According to Dan Brown in his book the Da Vinci code, the early Grail
writers wrote the word SANGREAL and that this was split to become SAN GREAL or
Holy Grail because there is a Celtic cup object called GRAAL. However
Brown says that this should be split as SANG REAL or Blood Royal. Brown is not
entirely wrong with this.
THE EARLY GRAIL WAS NEVER A CHALICE
Actually what Brown says is incorrect
the early writers of the 12th and 13th centuries who wrote about the Grail did
not mention the word SANGRAAL. But the fact is that everyone considers the Grail
as a cup or Chalice because of total misinformation by Tennyson and Wagner. The
early Grail writers NEVER regarded the SANGRAAL as a cup or chalice but merely
as the GRAAL (anglicised to Grail) but as we shall see there is confusion
amongst these writers as to what they thought it was.
The very first writer to mention the
Grail was Chrétien de Troyes, his book Conte de Graal. It was the last of
his Arthurian romances and was probably composed between 1175 and 1190. What
Chrétien considered to be the Graal could not possibly have been a cup. In his
story Chrétien said that it contained a sacramental wafer and thus, the Host,
represented it as a ciborium, a covered goblet surmounted by a cross, the normal
receptacle of the Corpus Christi. It is certain that Chrétien considered it
otherwise Helinand, abbot of Froidmont, who was a contemporary of Chrétien de
Troyes writing about 1215 defined the word as 'sculelle lata et aliquantulum
profunda, in qua preciosae dapes divitibus solent apponi' - 'a wide and
slightly deep dish, in which costly viands are customarily placed for rich
people'. Chrétien de Troyes died before completing the Conte de Graal. The first
person to write about the Grail after Chrétien's poem mentioned a hundred boars
heads on Grails. Later writers who mentioned the Grail, Estoire and
Queste del Saint Graal, saw fit to christianise the story and equated the
Grail with the Last Supper containing the Paschal lamb. Clearly Chrétien de
Troyes is referring to a container of considerable size, in fact he specifically
mentions the fact later in the book that the vessel did not contain a Pike or a
Lamprey or a Salmon which would have been a pointless remark if the Grail had
been a cup or ciborium.
In this story by Chrétien de
Troyes a boy called Perceval who is later knighted sees a
procession preceded by a bleeding lance at the Castle of the sick and lame
Fisher King, Perceval does not learn that this Fisherman is a king until later
but also learns that there is another lord in the castle that has not left his
room for fifteen years. Chrétien de Troyes says
this:
"Then two squires came in , right
handsome, bearing in their hands candelabra of fine gold and niello work, and in
each candelabrum were at least ten candles. A damsel came in with these holding
between her two hands a graal. She was beautiful, gracious, splendidly garbed,
and as she entered with the grail in her hands, there was such a brilliant light
that the candles lost their brightness, just as the stars do when the moon or
the sun rises. After her came a damsel holding a carving-dish (tailleor) of
silver. The grail which preceded her was of refined gold; and it was set with
precious stones of many kinds, the richest and the costliest that exist in the
sea or in the earth. Without question those set in the grail surpassed all other
jewels. Like the lance, these damsels passed before the couch and entered the
chamber.
The youth watched them pass, but did not dare to ask
concerning the grail and whom one served with it, for he kept in his heart the
words of the wise nobleman. I fear that harm will come of this , because I have
heard say that one can be too silent as well as be too loquacious. But for
better or worse, the youth put no question."
It is good to question things even if someone purporting to
be wise tells you to keep your mouth shut, because if you do you may cure many
ills by questioning things. Perceval later finds out from another damsel who
turns out to be his cousin that he has been a fool not to ask the question that
his heart wanted so much to ask. Whom does the Grail serve? This is an
odd question which never really gets answered. It is generally assumed above
that the brilliant light IS the Grail but Chrétien
de Troyes does not necessarily say this and he later finds out the other lord
whom Perceval has not met lives entirely upon a wafer and it is he whom the
Grail serves. Perceval is troubled by his lack of what he considers to be common
sense and later seeks a hermit from whom Perceval seeks atonement for his sins
(although his sin appears to be nothing more than that he left his mother alone
and she died of a broken heart and that he failed to ask the question Whom does the Grail serve?). A
confession is given to the hermit and a forced acceptance of the Good Friday
story of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection is the penance for his sins..
The story is a classic gothic narrative and is clearly
allegorical. The hermit doesn't offer a solution to
Perceval's troubles, instead of resolving Perceval's difficulty he merely
compounds them. We are not told that Perceval doesn't not recognise Jesus'
sacrifice on the cross although apparantly Perceval later has combat with
another knight on what is Good Friday which he had forgotten. A French scholar
Albert Pauphilet sums up the confusion thus:
"The old infirm king, whom a single
question would have cured, was he, after all, not the only lord of a marvellous
castle? Nor the only infirm one? For the other lord, his father, whom Perceval
did not see, is even more an invalid than the Fisher King, for he has not left
his chamber for fifteen years. Was he also to be healed by Perceval's question?
But there is no mention of it....This old man was sustained by a single mass
wafer, brought to him by the Grail , and yet, with every fresh course,
the Grail reappears and passes into his chamber; why these repeated servings of
a single wafer? Finally, the Host ought not to be placed in any but a liturgical
vessel; behold, then, the Grail surreptitiously transformed into a ciborium or
chalice, and a strange procession into the commencement of a Christian liturgy.
But in that case, what do these unusual accessories signify, this lance, and
above all this absence of a priest?"
Note that it is not the Grail that sustains the lord who
hasn't left his chamber for fifteen years that Perceval didn't meet but what is
contained IN the Grail that sustains him. We aren't told of the dire
circumstances that transpired when Perceval didn't ask the question
Whom does the Grail serve? which caused him to be a sinner and to
seek atonement from the hermit. Your attention is also drawn to fact that the
year of writing is around 1125 and yet it is a young woman who is bearing
what has been later interpreted as administering the Eucharist. This is in
direct violation of the doctrine of the Roman Church and yet as far as we know
Chrétien de Troyes was not admonished for this.
The story of a traveller seeking something and being
made welcome in a castle where he witnesses strange happenings who later goes to
sleep only to find everyone gone in the morning is a well known story line from
Celtic Legends. One such is the Irish allegorical stories called Echtra [a visit
to another world]. Here a mortal hero visits a supernatural palace and witnesses
strange happenings and awakes in the morning and finds his hosts and their
dwellings have disappeared. An almost direct comparison with that of Conte de
Graal is that of the story called 'Phantom's Frenzy'. [frenzy in this context
means a kind of prophetic ecstasy] and is the story of Conn of the Hundred
Battles who reigned in Ireland in the second century CE. The story parallels Chrétien de Troyes in a number of ways and perhaps the
bottom line is that the Irish Echtra speaks of the 'Sovranty'(sic) of Ireland
and speaks of the four chief treasures of the Tuatha De Danann, the Irish Gods.
Chrétien de Troyes speaks of the lance which accompanied the procession as that
which will destroy the whole realm of Logres (England). In Conte de Graal an
ugly damsel appears in a palace and appears to serve no purpose in the story.
However later stories called Peredur and Perlesvaus tell us that in the court of
King Arthur the bearer of the dish who passed before the hero in the castle is
the same ugly damsel (Loathly Damsel) that appears later in Chrétien de Troyes
who complains of his silence and failure to ask the question.
Several questions leap from this
apparant parallel story. Why does the damsel change from being extremely ugly
damsel to radiant and beautiful in the presence of the Grail? It appears that
the Welsh author of Peredur received this story not from Conte de Graal but from
an earlier story which Chrétien de Troyes also received the story from. Many
authors feel that the damsel is the goddess Eriu [from whom Erie received its
name]. The oldest account of her two forms comes from an Irish poem written in
1014. In this poem she is described as thin-shanked, grey haired, bushy browed
'As it were a flash from a mountain-side in the month of March, even so blazed
her bitter eyes'. But after transformation her countenance bloomed like the
crimson lichen of Leinster crags, her locks were like Bregon's buttercups. This
grail bearing goddess is the country of Erie and the story written by Chrétien
de Troyes is a throw back to a pagan story emanating from the west coast of
Ireland but repeated throughout the Celtic world as an allegory.
But we still have the question 'Whom does the Grail serve?'
Professor Helaine Newstead believes that the Fisher King is
Bran the Blessed1 and his story resembles the Fisher Kings story in
the following manner:
Perceval's host was wounded through the thighs or the legs
with a javelin. Bran the Blessed was wounded in the foot with a lance in battle.
In the story however the words of Branwen translates as 'I was with Bran
in Ireland; I saw when the Pierced Thigh was slain.'
Chrétien de Troyes and the other Grail
romancers say that the Fisher King entertained his guests sumptuously according
to the Mabinogian Bran dispensed lavish hospitality.
In Didot Perceval the Fisher King is called Bron.
In Robert de Boron's Joseph Bron is called the 'Rich
Fisher' and was instructed to set out with his followers to the West. The
followers of Bran, in the company of his severed head [a parallel with the
Templars here] journeyed to Gwales (Grassholm) the westernmost isle of Wales.
In Perlesvaus2 Gawain feasted in the Fisher
King's castle with twelve knights 'aged and haired and they did not seem to be
so old as they were, for each was a hundred years old or more, and yet none
seemed to be forty.' Bran's followers passed eighty years in a great hall in the
midst of abundance and joy, yet 'none of them perceived that his fellow was
older by that time than when they came there.'
It is clear that the concept of the Grail (Graal) comes from
a Celtic word meaning, as Helinand, abbot of
Froidmont, put it 'a wide and slightly deep dish, in which costly viands
are customarily placed for rich people'. The sacred and less understandable
aspect is what was carried in this dish.
1Others believe him to be Anfortas also known as
BOAZ (strength)
2In the Perlesvaus the Grail (Graal) is not
a material object and the Fisher King is called Messios which has a resemblance
to the word Messiah and the Templars make their first appearance into the Grail
story. Perhaps significantly Perlesvaus was written at a time when the
Holy land was in the possession of the Saracens. The Perlesvaus lays
great importance on Grail Lineage.
Perhaps the most enigmatic piece however comes right at the
beginning of the Perlesvaus:
Here is
the Book of thy Descent,
Here begins the Book of the Sangreal,
Here begin the terrors,
Here begin the miracles.
However in the early 1200s comes probably the most important
Grail romance called Parzival.
Written
by a Bavarian Knight called Wolfram von Eschenbach it is the most evocative
Grail narrative of all. Once again the Templars feature prominently and they are
portrayed as the Guardians of the Temple of the Grail located on
Munsalvaesche (Mount of Salvation) which has been linked by many to the Cathar
Castle of Montsegur. By now the story has changed dramatically. It still
features the Fisher King but now he is a Priest King in the same manner as Jesus
and officiates at the Grail Mass precisely the same as the Last Supper.
Wolfram stated unequivocally that Chrétien de Troyes' version of the Grail story was wrong and he gave the
source of his story from someone he called Kyot le Provenzale, apparantly a
Templar scribe [non-combatant] who wrote of an earlier Grail manuscript from
Arabia written by a man called Flegetanis. described as:
"a scholar of nature, descended from
Solomon, and born of a family which had long been Israelite until baptism became
our shield against fire and hell"
Again great importance is stressed by Wolfram on Grail
Lineage and he introduces Perceval's son Lohengrin. He also names the Grail
Bearer as Repanse de Schoye. He describes her thus:
"She was clad in the silk of Arabia, and she bore, resting
on a green silk cloth, the perfection of earthly paradise, both roots and
branches. It was a thing men call the Grail, which surpassed every ideal."
Wolfram described this as the 'stone of youth and
rejuvenation' It was called Lapsit Exillis (or Lapis Elixis) a variant of
Lapis Elixir, the alchemical 'Philosophers Stone'. He described it thus:
"By the power of that stone the Phoenix burns to ashes,
but the ashes speedily restore him to life again. Thus doth the Phoenix moult
and change its plumage, after which he is bright and shining as before."
At the Fisher Kings sacrament of the Eucharist, the Grail
Stone records the names of those called to its service. But it is possible for
everyone to read those names:
"Around the end of the stone, an inscription in letters
tells the name and lineage of those, be they maids or boys, who are called to
make the journey to the Grail. No one needs to erase the inscription, for
as soon as it has been read it vanishes."
Wolfram wrote of the King of Septimania (the area which
included Rennes le Chateau) Guilhelm de Gellone and said that the original
Flegetanis manuscript was held by the House of Anjou.
Wolfram located the Grail Castle in the Pyrenees. He also mentioned Edinburgh
(Tenabroc) which of course is very close to the Chapel of Rosslyn.
I'll finish this by mentioning a character that is listed as
one of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion.
Rene d'Anjou
It was Rene d'Anjou who
gave Christopher Columbus (real name Colon) his first ship's commission, and it
is from Rene that the familiar Cross of Lorraine derives. The cross, with its
two horizontal bars, became the lasting symbol of Free France and was the emblem
of the French Resistance during World War II. Among Rene's most prized
possessions was a magnificent Egyptian cup of red
crystal, which he obtained in Marseilles. It was said to have been
used at the wedding of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, bearing the later inscription
(translated):
"He who drinks well will
see God. He who quaffs at single draught will see God and the Magdalene."
So when Dan Brown says that Sangreal should be split as
Sang Real - Blood Royal, is it true?
Here
is the Book of thy Descent,
Here begins the Book of the Sangreal,
Here begin the terrors,
Here begin the miracles.
Written
by a Bavarian Knight called Wolfram von Eschenbach it is the most evocative
Grail narrative of all. Once again the Templars feature prominently and they are
portrayed as the Guardians of the Temple of the Grail located on
Munsalvaesche (Mount of Salvation) which has been linked by many to the Cathar
Castle of Montsegur. By now the story has changed dramatically. It still
features the Fisher King but now he is a Priest King in the same manner as Jesus
and officiates at the Grail Mass precisely the same as the Last Supper.
