Content area
Full Text
Juliette Wood, Eternal Chalice: The Enduring Legend of the Holy Grail (London: I. B. Tauris, 2008). xii + 244 pp.; 31 black-and-white illustrations. ISBN 978-1-84511-360-5. £18.99.
Books on the Grail legend are legion, but Juliette Wood's study does not fall into the usual categories. It does not focus on a specific medieval text or group of texts, nor on the vexed question of the sources of the first generations of surviving grail narratives; it does not fit in the 'New Age' box nor aim to push a single exegetical line. Wood is primarily a folklorist and Eternal Chalice reflects her interest in the way a core of narrative tradition evolves over time in different social, political, and cultural circumstances and how succeeding generations have realized its potential for furthering their own purposes. She first provides a brief outline of the medieval sources...