Arthurian Novels

[Mamie]

thanks Saph. I forgot about Forest House.

[Archangel2]

I have read almost all of Steven Lawheads books on that subject. They are very good books. Ever read the Iron Lance or the Black Rood. They are based in Scotland you know. The Orkney Islands to be exact!

[galadriel27]

Originally posted by Archangel2
I have read almost all of Steven Lawheads books on that subject. They are very good books. Ever read the Iron Lance or the Black Rood. They are based in Scotland you know. The Orkney Islands to be exact!

Hey Archangel, Thanks for that! I had never heard about Steven Lawheads books... I'll certainly start to look for them tomorrow.

Thanks for sharing!
Cheers
Gala

[oron]

From jacobitedreamer:
Hey, did you actually know that the holy grail (at least the Christian one) is guarded in a wee cloister abbey high up in the mountains of Spain?

I'm new here and I was just cruising through the forums when this statement really caught my eye.

No, I most assuredly did NOT know that. Would you mind giving us your source for it? It's fascinating--I always assumed the Grail was only legend.

[jacobitedreamer]

Hi, first of all welcome here and thanks for your interest.

I have seen this on a documentary broadcasted by ARTE. It traced the stations where the holy grail was brought to. It is related to the history of the templars. It once WAS in Britain, from there went to France and was brought to Spain by the templars when they were persecuted throughout Europe. I know not actually which cloister on which mountain it is, but I will try to contact the Catholic Church of Spain in order to receive some info. The cloister receives tourists and visitors, so far I know and they show the grail round, too.

This Holy Grail is the one in which the drops of Jesus' blood were caught when he died on the cross.

The Holy Grail of the Arthurian novels is only christianized. It once was one of the wondrous cauldrons of Celtic mythology. There are several. Some restore dead to life, others give plenty of food to the brave ones, leaving hungry the cowards. Others are cauldrons of wisdom. The Holy Grail of the Arthurian legends provides immortality and spiritual wisdom. So the Holy Grail in Spain is the Holy Grail of the Christians. It is authentic. But it is NOT the Holy Grail of the original Arthurian novels. The wondrous Celtic cauldron was replaced by the Holy Christian Grail during the Christianization of the original Celtic Arthurian legends.

Hope I could help. If you need more info, just let me know.

[oron]

Thanks, jacobitedreamer, for your prompt response.

I live in America, many segments of which are fascinated by Grail literature and Grail lore, including a number of friends of mine and one ex-wife. I read a good deal of history, know something of the Knights Templar and their spotty, not to say infamous, history, and keep my ear more or less to the ground around issues of this type, and as far as I know everyone here believes that the Grail is only a legend. I can see where the mix-up might have occurred, as I take your point about the distinction between the Grail and the Celtic cauldron. And certainly rumors have been swirling around for years that the Templars had at some point, shall we say, commandeered the Grail (from whom depends on the story you're reading at the moment but my personal favorite candidate is the Knights of Malta) and spirited it away to some unknown hiding place.

But tourists visiting a Spanish mountaintop to glide by the Sangreal in a line like, well, tourists? This takes a little getting used to.

I don't know this ARTE--how good is their reputation? NBC's pretty big stuff over here (it's a major tv network) but they broadcast as fact a "documentary" that claimed that the woman who married Michael Jackson wasn't the real Priscilla Presley but an imposter. Is there provenance for this object? A trail? Do we know where it came from? How far back can we track it? Do you know what it looks like and can you describe it? Can you tell me the names of books or authors who have dealt with this?

I realize this is a lot of stuff. A pointer to any one of these questions will do for a start.

If you need more info, just let me know.

Bet you'll think twice before you make that offer again.

Seriously, I am interested, and anything you can shovel in my direction I'd be grateful for. Thanks again for answering so promptly.

[jacobitedreamer]

The Grail of Spain. Well, I shall try to get some more info via my friends in Spain, or I will contact arte. Arte is a broadcasting service of France and Germany, they are focused on culture and info. They are quite serious and reliable. This thing about the grail was a documentation, a report. They told the story of the Christian grail in which one of the Roman soldiers (as far as I can remember) caught some drops of the blood of Jesus Christ. It was then purchased some time later by some tradesman and much later somehow landed in the hands of the Templars. But that was not so important. What was important is, an that's all the theory is based on, the grail was made in the time and of material that was broadly used in the times of Jesus. They analyzed the material to and fro, comparing its material to other items of that time and came to the conclusion that it is most likely that this is the Holy Grail. But see, you never know if this grail ever really existed or if this is just a well-adorned drinking cup that by chance was made in this time. But people believe in it and they think it can help them somehow. It has got the same status as Lourdes, I'd say. More or less. So, to sum up, the Grail in Spain is authentic to the TIME of the life of Jesus. But if it is THE grail? Who can say...

About the books: Arthur Cotterell's "Celtic Mythology" is quite good. And there was one edition of the Arthurian legends by Andrew Lang with a long appendix trying to trace back the origins of the legends. I know not if it is still available, as I had it from the British Council library. I will try to find the file on my computer in which I have recorded all the facts for my report (oh my God, six years ago!!! I'm growing old, hehehe!). I'll have a look round for some more books. They were all from the library and I can't remember all the names.