Interesting post. But I’m not sure how a text that literally ends in mid sentence ( because the author died!) can be complete. Also, there are a number of older, pre-Christian texts and references which pre date Chretien by hundreds of years. The Grail is much older than Chretien’s poem and there is so much evidence to show this.
As the title suggests, Percevals quest is completed in the poem, not that the poem is complete. The poem does cut off mid sentence but it's during Gawain's interlaced story, not Perceval's. I do think that there are some loose ends for Percevals story to complete and the poem even says during the last time we see Perceval that we will revisit him, but the bulk of his quest is complete. With regards to earlier sources for the Grail that aren't Christian, idk how that's possible given that it's very clearly a eucharistic symbol. Most scholars arguing this point to healing potions and cornocoupias in celtic stories as evidence of a pre Christian root but this is a stretch, and honestly the "celtic" theory has really gone out of fashion in the past 60 or so years. Chretien was obviously influence by celtic stories, but the idea that the Grail is taken from celtic stories is very questionable. I have another article showing a plausible Christian source he could've gotten the idea from iconography in Christian churches in Northern Spain.
Good point about the end of the poem being in the middle of Gawain’s adventure. But I do disagree about proto- grails. It depends to some extent on how you view the purpose of the Grail. For most peoples there exist vessels which are designed to act as a means of communication with god or the gods. The Grail became this after Christian, who does not make the connection to the Eucharist - robert de Boron did that as you know. Christine just called it ‘a grail’ ( small g). It remains enigmatic to me even after 60 years of study. But I am quite certain that it predates Chretien by a considerable degree. I liked your other article on the icons of the Virgin with a chalice - good stuff. But however much Celtic is considered out of fashion, there are too many parallels to ignore it. Just take a look at the Prieddeu Annwn for one - where Arthur leads his warriors to recover a cauldron which has a lot in common with the Grail.
No, de Boron was not the first to make a eucharistic connection to the grail given the fact the a eucharistic host is said to be inside of the grail, which the monk tells Perceval. Also I gave plenty of textual evidence in the article that the spear and the grail in Chretien's story is very obviously linked to eucharistic preparation rituals and the mass/divine liturgy more broadly. The Stowe missal I cite makes this very clear. It's interesting how celtic theorists always seem to neglect the celtic Christian element and only want to focus on non Christian things. Also you have an implicit presupposition in your argument about various people's having vessels of communication that somehow Christians also don't. It's very clear when looking into the symbolism of the eucharist that the Christians have it as their own version, so the only way for the Celtic argument to work is that a Christian writer had to borrow the idea from another culture and didn't have any indigenous source to draw upon. I admit that it is very likely that chretien was influenced by Peredur, however I think it's also equally likely that he saw Christian analogies in the text and made a more throughly Christian version using the eucharist as the true source of communion with God.
Interesting post. But I’m not sure how a text that literally ends in mid sentence ( because the author died!) can be complete. Also, there are a number of older, pre-Christian texts and references which pre date Chretien by hundreds of years. The Grail is much older than Chretien’s poem and there is so much evidence to show this.
As the title suggests, Percevals quest is completed in the poem, not that the poem is complete. The poem does cut off mid sentence but it's during Gawain's interlaced story, not Perceval's. I do think that there are some loose ends for Percevals story to complete and the poem even says during the last time we see Perceval that we will revisit him, but the bulk of his quest is complete. With regards to earlier sources for the Grail that aren't Christian, idk how that's possible given that it's very clearly a eucharistic symbol. Most scholars arguing this point to healing potions and cornocoupias in celtic stories as evidence of a pre Christian root but this is a stretch, and honestly the "celtic" theory has really gone out of fashion in the past 60 or so years. Chretien was obviously influence by celtic stories, but the idea that the Grail is taken from celtic stories is very questionable. I have another article showing a plausible Christian source he could've gotten the idea from iconography in Christian churches in Northern Spain.
Good point about the end of the poem being in the middle of Gawain’s adventure. But I do disagree about proto- grails. It depends to some extent on how you view the purpose of the Grail. For most peoples there exist vessels which are designed to act as a means of communication with god or the gods. The Grail became this after Christian, who does not make the connection to the Eucharist - robert de Boron did that as you know. Christine just called it ‘a grail’ ( small g). It remains enigmatic to me even after 60 years of study. But I am quite certain that it predates Chretien by a considerable degree. I liked your other article on the icons of the Virgin with a chalice - good stuff. But however much Celtic is considered out of fashion, there are too many parallels to ignore it. Just take a look at the Prieddeu Annwn for one - where Arthur leads his warriors to recover a cauldron which has a lot in common with the Grail.
No, de Boron was not the first to make a eucharistic connection to the grail given the fact the a eucharistic host is said to be inside of the grail, which the monk tells Perceval. Also I gave plenty of textual evidence in the article that the spear and the grail in Chretien's story is very obviously linked to eucharistic preparation rituals and the mass/divine liturgy more broadly. The Stowe missal I cite makes this very clear. It's interesting how celtic theorists always seem to neglect the celtic Christian element and only want to focus on non Christian things. Also you have an implicit presupposition in your argument about various people's having vessels of communication that somehow Christians also don't. It's very clear when looking into the symbolism of the eucharist that the Christians have it as their own version, so the only way for the Celtic argument to work is that a Christian writer had to borrow the idea from another culture and didn't have any indigenous source to draw upon. I admit that it is very likely that chretien was influenced by Peredur, however I think it's also equally likely that he saw Christian analogies in the text and made a more throughly Christian version using the eucharist as the true source of communion with God.