26 December 2022

Holy Grail

Guarded by the Fisher King, this treasure was quested by Percival, knight of the Order of the Round Table, as described by Chrétien de Troyes & Wolfram von Eschenbach. Etymologically it might derive from sang real, which then later might have turned into san gral. As also Otto Rahn might have guessed, it refers to the holy bloodline of Jesus Christ, who fled Troy:

Around the time Basil the Physician died & Andronikos Komnenos was born, the Order of Solomon's Temple was formed. Shortly after the mentioned emperor got dethroned, they lost control of Jerusalem & the Priory of Sion distinguished from them: After losing their last crusader stronghold, did the remnants of the order join them later that year by moving to Grasburg, to found a new country for their banking activities?

On a pillar in the north portal of Chartres Cathedral, constructed soon after the loss of the holy city, it can be seen with the inscription hic amititur archa cederis: Is it possible the order not only brought the Grail, but also the Ark to Gaul?

Both relics were also quested by Indiana Jones, who might be identified as Prester John, who's the cousin of Percival in the poem. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the relic is found in Goshen, wherefrom it's shipped to Greece, and finally to America:

  • Does the first shipment hint to what Simcha Jacobovici later researched?
  • Does the last shipment imply that relic found its way throughout Europe?

Although Monty Python also suggested the Grail migrated there, Indiana Jones found the relic in nowadays Jordan, where the Ark also might have been hidden: Do the stories about these supposed relics sometimes mix up, or might they simply represent the same relic?