The Holy Grail - An Eternal Quest
Grail quests are a long-standing pastime. The Holy Grail might be the greatest historical artifact / mystery of all time, fascinating people from many, many different eras.
People have hunted for centuries for this much sought-after Christian relic. Unfortunately for them, while it is a real legend, it is not a real object. It is something you can imagine, but not something you can hold. Art thou prepared to go on this quest for knowledge?
The grail legend begins in the stories of King Arthur after the year 1000 in France and Britain. There is no mention of the Holy Grail anywhere for the previous 1,000 years. Exactly what it is and what it does in these stories evolves through the decades as they are told and retold in feasting halls all over Europe.
The earliest writing about the grail comes from the French poet Chretien de Troyes in his Story of the Grail from ~1180. The innocent knight Perceval stumbles into a magical castle and is shown “a grail, which is holy,” so it is not yet “the” Holy Grail. This grail is not a cup, but a platter, which fills with enough food to feed the entire hall. A few decades later, the German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote Parzival where the grail is a stone or jewel that produces food in abundance.
A few decades later, another French poet, Robert de Boron, wrote The Quest for the Holy Grail where the grail became the cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper and was entrusted to Joseph of Arimathea, the keeper of Christ’s tomb. This grail will also eventually catch Christ’s blood at his crucifixion, and the spear that pierces his side becomes the Holy Lance.
The pure knight Galahad becomes the ideal hero who finds the Holy Grail. Two centuries later this is the story that will be used by Sir Thomas Malory in his Morte D'Arthur in 1469, cementing it as the “official” story for the Grail Quest. Allegorically, the quest for the grail becomes a pursuit for the meaning of life, the essence of the divine, the fulfillment of your true purpose in life.
Focus on the Holy Grail declined massively in the English-speaking world after the Protestant Reformation, getting swept away as mere superstition. Does it live on in conspiracy theories? You know it does! While scholars can see the story evolving on the page, there is always interest in a good cabal, and the Holy Grail doesn’t disappoint.
One theory says that the Knights Templar swiped the Holy Grail, hiding it somewhere obscure from all. Another remarkable one says that the grail isn’t an object, but the secret bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Fun-hating historians will roll their eyes at that and insist that the whole legend is the co-opting of Celtic fertility symbols by medieval Christians.
There is a theory that’s less conspiracy and more sociology: the evolution of the Grail Legend evolved with the times. The half-dozen decades when the story developed correspond to a time when the Church was developing the doctrine of transubstantiation, so that the story would take on these sacral elements makes sense in the context of the times. Just like in the 1950s, when a radioactive spider bites a teenager in New York City, causing him to develop spider-like powers, by the 2000s that spider would be genetically engineered, reflecting the thinking about the big issues of the times. Zeitgeist, baby!
The Grail Legend developed during the era of the crusades, when many relics from the near east worked their way across Europe. Today there are more than 200 objects claiming to be the one and only Holy Grail. Some, but not all, may even be guarded by 900-year old crusader knights, waiting for you to set down your bullwhip and fedora and take their place as the new guardian of The Grail.
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures
New grails are found all the time. In 2014, two academics in Leon, Spain discovered another claimant to the Holy Grail - and this will shock you - right there in their hometown. Who woulda guessed it? Not the tourism bureau of Leon, that’s for sure.
While you might not gain eternal life if you’re lucky enough to drink from the one true, authentic Holy Grail, you can rest assured that the Grail Legend will live on as long as people like to tell and hear stories.
When not talking about the object from whatever version of the legend you prefer, the term “Holy Grail” means something that many people want but is difficult to find. Many investors are continually searching for investments that will skyrocket in value in a short window of time. Buy low. Sell high. Retire early. Gloat to all about your brilliance.
The investment type changes depending on who’s telling the story: real estate will make you rich with leveraged returns; dividend stocks will make you rich with a steady stream of income; get in on this tech stock now before it starts its rocket ship ride on the hockey stick curve; crypto is the future and you win by sticking it to The Man. The story is always the same: This thing, my thing, right now. Gimme da monies!
So go on the quest that you think is best for you. Seek the magical thing where you’ve heard tales of glory. Or stay at home and plow your fields and plow your profits back into those fields. There are many fine quests out there, so choose the one that best fits the fortune and glory that you seek.
