| According to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was
the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last
Supper, said to possess miraculous powers.
The
connection of Joseph of Arimathea with the Grail legend
dates from Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (late
12th century) in which Joseph receives the Grail from an
apparition of Jesus and sends it with his followers to
Great Britain; building upon this theme, later writers
recounted how Joseph used the Grail to catch Christ's
blood while interring him and that in Britain he founded
a line of guardians to keep it safe. The quest for the
Holy Grail makes up an important segment of the
Arthurian cycle, appearing first in works by Chrétien de
Troyes.
How at the Castle of
Corbin a Maiden Bare in the Sangreal and Foretold the
Achievements of Galahad: illustration by Arthur Rackham,
1917
The legend may combine Christian lore with a
Celtic myth of a cauldron endowed with special powers.
The development of the Grail legend has been traced
in detail by cultural historians: It is a legend which
first came together in the form of written romances,
deriving perhaps from some pre-Christian folklore hints,
in the later 12th and early 13th centuries. The early
Grail romances centered on Percival and were woven into
the more general Arthurian fabric. Some of the Grail
legend is interwoven with legends of the Holy Chalice.
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