The Grail, Arthur and his Knights

A Jungian Symbolic Reading

Maria Zelia de Alvarenga

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Topic: Psychology
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429920929
• Subtopic: Folklore & Mythic Literary Criticism
• Index: Psychology

This book presents a broad and deep symbolic reading of the characters involved in the mythical Holy Grail. It discusses on Arthur and his loyal and faithful knights; the wise old Merlin and his visions of the future; the archetypical themes of quest and the desire to return to the golden age.

Chapter One
The quest for the Grail

The majority of tales that refer to the grail legend, written in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, represent different versions and adaptations of what were probably written in the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, the majority of which have been lost. (Barros, 1994, p. 13). The most important versions of the tale, amongst numerous others that exist, were written during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, including, in 1180, “Perceval” or “Le Conte du Graal”, by Chrétien de Troyes.

The poet, Wolfram Von Eschenbach created the most inventive and surprising version of the grail legend, in his work “Parsifal”, written between 1210 and 1220. He conjectures that the Grail was something that existed prior to the birth of Christ. The grail was not a chalice, but a stone sent to earth by celestial spirits, years before. The grail is understood to have been kept by a mysterious brotherhood of knights, called templáisen. The text “Parzival” by Von Eschenbach (1995) was the source of inspiration for Wagner when he wrote his opera Parsifal. Finally, there is Le Morte d’Arthur, published by Sir Thomas Malory, (date unknown). This is the only translation to English of a book previously written in primitive French, by an unknown author, whose original title was Quest del Saint Graal.

Both “Perceval” by Chrétien de Troyes (1992) and “Parzival” by Von Eschenbach present the heroic theme of searching for the precious vase, considered fundamental in Celtic culture. Le Morte d’Arthur by Malory brings together the version of the grail theme in which the sacred chalice holds the blood and sweat of Christ, which was taken, in times gone by, to Europe, by Joseph de Arimathea or his successor. According to the version written by Von Eschenbach, the chalice originated from a stone of light, which came from the heavens, brought by impartial angels. This theme was once again taken up by Dante, in the Divine Comedy.

In the Britannic region, there is an immense complex, created and forged from ancient culture in which one finds the influences of Celtic, Greek and Classic Roman cultures, as well as the original influences from the regions now known as Norway, Sweden, Finland and Germany. Over the centuries, the European consciousness developed as a result of the interaction between these four different traditions.

“Moulded into the all, these influences will comprise a unique way of thinking and being, and will become the emergent European consciousness, with the basic characteristics being respect for the individual for who he is and the way he makes his world and the path he chooses.” (Campbell, 1990, pp. 192–9). The grail legend returns to this expressive symbolic structuring of the personal and collective consciousness, prioritising the need for each individual to go in search of himself. This search, when undertaken, should be a personal search, such that each individual discovers his or her own path.

Joseph Campbell (1990, p. 211) tells us that when Malory translated Le Morte D’Arthur from French to English, he eliminated parts that Campbell himself considered to be extremely important. In the original French version, there is a part that refers to the existence of knights during a period when Arthur, an important mythical king, ruled Britain. During these times, whilst the banquets were served at Camelot, there was a ritual whereby the knights told of their adventures they encountered whilst performing their work. On one specific day, the knights were seated and the adventure told was the appearance of the Grail, carried by angelic messengers and “covered by a veil and it hovers above the company”. (Campbell, 1990, p. 211) Then a ray of light appeared in the courtyard of Camelot, where the knights were seated at the round table. Priestesses carried a luminous chalice as if it were a hologram. Everyone watched in awe; they realised that it was the grail that had mysteriously disappeared years ago. One of Arthur’s knights, his beloved nephew Sir Gawain, proposed that they all undertake a task: that they all go in search of the sacred grail, and upon finding it, “each to behold it unveiled” (Campbell, 1990, p. 211), to which all of them agreed.

To behold it unveiled, means, symbolically, appreciate it in its fullness, and this required a pure soul. In order to achieve this, the knights had to go through initiation rites that were considered essential to transform their conscious dynamics and change the structure their personalities.

According to Campbell, the following text refers to the words that had not been translated by Malory: “They agreed that all would go on this quest, but they thought it would be a disgrace to go forth in a group, so each entered the forest at a point that he, himself, had chosen, where it was darkest and there was no path.” (Campbell, 1990, p. 211) Campbell quotes these words, and gives them great meaning, since they explicitly state that the “quest is individual and solitary, as is every individuation process”.

When the knights went off in search of their adventures, they rarely went alone, almost always travelling in pairs. Each knight was accompanied by one or more knights. The knights were responsible for patrolling the forests, saving maidens from dragons, helping the needy, and defending the weak. On the day specified to go in search of the grail, they realised intuitively that it would be inappropriate to leave as a group, and agreed that each one would choose their own path.

The search for the grail, as an individual process, begins at a certain point in the forest, considered to be the darkest point, where there is no path; or perhaps from a bridge, where the traveller makes his own way. Despite being individual, the search follows unknown procedures; there is no way of knowing which path to follow. Above all, what is most important is the actual quest and facing the difficulties that arise, or having to create and innovate solutions never before considered, and finally surrender oneself to God, which, in some form and in some place, will be waiting for whoever takes on the challenge.

The quest for the grail is equivalent to a call from the unconscious of western man to go in search of his origins. It offers the opportunity to recover one’s cultural roots lost as a result of being masked and adulterated by Greek Aristotelian logic and by Christian thought, impoverished by patriarchal defences, which undermined the philosophical formulations and theological foundations of the recent “own way of being European”. To recover one’s roots always means acquiring the skills to symbolically find one’s Grail.

Chapter Two
The legend

The legend tells of an enchanted Princess who sleeps.

Who can only be awakened by an infant, who would come from beyond the walled road.

—Fernando Pessoa, “Eros and Psyche”. Translated by Camila Cesar Silva and Susan Carol Albert

The grail, a precious object, emerges from the descriptions in the legends in the form of a table, a stone, silver, cup or chalice. Some versions speak of the grail that, given its unique quality of being a wonderful recipient, is able to change form, and this phenomenon of transformation, had occurred over the centuries. Since it is a precious object, the grail was seen as the source of wisdom and internal illumination, the discovery of the greatest essence that exists in all humans. It has also been seen as the cup of food or abundance and is awaiting all those that search for it.

The legend, permeated with magical themes, also tells of the difficulty of finding the castle-temple, demanding to be freed from its spell, to enable the sacred chalice to be recovered. The tales of the legend appear explicitly in the European literary process, as already mentioned, only at the end of the twelfth century, during the Middle Ages. The myth emerges through an abundance of descriptive texts concerning the same enigma.

Several centuries lapsed between the appearance of these first documents and the literary production on the Grail. The appearance and disappearance of the legend has resulted in some writers seeing a correlation between the search for the grail, the search for the feminine, and the reintegration of the feminine related to the Christian-Catholic faith, whose medieval theology, until then, had been based on the power of the masculine. During this historic moment, the symbolic emergence of the feminine, claiming redemption, expressed in literature, appeared synchronically with the proposals to renew the Catholic Church.

There was concern about spreading the Christian religion throughout Europe, either through encouraging the cult of the Virgin Mary, the practice of the rosary, or the construction of immense cathedrals. The gothic temples started to be erected, the majority being of gigantic proportions, which required great sums of money and a great deal of effort to be invested. These cathedrals were constructed mainly in places where, in times gone by, the pagan cult had been dedicated to the Great Goddess of Celtic origin. However, even though the Church was concerned with officially introducing the cult of the rosary, which was evident in a sequence of religious speeches invoking the Virgin Mary and her beloved Son, the institution as a whole would continue to remain submissive to God the Father. At this time, the cult of the Virgin Mary, which began in Britain, spread throughout Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, and even reached as far as Asia Minor.

The kingdom of Britain became the stage for the grail legends and the knights of the round table. In its mixture of heroic themes, quests, and appeals from the wounded feminine, we find expressions of the movement of a people that had been subjugated to the power of other nations and their religious beliefs destroyed.

The legend, through its Christian expression, had in the sacred chalice the container of the blood and sweat of Christ, although this version was not accepted by the Catholic Church. Other versions speak of the grail as the receptacle used by Christ when he introduced the mass during the Last Supper.

Robert de Borron tells us that the grail was taken to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea. When Joseph was in prison, he received instructions from Jesus about the value of the chalice and the need to spread the ritual of the mass. Symbolically, the grail has become the representation of the empty tomb of Christ, with the paten being the equivalent of the tombstone. The empty grave reminds us of the absence of a loved one whose death took place to redeem all of humanity. On the other hand, the institution of mass expresses the consummation of the presence of the divine through the ritualising and expression of the emergence of the phenomenon of Christ as it occurred during the Last Supper.

Mass is symbolically the ritual celebration of the death and rebirth of Christ, where bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ the Saviour. When swallowed by the initiate, they become food, inspiration, hope, and the agents for transforming the soul. The Latin phrase, that ends the ritual—“ite missa est”—can be taken to mean: Go, your mission has begun.” That is, when the ritual has ended, for the initiates, the mission to spread Christianity and its cults throughout the world has begun.

When Christ instructed Joseph of Arimathea, he would have impressed upon him the need to spread the Christian beliefs through the ritual of mass—that is, the mystery of his death and rebirth. Joseph kept the chalice during his thirty long years in prison. When he was freed, it is said that he, together with his followers, took the chalice from Palestine to Europe. When they arrived at Britain, the chalice was placed in a temple to be worshiped but, according to the legend, after some time it disappeared, for reasons unknown.

The grail legend tells us about men’s search for a precious object. Since it had been lost, it should be searched for untiringly. The grail can be recovered if the desire by those who wish to search for it has been blessed. Men who join this search have to be pure of heart. If they find the chalice, they will be faced with extraordinary sights, with terrifying subjective experiences, and will experience strange feelings. And if they can bear all of this, they may, through a unique experience, come into contact with the divine.

The legends of the grail invaded Europe at the same time that the Church was concerned with announcing the importance of having faith in what cannot be seen. Within this context, the search for the grail, which is understood as having an archetypical character, tells of the great human need to come into physical contact and see the symbol. The quest for the sacred chalice represented the search for a closer and more concrete god that was in contact with men, could be touched, and was accessible to measurable reality.

The grail themes, Arthur and his knights, and the searches and appeals of a people dominated by their invaders, according to some, began to emerge in the collective folklore of Britain during the third, fourth, and fifth centuries, A.D., and were portrayed in the literature from this period.

The legend tells us about a Roman leader, or a dux bellorum or war leader, coming to defend the Bretons, through the region of Pyrenees. We can assume that based on this actual personality, though the legends agglomerate around the myth of Arthur, which was far more ancient. With the help of this “duke”, part of the invasion by the Angles and Saxons was repulsed. And after driving out the invaders, the duke established his kingdom among the Bretons.

The region governed by the duke developed significantly and improved its agricultural production, giving rise to the legend of a happy and peaceful people.

Despite having recovered all of Britain, Arthur, or the dux bellorum, started a series of attacks against the Roman oppressors, threatening even to invade Rome, the capital of the Empire.

The Bretons were later beaten by the Angles, but in Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, the Celtic Britons survived. There, the legend developed and became more structured, and a significant part of the traditions of the Celtic people were preserved. However, during the centuries of Roman dominance, the Celts became Christianised.

During Arthur’s reign, the knightly endeavour was shaped by the idea of the sacred chalice, the holy grail, container of the blood and sweat of Christ and claiming redemption. To tell of this mythical king, who one day congregated his knights to undertake the great task of maintaining a great kingdom, we first need to tell a few stories about the Celtic people.

Chapter Three
The history

Everything transitory is only an approximation;

—Mephistopheles, Eine Faust-Symphonie in drei Charakterbildern

During the first century A.D., the Celtic people inhabited Gaul, Great Britain, and Ireland. They were united through a common religion, the culture they had developed over the centuries, and through their own literature which, although not written, was sang and recited by poets as a means of transmitting knowledge, both sacred and profane.

The Roman Empire started its invasion of northeastern Europe around 50 B.C. The Gaul was invaded and occupied by Julius Caesar, in 52 B.C., and the Romans soon imposed their own system there. Great Britain was conquered soon after. However, the Romans were unable to subdue Scotland, which, was dominated by the Picts, or Wales, Ireland, or Cornwall, where the Celts had remained undefeated.

The Roman Empire lasted five long centuries. Around 330 B.C., Rome had become, in part, Christianised. The Emperor Constantine, driven by political interests, converted to Christianity and was appointed the head of the Catholic Church. He then transformed the Roman Empire into a Christian Empire. He was succeeded by Theodosius, who im...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• FOREWORD
• INTRODUCTION
• CHAPTER ONE The quest for the Grail
• CHAPTER TWO The legend
• CHAPTER THREE The history
• CHAPTER FOUR Courtly love
• CHAPTER FIVE The search for oneself
• CHAPTER SIX Lancelot, Arthur, and Guinevere
• CHAPTER SEVEN The Goddess and the sacred chalice
• CHAPTER EIGHT Arthur and his Knights
• CHAPTER NINE The Grail and its questions
• CHAPTER TEN Merlin and the search for coniunctio
• CHAPTER ELEVEN The importance of the hero in structuring the psyche
• CHAPTER TWELVE In conclusion
• REFERENCES