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Author Goering, Joseph, 1947-2023

Title The Virgin and the Grail : origins of a legend / Joseph Goering
Published New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, ©2005

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 188 pages) : illustrations (some color), 1 map
Contents From Romance to History -- Chretien de Troyes: Perceval or the Conte du Graal -- Wolfram von Eschenbach: Parzival -- Robert de Boron: Joseph d'Arimathie (La grant estoire dou graal) -- Helinand of Froidmont -- Before Romance: The Virgin and the Grail in the Pyrenees -- The Bishop of Roda/Barbastre and the Churches of Taull -- The Master of St. Clement -- The Virgin and the Grail in the Pyrenees -- Part III. The Historian's Quest -- Perceval and the Grail
Summary Some fifty years before Chretien de Troyes wrote what is probably the first and certainly the most influential story of the Holy Grail, images of the Virgin Mary with a simple but radiant bowl (called a "grail" in local dialect) appeared in churches in the Spanish Pyrenees. In this fascinating book, Joseph Goering explores the links between these sacred images and the origins of one of the West's most enduring legends. While tracing the early history of the grail, Goering looks back to the Pyrennean religious paintings and argues that they were the original inspiration of the grail legend. He explains how storytellers in northern France could have learned of these paintings and how the enigmatic "grail" in the hands of the Virgin came to form the centrepiece of a story about a knight in King Arthur's court. Part of the allure of the grail, Goering argues, was that neither Chretien nor his audience knew exactly what it represented or why it was so important. And out of the attempts to answer those questions the literature of the Holy Grail was born
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-181) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint -- Legends -- History and criticism
Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint -- Legends -- History and criticism
SUBJECT Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint fast
Subject Grail -- Legends -- History and criticism
Arthurian romances -- History and criticism
Grail in art.
Grail -- Legends -- History and criticism
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Folklore & Mythology.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- General.
Legends
Arthurian romances
Grail -- Legends
Grail in art
Arthurromans.
Graal (volkskunde)
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780300138207
0300138202
128172890X
9781281728906
9786611728908
6611728902