I like to read the Straight Dope columns on religious artifacts. You have covered the Ark of the Covenant and a little bit about the Dead Sea scrolls, and I would like to know about the Holy Grail. I wasn’t born into a Bible-reading family, so my knowledge of the subject is limited. I know it was used by Christ at the Last Supper and was used by Joseph of Arimathea to gather the blood of the fallen Christ. I want to know some more of the details surrounding it, and what some theories are regarding its location today. Also, are there still people searching for it?
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Nelson, we need to get with the program here. The Holy Grail is an invention. It turns up in works of fiction. Some of the works in question are classics, notably Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur (“The Death of Arthur,” c 1470), in which the Grail–reimagined as a symbol of mystical union with God–is the object of the prototypical knightly quest. The notion of a quest for a talisman of incomparable value still fascinates romantics (and not a few screenwriters) lo these many centuries later. But the object of the quest, to some extent then and certainly now, is little more than a McGuffin, to use Hitchcock’s term–a pretext that propels the story. You might as well search for Excalibur, or for Frodo’s magic ring.
Second, the Grail-as-mystical-object doesn’t appear in ancient Christian texts–unlike, say, the Ark of the Covenant. The earliest such mention we know of is in a retelling of the King Arthur legend called Le Conte du Graal, written in the last quarter of the 12th century by French poet Chretien de Troyes. Chretien, who’s credited with inventing the courtly romance, wrote several Arthurian tales, apparently based on Celtic sources. The Grail in Chretien’s story is a fancy platter with an otherworldly (but not explicitly religious) aura. The knight Perceval sees it while feasting at the castle of the Fisher King, where it’s brought in as part of a procession of mysterious objects. Though curious, Perceval holds his tongue–he’s already been scolded for asking too many questions. Big mistake. Because he fails to inquire about the Grail, the Fisher King and his castle are doomed to remain in a netherworld, neither dead nor alive. To rectify matters, Perceval must embark on a quest, which drives the rest of the tale.
