Sources of the Grail: An Anthology 0940262878, 9780940262874

Table of contents :
Contents
Introduction: The Quest for Wholeness
Percival at Corbenic
Part One. The Celtic Dream
1 The Spoils of Annwn
2 Branwen, daughter of Llyr
Here is the second portion of the Mabinogi
3 Peredur the Son of Evrawc
From Peredur the Son of Evrawc
4 The Elucidation
From The Elucidation
5 The Origin of the Holy Grail
6 The Celtic Grail
7 The Irish Element in King Arthur and the Grail
Part Two. The Medieval Quest
8 Perceval: or The Story of the Grail by Chretien de Troyes
From Perceval
9 The History of the Holy Grail
1. The History of the Holy Grail (prologue and introduction)
10 Perlesvaus: or. The High History of the Holy Graal
Branch VI
Ill
VII
VIII
XIII
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XXI
XXII
XXIII
XXIV
XXV
XXVI
11 Parzival: a Knightly Epic by Wolfram von Eschenbach
Book IX: Trevrezent
12 Die Krone (The Crown) by Heinrich von dem Türlin
Sir Gawain at the Grail castle
13 The Quest for the Holy Grail
Chapter V
14 Syr Percyvelle of Galles
15 Le Morte d'Arthur
Book III
Book XVII
16 The Legend of the Grail
17 Persia and the Holy Grail
18 Glastonbury and Fécamp
Part Three. The Continuing Search
19 Mystic Aspects of the Graal Legend
I. The Introductory Words
II. The Position of the Literature Defined
Ill Concerning the Great Experiment
IV. The Mystery of Initiation
V. The Mystery of Faith
VI. The Lost Book of the Graal
VII. The Declared Mystery of Quest
20 The Holy Grail: Qui on en servoit?
21 The Initiation Pattern and the Grail
22 The Grail and the Rites of Adonis
23 The Graal Legend
24 The Quest of the Sangraal
25 Perronik, the innocent
I. Perronik, "the Innocent" uses his Mother-wit
II. Perronik Becomes A Shepherd
Ill How Perronik Started on the Quest
IV. Perronik Conquers the Lion
V. Perronik outwits the Unsleeping Dragon
VI. Perronik escapes the Scaly Monsters
VII. Perronik escapes Sirens
VIII. Perronik achieves his Quest
IX. Perronik becomes King of Jerusalem
26 Mystic Gleams from the Holy Grail
I. The Holy Grail the Nature of its Divine Mystery and its Initiatory Power
II. The Mystical Nature of the Holy Grail, as it appears on the Several Planes
XVI. The World of Faerie and of Gramarye; the Astral Plane and Celtic initiation
XLVI. The Sublime Mystery of the Holy Grail; the Spiritual Plane of the Quest
27 The Arthurian Pilgrimage to the Graal
28 The Mass of the Sangraal
29 The Grail in the Uttermost West
Sources and acknowledgments
Bibliography

Citation preview

The Grail appears to the Knights of the Round Table at Camelot, by Christine Loring, from Mystic Gleams of the Holy Grail

Sources of the Grail An anthology Selected and introduced by John Matthews

Lindisfame Press

First published in 1996 by Floris Books in Great Britain and in 1997 by Lindisfame Press in the United States © John Matthews 1996 The copyrights listed under the acknowledgments form a part of the copyright of this volume. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the publisher. Lindisfame Press, RR 4, Box 94A1, Hudson, NY 12534

ISBN 0-940262-87-8 Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Guildford

Contents

Introduction: The Quest for Wholeness Percival at Corbenic by Rachel Anand Taylor

PART ONE:

The Celtic Dream

9 21

25

1

The Spoils of Annwn Translated by John Matthews

2

Branwen Daughter of Llyr Translated by CharlotteGuest 33

3

Peredur the Son of Evrawc Translated by CharlotteGuest 47

4

The Elucidation

Translated by Sebastian Evans

64

5

The Origin of the Holy Grail by Sir John Rhys

69

6

The Celtic Grail by A.G. van Hamel

89

7

The Irish Element in King Arthur and the Grail by A.C.L. Brown

p a r t TWO:

The Medieval Quest

31

126

141

8

Perceval by Chrétien de Troyes c .1180

148

9

The History of the Holy Grail by Robert de Borron c.1200

160

10

Perlesvaus

189

11

Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach c .1207

216

12

Die Krone by Heinrich von dem Türlin c.1208

239

13

The Quest for the Holy Grail Translated by W.W. Comfort c.1220

247

Translated by Sebastian Evans c.1205

SOURCES OF THE GRAIL

14

Sir Percyvelle of Galles Translated by J.L. Weston c.1320

264

15

Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory 1485

295

16

The Legend of the Grail by M. Gaster

308

17

Persia and the Holy Grail by Arthur UphamPope

332

18

Glastonbury and Fécamp by Robert Jaffray

347

PART THREE

The Continuing Search

357

19

Mystic Aspects of the Graal Legend

by A.E. Waite

364

20

The Holy Grail: Qui on en Servoit?

by D. Swinscow

401

21

The Initiation Pattern and the Grail by Robert W. Crutwell

419

22

The Grail and the Rites of Adonis

by J.L. Weston

23

The Graal Legend

24

The Quest of the Sangraal by R.S. Hawker

466

25

Perronik, the Innocentby Kenneth Guthrie

482

26

Mystic Gleams from the Holy Grail by Francis Rolt-Wheeler

500

by D.F. de YHoste Ranking

431 449

27

The Arthurian Pilgrimage to the Graal by Isabel Wyatt 514

28

The Mass of the Sangraal by Arthur Machen

530

29

The Grail in the Uttermost West by Ari Berk

536

Sources and acknowledgments

569

Bibliography

571

To the Companions of the Quest, Who know who they are.

INTRODUCTION

The Quest for Wholeness At the beginning of the twelfth century the poet Chrétien de Troyes composed a poem which he called II Conte del Graal (The Story of the Grail). It told the story of a search, undertaken by a simple youth, brought up away from the ways of men, for a mysterious object known as the "Graal." But Chrétien left the poem unfinished, dying before he could complete it, and in so doing he created a mystery that has stirred the imagination of countless seekers ever since. Yet the mystery refuses to be codified, identified or pinned down to a specific time or place. The setting is most often the M iddle Ages and the elements of the story follow their own pattern: the Grail itself, variously described as a cup, a dish, a stone or a jewel; the presence of its guardian, the Wounded King, who rules over a devastated Wasteland; the Company surrounding the King; and the questing knights who must pose the right question to heal both king and land. Yet despite the m illions of words written every year about the Grail, it remains an object of mystery. It is hidden, secret, as the medieval knight and poet Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote in his telling of the myth, where the Grail is: The wondrous thing hidden in the flower-garden of the king where the elect of all nations are called. (Parzifal) The Grail, indeed, can be many things — it can be almost anything to anyone — or it may be something that has no form, or more than one form — it may not even exist at all in this dimension. The important thing is that it provides an object for personal search, for growth and human development. In fact, it is more often not the object those who seek it are concerned 9

SOURCES OF THE GRAIL

with but the actions of the Grail — the way it causes changes to happen — in the heart, in the mind, in the soul. In the traditions relating to Western teachings of alchemy, this is reflected in the mystery surrounding the transformational quality of the Great Work that lies at the centre of the alchemist's striving for earthly perfection. The transmutation of base metal into gold is a metaphor for the transformation of the human spirit — a transformation that takes place within the alembic of the Grail. Those who encounter the mystery are never the same again. They are caught up into an entirely new frame of existence, no longer bounded by time and space, they are transformed by the process of what they encounter. We are dealing here with high things, with a Mystery that is almost too much for us. But we can learn, and grow, from studying it, by sharing the adventure of the Quest with those far-off people of the Arthurian world — who in truth are not so far off at all. Whatever else it may be, the Grail story is first and foremost pure myth. And like all myths it is filled with meta­ phors. The earliest stories of the Grail came into being during a time of extraordinary flux, when much of the western world was undergoing a simultaneous cultural renaissance combined with a period of spiritual re-definition. It is my belief that one of the reasons why the Grail has become such an important symbol for our own time is because we are also going through a similar period of cultural upheaval and spiritual re-assessment. We are in the process of re-defining much of our awareness of culture, of its importance and of its relevance. The same is true of spiri­ tuality. Perhaps at no other time in our history have we been so hungry for transcendental knowledge — a fact perhaps not unconnected with the extreme richness of spiritual traditions available to us. The Grail tradition is only one such focus. It happens to have a good deal to offer because there is so much within it that is relevant to us now — and which w ill, I think, continue to be relevant well into the next millennium. The story begins in a distant time, when the Celtic peoples held sway in these islands. We first hear of a search — the word quest is not quite current yet — for a mysterious object known as the Cauldron. Sometimes it is described as a Cauldron of Inspiration, sometimes a Cauldron of Life and Death, sometimes 10

INTRODUCTION

it is a cauldron which belongs to a specific person — like the Irish father god, the Dagda, or the Welsh god of the Under­ world, Arawn. But the first time we hear of anyone going in search of it that seeker is called Arthur — no, not King Arthur, but Arthur the hero — and thus begins a story which is still being told — how Arthur and his followers — heroes still, not yet knights in shining armour — go in search of — in quest of — a mysterious container, the discovery of which offers the reward of inspiration, knowledge, wisdom, or life. The old Welsh poem that describes this, the Preiddeu Annum, dates from the ninth century in its written form but probably looks back to a much earlier time (the text, in a new translation forms the first chapter of this collection). It is some three hundred years later, at the beginning of the twelfth century, when the stories of King Arthur and his knights began to proliferate — that we next hear of this search, and the story then looks both backward and forward. We still have the search, the quest, for the mysterious object. And, just as in the old Welsh poem, those who seek it are still Arthur and his followers — now Knights of the Round Table — who encounter various dangers in the form of strange beings or mysterious tests that must be overcome before the would-be seeker can achieve the mystery of the Grail; for, such it is now called. N o one knows for sure what the word Grail even means, but it is nearly always (with one notable exception) described as a cup or container of some kind — though now it is what is contained within the vessel that is important. At some point between the writing of the ninth-century poem about a hunt for a magical Cauldron, and the twelfth-century romances of Arthur and his knights, the old magical vessel has become identified with the Holy Grail — variously described as the Cup with which Jesus celebrated the Last Supper, and the vessel in which Joseph of Arimathea (Christ's "Uncle" in the apocryphal tales) catches some of the blood that issues from Jesus' wounds when his body is washed in preparation for burial in Joseph's own tomb. A complex story emerges from this identification. Joseph is entrusted with the Grail and instructed by Christ himself in its mysteries — specifically called "secrets," which are not to be conveyed to everyone. The Grail is then conveyed by a long 11

SOURCES OF THE GRAIL

route and by various hands, from Palestine to Britain, where it comes to rest for a time at Glastonbury. There a sacred enclosure is made to contain it, from which it subsequently disappears, to be sought thereafter by many who regard it as a most holy and sacred object, to come into contact with which is to be somehow changed — enlightened as we might say today. The story now tells us that through the ages a particular family are given the task of guarding the Grail. All are descend­ ants of Joseph of Arimathea and some perform their duties better than others. One — the Fisher King — is said to fail in his task to the extent that he receives a terrible wound, one which w ill only heal when the Grail is achieved, until when he is kept in suspended animation, in great pain, yet still sustained by the Grail. Importantly, it is said that when this man — the Grail King as he has become in the medieval stories — receives his wound, the land over which he rules becomes wounded also — that is it becomes waste, infertile, almost dead — and that it w ill only be restored to health when the king, the guardian of the Grail, is restored to health. The origins of this story go back into the mists of time. In many cultures the monarch is sacred, and the relationship of the monarch with the land is seen as far more than that of ordinary people. In Irish tradition, the kings literally "married" the land, often mating with the spirit of "Eriu" (Ireland) in the form of a woman. And, only a man perfect in body and spirit could be king. Thus in the Grail story when the king fails in his duty (the reasons do not matter here) he is punished — he receives a wound that w ill not heal — and through him the land is poisoned, it becomes sick as he is sick, infertile as he is infertile (it is not without significance, I believe, that the wound is al­ ways depicted as being in the generative organs), dead to the extent that he is dead. The crux of the story is that only through the successful achievement of the Grail's mystery can the king — and through him the land — receive healing. Each individual seeker has to undergo a rigorous series of tests and trials before he can attempt the great mystery. In the story only four — three men and one woman — succeed, and two die in the attempt. One, Dindrane, the innocent sister of Perceval, gives up her life for the healing of another; the other, Galahad, the pure in spirit. 12

INTRODUCTION

relinquishes his life so that he may enter the state of ecstatic being of oneness with Deity. The others: Perceval, who is called the Perfect Fool, and Bors, who is Everyman, perceive the mys­ tery each in their own way and live to tell of it. Perceval becomes the next Guardian of the Grail — which, once it is achieved, becomes available for the next seeker — Bors returns home to tell of the wonders. But there are other dimensions to the story. The Grail itself can only be activated by the asking of a Question — the word Quest itself derives from the same root. Though it is couched in several forms, the mysterious question is usually "Whom does the Grail serve?" Everyone who seeks it has to ask — and answer — this question sooner or later. It may seem an odd thing to ask when you have travelled however many hundreds of m iles, undergone countless adventures and trials and arrived at last in the presence of the Wounded King and his entourage of Grail maidens and youths. The Grail is borne through the hall in procession with the spear that drips blood, a large shallow dish and either a can­ delabra or a sword. The Wounded King is then fed with a wafer from the chalice. In some versions this is all, in others the entire company is fed with the food they most desire, which can be interpreted as actual or spiritual food; the point being that it is either the Grail King or the Company who are served, in the literal sense, by the Grail. Why, then, the question? In part, of course, it is a ritual question, requiring a ritual res­ ponse that in turn triggers a sequence of events: the healing of King and Kingdom, the restoration of the Wasteland. In the texts, various answers are given: Whom does the Grail serve? Why, the Grail King, the Company of the Grail, all who seek it. It is this last answer that concerns us most. The Grail is here shown to be a gateway, a nexus-point between two states of being — those which we may call, for convenience, the human and the divine, the worldly and the otherworldly. All who seek the Grail are in some senses seeking one of these alternative states, and the state of well-being which derives from them. We can see this in the very shape most often assumed by the Grail, that of a Chalice. The upper portion is open to receive the down-pouring of blessings of the spiritual realm: the lower half, stem and base, form an upward pointing 13

SOURCES OF THE GRAIL

triangle that represents our own aspirations. In the centre the two meet and are fused: the Grail operates its wonderful lifegiving properties — we are each served in the way that the Fisher King is served. But this only happens in response to the need and urgency, the drive of the Quester. The answer is simple: the Grail serves us according to the way we serve it. Like the king who serves the land as the land serves him, we stand in similar relation to the Grail. Our service, our love or hope or desire is offered up, accepted and transformed into pure energy. And, if we have behaved in a right manner on our quest, we reap the rewards, the divine sustenance of the Grail. And, if we open this out still further, our service helps transform the land on which we live and walk and have our being. The Grail does not need to be in view — it is present all around us, in every act of service we do, whether it be, symbolically, for the king or the land. While the king and the land are suffering the Grail cannot pass openly among us. It is as though a gap had opened bet­ ween two worlds or states of being, leaving us shut out, lost in the twilight looking for the shining power of the Grail ... or as some texts suggest, inhabiting a land where there are no cha­ lices, no means of expressing our own love or hope for the world we inhabit. A passage from a modem Grail story. War in Heaven by Charles Williams, sums this up. In this story, after many adventures, the moment has come when a celebration of the Eucharist is to be made, using the Grail itself as the chalice. Standing before it, one of the modem questers reflects on its long, strange history: "Neither is this Thou" he breathed: and answered: "Yet this also is Thou." He considered, in this, chalices offered at every altar, and was aware again of a general move­ ment of all things towards a narrow channel. Of all material things still discoverable in the world the Graal had been nearest the Divine and Universal Heart. Sky and sea and land were moving, not towards the vessel but to all it symbolized and had held ... and through that gate ... all creation moved.

14

INTRODUCTION

Even here, where the Grail is still an object at the end of the search, it remains that what it symbolizes is important, not the Grail itself — "through that gate all creation moved." The object is as mysterious, as "hidden" as ever. It seems that what we have to understand from all of this is that the Grail serves us in proportion to our service to the land and to the world about us. It is not some wonder-working artefact but an active principle touched off by the accumulated longing of mankind for what was once ours — for the perfect state of being that can still be ours. It is this which gives the aura of a lost golden age to Arthur's realm and acts. As w e follow the Quest Knights through the forests adventur­ ous of the Arthurian legends we see many turnings that lead to different places in the map of the soul's journey — nearly all of the characters are in some way archetypal — as are their adven­ tures, their sufferings and their realizations. It would be wrong to regard the stories too literally, of course — they are not and never were intended as parables — though it must be said, by way of balance, that the medieval writers were far more aware of what they were writing than they are sometimes given credit for. This is why w e need to go back to the texts as often as possible — to their infinite variety, complexity and subtlety, where w e may find ever new meanings. There is another story that speaks to us in a powerful way. It is also a Grail story, though less familiar than most (an extract from the text that contains it — The Elucidation — forms Chapter 4 of this collection). In that story it is said that long before the age of Arthur there existed a number of sacred wells that nourished the land and quenched the thirst of all who journeyed to them. These wells had guardians — the Maidens of the Wells — whose task it was to offer care and refreshment to all who came there. Now there was a king who lived at that time, whose name was Amangons, and he conceived of a great desire for one of the maidens. When she w ould not respond to his advances he raped her, and stole the golden cup with which she was used to offer water from the w ell to weary travellers. When Amangons' men saw what had happened they went out into the land and each took one of the Maidens for their own, despoiling her and her well. And it is said that, in that time, the land "lost the Voices of the Wells," 15

SOURCES OF THE GRAIL

for the Maidens had been wont to sing and prophesy from the spirit of the Wells. And that with this loss came a withering up of the earth and a Wasting of the Land, so that this is seen as a part of the tradition of the unhealing wound that must be set right. And the story says that many years later, in the time of Arthur, he and his knights came upon the descendants of the Maidens of the Wells and the followers of Amangons, wander­ ing in the forest, and that they swore to avenge the wrong that had been done and to restore the voices of the Wells. The story does not tell us if they succeeded, but it is said that the Quest for the Grail becomes one of the tasks undertaken by Arthur's men — from which we may assume that when the Grail is found, and the King restored, the Wells are restored also, and the land given back not only life but the water of life — and the Voices of the Wells. In this story too, I think, we can see many resonances for our own time and our personal paths. Who among us has not wandered in the Waste Lands, or felt the parching thirst of those deprived of water from the Wells? Who is there who has not been, or still is, wounded in some part of the body, or the mind, or the spirit who would seek healing if they could find it? We are very much a Silent Planet (as the writer C.S. Lewis called the earth), and if we are to survive and reach out beyond ourselves we need the Voices of the Wells — not to tell us what to do, but to tell us what we are already doing, to offer us comfort and support and to point us gently to a way forward. These are the things that make the Grail a myth for all times, and one which is just as current today as it ever was. There are many more stories than we have space for in this collection, many more versions of the central story. Yet each, in its own way, bears out the patterning of the original. From its beginning in Celtic myth through its first shaping in the eleventh century, and since then in numerous versions, the stories of the Grail have remained in the forefront of mystical literature and have provided inspiration and insight for many modem travellers on the road to self-awareness and selfrealization. The quests of the Grail knights — both successful and unsuccessful — offer rich parallels with our own journeys and w e could do worse than study them for the illumination they can offer. The Grail tradition is very much an initiatory 16

INTRODUCTION

path, as Robert Crutwell shows in his essay (see page 419). And as a path it can open doorways into other realms of the spirit. The stories and myths of the Grail form an ongoing commentary on our own personal search for absolutes, for wholeness in a time of great fragmentation. The Wounded King — and the Waste Land — are healed by and through these Mysteries, and the Grail becomes available for the process to begin again. A process that is still happening today. The mystery is still present, still accessible, to everyone — to all of us who are seekers, if we wish to take up the Quest. It is this which made the Grail relevant then, which makes it relevant today, and which w ill continue to make it relevant in the future. Because in this theme alone — apart from others not touched upon here — there is a chord that we can all respond to in some degree: because we are all wounded and because we have all wounded the land — the earth on which we live — to some degree; and we would all like to find healing, in whatever form it comes, and see the land healed as well. When, a few years ago, I edited a collection of essays by various hands, each of which sought to trace an aspect of the Grail in contemporary terms, I called it At the Table of the Grail because that is how I see all of those who go on the quest — as sitting down together at a great invisible table to share their realizations. In this book I quoted a passage from the thirteenth century romance of Perlesvaus, which seems to me to say a great deal about the reasons for the quest, now as much as then. The scene is set not long after the Arthurian era. The Grail Castle, where so many strange and wondrous things have taken place, is described as ruinous and empty, a place of ghosts with its once sacred and mysterious nature already beginning to be forgotten. To this place come two young knights in search of adventure, after the manner of the old heroes of the Table Round: They were fair knights indeed, very young and highspirited and they swore they would go, and full of excitement they entered the castle. They stayed there a long while, and when they left they lived as hermits, wearing hair-shirts and wandering through the forests, eating only roots; it was a hard life, but it pleased them 17

SOURCES OF THE GRAIL

greatly, and when people asked them why they were living thus, they would only reply: "Go where w e went, and you w ill know why." (Translated by Nigel Bryant) This is exactly the experience of the many people who have been "going there" ever since, seeking the mysterious object of which they have heard such marvellous report — more often than not failing, but sometimes discovering things about them­ selves and their own inner state. The Grail is a symbol for now as much as for any time — a contemporary symbol of an utterly current aspiration. The King — call him Arthur or Christ or the World Soul — is wounded by as w ell as for us. These wounds impinge upon everyone, and when they are healed so shall we all be, it is the same story, an utterly simple one: the Grail serves us; we serve the Grail; it w ill heal us when w e use it to heal the wounds of creation. And, the wonderful thing is that each one of us is already engaged upon this quest. Each has a chance to redeem the time in which we live, to awaken the Sleeping King, to bring the Wasteland back into flower. We are indeed all "grails" to some degree, and the true object of the Quest lies in making ourselves vessels for the light that w ill bring about these things. Only then can we ourselves be healed, the Fisher King within us regain his strength so that the land can flower. When that moment comes there w ill no longer be any need for a Grail, it w ill be everywhere about us no longer hidden but openly recognized — its presence felt in every particle of our being. As another contemporary writer, Vera Chapman, writes: Like a plant that dies down in winter, and guards its seeds to grow again, so you ... must raise the lineage from which all Arthur's true followers are to grow — not by a royal dynasty, but by spreading unknown and unnoticed ... Names and titles w ill be lost, but the story and the spirit of Arthur [and the Graill shall not be lost. For Arthur is a spirit and Arthur is the land of Britain. So shall Arthur conquer, not by war, nor by one kingship that soon passes away, but by the carriers of the spirit that does not die. (The Three Damosels)

18

INTRODUCTION

We are all carriers of that spirit, and by seeking the inner reality of the Grail behind the symbols and stories, we are taking part in an ongoing work without which all we hold most dear would long ago have perished. And if people look at us askance as we wander through the world with a strange look in our eyes, we have only to give the same answer of those knights who visited the ruined Grail Castle: "Go where we went, and you w ill know w h y/' *

*

#

This book is intended to be read chronologically — though of course the reader is at liberty to range at w ill — and for this reason I have generally followed the principle of placing the texts first with the commentaries following. This is to allow the reader to become familiar with the texts before going on to read the commentaries. The texts themselves are placed chronologi­ cally (where dates are known) to show the development of the Grail story throughout the Middle Ages. My own introductory matter, which w ill be found at the beginning of each of the three sections, aims to place the stories in context and, where necessary, make them more readily understood. In the case of the more obscure or complex texts I have also provided brief summaries to give the reader some idea of where, within the structure of the whole, the extract printed here com es. Some of these commentaries w erew ritten-byC R nhert laffravDmd come from his excellent book