The Grail or, according to the medieval tradition, the Holy Grail, is the legendary cup used by Jesus during the Last Supper, or even the cup in which Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of Jesus after his crucifixion.
The word Graal comes from the Medieval Latin word “Gradalis” or from the Greek word κρατήρ ( that means vase). We have a lot references the Holy Grail in many stories of The Arthurian Legend.
The Arthurian Legends are a set of stories about the population of the Celts and the mythological history of the British Isles and Britain. In many of these tales the main topic is the research of S. Graal. These legends tell about knights, as Percival or Galand, that were trained to research the religious cup and found it, but Lancelot, who was one of the knights, failed, doing it.
The Origins of this sacred relic come from Middle Ages, in 12th century, and we have its reference in literary form thanks to Chrétien de Troyes, who wrote a story called “Le Roman de Perceval ou le conte du Graal”.
In this story, the protagonist is Perceval, who wants to become a knight: the young boy leaves his mother and goes to the Arthur’s court; during his journey, he goes to the castle of King Fisherman.
King Fisherman, according to the traditions, is a king who makes part of the lineage of royal families which handed down the Grail from generation to generation.
During a banquet in the castle of King Fisherman there is a woman sitting near the king that holds in her hand the holy cup.
In this part of the story Chrétien de Troyes didn’t say that the Holy Graal is a sacred relic but he only described it.
Then we have another poem of Robert de Boron: in his work “Joseph of Arimathea” we find have the story of Joseph of Arimathea who after the death of Jesus, come to the British island and take with him the Holy Grail.
In the novel “Perceval”, a story written by Wolfram von Eschenbach who was a German medieval knight and a writer, we can find another version of the H.Grail it is discribed it not as a cup but as a magic stone that can realise every desire thanks to divine grace.
In the middle ages there was a group of people that said to know where the Holy Grail was, and can be found several theories:
Some people believe that it is in Jerusalem the Holy City, or in S. Lorenzo cathedral in Genova.
According to other theories the Holy Grail is in the cathedral of the city of Valencia, in Spain, because there is it situated a cup, that, according to a legend , could be the holy object.
There is also have a precious goblet in a church of Bari that was taken there in 1087 by a group of merchants who had found it in Turkey.
The argument of S.Grail is very frequent in modern literature and has inspired many books and films like Indiana Jones, the last crusade, the “Da Vinci Code” or “Excalibur”.
What about you? What do you think about this article? Have you found it interesting? Are you curious to know where this mysterious object could be today? After reading these stories, in your opinion, did the holy grail really existed or is it only a legend or a story invented by someone?
