The Holy Grail · Curious Questions

According to legendary lore, the Sangreal or Holy Grail was the cup containing the wine which the Saviour blessed and passed to His disciples at the Last Supper, saying, "Drink ye all of it" (Matt. xxvi., 27). The legend relates that the cup was preserved by Joseph of Arimathea, and that when the Saviour was crucified Joseph collected in this cup the water and blood that flowed from the pierced side. The enraged Jews cast Joseph into prison and left him to die of hunger (A.D. 33); but as he lay in the dungeon he was nourished and invigorated (so the legend runs) by the contents of the sacred vessel. Titus (A.D. 70) released Joseph from prison, whereupon he started with the Sangreal for Britain, and before dying, he confided the sacred vessel to his nephew. It remained an object of adoration and pilgrimage for many years, in the keeping of the lineal descendants of Joseph. Upon those who had charge of it, it was incumbent to be chaste in thought, word, and deed,--one of the keepers disregarding the conditions, the Holy Grail disappeared. According to the Arthurian Romance, "Then the holy grail departed suddenly, and they wist not where." Thereupon the Knights stood up in their places one after another, and vowed to go in quest of the Sangreal, "and not return to the round table till they had obtained a full view of it." The quest of the Holy Grail was from that time the most fertile source of adventures among the Knights of the Round Table; when Merlin made the table, he left a place for the grail. Sir Galahad was at last successful in finding it, as we may read in the seventeenth book of the Romance of King Arthur.

Sir Galahad is the subject of one of the most beautiful of Tennyson's compositions. "The Vision of Sir Launfal," by James Russell Lowell, is also an exquisite poem upon the subject. He enlarges the circle of competitors for the finding of the miraculous cup in such a manner as to include other persons than the heroes of the Round Table, and the brings the story down to a date subsequent to that of King Arthur's reign.