Tags
Chretien de Troyes, Dysgyl, Holy Grail, King Arthur, Knights of the Round Table, Le Conte du Graal, Perceval, Peredur, Sir Thomas Malory
It’s curious. In Celtic legend and myth there is no holy grail. However, in those references most closely tied to the story, there is a Dysgyl. There are several English translations of the word, including body. That is likely where the connection to the grail containing the holy blood of Christ came from.
However, the context of the word in all the Celtic versions, including the Welsh version of Le Conte du Graal, makes clear the intended interpretation is cauldron. One can go a step further and connect all these instances with a witch or witches. In the Celtic tales, the cauldron is a symbol of fertility and is ofen destroyed or stolen by the hero, such as in the cases of Peredur (Perceval) and Arthur.
Chrétien de Troyes was the first individual to call the object a holy grail, a sangraal. It was not a popular connection at first. Wolfram von Eschenbach, a better knight and an important writer as well, called it a black stone. It did not come into the public consciousness until the Arthur stories were first coalesced into a single and consistent timeline of events a couple hundred years later. One must wonder what the writers of The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romance and Sir Thomas Malory would have thought of the Knights of the Round Table searching for a witch’s cauldron!
http://http://taimoorbaba.blogspot.com/2008/02/holy-grail-true-or-myth.html
Cei 
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Interesting. In these older Celtic versions, are there any specific hints of the origin of the cauldron in question? The Grail obviously comes with a fully-fledged backstory almost pre-written, and I wouldn’t expect anything that elaborate, but if you know of any tidbits from these older legends about why this specific witch’s cauldron was so important or powerful, or how Arthur first heard of it or anything like that, I’d be very interested in hearing of them.
-“Preiddeu Annwn”
-“Vita Samsoni”
-“Tablet of Larzac”
That plan was to do a little explaining as I narrated the end of my pursuit on this subject in two weeks. If you have any other topic you would like discussed after, too, just let me know.
Sounds interesting. I’ll look forward to further details in two weeks, then. 🙂
Reblogged this on Loki's Weblog and commented:
This, much like every time I rewatch the Disney movie about the Black Cauldron if admittedly with less of a straight line of association, makes me wish I had ever gotten around to reading the Chronicles of Prydain.
I will try not to disappoint.
Not to worry, I’m sure you won’t!