Page from ebookChrétien’s great unfinished work was a splendid medieval folly built from the ruins of an ancient Celtic mythology. He imparted his own genius, imbuing the story with a fresh sense of mystery that teased the minds of the European courts. Although his story was in no way original, his poetic and mysterious imagery was the major source and inspiration for virtually all the narratives that followed. However, it is quite clear that the Graal of his account, or of those that used his legendary source, had no particular religious significance. If anything it was unashamedly pagan in the magical ambience that surrounded both vessel and lance. Yet once the story passed through the sanctified and celibate cloisters of the Cistercians it gradually took on an entirely new significance. Most modern scholars are of the opinion that the change of both Grail and Spear from pagan, semi-magical objects, to miraculous Christian relics was actually based upon a curious mistranslation. Whatever the truth is in such a theory, and we will be examining this in some detail, the outcome was a creative and mystical leap of imagination that still reverberates today. It is known from the Church itself that the deepest communion of Christ's teaching occurred at the table of the Last Supper. The Grail tradition sees this as the first of three great tables, the others being the Round Table and the Table of the Grail. It was here the true seeker could be in direct contact with the Divine. So even though Joseph of Arimathea was not actually present at the Last Supper, as it appears in Robert de Boron’s poem, he did acquire the chalice used on that occasion in which he later collected the blood of Christ at the crucifixion. Although thrown into prison Joseph was supposedly visited by Christ who then revealed the mysteries of the cup to him, consequently Joseph became the first guardian of the Grail. At this point the Grail was transformed into a vessel deeply identified with the Eucharistic sacrament commemorating Christ's Last Supper. |
As well as in Evangelium Nicodemi, one of the New Testament Apocrypha written around the fourth century, Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned in all four Gospels as a very rich disciple who begged Pilate for Christ's body after the crucifixion. He took the body, wrapped it in fine linen and placed it in the tomb. In the texts the story tells of Nicodemus, an influential ruler of the Jews, whose defence of Christ infuriates the Jewish elders. They manage to take their revenge, not upon Nicodemus himself, but upon Joseph, and imprison him immediately after he has laid Christ's body in the tomb. However, on Easter Day they find him gone and eventually discover him at his home in Arimathea. Joseph testifies that on the Sabbath the risen Christ appeared to free him from prison and returned him to his own home. This story appears to have been the foundation of one of the versions of the first Continuation of Le Conte del Graal that we have already briefly examined. In the Continuation Joseph had in his home a small altar with two candles burning continuously, at which he prays each day before the blood within a golden vessel, that was called the Grail. But he is observed doing this and imprisoned. As in the first apocryphal account, the walls of the prison rise to release him but even on the evidence of this miracle he is still banished along with his relative Nicodemus, his sister, and his friends. Joseph then sets sail to England and the little community settles there. The staff he planted at Glastonbury sprouted into a Holy Thorn. An ancient thorn bush still blossoms there at Christmas time. |