The “Holy Grail” makes its first
appearance in literature in the 12th century in a work by Chrétien
de Troyes, Perceval. Here, Perceval
was a knight of the legendary King Arthur’s Round Table on a quest to find the
"Holy Grail." The story was subsequently told and re-told, embellished and
altered by various writers, including both Wolfram von Eschenbach and Sir
Thomas Malory. In later versions of the Grail quest, Sir Galahad replaced Sir
Perceval as the principal hero, but the theme remained popular and was increasingly
depicted in works of art as well literature.
People in the Middle Ages understood that, like King Arthur and the
Knights of the Round Table themselves, the Holy Grail was a symbol, a
spiritual gift. It was not until the 19th century that people -- increasingly
lacking spirituality and thinking of themselves as more “rational” and
“scientific” -- crudely turned the Holy Grail into a mere thing. Just people in the 19th and 20th
centuries insisted on trying to identify the “real King Arthur,” modern
scholars and enthusiasts have tied themselves in knots trying to explain just
what the Holy Grail was ― even inventing the idea that it was the blood of
Christ in the form of genetic descendants of Christ and Mary Magdalen.
Another 20th/21st
Century invention is that the Templars were in search of the Holy Grail when
they excavated under the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Indeed, it has even
been argued that the Templars went all the way to Ethiopia in the 12th
century in search of the Holy Grail (now transformed into the Ark of the
Covenant). Most recently, the History Chanel’s “Knightfall” builds on the
notion that there was a connection between the Templars and the Holy Grail.
This connection is as spurious
and ridiculous as the idea that there was
a Holy Grail in the first place. There can be no evidence of a connection
between the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail, because people in the Middle
Ages, least of all the practical and hard-headed Knights Templar, weren’t gullible
enough to actually think that the Holy Grail was a thing. Since the Templars (at least in theory) disdained secular
literature and courtly love, the venue in which the legends and tales of the
Holy Grail played out, would have been particularly disdained by the Templars. They probably would not have deigned to admit they knew of the tales at
all.
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| Copyright Fireforge Games |
Literature, whether disguised as
pseudo scholarship or, more honestly, fiction, that depicts a relationship
between the Knights Templar and an object called the “Holy Grail” belong in the
realm of fantasy and should be recognized and treated as such.
For
readers tired of clichés and cartoons, award-winning novelist Helena P.
Schrader offers nuanced insight to historical events and figures based on sound
research and an understanding of human nature. Her complex and engaging
characters bring history back to life as a means to better understand
ourselves. Her Jerusalem Trilogy has won 15 literary accolades including Best Biography 2017 (Book Excellence Awards) and Best Christian Historical Fiction 2017 (Readers' Favorites).
