The Holy Thing is here again
Among us, brother, fast thou too and pray,
And tell thy brother knights to fast and pray,
That so perchance the vision may be seen
By thee and those, and all the world be healed. ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Holy Grail is a sacred object figuring into literature and certain Christian traditions, most often identified with the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers. The quest for the Holy Grail makes up an important segment of the Arthurian cycle, appearing first in works by Chrétien de Troyes. The legend seems to combine Christian lore with Celtic myths of a cauldron endowed with special powers.

Quotes

If we only have love
Then we'll only be men
And we'll drink from the Grail
To be born once again… ~ Jacques Brel

Here are your waters and your watering place.
Drink and be whole again beyond confusion. ~ Robert Frost

We all been playing those mind games forever
Some kinda druid dudes lifting the veil.
Doing the mind guerrilla,
Some call it magic — the search for the grail. ~ John Lennon

The Holy Grail! —
… What is it?
The phantom of a cup that comes and goes? ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The sweet vision of the Holy Grail
Drove me from all vainglories, rivalries,
And earthly heats that spring and sparkle out... ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

If a man
Could touch or see it, he was healed at once,
By faith, of all his ills. But then the times
Grew to such evil that the holy cup
Was caught away to Heaven, and disappeared. ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

• If we only have love
  Then we'll only be men
  And we'll drink from the Grail
  To be born once again —
  Then with nothing at all
  But the little we are
  We'll have conquered all time
  All space, the sun, and the stars.
  • Jacques Brel, in "If We Only Have Love" (1957), as translated in the closing scene in the 1968 musical Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (1975 film version)

• I simply state that I'm a product of a versatile mind in a restless generation — with every reason to throw my mind and pen in with the radicals. Even if, deep in my heart, I thought we were all blind atoms in a world as limited as a stroke of a pendulum, I and my sort would struggle against tradition; try, at least, to displace old cants with new ones. I've thought I was right about life at various times, but faith is difficult. One thing I know. If living isn't seeking for the grail it may be a damned amusing game.
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald, in This Side of Paradise (1920)

• I have kept hidden in the instep arch
  Of an old cedar at the waterside
  A broken drinking goblet like the Grail
  Under a spell so the wrong ones can't find it,
  So can't get saved, as Saint Mark says they mustn't.
  (I stole the goblet from the children's playhouse.)
  Here are your waters and your watering place.
  Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.
  • Robert Frost, in Directive (1947)

• Only the worthy can find the Grail, Leigh. You told me that.
  • Akiva Goldsman, for the film The Da Vinci Code (2006) based on The Da Vinci Code (2003) by Dan Brown, lines spoken by "Robert Langdon" played by Tom Hanks

• Okay, maybe there is no proof. Maybe the Grail is lost forever. But, Sophie, the only thing that matters is what you believe. History shows us Jesus was an extraordinary man, a human inspiration. That's it. That's all the evidence has ever proved. But... when I was a boy... when I was down in that well Teabing told you about, I thought I was going to die, Sophie. What I did, I prayed. I prayed to Jesus to keep me alive so I could see my parents again, so I could go to school again, so I could play with my dog. Sometimes I wonder if I wasn't alone down there. Why does it have to be human or divine? Maybe human is divine. Why couldn't Jesus have been a father and still be capable of all those miracles?
  • Akiva Goldsman, for the film The Da Vinci Code (2006) based on The Da Vinci Code (2003) by Dan Brown, lines spoken by "Robert Langdon" played by Tom Hanks

• The search for the Cup of Christ is the search for the divine in all of us. But if you want facts, Indy, I've none to give you.
  • "Dr. Marcus Brody", played by Denholm Elliot, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) screenplay by Jeffrey Boam

• The quest for the Grail is not archeology, it's a race against evil. If it is captured by the Nazis the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the Earth. Do you understand me?
  • "Professor Henry Jones", played by Sean Connery, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) screenplay by Jeffrey Boam

• You must choose. But choose wisely, for as the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.
  • "Grail Knight", played by Robert Eddison, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) screenplay by Jeffrey Boam

• • Jeffrey Boam, based on a story by George Lucas and Menno Meyjes, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, (1989).

• We all been playing those mind games forever
  Some kinda druid dudes lifting the veil.
  Doing the mind guerrilla,
  Some call it magic — the search for the grail.

  Love is the answer and you know that for sure.
  Love is a flower, you got to let it — you got to let it grow.

  • John Lennon, in "Mind Games" on Mind Games (1973)

• As the dreaded Black Beast lunged forward, escape for Arthur and his Knights seemed impossible. Then suddenly the animator suffered a fatal heart attack. The cartoon peril was no more. The Quest for the Holy Grail could continue.
  • Monty Python comedy sketch, featuring Terry Gilliam as the animator in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

• It begins with the king as a boy, having to spend the night alone in the forest to prove his courage so he can become king. Now while he is spending the night alone he's visited by a sacred vision. Out of the fire appears the holy grail, symbol of God's divine grace. And a voice said to the boy, "You shall be keeper of the grail so that it may heal the hearts of men." But the boy was blinded by greater visions of a life filled with power and glory and beauty. And in this state of radical amazement he felt for a brief moment not like a boy, but invincible, like God, so he reached into the fire to take the grail, and the grail vanished, leaving him with his hand in the fire to be terribly wounded. Now as this boy grew older, his wound grew deeper. Until one day, life for him lost its reason. He had no faith in any man, not even himself. He couldn't love or feel loved. He was sick with experience. He began to die. One day a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. And being a fool, he was simple minded, he didn't see a king. He only saw a man alone and in pain. And he asked the king, "What ails you friend?" The king replied, "I'm thirsty. I need some water to cool my throat". So the fool took a cup from beside his bed, filled it with water and handed it to the king. As the king began to drink, he realized his wound was healed. He looked in his hands and there was the holy grail, that which he sought all of his life. And he turned to the fool and said with amazement, "How can you find that which my brightest and bravest could not?" And the fool replied, "I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty."
  • Richard LaGravenese, in The Fisher King (1991), as said by "Parry", played by Robin Williams

The Birth Of Sir Galahad (1925)

No bravery is such a virtue as the Graele may gain. For Arthour never gained it — Launcelot Could not achieve it. ~ Thomas De Beverley

Only these, Of all the Table Round, had purity Which gift alone the sangrael could win. ~ Thomas De Beverley

by Thomas De Beverley

• No bravery is such a virtue as the Graele may gain.
  For Arthour never gained it — Launcelot
  Could not achieve it. Only three there were:
  Galahad, Bors, and Percival; of these
  Their spotless souls had ne'er been flecked by sin.

• Then came a maiden in — though all the doors
  Were closed. She, in her hands, the Sangrael bore.
  Then was a table o'erlaid with goodly fare:
  Red wine in crystal cups, and meat and fruit.
  "Peace be to thee and thine," she said, "Sir Bors,
  Go to the perilous siege, the siege of death!
  But first the Sangrael Galahad shall achieve;
  His father he excels in purity."
  Then kneeled they down, while wafted on the air
  Was incense of such savour, as the world
  Had never known; and, when the dove took flight,
  The maiden vanished, as the mists of morn —
  Vanished before the rays of that red sun,
  The source of life. Thus vanished and was gone
  The maid — the cup of sacred wine remained.

• Sir Bors de Ganis, he of Launcelot
  The nephew, brave as lions, pure as snow,
  With Galahad and Percival was destined
  The Holy Grail to witness and to taste
  Wine from the Sacred Chalice. Only these,
  Of all the Table Round, had purity
  Which gift alone the sangrael could win.

External links

• The Holy Grail at the Camelot Project
• The Holy Grail in the Catholic Encyclopedia
• The Holy Grail today in Valencia Cathedral
• The Holy Grail, an episode of In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)