THE HOLY GRAIL

That which gives men their heart’s desire. Appeared first in the form of a chalice in an unfinished Arthurian story by Chrêtien de Troyes for Marie de Champagne and her Court of Love. Idea taken up by other authors, who changed its form and its purpose according to their patrons and their requirements. For one it was the cup from the Last Supper filled with Christ’s blood after the Crucifixion; another saw it as a changing set of images accompanied by a fragrance and a great light; a third saw it as a stone that gave the elixir of life and was guarded by a family, whose names were written on it, appearing as their time to choose their destiny drew near. Sir Thomas Malory’s LA MORTE D’ARTHUR gives the most well-known version.

The quest for the real Holy Grail, if there is such a thing, has occupied men’s minds since its first appearance and goes on to this day. Stephen Spielberg and the Monty Python team have both made films about it. Researchers have identified a field in Shropshire where they think it as been buried. And a country house in Wales once had a wooden cup, which tradition said was the Holy Grail. Montségur, last stronghold of the Cathars and not so many miles from Rennes-le-Château, was thought by many to be the Grail Castle, including Richard Wagner and the Nazis, who took a keen interest in it under Adolf Hitler.