Q 01/05

In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which knight fights on after losing both arms and both legs?

A) The White Knight

B) The Red Knight

C) The Black Knight

D) The Golden Knight

Answer · why

C) The Black Knight

The Black Knight loses both arms and both legs to King Arthur, calls the first wound a scratch, offers to call it a draw, and threatens to bite his le...

Q 02/05

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

A) The Sermon on the Mount

B) The Last Supper

C) The wedding at Cana

D) The feeding of the five thousand

Answer · why

B) The Last Supper

The Last Supper link comes from the poet Robert de Boron, writing around 1200; in the earliest grail story, composed shortly before, the dish is a hol...

Q 03/05

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

A) Nicodemus the Pharisee

B) Simon of Cyrene

C) Mary Magdalene

D) Joseph of Arimathea

Answer · why

D) Joseph of Arimathea

Joseph of Arimathea is thrown in prison in the legend, where the risen Christ visits him and explains the cup's mysteries; only later tellings send Jo...

Q 04/05

Which medieval poet wrote the earliest surviving story to feature a 'grail', in the late 1100s?

A) Chrétien de Troyes

B) Marie de France

C) Geoffrey Chaucer

D) Dante Alighieri

Answer · why

A) Chrétien de Troyes

Chrétien de Troyes left the poem unfinished and its grail only half explained, so the writers who followed were free to decide for themselves what the...

Q 05/05

In The Da Vinci Code, the Holy Grail turns out to be not a cup but which woman from the Gospels?

A) Salome

B) The Virgin Mary

C) Mary Magdalene

D) Martha of Bethany

Answer · why

C) Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene, in Dan Brown's plot, is the 'vessel' because she bore the child of Jesus; the book ends with its hero kneeling at the Louvre, sure tha...