Welsh Journals

THE GRAIL: FROM CELTIC MYTH TO CHRISTIAN SYMBOL. By Roger Sherman Loomis. University of Wales Press (Cardiff) and Columbia University Press (New York), 1963. Pp. 287. 35s. Professor Loomis has devoted nearly fifty years to Arthurian studies, and throughout that period he has been a constant champion of the important part played by Celtic literature in the formation of the central Arthurian themes. It is fitting, then, that this present study, which seeks to demonstrate the process by which Celtic myths were slowly and fortuitously transformed into Christian symbols, should be published jointly by the university presses of Wales and Columbia. Supported by illustrations, appendices, and a thorough index, this book is a handsome tribute to scholarly pietas. Professor Loomis's conclusions-some of which may arouse contro- versy­can be briefly summarized as follows. The Grail tradition begins with Irish adventure tales about a castle and a Waste Land which were transmitted to Welsh tales; the latter added significant objects (e.g. a drinking horn and a platter) and Welsh proper names. This basic Celtic material (with its overtones of pagan mythology) was passed on to the non-Celtic world by the bilingual Bretons who travelled widely as conteurs. During this transference, mistakes and misunderstandings led to the confusion of 'cors' (a horn) and the 'cors benoiz' of the mass-wafer which was associated with 'sains graaus'. In time a magic horn became a Grail vessel, or dish, and a growing cult of relics associated with the Passion assisted the transference and transmutation. Later still, Joseph of Arimathea's so-called connection with the dish of the Last Supper and his confusion with the earlier Fisher King was an almost inevitable completion of the cycle. (Ironically, official spokesmen of the English Church based their claims for right of precedence over other nations at the Councils of Pisa, Constance, Siena, and Basel on their prior conversion by Joseph.) In his final chapter, Professor Loomis argues that only the Queste del Saint Graal and Parzival possess real and lasting significance for the reader because they have been so fully integrated into the Christian faith. Perhaps one can draw the conclusion that all other versions of the legend are handicapped because of the basic confusion of their origins. The Grail may well attract controversy, but to give the translations and summaries of the chief medieval versions of the story within one book is, of itself, a valuable service to all medieval students. One's admiration, too, is fired by the exemplary devotion with which the author has kept to his central purpose. His brief reference to the connection between European events from 1180 to 1230-when all the basic texts were com- posed-opens a wide and profitable field of speculation; his use of late versions of oral tales in order to throw light on obscure passages in medieval tales raises basic problems of method which Professor Loomis does not ignore but which he does not allow to hinder the unfolding of