The Quest For The Holy Grail    

So, What Is The Grail?
Actually, in various tales the grail can take the shape of many different things, and its representation in all of the traditional stories is vague and mysterious – when it appears, some people can see it and others do not, and sometimes they see it in different forms.  In short, we don’t really know what it is.

We do know that it is some sort of magical talisman – a divine but physical object with magical powers.  While in some stories it may be associated with weaponry – a lance or sword, or a container holding Christ’s blood – most commonly it is associated with food.

Most commonly it is some sort of serving tray, and in the later stories it is usually a chalice or cup.

Pagan and Celtic-Pagan Origins Catholic Communion
You may have noticed there are no or few magical talisman in Sumerian, Judaic, Greek or Roman myths and stories that we’ve read:  no one picks up a magical sword to kill a legendary monster, or dresses in a blessed suit of armor etc. (correction: Achilles' armor is made by Hephaestus;  does The Golden Fleece also count as a talisman or just an emblem and idol?).   The worship of talismans is also specifically banned in the Hebrew scriptures, along with all sorts of idolatry: the worship of objects.

Celtic grail oral myths predate the arrival of Christianity to Britain, and these myths have in common some sort of bottomless food or drink supply: a cup that is always full of beer (yeehaw), a stew pot that never runs empty etc.

Arthurian legends blend these Celtic myths with Holy Communion, and most commonly – as with the Fisher King – the grail is either the tray that holds the Communion Wafer. Most commonly, however, the grail is the chalice Christ drank from during the his last Passover meal, or “the last supper”.

See: Eucharist or Catholic Communion

The Crusades and Holy Relics
Many European Catholic churches claim to hold relics associated with Christ’s life, brought back from Palestine and Jerusalem during the Crusades (c. 1000-1300).  These relics were (are) most often the bones  or locks of hair of apostles and saints and martyrs, a splinter or fragment of the cross itself or the lance that the Roman soldier poked Jesus with, a portion of the manger he was born in…the Shroud of Turin etc.  See: Top Ten European Relics

In exchange for their service, the church granted Crusaders indulgences for their sins.  Many argue that this in turn led to the extreme brutality of the Crusades, which included widespread genocide against not only Muslims but also Jews and Christians, including women and children, scenes of cannibalism, and frequent rape.

The Grail, then, could be seen as a relic/talisman that cleanses a knight of the sins of war -- or of the guilt of sin itself (consider Perceval's guilt in relation to his mother, following his failure to grasp the grail).

Illiteracy
One reason these competing stories – and beliefs – met in such interesting ways is that following the fall of Rome, Europeans were nearly entirely illiterate; the only literate members of any community were the clergy, who were literate in Latin and perhaps Greek, not in the local language or “vulgar”.  Mass was conducted in Latin, a language that the common people did not understand, much less read.

Therefore the literature, at least orally, of the people continued to remain pagan;  it was easy to integrate the once competing stories of the Hebrews with the Pagan because the average European had only a very vague grasp of the Hebrew scriptures: he did not read them, and their worship was conducted in an entirely foreign language.

The Grail And The Form Of The Good
Now tie all this together with the effect of Platonism on European Christianity. God, and now Christ, are the “Form of the Good”:  the essence of eternal truth and virtue and love.  

This eternal essence and truth are not to be found in this world, but in the ever-after.   We can know them through a mystical process of contemplation and thought – for Christians: prayer and devotion – and are distracted from them by worldly objects, those things we come to know sensibly or sensually (through our senses).

Our love, desire, or agape for The Form Of The Good – or God, Christ etc. – first manifests itself as love for worldly things – the good life, comfort, beautiful princesses or jewels – but eventually we must transcend these worldly desires and point our cupid’s arrow straight toward the divine itself.

We lose our way each time we are distracted from the “Eternal Good” (God, divine knowledge) by worldly pleasures.

The Quest
This, then, is the knight’s quest: his allegiance is to his lords – one here on earth and the other in heaven – and he has been given immense power (in the form of wealth, legal protection and status, military might etc.) to serve both.  But this power is easily misused and inevitably, when the lords seem distant and the knight finds himself surrounded by strangers in a strange land, only his personal virtue can remind him that he must find eternal, not sensual, beauty.

Yet if there is a common thread running through all the quest stories it is this: no one ever finds that ever elusive grail.