Grail: Quest for the Eternal

by John Matthews

Recounts the legend of the Holy Grail, shows how it has been represented in art, and looks at the places and artifacts associated with its history

Genres: Nonfiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1981

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

[vin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short history of the grail legend, how it developed and the non-Christian themes that may have impacted the stories written in the Middle Ages. The highlight of the book are the numerous photographs of art and artifacts that depict the grail and tell the fascinating history that surrounds it. Given the nature of a religious relic like the grail and it’s convoluted origins, some of the ideas presented here are complex. However, the book is short enough and interesting enough to reread as many times as the reader would like to gain a deeper understanding of the Grail and it’s connections to religious themes that have existed long before the Grail stories even emerged.

[Pascal Zielke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sehr schönes Grundlagen-Buch über den Gralsmythos, der über den Tellerrand der christlichen Auslegung schaut und Bezüge zu verwandten orientalischen, antiken oder buddhistischen Mythen herstellt. Zudem ist der Autor auch in der Alchemie gut bewandert, was dem Werk trotz der Kürze, etwas Tiefe verleiht. Ab der zweiten Hälfte gibt es dann spannende Bilder von Reliquien, Wandtafeln, aus alten Büchern, usw. zu sehen, jeweils mit einer kurzen Erklärung. Dieser Teil des Buches ist mehr Bildband, aber dadurch eine sehr interessante Ergänzung.

[David Dines · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate its consistent insistence that the Grail quest is a spiritual one and that Matthews strives towards mostly broad strokes in laying out that thesis.

That being the case, Matthews clearly can’t help but pepper in connections between symbols and other traditions. While these are enticing, they infuriatingly have very few citations to helpful references.

[Inku · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ihan mielenkiintoinen, lyhyt tietopakkaus Graalin maljasta. Kertoo melko hyvin kaiken olennaisen. Kuvat oli myös kiehtovia.

[Amanda Witt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short book but with full details of the history behind the symbolism and other things behind the Grail, also with many black/white and colour photos.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

In general, a good basic overview of some of the main themes in the Grail story, with a good bit of detail about possible real-life locations of the Grail castle, with particular attention paid to Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. Still, there were a couple of areas, particularly as the myth relates to prior goddess myths, I felt were very dismissive when they didn't support his own theories. Still, that he mentioned them at all, even without references, was useful in directing further research.

[Frostik Dar · Rating 3 out of 5]

very pretty 8" x 11" mini-coffee-table-book, with loads of great illustrations -- but otherwise pretty short on substance.