The Holy Grail, the Questers, and King Fisher

The legend of the Holy Grail (cup or dish) is a medieval legend associated with the adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The Grail was the cup or plate used by Christ for his Last Supper, in which the blood of the Saviour was collected when he was crucified, it was not long before this holy vessel was discovered to have acquired medicinal and miraculous properties so that it became an object of devotion and worship, and chapels for it came to be built in several countries and its worship was organized. The lance used to pierce the sides of Christ was also kept with it. But a time came when the original Grail disappeared mysteriously from the chapel where it was kept and many a bold Knight staked his life and lost it in the arduous task of searching for it. Tennyson treated this theme as the final of his Idylls of the King, making Sir Galahed, the immaculate knight of King Arthur’s Round Table, as the leader destined to succeed in this holy mission. In other versions appearing subsequently in Germany and France, however, the searcher or the Quester is Sir Perceival or Parsifal.

It is said that in the course of their hazardous quest, Parsifal, the Quester, and his fellow-adventurers, happened to arrive in a country ruled over by a prince named Fisher King. It was one of the regions where Grail worship had been anciently in vogue, and a temple, known as Chapel Perilous, still stood there, broken and dilapidated, as a mournful memorial of what once was, but later had ceased to be. It was said that the lost Grail was hidden in this chapel. At that time the King himself had become a physical wreck, maimed and impotent, as a result, it was whispered, of a sin committed by his soldiery in outranging the chastity of a group of nuns attached to the Grail chapel. The impotency of the Fisher King was reflected sympathetically in the land of which he was the head and the ruler. It had become dry and barren, the haunt and home of want and famine. The King, however, was waiting with hope, despite his illness, that one day the Knight of the pure soul would visit his star-crossed kingdom, march to the Chapel Perilous, answer questions and solve riddles. This would be followed by a ritual washing of his, King Fisher’s, sinful body, which would purge it and renew its health and energy. It was also hoped that this rebirth of the king would be followed by the life-giving rains to the parched land and the thirsty kingdom, which would once more enjoy its earlier fertility.

This legend of the Holy Grail forms the mythical background to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.