At the Table of the Grail: No One Who Sets Forth on the Grail Quest Remains Unchanged

by John Matthews

minor shelf wear only

Genres: Arthurian, Nonfiction, History

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

John Matthews is an historian, folklorist and author. He has been a full time writer since 1980 and has produced over ninety books on the Arthurian Legends and Grail Studies, as well as short stories and a volume of poetry. He has devoted much of the past thirty years to the study of Arthurian Traditions and myth in general. His best known and most widely read works are ‘Pirates’ (Carlton/Atheneum), No 1 children’s book on the New York Times Review best-seller list for 22 weeks in 2006, ‘The Grail, Quest for Eternal Life’ (Thames & Hudson, 1981) ‘The Encyclopaedia of Celtic Wisdom’ (Element, 1994) and ‘The Winter Solstice’ (Quest Books, 1999) which won the Benjamin Franklin Award for that year. His book ‘Celtic Warrior Chiefs’ was a New York Public Library recommended title for young people.

Reviews

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what I was expecting from this book - maybe another conspiracy theory, expounding the truth, type book. But it's not - it's a series of essays about writers who have written about the grail.

Whether a pagan or Celtic sacred symbol, or a Christian religious relic, writers of both fact and fiction have been fascinated by the legends. From the earliest known poets who wrote down verbal legends already very old, right through to the more modern era, this book covers all of their work.

To be honest, some essays were more successful than others. I enjoyed many of them, but some were either too dismissive of their subject matter or couched in such esoteric language that they became not worth the hassle to decode. But in the main, I learned a lot and enjoyed the experience.

[Michael Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essays of a western-esoteric-magical sort - on the magical nature of the imagination.