What do you think?
Rate this book
Holy Grail: The History Of A Legend
The Holy Grail is an image familiar to us all as an almost unattainable, infinitely desirable goal. The idea has passed into everyday speech and the legends behind it are as current in today's culture as they have ever been. And yet the Grail has no real religious meaning and is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. What is the truth behind this elusive symbol? Here, Barber traces the history of the stories surrounding the Holy Grail. He describes how through a long series of imaginative transformations, the grail has moved from the sphere of romance to religion, and in twentieth century popular culture has become an emblem of mysticism and man's highest aspirations, intimately linked with the central ritual of the Christian faith. The search for the grail has always been described as a quest; in this book, Barber goes on his own quest, brilliantly exploring the richness of the Holy Grail's cultural impact. Barber traces the history of legends surrounding the Holy Grail, from Chretien de Troyes' great romances to the popular bestsellers of the late twentieth century.
480 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
9 people are currently reading
247 people want to read
About the author
Richard Barber
163 books31 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Richard William Barber is a prominent British historian who has been writing and publishing in the field of medieval history and literature ever since his student days. He has specialised in the Arthurian legend, beginning with a general survey, Arthur of Albion, in 1961, which is still in print in a revised edition. His other major interest is historical biography; he has published on Henry Plantagenet (1964) and among his other books is the standard biography of Edward the Black Prince, Edward Prince of Wales and Aquitaine. The interplay between history and literature was the theme of The Knight and Chivalry, for which he won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1971 and he returned to this in The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief (2004); this was widely praised in the UK press, and had major reviews in The New York Times and The Washington Post.
His other career has been as a publisher. In 1969 he helped to found The Boydell Press, which later became Boydell & Brewer Ltd, one of the leading publishers in medieval studies, and he is currently group managing director. In 1989, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, in association with the University of Rochester, started the University of Rochester Press in upstate New York. The group currently publishes over 200 titles a year.
Richard William Barber is a prominent British historian who has been writing and publishing in the field of medieval history and literature ever since his student days. He has specialised in the Arthurian legend, beginning with a general survey, Arthur of Albion, in 1961, which is still in print in a revised edition. His other major interest is historical biography; he has published on Henry Plantagenet (1964) and among his other books is the standard biography of Edward the Black Prince, Edward Prince of Wales and Aquitaine. The interplay between history and literature was the theme of The Knight and Chivalry, for which he won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1971 and he returned to this in The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief (2004); this was widely praised in the UK press, and had major reviews in The New York Times and The Washington Post.
His other career has been as a publisher. In 1969 he helped to found The Boydell Press, which later became Boydell & Brewer Ltd, one of the leading publishers in medieval studies, and he is currently group managing director. In 1989, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, in association with the University of Rochester, started the University of Rochester Press in upstate New York. The group currently publishes over 200 titles a year.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 13, 2016
The Holy Grail is a myth. It never existed, except in the imagination of a medieval storyteller named Chrétien de Troyes who wrote a romance on it, which he never finished. Tantalized by the unfinished masterpiece, many other writers tried their hand at finishing the tale, and the story became a phenomenon and passed into the consciousness of Western culture. The Holy Grail is an icon of the Catholic imagination, a seamless blend of faith with adventure, and an excellent demonstration of what power can be unleashed when the human imagination encounters faith. If you ever doubt the ability of the imagination to change culture and lives, read this book.
Richard Barber has written a scholarly and compelling examination of the entire Grail corpus, starting with Chrétien and continuing through the most famous and most obscure of the retellings to show the development of the story through the centuries, forming a body of written tradition so large that moderns were convinced that the Grail must be based on some historical object. An amazing testament to the power of the human imagination. And although Barber writes from a purely secular perspective, his research testifies to the impact of what can be called the original "Catholic fiction."
I'm re-reading this book for the second time because the Grail story remains so fascinating and Berber's minute analysis is so compelling. A must-read for anyone revisiting the Grail story in their own fiction, or for anyone interested in the history of the Catholic imagination.
The Holy Grail is a myth. Not an ancient myth, but one created by a well-documented human author. But a myth can have more power than a historical account. If you doubt that, read this book.
Richard Barber has written a scholarly and compelling examination of the entire Grail corpus, starting with Chrétien and continuing through the most famous and most obscure of the retellings to show the development of the story through the centuries, forming a body of written tradition so large that moderns were convinced that the Grail must be based on some historical object. An amazing testament to the power of the human imagination. And although Barber writes from a purely secular perspective, his research testifies to the impact of what can be called the original "Catholic fiction."
I'm re-reading this book for the second time because the Grail story remains so fascinating and Berber's minute analysis is so compelling. A must-read for anyone revisiting the Grail story in their own fiction, or for anyone interested in the history of the Catholic imagination.
The Holy Grail is a myth. Not an ancient myth, but one created by a well-documented human author. But a myth can have more power than a historical account. If you doubt that, read this book.
January 28, 2021
rather conservastive in its approach, posits that the Grail is basically a christian myth, and attempts to prove this, but without too much success
Read
July 24, 2009P.M. Matarasso, translator of THE QUEST OF THE HOLY GRAIL, Penguin, 2005, writes this about Richard Barber's incredibly erudite romp through Grail history:
"The book which serves as the best introduction and most reliable guide to the Grail myth in literature and literary consciousness from the twelfth century to the present day is Richard Barber's THE HOLY GRAIL: IMAGINATION AND BELIEF, Penguin, London, 2004. After giving full weight to the spectrum of medieval texts, it follows the Grail as symbol through to the wilder shores of New Age fantasy, covering a vast terrain with authority and grace. The thirty-page bibliography is up to date and comprehensive." (30)
From Barber's Introduction:
"The Grail is a mysterious and haunting image, which crosses the borders of fiction and spirituality, and which, for eight centuries, has been a recurrent ideal in
Western literature. What follows is an attempt to trace what we know about the Grail: it is, in all its forms, a construct of the creative imagination, but one which lays claim to the highest of religious ideals and experience. Even when it has been neglected for centuries, it has reappeared to appeal with renewed vigour to artists and writers; and from its first shape as a Christian symbol it has been recreated in a multitude of different forms.
"Such a topic exerts an extraordinary attraction for lovers of historical conundrums and enthusiasts for the esoteric and mysterious, particularly because we cannot give an answer to the question 'What is the Holy Grail?' The very first writer to mention it, who probably invented the idea, makes his story hinge on a similar question - 'What is the Grail for?' - and because he never provided the answer for his own riddle, the question continues to be asked. The initially mysterious and undefined 'Grail' had extraordinary repercussions: in a brief time span half a dozen major writers tried their hands at either completing the original stories or creating new ones, and in the process virtually invented a new art form, the prose romance, which many centuries later became the modern novel." (pg 1)
"The book which serves as the best introduction and most reliable guide to the Grail myth in literature and literary consciousness from the twelfth century to the present day is Richard Barber's THE HOLY GRAIL: IMAGINATION AND BELIEF, Penguin, London, 2004. After giving full weight to the spectrum of medieval texts, it follows the Grail as symbol through to the wilder shores of New Age fantasy, covering a vast terrain with authority and grace. The thirty-page bibliography is up to date and comprehensive." (30)
From Barber's Introduction:
"The Grail is a mysterious and haunting image, which crosses the borders of fiction and spirituality, and which, for eight centuries, has been a recurrent ideal in
Western literature. What follows is an attempt to trace what we know about the Grail: it is, in all its forms, a construct of the creative imagination, but one which lays claim to the highest of religious ideals and experience. Even when it has been neglected for centuries, it has reappeared to appeal with renewed vigour to artists and writers; and from its first shape as a Christian symbol it has been recreated in a multitude of different forms.
"Such a topic exerts an extraordinary attraction for lovers of historical conundrums and enthusiasts for the esoteric and mysterious, particularly because we cannot give an answer to the question 'What is the Holy Grail?' The very first writer to mention it, who probably invented the idea, makes his story hinge on a similar question - 'What is the Grail for?' - and because he never provided the answer for his own riddle, the question continues to be asked. The initially mysterious and undefined 'Grail' had extraordinary repercussions: in a brief time span half a dozen major writers tried their hands at either completing the original stories or creating new ones, and in the process virtually invented a new art form, the prose romance, which many centuries later became the modern novel." (pg 1)
June 12, 2011
This study of grail stories by Richard Barber is reasonably good as a quick overview, covering grail stories most people haven't heard of (e.g. a reference to The Crown: A Tale of Sir Gawein and King Arthur's Court), but it's also a bit lacking, and sometimes just plain wrong. I fondly recall pointing out his errors on the subject of The Crown in my Arthurian lit essay (mind you, I disagreed with most of the scholars whose work I got my hands on, regarding that poem).
It's easy to read, as well, and it's easy to find information in it.
It's easy to read, as well, and it's easy to find information in it.
August 24, 2010
This book is more of an examination of how the grail has been perceived through the ages than anything else. The original medieval poem involved Percival and the Fisher King and was mostly about Percival's quest to behave in a "correct" knightly manner. The poem was then extended to become an allegory for the Mass whose true meaning and mystery were hotly debated at the time. The grail then became an object of mystery used as a symbol by the Rosecrucians and Freemasons. And finally a symbol for hopeless quests inspired by misplaced idealism. The discussion of the grail in modernity even includes a paragraph or two on Monty Python! I found the first quarter of the book hard going but it picked up and became enjoyable after the medieval times were left behind.
August 3, 2011
A very interesting book that covers literature, philosophy, history, religion and so many other aspects of the Holy Grail without every really patronising the reader or launching into a language or style that becomes difficult to follow. If you have read Holy Blood, Holy Grail (I haven't) or The Da Vinci Code (I have) then this book is an essential to put you right about some important facts.
March 6, 2018
Libro faticoso a leggere, ma molto interessante: fa la storia del Graal, dalla sua invenzione da parte di Chretien de Troyes, nell'opera Perceval (La Conte du Graal), rimasta incompiuta per la morte dell'autore, alla sua continuazione da parte di autori contemporanei (o quasi), che cercarono di finire la storia seconda i propri punti di vista, alle opere scritte nei secoli successivi, che sempre reinterpretarono quanto scritto prima secondo le diverse sensibilità e scopi.
Vediamo quindi come le diverse storie siano state impostate o come storie di avventure cavalleresche (di cui il Graal non ne era che una delle tante) o come ricerca religiosa (della quale era quindi il fulcro) o come espressione di concezioni esoteriche o sotto molti altri aspetti, finanche satirici; e questo in varie forme letterarie, dal poema in versi al romanzo i prosa, fino alla cinematografia.
Notevole il fatto che le varie opere sono state spesso in disaccordo con la natura materiale del Graal: piatto o calice, di metallo, di legno o di pietra dura; ma anche sulla sua più intima essenza: cosa era in effetti, quale il suo scopo, quasi mai viene spiegato, rimane sempre un mistero; se Chretien non fosse morto anzitempo, avrebbe scritto tutta la storia e non ci sarebbe stato nessun mistero e così del Graal, probabilmente, non se ne sarebbe più parlato: sarebbe stato solo una pagina in un romanzo scritto più di ottocento anni fa!
Vediamo quindi come le diverse storie siano state impostate o come storie di avventure cavalleresche (di cui il Graal non ne era che una delle tante) o come ricerca religiosa (della quale era quindi il fulcro) o come espressione di concezioni esoteriche o sotto molti altri aspetti, finanche satirici; e questo in varie forme letterarie, dal poema in versi al romanzo i prosa, fino alla cinematografia.
Notevole il fatto che le varie opere sono state spesso in disaccordo con la natura materiale del Graal: piatto o calice, di metallo, di legno o di pietra dura; ma anche sulla sua più intima essenza: cosa era in effetti, quale il suo scopo, quasi mai viene spiegato, rimane sempre un mistero; se Chretien non fosse morto anzitempo, avrebbe scritto tutta la storia e non ci sarebbe stato nessun mistero e così del Graal, probabilmente, non se ne sarebbe più parlato: sarebbe stato solo una pagina in un romanzo scritto più di ottocento anni fa!
December 31, 2022
Apparently there are pictures of the Grail dating back to the mid 9th Century, and even earlier images of a Grail or Grail-like object. I had no idea. I thought it was purely a 12th Century thing. As well as these shadowy beginnings, the first half of the book looks at the literature that created the legend. Barber thoroughly covers Chrétien to Malory but really focuses in detail on the period 1190-1240. There’s a handy graph at the back that shows works vs time. His analysis is really good. They were a couple of points where I thought he hadn’t made his point, but on the whole, where I had read the book he was talking about, I found I agreed with him. In the world of my head this means that we are both right.
In the second half he looks at the resurgence of interest, covering scholarship, literature, and the arts. He also covers esoterica and tries to keep a straight face, bless ‘im, but there some funny moments.
This is the first non-fiction book on the subject that I’ve read, but I’m having trouble imagining a better one. It should probably be required reading for anyone interested in the subject. I should imagine that there are many people who will not agree with his conclusions. I think that Barber argues honestly enough for people to make up their own minds.
In the second half he looks at the resurgence of interest, covering scholarship, literature, and the arts. He also covers esoterica and tries to keep a straight face, bless ‘im, but there some funny moments.
This is the first non-fiction book on the subject that I’ve read, but I’m having trouble imagining a better one. It should probably be required reading for anyone interested in the subject. I should imagine that there are many people who will not agree with his conclusions. I think that Barber argues honestly enough for people to make up their own minds.
June 26, 2025
The story of the Holy Grail began in the 12th century with Chretien de Troyes. He created such a compelling narrative that dozens of bards and minstrels put their creative spin on the tale. I first heard of the Holy Grail from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the final installment in the Indiana Jones trilogy. It was a phenomenal movie, with Indiana Jones riding off into the sunset at the end. I know it's now a quintology, but I haven't watched Crystal Skull or Dial of Destiny.
According to Chretien de Troyes's story, Perceval is a mysterious, pure-hearted lad in search of adventure. He finds the castle of the Fisher King and sees a procession of people with the Grail and the Lance of Longinus. Perceval doesn't say anything, which was the incorrect choice, and the Fisher King is doomed. Perceval should have spoken up and asked a question.
Since that auspicious beginning, the legend of the Holy Grail has only grown in the Western imagination. I can think of three Grail-related properties off the top of my head. First is from Indiana Jones, as I mentioned before. The second is another movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which puts a humorous twist on the story of the Grail. The third is that Dan Brown novel where the Holy Grail is the idea that Jesus Christ had a family and children.
I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
According to Chretien de Troyes's story, Perceval is a mysterious, pure-hearted lad in search of adventure. He finds the castle of the Fisher King and sees a procession of people with the Grail and the Lance of Longinus. Perceval doesn't say anything, which was the incorrect choice, and the Fisher King is doomed. Perceval should have spoken up and asked a question.
Since that auspicious beginning, the legend of the Holy Grail has only grown in the Western imagination. I can think of three Grail-related properties off the top of my head. First is from Indiana Jones, as I mentioned before. The second is another movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which puts a humorous twist on the story of the Grail. The third is that Dan Brown novel where the Holy Grail is the idea that Jesus Christ had a family and children.
I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.
August 15, 2023
Se cercate un romanzo misterioso questo testo non fa per voi. Se cercate invece un trattato quasi scientifico su tutto il materiale sul santo graal questo scritto fa per voi. In pratica un elaborato omnia in grado di definire e far comprendere cosa sia stato e da dove è nato questo mito. Nonostante le 450 pagine il libro non è noioso e nemmeno ridondante, la lettura non è affaticata dall’enorme mole di informazioni.
October 30, 2021
A readable history of the idea (rather than an actual object) of a "Holy Grail" from the earliest writings to the present day. Fascinating!
I love it when people give me boxes of books; I never know what I'll find within. This book is one of those treasures. I doubt I would have heard of it otherwise, and it's unlikely I would have picked it up at the library. So I'm glad it crossed my path.
I love it when people give me boxes of books; I never know what I'll find within. This book is one of those treasures. I doubt I would have heard of it otherwise, and it's unlikely I would have picked it up at the library. So I'm glad it crossed my path.
May 31, 2017
A really superb scholarly analysis of the Grail as a meme of literature, in its many forms. Barber is his best in the medieval romances; the later we get, the more at sea he seems. Dry, but that's how you know it's working.
June 15, 2023
Interesting to consider how the Holy Grail has been portrayed in a manner that resembles a Rorschach test for the spiritual zeitgeist of eras. The enigma that it presents really speaks the nature of mystery.
August 14, 2021
Superb survey, which gives proper emphasis and space to the original texts (medieval chivalric romances), and proper skepticism to modern pseudo-history inspired by selective readings of them.
August 18, 2024
Excellent work.
January 17, 2012
I think this was an informative and enlightening book. I have heard so much about The Holy Grail and never actually read about it. The book provided much detail on the literature that started talking about The Grail and the different views on how the story and/or myth developed. In the end it seems that many interpretations could be given. It probably started with the Celts, or with the Knights at the beginning or christianity. The Grail may be the cup that held the blood of Christ. The book also explains how we talk about The Holy Grail today. In the end The Grail seems to be the quest for something higher than ourselves and it this quest makes us go the extra mile to find the answer.
August 19, 2022
This is a very readable history of the appearance of the Holy Grail as a trope in Arthurian literature, focusing on how it was deployed by different authors for different purposes and how its symbolism - and even its form - changed over time. The literary narrative is contextualized by discussions of relics and religious controversies of the Middle Ages that usefully inform Barber's readings. While the author is convincing and authoritative in his explorations of medieval literature and scholarship, I found his chapters on more recent adaptations of the grail legends less interesting.
February 3, 2011
This is an adequate sourcebook for a history of literary and cultural grail sources, and Barber is at his best when he is discussing these. When he turns to debunking later cultural grail lore, he comes off as a bit pretentious and self-righteous (and some of his literary tastes on display in his discussion of modern grail sources are trite).
March 31, 2008
This is a good reference for those interested in Grail legends, however, the author left me wanting a bit more. He would also delve into legends in great detail when it wasn't warranted, yet would stop short when more information would have helpful.
March 8, 2015
Sane and very thorough. Awesome.
April 14, 2015
A fascinating look at the place of the Holy Grail in literature and culture, from Chretien de Troyes and the earliest romances through modern takes (yes, including Monty Python)
March 19, 2016
Perfect reading for Easter week
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews