… The Grail is so heavy
that none of the sinful people can raise him forever.
- Wolfram von Eschenbach. Parzival
The legends of the Holy Grail have not ceased to excite the imagination for many centuries. An obscure, mysterious relic, one of the most interesting and legendary symbols, which carries unheard of power. The source of the legend about the Grail lies, most likely, in the myths of the ancient Celts. In their legends, the Holy Grail is a stone bowl-shaped vessel made of emerald, which the Archangel Michael knocked out of the crown of Lucifer with a sword (according to other legends, the Grail is a bowl carved out of wood).
This priceless mystical relic survived the flood. Later, Jesus drank from this vessel at the Last Supper and his disciples received communion from it. In the Holy Grail, according to old legends, the blood of the Savior was also collected, shed on Calvary. After Jesus' execution, the Holy Grail mysteriously disappeared. A legend is spread that the Grail and the spear of Destiny, which inflicted wounds on Christ, were preserved and brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea. To this day, there is an opinion that the Grail was with the Albigensians for some time, but after the capture of Montsegur it was not found there.
According to another version, the Grail is a kind of sacred stone that is associated with the secret mystical life of Jesus. All subsequent searches for the disappeared relic were never crowned with success, but many legends appeared, telling about the "adventures" of the Grail. The words "Holy Grail" are often used figuratively as a designation of some cherished goal, sometimes unattainable or difficult to achieve.
Fundamentally different from the "material" versions (bowl, stone) are the assumptions that the Grail is an expression of some mystical spiritual ideas. The Holy Grail is a state of mind, the connection of a person with God, that is, finding the Grail means reaching enlightenment.
Researchers have always wondered about the origin of the Grail legend. The British roots of the tradition of the bowl go back to the mythology of the ancient Celts, but the legend of the bowl has been reinterpreted in the Christian spirit. According to legends, Joseph of Arimathea, taking the cup from which the Savior drank on his last evening, collected the blood of the Lord into it and with this relic walked around the world, preaching Christianity.
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While wandering, Joseph reached Britain, where he decided to stop and found a monastery, called Glastonbury (according to some sources, it was in this monastery that the Chalice was hidden, which later became the embodiment of God's grace for people). Having founded the monastery, Joseph created a monastic-knightly order, whose members were the first keepers of the chalice, and they, despite the desperate resistance they put up in the 5th-6th centuries against the British invaders - the Saxons, were forced to transport the shrine to Sarras (whereabouts unknown), from where The Holy Grail, according to one version, was "taken up to heaven", according to the other - it remained in Glastonbury.
However, the old church in Glastonbury, which may have remembered the Knights of the Round Table, burned down in 1184, and a new one was built in its place. And in the traditional belief, it is deeply rooted that the Grail is hidden in the dungeons of the abbey. In this version, the Chalice is associated with the legends of King Arthur. During the reign of the legendary king, the sacred relic was hidden at the bottom of an ancient well somewhere in the depths of the island. The Knights of the Round Table, at the behest of Merlin, went in search.
In some of the novels of the Arthurian cycle, the Grail is found and delivered to Camelot, but the chalice did not bring happiness to the kingdom. Seeing this, King Arthur took her with him to the mysterious island of Avalon and thus averted troubles from the land of the Britons. How long the Chalice stayed on Avalon is unknown, but the next time traces of it were found only in the XIII century among heretics from the Provencal town of Albi. And from here begins the history of the Grail of the Cathars. According to legend, it was hidden in the dungeons of Montsegur along with other treasures of the heretics - the Albigensians: ancient manuscripts containing secret wisdom, mysterious relics. But when the fortress - the last stronghold of the Cathars - fell, the victors could not find any trace of the Grail.
There are researchers who believe that the legend of the Grail is associated with a secret occult society founded in time immemorial and possessing secret knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation.
Among these completely different theories, the legends of the Arthurian cycle look the most attractive, but there is not a single fact that could confirm them. Well, and the hypothesis of a secret occult society is shared, as a rule, by those who are generally inclined to regard all of humanity as a collection of secret societies.
The pagan roots of the legend about the Grail indicate its origin from a very ancient Indo-European myth about magic dishes - a symbol of life and rebirth. Over time, this legend was filled with new meaning, receiving a Christian tint. This relic is a symbolic source of life and immortality, abundance and fertility, a “wonderful breadwinner”. He who drinks from the Holy Grail receives the remission of sins. At will, in the blink of an eye, she gives any dishes and jewelry, and the one who drinks from her is cured of all ailments; even the dead, as soon as she touches their lips, come back to life.
Possessing the ability to miraculously saturate their chosen ones with unearthly dishes, the Bowl in the Western tradition occupies the same place as the eastern sacrificial bowl with Vedic catfish, Avestan haoma or Greek ambrosia - the food of the gods. For the Celts, a bowl full of wine, beer or honey, which a young girl presented to the incoming king, is a symbol of supreme power. Subsequently, this meaning is transferred to the Grail, in search of which the knights of the Round Table are sent.
The symbolism of the Grail's location in the center of the Round Table, around which the knights are sitting, is very close to the Chinese image of the sky, which has the shape of a circle with a hole in the middle (analogous to a bowl or goblet). In Egyptian symbolism, there are associations between the chalice of life and the heart as the center of life. The hieroglyph for the heart was in the shape of a vessel.
The search for the Grail in both pagan and Christian traditions is a return to paradise, the spiritual center of man and the Universe; a symbol of initiation, testing through trials and meeting death in search of the hidden meaning and secrets of life. Searches are usually undertaken by a "solar hero" who has no idea of his true nature. For example, Parzival, brought up in forest solitude, a young man gifted with knightly valor, or an ascetic knight, virgin Galahad, the son of a sinful, but the greatest of knights - Lancelot.
The Grail played a fairly significant role in the secret symbolism of medieval alchemists. Breathing new life into the Phoenix and giving eternal youth to those who serve him, the Grail has to do with the symbolism of the Philosopher's Stone. It also acts as a barge, an ark that contains the seeds of the cyclical renewal of life, the seeds of lost traditions. The Holy Grail, the chalice containing blood, the basis of life, is identified with the heart, and as a result, with the center.
The Grail combined two elements: a chalice or a shining goblet with a heart (a triangle placed on top) represents the feminine, perceiving, watery principle, and a spear or sword (a triangle pointing upward) represents a masculine, active, fiery principle. These elements are united by the carriers of life - blood or sacred liquid flowing into the bowl. The life-giving, renewing forces radiated by the solar vessel, and the forces of destruction, which appear in the form of a bleeding spear, contain a double mystery. The combination of opposite principles played an important role in alchemical transmutation - transformation.
In Christianity, the Grail is an ambiguous symbol. It should be noted that none of the Grail legends is recognized by the official church. Not a single church chronicler ever mentioned the Holy Cup, although all four Gospels say about a man named Joseph, who begged from Pontius Pilate for the body of the crucified Christ and, wrapping it in a shroud, put it in a tomb carved into the rock.
The Grail is mentioned only in the Apocrypha. But his image is quite popular in esoteric Christianity - the Grail symbolizes the sacred Heart of Christ. When, according to legend, the magic emerald was taken from Lucifer, after the latter was thrown into the abyss, and the Grail was made from this stone, then like the Virgin Mary who atoned for the sin of Eve, the blood of the Savior through the Grail atoned for the sin of Lucifer.
Thus, the meaning of the Grail is increasingly associated with the torment of Christ, with the idea of voluntary sacrifice and atonement. In Christian legend, the Chalice was given to Adam, but left by him in paradise after the fall. He is still in the center of paradise, and he must be found again, the new Redeemer will find the cup and restore paradise for humanity.
The image of the Grail, of course, cannot be completely reduced either to a church sacrament or to a Celtic myth. For the knightly culture of the Middle Ages, the importance of the Grail as a symbol was that it combined the spirit of knightly adventures, the free play of fantasy, using the fragments of a half-forgotten mythology, and Christian mysticism.
This bowl is a symbol of nobility, pure thoughts, mental health and the desire to exalt, because only those of the seekers who have perfect purity of heart can achieve success on their path. Anyone unworthy who approaches a shrine is punished with a wound or illness, but can expect healing from the same shrine. The Grail is a secret that is revealed only to the most worthy.
The Grail legends originated in the Middle Ages as an integral part of the legends about King Arthur, and appeared in written literature in France in the XII century. The Grail Seekers Percival, Gawain, Lancelot, Boré, Galahad are all the knights of King Arthur who set off on their mystical wanderings from Artur's court, but this is where the similarities between their adventures end. Although not a single chronicle confirms that one of the knights found the cup and brought Arthur, rumor persistently connects the location of the Grail with the legends of King Arthur and with the already mentioned English abbey of Glastonbury.
The very name "Grail" goes back to the old French rare word graal, meaning a large dish, a tray. This was the shape of the sacred vessel, which is spoken of in the oldest available text on the Grail. The very first version of the story of the Grail - "Percival, or the Tale of the Grail" - was published by the famous poet and troubadour Chrétien de Troyes around 1180-1182. There the Grail is described as a large dish laid with precious stones, which is carried through the halls of the castle by a virgin. This story remained unfinished.
Chrétien de Troyes claimed that his story was based on data he found in a book belonging to Count Philippe of Flanders, but such a statement can neither be proved nor refuted. At that time, it was generally believed that the author could not compose anything himself, and only what is contained in ancient sources is true. A story that was not based on an ancient tradition could not be worthy of attention.
No one was embarrassed by the fact that it was impossible to verify the truth of these legends. Therefore, Chrétien de Troyes, like many after him, could absolutely calmly refer to any source. In addition, in those days, it was necessary to be extremely careful in choosing themes for novels and poems - pagan plots could incur the wrath of the church on the author. The hero of Chrétien de Trois' story, the knight Percival of Wales, mentions the mysterious Grail Castle and its magic goblet.
The image of Percival is based on the ancient Welsh saga of a hero named Prider, and the stories about him often refer to a magical goblet with properties that completely coincide with those attributed to the Grail. The Prider sagas are contained in the collection of ancient Welsh oral traditions, Mabmogion. This collection takes us into the fantastic world of Celtic myths, including several stories about King Arthur.
The images of the Welsh epic originate from even more ancient Celtic heroes. King Lear, for example, was "born" from Lera, one of the leaders of the mysterious people Tuatu de Dannan ("the tribes of the goddess Danu"). According to the myth, this people, having arrived from somewhere from the north, brought magic items to the Celtic lands - a magic goblet, a wonderful spear and an invincible sword. In the later legends of Arthur, these objects were transformed into the Holy Grail, the spear with which Christ was wounded, and the sword of Excalibur.
How the Holy Grail ended up in Britain is described by Robert de Born in the poem Joseph of Arimathea, written around 1200. Like Chrétien de Troyes, de Born refers to a story from an old book, which tells how Jesus called Joseph and gave him the Grail - the cup of the Last Supper. Together with his sister and her husband Bron, Joseph left Palestine and settled in a certain country “far in the West”, where they preached Christianity. In this way, Robert de Born unambiguously linked the Grail to the Christian tradition.
Celtic, Irish, and Welsh legends abound with stories of magical feeding vessels. When this complex folklore tradition came to France in the 12th century, the composers tried to Christianize its motives in the spirit of their time. And since the Grail, originally a pagan vessel with magical properties, bestowed on man, according to Celtic legends, wonderful, mystical bliss, it was natural to associate it with the Eucharist, with Christian sacraments. The Grail turned into the Holy Grail (Saint Graal, Sangrail, etc.), and because the word "grail" was incomprehensible, dark, this ambiguity gave freedom for rethinking, and the object that it designated began to be understood as a cup, chalice, chalice …
But, as already noted, despite the enormous popularity of the legends about the Holy Grail, the Church never recognized the Grail as a canonical Christian relic. The Grail has secured a dubious glory at best as an apocryphal symbol, and at worst as a sacred symbol of an organized heretical movement within the boundaries of Western Christendom.
And then a new parallel appears: de Born, having published his poem, willingly or unwillingly revealed the origins of the legend about the Grail - the Gnostic "Gospel of Nicodemus", which details the myth of Joseph, the cup and the spear. This means that it is the views of the Gnostics that underlie all the main heretical movements in the territory of medieval Europe.
Around the time de Born was writing his poem, Wolfram von Eschenbach, the famous German poet of that era, created Parzifal, his own version of the Grail poem that Chretien de Trois had not completed. Like others, Wolfram said that he used "ancient sources" and referred to "one Provencal troubadour who wrote his story in Arabic, living in the Spanish city of Toledo" (completely confusing story). In his poem, Wolfram claims that the Grail was kept by the knightly order Templaisen - in this distorted German name, the famous Order of the Templars is easily guessed …
The most difficult version of the Christianized Grail legend is contained in the novel Feat in the Name of the Holy Grail, which describes how the Savior descends from heaven and participates in the Eucharist celebrated at the Grail Castle. The version of the Grail legend contained in this novel was included in his book The Death of Arthur by T. Mallory. A. Tennison adopted it from Malorie and used it in "Royal Idylls", choosing Galahad as his mystical hero.
Another famous interpretation of the Grail motif in the 19th century is R. Wagner's Parsifal, where the composer reinforced the religious meaning of his source, Parzifal by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Today, the most significant treatment of the Grail plot is TS Eliot's The Waste Land, where the medieval theme is used to depict the sterility of 20th century civilization. Wagner's opera and Eliot's poem have helped rekindle interest in medieval legend.
It should be noted that some researchers believe that the primary core of the Grail legend is not of Celtic, but of Eastern origin, and that ultimately it is in the East that its roots should be sought. It is believed that this legend came to the Moorish culture of Spain (and from it to the Christian one) from Arabia or even from Persia, others consider India to be the birthplace of this legend. And therefore, in a number of epic songs, as, for example, in Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Grail returns from sinful Europe back to India.
In Eschenbach's poem, purely Christian elements are relegated to the background and tolerance, even love, for the people of the East is traced - as, indeed, in other works. Von Eschenbach himself admits that when writing his work he used the lost poem of the Provencal Quiot, the source of which was not a purely Christian legend, but the Arab story of the Grail, discovered in Toledo (Spain) and written by the “pagan” Flegetan “of the Solomon clan”.
Flegetan "was known as a great connoisseur of the stars, an astrologer, and in the stars he read the secret of the Grail." Having become acquainted with his work, Kyot tried to find in Latin books where the "tribe of the pure in heart, called to serve the Grail" may be. He got acquainted with the chronicles of various European countries and in the city of Anjou found a story about the ancestors of Parzival, leading to the east, but because the original source is lost, further details are lost in the darkness of centuries.
Gradually, the Grail legends ceased to occupy the attention of the dedicated public, passing into the realm of folk legends. But the shadow of the relic invisibly overshadowed many events of medieval Europe. The Czech taborites went into battle under the banner with the image of the "kalika" - the sacred chalice in which one can easily guess the Holy Grail. And the knowledge of the Gnostics did not die with the defeat of the Cathars and Templars - it continued to live in the midst of numerous secret orders and organizations, which abound in the history of the XII-XIX centuries.
It turned out to be in demand at the beginning of the 20th century, when the occult "Thule Society", which arose in Germany in 1918, began to develop the occult-mystical basis of National Socialism. And along with the teachings of the Gnostics, the Chalice was also in demand … Initially, the search for the Grail was led by a certain Otto Rahn, one of the developers of the Nordic theory. In the early 1930s, he visited the ruins of Montsegur, but, as far as can be judged, he did not conduct any serious searches, and as a result of the trip he published the book "The Crusade Against the Grail", where he calls the Grail "the cup of the Nibelungs."
1937 - After his second trip to Languedoc, Rahn suddenly disappeared. Nothing is known about his fate to this day. In June 1943, a large expedition arrived in Montsegur from Germany, carrying out work in the caves until the spring of 1944. And although she could not find anything, the system of underground shelters and passages laid by Cathars in the rocky ground near Montsegur, according to archaeologists, makes it possible hope that the sacred relic can be there. However, there were a lot of inaccessible caches in medieval Europe …
M. Zgurskaya