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'The Grail is, in one of its aspects, a historical and literary puzzle, and there is an insatiable appetite for solutions to such mysteries and puzzles.'-Richard Barber
For more than eight hundred years the search for the Grail has been going on. As shown by the bestseller-phenomenon of The Da Vinci Code, tinkering with the Grail in its many and varied forms and meanings, whether Celtic Cauldron of Plenty, Christian dish, or chalice of the Last Supper or the holy blood line, has become almost a cottage industry. It seems presumptuous to add yet one more piece to the puzzle, but in spite of this and in all humility I would like to do just that. Although in dealing with the Grail it is inevitable to get sidetracked, I will focus on the image of the Grail bearer and put some stray thoughts on the nature of the Grail into the notes.
In his comprehensive The Holy Grail: Imagination and .Sf/zf/Richard Barber states that in 1180 nobody knew anything about the Grail. Its first appearance in literature is in about 1190, in Chrétien's description of the procession in the Grail castle as witnessed by Perceval (v. 3192-239), where a squire came carrying a white lance.2 From its tip a drop of blood would drip and run along the shaft, down to the squire's hand, followed by another drop. Two more squires entered, each held a golden candelabrum, blazing with at least ten lighted candles, and then
.. .Un graal entre ses deus mains
Une demoisele tenoit
Qui avec les vallés venoit,
Bele et gente et bien acesmee...
[...A grail between her two hands
a damsel held
who with the squires came,
lovely, gentle and well attired...]
When the damsel bearing the grail entered (it was of finest gold and enameled, set with the rarest and most precious gems to be found on land or sea), it cast such a brilliant light that the candles seemed to pale, as the stars do at the rise of the sun or the moon. The grail bearer was followed by another damsel carrying a silver platter.3
More than three thousand lines later, Chrétien tells of Perceval's visit to the hermit (v. 6415-3479), who is the...