In this fascinating history Andrew Sinclair not only traces the evolution of the Grail myth from ancient times to ours but also investigates the numerous claims to the Grail's discovery in the Byzantine, in Palestine, in Wales. Sinclair studies, too, cultural and political ramifications of the Grail: how, for instance, crusaders expanded England's dominion in its name, how Puritans suppressed the romance of the Grail and how Sir Walter Scott revived it in the chivalric exploits of his novels; how, and why, Queen Victoria created two thousand Knights of the Empire; how the Grail vitalized the opera of Wagner and literature from Malory's 'Morte d'Arthur' to Alfred Lord Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King'.
Author(s): Andrew Sinclair
Publisher: Carroll & Graf
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 332
City: New York
Preface vii
1. Sources of the Grail 1
2. The Need for the Grail 14
3. The Knights of the Grail 27
4. The Joseph Grail 48
5. The Celtic Grail 60
6. The Grail of Germany 71
7. The Prodigal Grail 87
8. Where Were the Grails? 102
9. The Waning of the Grail 136
10. The Grail in Spain 149
11. The Grail in Italy 161
12. Alchemy, Merlin and Malory 181
13. The Grail Across the Oceans 198
14. Destruction and Revival 210
15. The Singing Grail 223
16. The Empire of the Grail 233
17. The Perversion of the Grail 246
18. The Vision of the Grail 254
Epilogue 263
Chapter Notes 267
Acknowledgements 280
Important Grail Texts 281
Select Additional Bibliography 283
Index 287
