Folklore & Mythology, General Christianity, Celtic & British Folklore & Mythology

The Holy Grail

Name: The Holy Grail
Author: Norma L. Goodrich
ISBN: 9780060922047

by Norma L. Goodrich

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Overview

For Richard Wagner and Steven Spielberg, the Holy Grail is a cup; for those at the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., it was a book written by Jesus; for early European Christians, it was a reliquary containing the forearms of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene; for the contemporary French, it is a gypsy cult. Now, for the first time, Norma Lorre Goodrich traces the history and legend of the Holy Grail, snipping away all the fictions and myths that have accrued around this evocative treasure to bring us the true, historical facts of one of the most venerated of Christian objects. From the goddess and priestess era of the proto-Christians through the rise and fall of the Knights Templar, the era of King Arthur and Merlin, and the massacres of the Crusades and the Inquisition, to present-day worship in the Languedoc region of France, The Holy Grail weaves a magnificent tale of the history of religions and nations. The Holy Grail defined a world where miracles occurred; a world that shunned crass materialism and drew an ordinary person up from his painful everyday life. Knowledge of the Grail was a quest everyone could, in imitation of his royal lords, kings, and great queens, undertake quietly, silently, and humbly. Bringing together worshipers of the disciple John with followers of the Talmud, the Grail quest reconciled the majesty of deity with the misery of humanity establishing an aristocracy of the spirit and providing worshipers with a nobler vision than that of war, poverty and daily existence. Worship of the Grail stressed sacrifice, courtesy, duty, care of the poor, and idealization of women (or chivalry). This code of chivalry worked a fusion between religious teachings and idealism, and the Holy Grail gave generations an ideal of purity and holiness to strive toward and, if necessary, die for. But what exactly was the Grail? The ship and altar of Perceval? Jesus' cup from the Last Supper? A stone with the power to bestow eternal youth? To answer this centur

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Editorials

Library Journal

The author of three Arthurian-related books-- King Arthur ( LJ 2/1/86), Merlin ( LJ 1/87), and Guinevere ( LJ 4/1/91)--claims here to ``trace the history and legend of the Holy Grail . . . to bring us the true, historical facts of the matter.'' Basing her argument on careful reading of translated 12th- and 13th-century French manuscripts, plus a unique interpretation of mythology, Goodrich contends that the grail is ``a group of objects and phenomena associated with an early Christian worship'' and that King Arthur was the first of the grail questers. She assumes readers know and accept her previous theories about the historicity of Arthur, Merlin, and Guinevere, which makes many points difficult to follow. In addition, her prose is often disjointed and confusing. For large collections in Arthurian literature where scholars need to review the latest.-- Pamela A. Grudzien, Central Michigan Univ., Mt. Pleasant