Simon Mattacks
speaker
2,981 appearances
17 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 13 Sep
Simon Mattacks’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 14 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 3.
Appearances
Further, it was not yet particularly holy in nature.
L'Etoile claimed he got his source material from a book provided by his patron, Philip of Flanders.
The existence of such a book is questionable.
First, the book has never been identified.
Further, it was common for writers of the era to vaguely refer to source texts that did not exist in order to dispel the notion that they were writing fiction.
In that poem, the grail does not really have a starring role.
Rather, it is mentioned merely as a plot point.
Percival, a Welsh boy who wishes to be a knight, encounters a character called the Fisher King.
Upon visiting his castle, he watches a mysterious nighttime procession.
Young men and women carry three objects past him.
First, he sees a lance, then a candelabra.
Finally, a beautiful maiden emerges with a precious-looking item he refers to as a graal.
He doesn't comment upon any of this, but in the morning he finds out he could have broken a troublesome spell if he had in fact asked about the graal.
In a later passage, it is revealed that the Graal has special powers that sustain the ailing father of his host, the Fisher King.
But that is all we really hear of the Grail in this tale by de Troyes.
Obviously, de Troyes isn't even responsible for the idea that the Grail was a cup.
That impression grew in later stories.
Also, the object is divine, but it is not linked to Jesus yet.
In fact, far from being biblical, it's possible the source de Troyes really used was Irish mythology.
This is just a theory, but some scholars point to one tale about a similar trio of objects, a spear, a cauldron, and a sword.
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