Grail Symbolism and Literature: Universal Mysteries from Medieval to Modern Times
The symbols used in the Grail novels continue to fascinate. Even in 2003, we have global media phenomena involving the Holy Grail Legend. The simple fact that after more than half a millennium, symbols, stories and narrative threads can involve hundreds and hundreds of millions of individuals of different race, creed and social class, shows how these stories capture a universal aspect of Man and (evidently) of Man in his relationship with the Sacred.
It is clear that this universality requires an explanation. Why do these symbols adapt perfectly to these historical periods? Why don't they appear outdated, ancient, lifeless, but captivate worldwide? It became immediately clear that there must be some deep reason behind this fact, and from here began the analyses to understand what was the mystery behind this Grail literature.
From reading the texts, two things are understood: first, IT IS NOT AN ARBITRARY INVENTION or fantasy (something totally ahistorical) but there is a mystical and theological thought at the foundation that is the driving force of these symbols; second, IT IS NOT A UNITARY MOVEMENT. Various texts present the Grail under different aspects - very different - and in a certain sense we will see that different APPROACHES OF DIFFERENT authors will lead in contemporary times to DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS.
Wagner
At the origin of the modern rediscovery of the Grail is Wagner's work. It must be said that Wagner's Parzival (fruit of a forty-year maturation) is a very original work in which the Grail themes are reviewed in a very personal reinterpretation that we don't have time to re-examine on this occasion. It must be said that in Wagner's view, art had the task of providing new vital lymph to religion that was dying out, and thus his Parsifal, with his own words, was to constitute itself as a "solemn scenic action of initiation". The Grail themes thus returned to fashion and with them also the exegesis and interpretation of Grail symbols that everyone understood as highly evocative.
2. CHRÉTIEN AND THE GRAIL NARRATIVE
If you remember, the first novel is that of Chrétien which we analyzed and saw in detail together with Von Eschenbach's Parzival. This novel had all the characteristic elements taken up by subsequent ones, but the central nucleus, leaving aside everything else, is what happens in the Grail castle.
The FIRST VISION and GRAIL PROCESSION
If you remember, Perceval arrives at the castle of the Fisher King who is also the Wounded King in this novel, who gives him a sword, then they sit at table and a procession appears led by a page with a bleeding lance, golden candelabras followed by a graal that with its light overshadows the candles like the sun the stars and then followed by a silver plate. The procession goes into an adjacent room that is not seen and Perceval is served the haunch of a deer on the silver plate. Perceval should ask two questions but doesn't. When he wakes up after falling asleep, he discovers he has been cursed for not having posed the two fundamental questions that would have healed the Wounded King: "Why does the lance bleed?" and second "Who is the Grail served to?"
Beginning of the GRAIL QUEST
The answer to these two questions will require the quest. That of the lance will lead to Gawain's quest and that of Perceval to the discovery of Who the grail is served to.
NORDIC-CELTIC-PRE-CHRISTIAN THEORY
It is clear there are numerous references to local folkloric traditions. In particular in the Irish royal tradition, the divine origins of royalty are ensured by a people of divine origin, the Tribe of the goddess Dannan, the Tuatha dé Danann1 which included:
- Clíam Solais or "Sword of Sun" of Núada: the King wounded in an arm;
- Sleá Bua or "Spear of Victory" given to the god Lug and which to be placated had to be immersed in a cauldron of blood;
- Coire an Dagda or "Cauldron of Dagda"
1It is hypothesized that the name *Danu derives from an Indo-European root *DA- "river, current" (cf. Sanskrit danu "fluid, drop", Avestan danu "river", Ossetian don "river"; cf. the names of the rivers Don, Dnepr and Dnestr). That this root was known in Celtic context is testified by the name of the river Danuvius "Danube" (< Celtic *Danwjo) and the Gaulish condate "confluence". From this root, the name *Danu has been interpreted as related to meanings like "low land, wet land", interpreting Danu as a goddess of earth, fertility or river waters.