Grail, LEGEND OF THE HOLY (etymology uncertain). The spelling varies considerably in the oldest texts from grual to gréaus. A vessel of some kind is obviously intended, and derivation has been suggested from the Low Lat. gradalis or gradalus ('a shallow vessel'), which appears also in the forms grasale, grassale, grazala, and Old Fr. grasals or grazals. See Ducange-Favre, Gloss. Med. et Inf. Lat., under 'Grasala.' This etymology is supported by the testimony of Helinandus (c. 1204), 'gradalis dicitur gallice scutella lata et aliquantulum profunda, in qua dapes solent apponi, et dicitur nomine graal.' Diez, Etymol. Wörterbuch, 601, suggests a lost cratalis from cratus, the Low Latin form of crater, as the original of the above-cited forms. Other etymologies have been suggested, but all are worthless.
Chronological Arrangement of the Grail Romances.—(a) Chrestien's portion of the Conte du Graal, circa 1190; (b) Gautier de Doulen's continuation of same, circa 1195 in one form, with expansions circa 1200; (c) Robert de Borron's poem, 1200-10; (d) Queste del Saint Graal, about the same date; (e) Grand St Graal, only known in a redaction of circa 1230-50, but extant in a less extended form prior to 1204; (f) Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, circa 1210; (g, h) continuation of Conte du Graal by Manessier and Gerbert, circa 1220-30; (i) the prose Perceval le Gallois, circa 1225; (k) prose continuation of Robert de Borron's poem known as the Didot Perceval, circa 1230-50; (l) Heinrich von dem Türlin's Diu Krone, prior to 1250. Personages and part of the subject-matter of the Grail romances also appear in (m) the Mabinogi of Peredur ab Evrav and (n) the alliterative metrical romance Sir Perceval. Both these last are in 14th-15th century MSS., but are certainly older, though posterior in their present form to Chrestien, whom both have used.
Subject-matter of the Romances.—The legend consists of two portions: a Quest relating (1) how Perceval comes to the castle of the Fisher King, sees the Grail, fails to ask concerning it, is reproved, has to wander many years, comes a second and third time to Grail Castle, makes whole a broken sword or slays the enemy of the Fisher King, is hailed by the latter as his nephew, and succeeds him in his kingship (a, b, f, g, h), or releases him at once from supernaturally prolonged life (k) or from the enchantment of death in life (l) (the same incidents as in a, f, g, h reappear in part in m, but the Grail is replaced by a head in a dish); (2) how Galahad, Perceval, and Bors alone of Arthur's knights succeed in beholding the Grail, follow it to the east, where Galahad and Perceval die, but Bors returns to Arthur's court (d, e)—and an Early History relating how the Grail was given by Christ to Joseph of Arimathea (c, d, e, g, h, k), and how it came to England either in the charge of Brons, Joseph's brother-in-law (c, k), or of Joseph, Joseph's son (d, e). In all these versions the Grail is a cup or vessel, and in the Early History forms it is the cup used first by Christ at the Last Supper, secondly by Joseph to collect the blood which flowed from Christ's wounds as he hung upon, or after his body was descended from, the cross. In (f) Wolfram an entirely different account is found: the Grail is a precious stone, fallen from heaven, and given in charge to Titurel and his dynasty the Grail kings.
Nature and Properties of the Grail.—In the Quest romances, the oldest portion of the cycle, and notably in the Conte du Graal, the Grail is simply a miraculous food-producing vessel. With a broken sword which only the destined hero can make whole, and a lance which drops blood, it is simply one of three talismans, and its importance in the conduct of the story is not greater than theirs. The Christianisation of the legend brought about a profound change in the conception of the Grail. This change is only fully manifest in Robert de Borron, where the properties of the Grail are exclusively spiritual: it separates the pure from the impure, and gives to the former as full and sweet solace as their heart could long for. In the other Early History forms, and in those later Quest versions which have been affected by the Early History, the Grail retains its material side by side with its spiritual properties, even where, as in the case of d, e, and h, these versions are written in a mystical and theological spirit. From (d) Queste we learn that the Grail strikes with dumbness those to whom it appears. In Wolfram (f) the spirit is likewise mystical and theological, but of course the sacramental nature of the Grail, so prominent in those romances which identify it with the Last Supper cup, is wanting, hence the symbolism is on different lines. Here too, however, the material properties of the Grail are as strongly insisted upon as the spiritual ones.