Holy Grail

The Holy Grail is said to be the cup Jesus drank from at the Last Supper, or alternatively a cup that caught his blood when he was on the cross. It was said to have the power to heal all wounds. Much of the christianised Arthurian mythos relates to the quest for the Holy Grail. The legend may have started off with a Holy Cauldron which merged with Christian beliefs, becoming a Grail.

According to one legend, the Grail was brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea, when he travelled to the British Isles as the first Christian missionary to the country and established the first Christian church in the British Isles.

A number of knights undertook the quest for the Grail, in tales that have become annexed to the Arthurian mythos. Some of these tales tell of knights that succeeded, like Parsifal or Galahad; others tell of knights who failed to achieve the grail because of their tragic flaws, like Lancelot.

The films The Fisher King and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade imagine 20th-century quests for the Grail.

Other films that involve the quest for the Grail include Excalibur and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

External links

• The Holy Grail (http://www.usao.edu/~facshaferi/GRAIL.HTML)