The Quest of the Holy Grail (Penguin Classics), Packaging May Vary

Can, as such historical books often are, be a little dry and repetitive at times, but ultimately offers a great insight into the age of chivalry, particularly within its often ignored Christian context.

Sometimes there are good reasons why later writers try to improve an earlier work. This work originally written in the first quarter of the 13 century is a case in point. Even though the stories were about the knights of the Round Table, the focus was religious propaganda for simpletons. So the motifs were simple:White hair and white robes = good guys.Women and black garbs = bad guys.Monks and hermits = self-righteous police and all-knowing fortunetellers.Knights = stupid bumbling sinners and gangsters.Virginity and chastity = greatest of all virtues.Lust and pride = worst of all mortal sins.God = angry and vengeful absolute tyrant who must be obeyed without question.Human = damned if you do and damned if you don’t.Dreams = messages from God only monks and hermits can interpret.Reality = illusions and mirage from the Devil.And all the characters were cardboard cartoon caricatures:Lancelot = cries a lot and hallucinates a lot.Gawain = boy just wants to have fun.Perceval = does what he was told as a good boy should.Bors = his not to ask why, his but to do and die.Galahad = the silent mysterious loner who charges about helping whoever was losing a fight without bothering to find out who’s right or wrong then gallops away into the sunset without a word.Let’s see now - Galahad was the grandson of the “fisher king” King Pelles and grew up at King Pelles’ palace where also housed the “maimed king”, the lance, and the Holy Grail. Yet Galahad was blissfully unaware of anything around him. Even though there were plenty of qualified knights at home, a maid had to go fetch Lancelot from King Arthur’s court to come to make Galahad a knight. After Lancelot was dismissed, Galahad made his way to Arthur but refused to tell anyone who he was. After killing lots of people at random, and failed to save any innocent maiden, during the Quest, and after wondering about lost most of the time for several years, he returned home to his grandfather’s castle. Those who had watched him grow up and had known him all his life suddenly hailed him as the miracle worker. This full circle wasted everyone a lot of time and energy and unnecessary suffering.Moreover, being the pre-ordained perfect good knight, Galahad didn’t have to do anything except “just be” as everything was prepared for him and handed to him on silver platters. After so many blessings were bestowed on him and so many miracles waited hundreds of years for him, he conveniently died young before he could form any independent thought or had a chance to live or make any mistake in the rigid one-dimensional world of the Holy Grail. But, strangely, the “spiritual palace” where Galahad (and Perceval) died and buried was the “far-distant land on Egypt’s confines”! Egypt? Really?Not sure who wrote the original? Who else but a fanatical cloistered schizophrenic monk who sees visions and hears voices? The simple-mindedness of the stories and characters, and the inane self-justifications, reminded me of a Medieval satire: A monk was trying to catch a pig and the pig’s squealing brought out the abbot who wanted to know what was going on. The monk replied that he was trying to cut off one of the pig’s legs to make soup for an ailing brother and the pig was thanking God for being chosen. When the abbot asked why cutting off one leg, the monk replied that he didn’t want to kill the pig. He only wanted to take one leg so the pig can still have three left.As the good and bad of the characters did not depend on their actions but solely on the author’s say so, and as right and wrong of the allegories were so confused and twisted by the author’s nonsensical pontification, as many incidents with no possible explanation were flippantly chalked up by the author as God did not wish it, the book is almost impossible to read and difficult to take seriously unless you live in the Dark Age. No wonder later writers, who lived in the real world among real people, tried to elaborate on the more interesting action sequences and skip the ridiculous religious diatribes!

It was a good read - at times, a bit strange, but also really interesting - i had a hard time putting the book down. It gave me a better understanding behind the knights of the round table, and while what has become legend and explained in symbol can still be found today, the way the stories are told are somewhat too symbolic/obscure to be truly well understood, and may also have been tempered/altered with. A good read nonetheless, and what I was interested at the time I read this book, over 10 years ago.

This book is special for me.Now I feel like Galahad, Perceval and Bors would always stay in my heart.Being part of a busy everyday city life this book carries you away from it, somewhere very far away, and somewhere within you.The way heroes of this book act while facing their trials is very very inspiring and is presented in such a way that you question yourself: "How can it be otherwise?"For those who are interested to understand the Bible on a deeper level, it does explain some of the Christian symbols and parables.Fantastic book, I would give more than 5 stars, but unfortunately that's not an option.

This is a heavily Christianized version of the famous Grail legend. I say that because the Quest of the Holy Grail was written about by many throughout the ages - and this version is probably the most distant from the Celtic pagan tradition. The commentary and notes are excellent - and Pauline Matarasso's insight into the theology and symbolism of the work isextremely entertaining and enlightening. Her theory that the book may have been written by a Cistercian monk based on clues in the text is also interesting given the number of scriptural references and mystical overtones. One of the best of its kind.

This is a classic story of the Knights of the Round Table and the quest for the Holy Grail. It has religous overtones and the story is well wrtten. I would reccomend this book.

Would recommend.

The Grail literature has fascinated me for many years. This book is very well done and I highly recommend it.

Surprisingly easy to read; the text and translation flows. The morality is a bit tedious; but, for a newcomer like me to the Arthurian scene, it is illuminating that morality, and not mysticism, is what mattered to this mediaeval writer.

A good read

I am really enjoying this book. It is from a different world from ours and is a bit simple in its moralising but but one can still appreciate the moral advice given even if chastity as a virtue seems odd and the number of good and bad beings tempting the heroes is a bit indulgent for them. The tales themselves are fascinating if repetitive. I am a big Tennyson fan but found his Holy Grail far too long-winded with endless conversations. This has none of that and is tighter and faster which actually does suit the modern taste.

This beautiful story is very respectful of the divine. It is a true spiritual story of the best kind and very human.

Ok