The secrets of king Artu: the Holy Grail
Contents
- The fruitful womb
- King Arthur's Grail
- The "These" of the Holy Grail
- Raiders of the Lost Cup: Stimulator of the imagination
The fruitful womb
"In Caer Pedryvan, after traveling through it four times / We reached the Cauldron of Anwnnl which bore around its rim a row of pearls / From the breath of nine muses it was heated / and it cannot cook the food of a coward." The verses are taken from the Preiddu Anwnn, attributed to the bard Taliesin, and describe the "Cauldron of the Anwnn" or "Cauldron of Dagda," brought into the material world by the Tuatha dè Danaan, otherworldly representatives of the "Little People," and recovered by Arthur in the castle ("Caer") of Pedryvan.
Like so many other modest objects related to it - cups, basins, vases, chalices - the cauldron, or container, plays a noble role in mythology: it is in fact the symbol of the fruitful wombs of the "Great Mother," the Earth, and, like the inexhaustible Cornucopia of the Greeks and Romans, it brings life and abundance. Christian tradition counts at least two sacred vessels: the chalice of the Eucharist and - surprisingly - the Virgin Mary. In the Lauretan Litany she is described as "Vas spirituale, vas honorabile, vas insigne devotionis," or "spiritual vessel, vessel of honor, prized vessel of devotion": in the womb ("vessel") of Our Lady, in fact, divinity had been incarnated.
King Arthur's Grail
"Un graal entre ses deus mains / une damoisele tenoit / ( .. ) / De fin or esmereè estoit / prescieuses pierres avoit / el graal de maintes manieres, / de plus riches et de plus chieres / qui en mer ne en terre soient. (..) Et li vallées les vit passer, / ne n'osa mie demander / Del graal cui l'en eri servoit."("A damsel held a grail in her hands. ( ... ) It was made of pure gold, and there were in the grail many precious stones, the finest and most costly that there are on land and sea. [...] And he saw the valets pass by, and he dared not ask who would be served with the grail.").
This is how Chrétien de Troyes, around 1190, described the first appearance of the Grails in Perceval le Gallois ou le Conte du Graal. The scene takes place in the castle of the "Fisher King," a character we will return to. Here the knight Parsifal witnesses, by the set table, a procession in which some symbolic objects are paraded: a bloody spear, two ten-armed candlesticks, a large dish and, indeed, a "grail." The word is written in lower case and used with the generic meaning of "cup": in fact, the term is derived from the Latin gradalis, by which a "scutella lata et aliquantulum prutunda" ("a wide and rather deep cup") was designated; however, curiously, in Chrétien's time the term was already archaic.
No one can know for sure why the author decided to introduce this element into the Arthurian subject matter. Perhaps he did so because he was aware of the Preiddu Anwnn and the Celtic myths of the Cauldrons and decided to rework them in a Christian form; perhaps there was already an oral tradition about the Grail in the form in which we now know it; perhaps, as he asserts in the introduction to the Count du Graal, he was inspired by a mysterious book "from the Holy Land" given to him by Count Philippe de Blois; or perhaps, finally, the Grail was his own ingenious literary invention.
Chrétien introduced in his Count one of the cornerstones of the Grail saga: that of the "unspoken question" ("and he dared not ask who would be served with the Grail"), but it was not until the later Joseph d'Arimathie ou le Roman de l'Estoire dou Graal, written by Robert de Boron around 1202, that what was to become the main feature of the vessels was described: the fact that it was the chalice from the Last Supper, in which Joseph of Arimathaea had collected the blood of the crucified Jesus. De Boron called the cup the "Grail" only once, in an aside (admittedly somewhat unrelated to the "continuity" of the text) from which it is clear that the container already had a particular history and name before it was used by Jesus: "I dare not tell, nor report, nor could I ( ) the things said and done by the Great Sages. There are written there the secret reasons why the Grail was designated by this name." What's more, Robert de Boron guarantees himself the sole repository of the Grail story: indeed, he writes that "A ce temps que je la retreis, / 0 mon Seignour Gautier en peis / Qui de Mont Belyal estoit / Unques retreites este n'avait" ("When I told [the Grail story] in time of peace to my Seigneur Gautier who came from Mont Beiyal, it had never been told before.").
Before burying Christ," De Boron recounts, "Joseph had collected a few drops of the Redeemer's blood in the chalice used during the Last Supper. As soon as the Jews had learned of his pious gesture, they had him locked up "in the deepest part of a circular tower, which was anciently horrid and dark because it was built of solid stone" . Here Jesus had appeared to Joseph, who handed him the cup and entrusted him with its safekeeping, When, more than forty years later, Joseph was freed through the intercession of the emperorand Vespasian, he had not aged a single day and believed that he had been a prisoner for only a few hours: thanks to that miracle, Vespasian converted to Christianity.
Also according to De Boron, on his apostolic journey to northern Europe Josephus brought the Grail with him (but according to the Chronica sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesiae, written in the 14th century by John of Glastonbury, it was not a cup but "two ampullae" containing the blood and sweat of Christ). the Joseph of Arimathie was continued and supplemented in La Queste of the Saint Grail ("The Search for the Holy Grails") by an anonymous author of the "Vulgate cycle," who introduced into the narrative a number of mystical-religious elements that would seem to derive from the doctrines of St. Bernard of Clairvaux: this is why many commentators believe that the author of La Queste was a Cistercian monk. In Le Grand Graal ("The Great Grail," 13th century) the Grail is associated with (or "is" tout-court) a book written by Jesus Christ "to the reading of which only those in the grace of God have access."
The truths of faith it contains "can never be uttered by mortal tongue without the four elements being upset. For if that were to happen, the heavens would flood, the air would tremble, the earth would sink, and the water would change color." The cup book thus possesses a fearsome power.
The Grand Grail is related both to Jewish traditions (it is transferred to England in a container identical to the Ark of the Covenant) and to Islamic traditions: it is in fact related to a land called "Sarraz," which is impossible to locate historically or geographically (it is not in Egypt, but "the Great Nile can be seen there from afar"; its king fights against a Ptolemy, while the Ptolomaic dynasty died out before Christ), but located nonetheless in the Middle Orient. From it, in fact - the author states - "originated the Saracens."
Around 1210, in the poem Parzival, the German writer Wolfram von Eschenbach gave the Grail different characteristics from other narratives.
It was not a cup, but rather like the one stone of the purest kind ( .. ) called lapsit exillas. If a man continued to look at the stone for two hundred years, [his appearance] would not change: perhaps only his fan hair would be gray."
The term "lapsit exillas" (more exactly "lapis exilis") is of alchemical origin: "Hic lapis exillis extat precio quoque vilis / Spurnitur a stultis, amatur plus ab aedoctis" ("This slender stone is indeed of little cost; it is despised by fools but far more appreciated by wise men"), wrote the famous alchemist Arnoldo di Villanova (13th century) referring to the philosopher's stone. The Grail would thus correspond to this object, which is symbolically capable of transforming vile metals into gold, that is, of enabling man to pass from the brute to the enlightened stage.
The words lapis exilis have also been interpreted as "Lapis ex coelis," or "Stone fallen from heaven": and, indeed, Wolfram writes that the stone was an emerald that fell from Lucifer's forehead and was brought down to earth by the angels who remained neutral during the rebellion. The esoteric tradition of "heavenly stones," physical trammels between man and God, is typical of the "land of Sarraz," the Middle 0rient: the Black Stone of Mecca is the holiest object in the Islamic religion; followers of Jewish Qabbalah use the term "Exile Stone" to designate the Shekinah, or the manifestation of God in the material world; even further east, the Urn set in the forehead of Shiva in the Hindu tradition symbolizes the "Third Eye," the metaphysical organ that enables inner vision. And, for that matter, Wolfram wrote that he had drawn from a book by a certain Kyot of Provence, who, in turn, had been inspired by his Master, an Islamic "expert in the wisdom of the stars" named Flegitanis.
The "These" of the Holy Grail
Upon reaching England, the Grail underwent numerous vicissitudes, which vary considerably depending on the sources. Extrapolating from the "Matter of Brittany" the most recurring episodes, it is possible to trace its history schematically. After founding his church in Glastonbury, Joseph of Arimathea entrusts the bowl to a keeper who is nicknamed the "Rich Fisherman" or "Fish King" because, like Jesus, he fed a large number of people by multiplying a single fish. Depending on the versions, the "Fish King" is called Pelles, Parian, Pellehan, or even Hebron or Bron, brother-in-law of Joseph of Arimathea and grandfather (or uncle, or cousin) of Parsifal; sometimes he is identified with Joseph himself. In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, he is a king named Amfortas, whose daughter Repanse marries Parsifal's heroic half-brother, the Saracen Feirefiz. And here Wolfram's tale taps into another famous myth. Feirefiz and Repanse travel to India, where they generate Priest Gianni, the mysterious Christian priest at the head of a very powerful kingdom long sought after by medieval travelers.
Centuries later, no one knows the whereabouts of the "Fisher King": the Grail is, in fact, lost. A curse called the Wasteland ("The Waste Land") by the Celts, a state of famine and devastation, falls upon Britain. The Wasteland was unleashed by the "Painful Strike," that is, by a blow vibrated by Balin the Savage with the spear of Longinus (in other versions, by King Varlans with the sword of David) into the genitals of the "lean king."
The Maimed King is called Lambor or, when identified with the "Fisher King," Parlan, Pellehan, Pelles, Amfortas. To undo the Wasteland, Merlin explains to Arthur, it is necessary to undertake the "these" of the Grail, symbol of lost purity. A knight (Parsifal "the pure fool," replaced in the late 13th century narratives, by Galahad, "the virgin cavaiiere") then occupies the "perilous seat," a chair kept empty at the Round Table, on which only "the most virtuous knight of the world," the one who has been predestined to find the Grail, can sit (on pain of annihilation).
Inspired by dreams and omens and overcoming a series of "perilous" trials (the "perilous graveyard," the "perilous bridge," the "perilous forest," the "perilous ford," etc.), Parsifal tracks down Corbenic (0 Carbonek, or Munsalvaesche), the Grail castle, and comes into the presence of the Holy Cup. However, he dares not ask the questions "What is the Grail?" and "Whose servant is it?" thus contravening the Gospel suggestion "Knock and it will be opened to you" The Grail disappears again.
After the knight spends several years in meditation, the search resumes. Finally Parsifal (or Galahad) asks the question, which is answered, "And the dish in which Jesus Christ ate the lamb with his disciples on Easter Day. (..) And because this dish was thankful to all it is called the Holy Grail" (the phrase, which includes the unusual etymology grato-Graal, is taken from The These of the Saint Grail). The "skinny king" recovers, the Wasteland ends; King Arthur dies at Camlann; and Merlin disappears into his crystal (or air) tomb.
We are around the year 540: the Grail is finally brought back to "Sarraz" (or the "realm of Priest John") by Parsifai or Galahad.
Raiders of the Lost Cup: Stimulator of the imagination
Let us pretend for a moment that we believe that the Grail affair really happened and that, in the 5th century, it returned to the native "Sarraz." Why in the following centuries was it never heard of again and it only suddenly leapt (or returned) to prominence in the 12th century? What had reawakened so much interest in a seemingly forgotten myth?
Beginning in 1095 many Christian knights had traveled to the Holy Land on the Crusades; there they had by necessity come into contact with the religious and esoteric traditions of the place: perhaps some of them perhaps referred to in the famous book which Chrétien claimed to have been inspired by - spoke of the sacred vessel and the adventurous events in which it had been protagonist five hundred years earlier. It may be that, thanks to the Crusaders, the legend reached Europe and spread there; it may even be, as some believe, that the Grail was materially tracked down by the Crusaders and brought to the Old Continent.
Where: Below you will find a list of the most likely hiding places taken from the volume L'Enciclopedia dei Misteri by Alfredo Castelli (Oscar Mondadori, 1993) and copiously updated. In fact, new studies on the possible location of the famous cup continue to be published regularly; there are even volumes (such as The Grail Seeker's Companion by John Matthews, one of the foremost authorities on the subject) devoted specifically to the "raiders of the lost cup."
FRANCE
The Grail is located in the castle of Gisors. The Knights Templar had close relations with the "Sect of Assassins," an Ismailite initiatory group that worshiped a mysterious deity called "Baphomet." For some, the idol was none other than the Grail; before being routed, the Assassins had entrusted it to the Templars, who brought it to France in the mid-12th century. After all, Wolfram called Templeisen the knights who guarded the Grail in the castle of the Amfortas kings. If this was indeed the case, the Grail would now be found among the legendary Templar treasures (much sought after but never found) in some dungeon of Gisors Castle.
The Grail is located in the castle of Montségur. After the cult of Zoroaster had been dispersed, some of its doctrines were inherited by the Manichaeans and later by the Cathars or Albigensians; the latter had come to Europe from the Middle East via Turkey and the Balkans and settled in France in the 12th century. In 1244, after a long persecution by the Papacy and the French, they were exterminated in their fortress at Montségur; if they had carried the Grail with them during their wanderings, it may now be found along with the rest of their treasure in some impenetrable hiding place in the chateaux. And again Wolfram provides a clue to this: the "Grail castle" (the one similar to Takht-I-Sulaiman) is in fact called "Munsalvaesche," meaning "Mount Saved" or "Mount Safe."
In the 1930s, German Otto Rahn, SS colonel and author of Crusade contre le Graal and La Cour de Lucifer, undertook some research at Montségur and other Cathar fortresses with the support of philosopher Alfred Rosenberg, a personal friend of Hitler. On the fate of this sort of Indiana Jones in Nazi version, no precise data are available: according to Gerard de Sede, author of Le Trésor Cathare ("The Cathar Treasure"), he was imprisoned in a concentration camp because he "knew too much"; however, the episode provided novelist Pierre Benoit, former author of the celebrated L'Atlantide, with the inspiration for the novel Monsalvat.
The Grail is found in Provence. According to Alfred Weisen, author of L'ile des veilleurs ("The Island of the Watchers"), the term Grail would be a contraction of Gross Aal, or "Great Temple" in a forgotten language. The temple in question would consist of an area of the Gorges du Verdon, bounded by the design of a zodiac 15 kilometers in diameter traced on the ground by rivers and paths, and visible only from high altitude. This area, "the island of the watchers," would have been considered sacred from the remotest antiquity, as it reproduces the universe with all its characteristics; here would have developed, among other things, the Aporreta, a secret doctrine of Pythagoras symbolized by the famous magic square of the "Sator" found in Pompeii. In Weisen's volume you will be able to find - along with King Arthur and Guinevere - a host of other "mysterial" characters, events and places, from Jesus to the Rosicrucians, from Hyperborea to Solomon's temple and the labyrinth of Crete, all connected in some way to the mystical temple.
The Grail is France. In 762 pages, thick with events stretching from the very remote past to 1992 and encompassing an enormous amount of mysteries and seemingly disparate characters (Rennes-Les-Châteaux and flying saucers, Joan of Arc and the New Atlantis, Nostradamus and Vercingetorix), Jean Robin's Le Royaume du Graal ("The Realm of the Grail") shows how the Grail physically represented by objects of high symbolic value is actually the whole of France, the country that God has chosen to carry out the mission undertaken by Christ, the salvation of humanity.
ENGLAND
The Grail is located in Glastonbury. Between the hill of the "Tor" and the remains of Glastonbury Abbey lies a well currently called the Chalice Well. According to the English esotericist and philosopher Tudor Pole, who purchased the land of the well with the intention of making it accessible to all visitors, Joseph of Arimathea had hidden the Grail there upon his arrival in Britain.
The legend of the "Grail within the well" is actually very recent: it was invented by the poet Alfred Tennyson for his Idylls of the King (19th century); however, the Chalice Well is linked by tradition to two other cups. One, made of olive, was found in the well a few centuries ago; it was a ritual object of the Celts and is probably still preserved in a private collection. Another (or perhaps still the same one) was long sought after by the occultist John Dee. By 1582 he had visited Glastonbury several times, convinced that a vessel with the elixir of long life was hidden in the Chalice Well.
IRAN
The grail is located in Takht-I-Sulaiman. The "grail castle" described by Wolfram von Eschenbach is strikingly similar to Takht-I-Sulaiman (Iran), the main center of the cult of Zoroaster. Here, before being dispersed and driven away, Zoroaster's followers worshipped the symbolic "Royal Fire," the source of knowledge.
Takht-I-Sulaiman could thus be the mythical "Sarraz," from which the Grail (the "Real Fire"?) came, to which it returned and where it may still be found.
ITALY
The Grail is found in Turin. Imported perhaps by pilgrims traveling through Europe during the Middle Ages or perhaps by the Savoy family along with the Holy Shroud, the Grail is said to have arrived in the Piedmontese capital; the statues in the churchyard of the temple of the Great Mother of God on the banks of the Po River indicate, to those able to understand its complex symbolism, the hiding place where the cup is located.
The Grail is located in Bari. In 1087, a group of merchants brought the remains of St. Nicholas to Bari from Turkey, and a basilica was built in their honor, In reality, the translation of the saint was only a cover for (in far more important find, that of the Grail.
The merchants were actually knights on a secret mission on behalf of Pope Gregory VII. The Pontiff was aware of the power of the chalice and wanted to retrieve it from "Sarraz," as he feared that its presence on Turkish soil would aid the Saracens in their expansion to the detriment of the Byzantine Empire and would harm the planned intervention of Christian forces in the Holy Land to defend the pilgrims.
It is unknown where the cup was located and who commanded the expedition; the fact remains that, in a deconsecrated church in Myra, the knights also took some bones, later officially identified as those of St. Nicholas. The recovery of the remains justified the expedition to Turkey and the building of a basilica in Bari; the choice to keep the Grail in that city, rather than in Rome, was determined by two reasons: from there the knights would embark for the Holy Land and the Grail would pour out its beneficial effects on them; in addition, its presence would protect Robert Guiscard, Norman king of Apulia, the Pope's main ally in the struggle against Henry IV. As a reminder of the event, the portal of the cathedral (built several years before the popularization of the "Matter of Brittany") bears an image of King Arthur and a stylized indication of the hiding place. The tomb of St. Nicholas continues to emanate a liquid called "manna" which, besides being highly nutritious, like the Grail heals from all evil.
The Grail is located in Castel del Monte. The Teutonic Knights, founded in 1190, were in contact with both Sufi mystics-an Islamic sect that worshipped "The God of the Three Religions," Jewish, Islamic and Christian-and the enlightened Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen, himself a follower of that doctrine.
Through the Teutonic Knights, the Sufis would entrust the Grail to the emperor to preserve it from the destruction unleashed by the Crusades. If so, the Grail would be located in Castel del Monte, an octagonal cup-shaped palace built specifically to guard it (according to some, the Castel del Monte building itself is the Grail). Wolfram seems to provide support for this thesis as well: in fact, in his Parzival he highlighted the link between the Christian, Jewish and Islamic religions.
The Grail is found in Genoa. The Sacred Basin, a green glass dish about forty centimeters in diameter found during the sack of Caesarea in 1101, still stands in Genoa Cathedral. Crusaders believed that the vessel was made from an emerald and that it was a gift from the Queen of Sheba to Solomon. In the 13th century Archbishop Jacopo da Varagine wrote that "it was said (...) that in that dish Christ had eaten at the Last Supper. (...) Whether this is true we cannot know (...), but we cannot, however, pass over in silence the fact that, in certain books of the English, it is said that when Nicodemus removed Christ's body from the cross, he collected his blood in an emerald crockery."
The Grail is found in Val d'Aosta. 0, at least, Val d'Aosta is home to the last container whose name is etymologically related to "Grail": the grolla, a cup equipped with several spouts from which to take turns drinking a beverage made by mixing coffee and liqueur, in a kind of ritual designed to stimulate friendship.
SPAIN
The Grail is found in Valencia. Having arrived mysteriously (perhaps brought by the Cathars) to San Juan de la Peña in 1060, the "Spanish" Holy Grail has undergone various travails and was transferred to Zaragoza in 1399, Barcelona in 1409, Valencia in 1437, then Alicante (1809), then Eivissa (1812), then Palma de Mallorca (1812), and finally back to Valencia (1813).
This Grail -traveler- possesses an absolutely unique feature compared to the others described in this chapter: whether true or false, it exists physically and is preserved and on public display in a chapel in the cathedral of Valencia.
STIMULATOR OF THE IMAGINATION
From what we have seen so far, the Grail (or "Grail," or "Sankreal," or "Sanguinalia") is both a material and symbolic object; it belonged to Jesus but probably existed before his advent; it is otherworldly in origin and physically manifested in the East or Middle East.
It is usually represented as a container, but it can also be a stone; it is often associated with other sacred objects; perhaps it is a book or doctrine "in the making," in that from the Grail one can drink (as recalled by the episode of the Last Supper), but one can also "pour" something into it (the blood of Christ crucified). On the material plane it can nourish, heal wounds and ensure eternal youth, but it is also endowed with fearsome powers; on the spiritual plane it transmits knowledge and brings man closer to God.
Many traditions, many legends and many esoteric disciplines around the world speak of objects with the characteristics just described. They have been identified by different names: the "Aladdin's Lamp," the "Golden Fleece," the "Ark of the Covenant," the "Baphomet," the "Philosopher's Stone."
What then is the "true" nature of the Grails? In the most realistic interpretation, it is a fabulous literary invention stimulated by antecedent myths, rooted in particularly fertile soil and enriched with new details by successive generations of authors. In the most materialistic interpretation it is "simply" the cup of the Last Supper, a highly prized antique. For anthropologists it is a body of doctrine elaborated through the centuries ("one can drink from it and pour into it"), perhaps physically supported by a written text: according to T.H. White, the author of The Sword in the Stone, there is even a Secret School of the Grail. For the Christian tradition, the Grail represents the evangelization of the barbarian world by missionaries, crushed by persecution and regained by men of good will through the work of a priest (Merlin), or the expulsion from Eden (the Wasteland) and subsequent redemption through the intervention of Jesus.
For (controversial) philosopher Julius Evola it represents the Western, "Nordic," "Ghibelline" Tradition as opposed to the "Judeo-Christian" one. For esotericist René Guenon, the Grail is the "heart of Christ," a powerful symbol of the primordial religion practiced at Agarthi, of which Jesus is said to have been an exponent. To alchemists it represents knowledge, and its quest is equivalent to that of the philosopher's stone or the elixir of long life.
For Carl Gustav Jung, it is an archetype of the unconscious; for Jesse Weston, it is a sexual and fertility symbol; for Walter Stein, author of The Ninth Century and the Holy Grail ("The Ninth Century and the Holy Grail"), the Grail is connatural with the entire planet: a generator of spiritual as well as political and socioeconomic energy. For Rudolf Steiner it is "the symbol of the events of the primitive age perceived by the sensibility of the soul"; when, in 1913, he designed the building called the Gotheanum, the German philosopher intended to make a new "Grail castle." For Adolf Hitler, it is a magical tool with which to achieve absolute power; for science fiction novelists and proponents of the Extraterrestrial hypothesis, it is a device from outer space, or something to do with the terrible powers of nuclear fusion. For Martin Mystère, the Grails are not one, but as many as seven, which justifies certain apparent contradictions about their characteristics and nature.
According to a school of thought inaugurated by the occultist Dion Fortune, the term "St. Grail" is a mistranscription of "Sang Real," or "Royal Blood," and designates a dynasty; for Dion Fortune that of the priests of Atlantis, for journalists Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoin, authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, even that of Jesus. Saved from crucifixion, the Redeemer is said to have begotten sons, from whom the French dynasty of the Merovingians would be born; the latter, liungi from having died out in 751, are said to still be among us, carefully protected by a very secret society, "the Priory of Sion," which is waiting for the opportune moment to restore the universal monarchy.
Only one thing is certain: the fact that for eight centuries the Holy Grail has continued to stimulate the imagination of so many generations of readers-different in culture and social background-constitutes, in a sense, tangible proof of its magical power.
THE "WAY OF THE POND"
Joseph of Arimathea is presented by the Gospels as a wealthy merchant, a distinguished member of the Sanhedrin and a disciple of Jesus, who opposed Jesus' execution (Matt. 27:57,- Mark 15:43,-Luke 23:50-51) and, after his crucifixion, requested his body from Pontius Pilate to bury him with the help of another disciple, Nicodemus (John 19:38-42,Matt. 25:57-60).
No other details of Joseph of Arimathea's life were known until the seventh century; but between the seventh and twelfth centuries Isidore of Seville, St. Dunstan and William of Malmesbury laid the first pieces of what would later become a well-articulated narrative. St. Philip-one of the first apostles-had sent twelve men to convert the Gauls; these, after various vicissitudes, had reached England and built a church there at the behest of the archangel Gabriel. The leader of the missionaries was Joseph of Arimathea, and indeed traces of his apostolic journey are found in legends of Provence, Aquitaine, Brittany and southern England.
Joseph was chosen for the mission to Britannia perhaps also because he knew the area well: in fact - the Cornish legends tell - he had already been to that region several times, where there were many rich mines.
The "pond route," which started from various Near 0rient countries and reached Cornwall via, among other places, Marseille, Arles, Limoges and the English island of Mount Saint Michael (twin of the French Mont-Saint-Michel),
was already traveled many centuries before Christ and was described-among others-by Diodorus Siculus (90-20 B.C.); the frequentation of Jewish merchants would be evidenced by a number of local place names, such as "Penzance" and "Mariazon."
On one or more of his journeys along the "pond route"-the legend goes on to say-Joseph had brought with him a truly exceptional companion: the young Jesus, who was then his grandson. Many traditions and place names in Cornwall recall when Jesus came there accompanied by his uncle, who took him to visit the holy place of Glastonbury.
It was Christ himself who taught the miners how to clear the tin of other minerals; when the metal glittered, the miners sang "Joseph is a tin-man" ("Joseph is in the tin trade"), a ditty still popular in Cornwall. When, in 63 A.D., with the twelve missionaries, Joseph of Arimathea reached Britain, he perhaps wanted to return to the place he had visited with his nephew-Jaconbury. Here he leaned on his staff to pray and it turned into a hawthorn tree. And here, at the request of the archangel Gabriel, he built the first Catholic church in England. Thus began in Glastonbury the vicissitudes of the Grail and Joseph's work of evangelization; the descendants of the twelve missionaries became, centuries later, the famous knights of King Arthur. When he died, Joseph of Arimathea was buried in Glastonbury, where he "sleeps his eternal sleep, and lies in 'inea bifurcat' by the south corner of the oratory."
