German 397G - ST- The Quest for the Grail

The Grail is the most famous and most misunderstood symbol from the Middle Ages. The Grail did not start out as the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. Based on Celtic myths and guarded by a mysterious order of knights (in some versions the Templars), it was a magical dish or a stone that gave youth and long life, and it functioned as a horn of plenty providing whatever food or drink one desired. This course provides an overview of the main stories of the Grail, from Chretien de Troye's Perceval, which is the oldest Grail narrative, to Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, one of the greatest works of the medieval period, to Thomas Malory's influential Le Morte d'Arthur, to Tennyson's "The Holy Grail" from the Idylls of the King, concluding with film versions, such Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Course and texts in English.