Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature.
Different traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous powers: providing eternal youth, or sustenance in infinite abundance, often in the custody of the Fisher King. By analogy, any elusive object or goal of great significance may be perceived as a holy grail by those seeking it. A grail, wondrous but not explicitly holy, first appears in Perceval, le Conte du Graal, an unfinished romance written by Chrétien de Troyes around 1190.
Chrétien's story attracted many continuators, translators and interpreters in the later 12th and early 13th centuries, including Wolfram von Eschenbach, who perceived the Grail as a stone. In the late 12th century, Robert de Boron wrote in Joseph d'Arimathie that the Grail was Jesus's vessel from the Last Supper, which Joseph of Arimathea used to catch Christ's blood at the crucifixion.
Thereafter, the Holy Grail became interwoven with the legend of the Holy Chalice, the Last Supper cup, a theme continued in works such as the Lancelot-Grail cycle and consequently Le Morte d'Arthur. The word, as it is earliest spelled, comes from Old French or, cognate with Old Occitan and Old Catalan, meaning a cup or bowl of earth, wood, or metal.
The most commonly accepted etymology derives it from Latin or via an earlier form, a derivative of or, w
Different traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous powers: providing eternal youth, or sustenance in infinite abundance, often in the custody of the Fisher King. By analogy, any elusive object or goal of great significance may be perceived as a holy grail by those seeking it. A grail, wondrous but not explicitly holy, first appears in Perceval, le Conte du Graal, an unfinished romance written by Chrétien de Troyes around 1190.
Chrétien's story attracted many continuators, translators and interpreters in the later 12th and early 13th centuries, including Wolfram von Eschenbach, who perceived the Grail as a stone. In the late 12th century, Robert de Boron wrote in Joseph d'Arimathie that the Grail was Jesus's vessel from the Last Supper, which Joseph of Arimathea used to catch Christ's blood at the crucifixion.
Thereafter, the Holy Grail became interwoven with the legend of the Holy Chalice, the Last Supper cup, a theme continued in works such as the Lancelot-Grail cycle and consequently Le Morte d'Arthur. The word, as it is earliest spelled, comes from Old French or, cognate with Old Occitan and Old Catalan, meaning a cup or bowl of earth, wood, or metal.
The most commonly accepted etymology derives it from Latin or via an earlier form, a derivative of or, w
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