrine was struck by a serious illness and wounds.
How is the Grail described?
The very word "Grail" in the Provencal language, widespread in the south-west of France, means "cup" or "goblet". This is how the Holy Grail is described - as a magic chalice made from a solid emerald. She radiated a wonderful light and gave her defenders immortality and eternal youth.
However, surprisingly enough, the Chalice demanded, in modern terms, "periodic recharging" - once a year a dove flew from the sky in order, as chivalry novels write, "to strengthen the Chalice with new power." Amazing, isn't it? A magical thing is also a magical thing, because it has a completely different nature than ordinary earthly things. And here is described something like a battery that required periodic recharging.
However, the already mentioned Wolfram von Eschenbach describes the Holy Grail as a stone, which he calls "lapsite exillis". This incomprehensible term is interpreted by some translators as "a stone of wisdom", while others - as "a stone that came down from the stars." Here other ancient legends are recalled, for example, about the miraculous stone "shampir" of King Solomon, and especially about the glorified stone Chintamani from the legends of Tibet and India.
Specialists in medieval literature believe that the legend of the magic Grail arose from a mixture of Eastern and Christian sources somewhere in Spain or southern France. The most likely place of origin of the legend is considered to be the region of the medieval state of Languedoc in southwestern France.
The legendary castle of Monsalvat, where, according to the chivalrous novels, the magic Chalice of the Holy Grail was located, obviously corresponds to the castle of Montsegur, whose ruins today rise on a rocky cliff of the spurs of the Pyrenees mountains near the city of Foix (department of Ariege).