60 Fun Facts About Holy Grail

In Arthurian legend, the Holy Grail is most often described as what kind of object?

Some versions make it a cup, others a serving dish, and Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival makes it a stone.

The Grail became identified with the vessel Jesus used at which event?

That identification came from Robert de Boron around 1200; the earliest grail story a decade earlier had no explicit Christian meaning at all.

Which biblical figure is said to have used the Grail to catch Christ's blood at the crucifixion?

In the legend he is later imprisoned, visited by Christ, and finally carries the vessel west to Britain.

Which French poet wrote the earliest surviving story to feature a 'grail', around 1190?

He never finished the poem, and four different continuators tried to complete it after him.

The earliest grail romance is named after which knight?

The full title is Perceval, the Story of the Grail; the naive young hero sees the grail but fails to ask about it.

In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the Grail is portrayed as what?

Wolfram called it lapis exillis and gave it a guardian dynasty of Grail kings at a hidden castle.

In the Vulgate Queste and in Malory, which knight finally achieves the Grail?

He is so pure that he outranks his own father, the greatest knight in the world, and ascends to Heaven at the end of the quest.

In the Vulgate Cycle, the virgin knight who achieves the Grail is the son of which famous knight?

His mother was Elaine, daughter of the Grail king at Corbenic, and the son was destined for the quest from birth.

The wounded ruler who guards the Grail in its hidden castle is known by what title?

He is typically wounded in the thigh or groin, and his injury is mirrored by the barren wasteland around him.

Which Indiana Jones film sends Indy and his father racing the Nazis for the Grail?

It was Spielberg's deliberately lighter follow-up after the criticism of Temple of Doom.

Who plays Indy's father, the Grail scholar Henry Jones, in the 1989 Indiana Jones film?

Connery was only twelve years older than Harrison Ford.

In the third Indiana Jones film, what happens to the villain Donovan after he drinks from the wrong cup?

Elsa hands him the gaudy cup on purpose; Indy then picks the plain one, 'the cup of a carpenter'.

The Grail temple in the 1989 Indiana Jones film was shot at Al Khazneh, in which ancient city?

The film is credited with turning the Jordanian site into a major tourist destination.

In the third Indiana Jones film, a shield in the Venice catacombs says the Grail path begins in which city?

Alexandretta is the old name of Iskenderun in southern Turkey; the fictional Hatay is nearby.

Dan Brown's 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code presents the Grail as what?

Brown's plot has the 'grail' be Mary Magdalene herself and hints it lies beneath the Louvre's Inverted Pyramid.

Which bestselling 1982 book by Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln popularised the bloodline theory?

The theory first appeared on the BBC series Chronicle in the 1970s before Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln turned it into a book.

The Grail-bloodline theory rests on a hoax about which supposed secret society?

The 'priory' was fabricated in 1950s France; Dan Brown nonetheless presented it as fact on the opening page of his novel.

According to the bloodline theory, the descendants of Jesus became which French royal dynasty?

Scholars have widely dismissed the idea, but it has powered decades of alternate-history books.

A 15th-century writer re-parsed the Old French 'san graal' as 'sang réal', giving it what meaning?

The pun was invented by the English chronicler John Hardyng and later became the seed of the bloodline conspiracy.

In the earliest grail romance, what does the grail hold as it is carried past the hero?

The audience might have expected a fish in a dish that size; the wafer alone keeps the wounded king alive.

In the grail procession, what object is carried past the hero first, before the grail itself?

It is followed by two boys with candelabras and finally the girl carrying the grail.

In the earliest grail romance, the young hero does not heal his wounded host because he does what?

He had been warned against talking too much and so keeps quiet; asking the question would have restored the wasteland.

In Wolfram's Parzival, the Grail is kept safe at which castle?

The name means 'mount of salvation'; Benedictine monks in Catalonia later claimed it was their own mountain sanctuary.

Wolfram calls the Grail 'lapis exillis', a name that in alchemy refers to what?

The stone grants eternal life to its guardian, which is why the maimed king cannot die.

In Wolfram's telling, the Grail had been the sanctuary of which beings?

They were the angels who took neither side when Lucifer rebelled.

In the Welsh romance Peredur, the hero is shown not a grail but a platter carrying what?

The bloody head belongs to his kinsman, which turns the mystery into a call for vengeance.

In the German poem Diu Crône, unusually, which knight achieves the Grail?

It is the only version where he solves the mystery and releases the Grail King, after which the whole cursed court vanishes.

In the Vulgate Queste, how many knights perish during the Grail quest?

Arthur's fellowship never fully recovers, setting up the collapse of his world in the Mort Artu.

In the Vulgate Queste, the Grail leaves corrupt Britain and returns to which Middle Eastern city?

The Grail knight is asked to carry it to this holy island city, once ruled by his ancestor Nascien.

Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur oddly describes the Grail as having what property?

He seems to have misread his French source, which mentions an invisible Grail bearer, not an invisible Grail.

In Robert de Boron's Merlin, what does the wizard have built to succeed the Grail tables?

That is how the tables of Christ and of the Grail keepers become the ancestors of Arthur's famous furniture.

What is the empty seat at Arthur's table reserved for the knight destined to achieve the Grail?

Anyone else who sat in it was destroyed; the Grail knight survives it and proves he is the chosen one.

The Sacro Catino, a green glass dish claimed to be the Grail, is held in which Italian city's cathedral?

It was brought home by Crusaders in the 12th century but not linked to Christ's table until a century later.

When the Sacro Catino broke in Napoleon's conquest, it proved to be glass rather than which stone?

The dish had been carried off to Paris and came back in pieces.

The Holy Chalice of Valencia, another Grail claimant, is a dish made of what material?

Its bowl may date to Greco-Roman times; it was gifted to Martin I of Aragon in 1399 and later sold to Valencia Cathedral.

Valencia's tradition says its cup was taken to Rome by Saint Peter and later entrusted to which saint?

That story never involves the man who buried Jesus or his blood, which suggests it grew up separately from the romances.

Which Somerset town, identified with Avalon since the 12th century, became a major focus of Grail legend?

A legend arose in the 13th century that the man who buried Jesus founded its abbey, and it is now a magnet for New Age groups.

Who had hidden the glass bowl that friends 'retrieved' near an English abbey town in 1906 and promoted as the Grail?

Wellesley Tudor Pole was among the friends who recovered it and championed it as the original cup.

Which 14th-century Scottish church building was tied to the Grail by mid-20th-century conspiracy books?

The Da Vinci Code hints the Grail was long buried beneath it before being moved to the Louvre.

In 1906 the esoteric writer Joséphin Péladan identified which Cathar stronghold as the Grail castle?

The legend grew that the Cathars smuggled the Grail out when the castle fell to Catholic crusaders in 1244.

During a 1940 visit to Spain, Heinrich Himmler personally asked about the Grail at which abbey?

Himmler had already sponsored the writer Otto Rahn's abortive search for the Grail in the 1930s.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail was adapted in 2004 into which stage musical?

Eric Idle's musical went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical.

In which 1981 John Boorman film does the Grail revive an ailing Arthur and his barren land?

Boorman set out to restore a heroic, traditional treatment after decades of parody.

Which 1922 T. S. Eliot poem loosely follows the Grail legend and takes its title from a Jessie Weston book?

The title alludes to the wounded king and the sterile lands around him.

Which Jessie Weston book on the Grail did Eliot cite as the source of his poem's title?

Weston argued that the Grail legend preserved traces of ancient fertility ritual.

Which Richard Wagner music drama, premiered in 1882, is built around the Grail?

It was Wagner's final work; the Grail in it periodically produces blood.

Edwin Austin Abbey painted a major mural series of the Grail quest for which institution?

The murals were painted during the first decade of the 20th century.

Jay-Z's 2013 single 'Holy Grail' features which guest artist?

An Australian band, Hunters & Collectors, had released a different song called 'Holy Grail' twenty years earlier.

In the Fate anime and game franchise, what does the Holy Grail grant the winner of the 'Holy Grail War'?

The series hints that its Grail is not the cup of Christ at all but something mages made generations earlier.

Which 7th-century pilgrim reported seeing the chalice of the Last Supper near Jerusalem?

His report is the one relic tradition of that cup that predates the Grail romances.

The Nanteos Cup, a medieval wooden bowl promoted as the Grail, was found in which country?

It was found near Rhydyfelin and is one of several 20th-century claimants along with the Antioch chalice.

To which French city was a Last Supper vessel, looted in the Fourth Crusade, taken before vanishing in the Revolution?

Albrecht von Scharfenberg's Grail romance linked it to the Arthurian Grail but claimed it was only a copy.

In Parzival, who is the first Grail King, entrusted with the stone at its castle?

His descendant Anfortas is the maimed king whom the hero finally releases by asking the right question.

In which year is Monty Python and the Holy Grail set?

Arthur's squire Patsy bangs coconut shells together as the king mimes riding a horse.

Which two rock bands did the Pythons approach to help finance Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

No studio would fund it, and rock stars saw the film as a tax write-off with UK top rates near 90%.

Which Scottish fortress stood in for most of the strongholds in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

It was shot from different angles, with hanging miniatures used for others; Castle Stalker also appears.

Where was the Rabbit of Caerbannog scene in the Python film shot?

A real white rabbit was used, swapped for puppets during the killings.

Why do the knights in the Python film mime their riding to coconut clops?

Only a lone horse appears in a couple of scenes.

The 2001 DVD's 'Subtitles for People Who Don't Like the Film' used lines from which Shakespeare play?

The second disc also had a Lego 'brickfilm' version of the Camelot Song.

In the 2011 ABC special Best in Film, the Python Grail movie was named the second-best comedy ever behind which film?

Total Film readers ranked it fifth-greatest comedy in 2000.