Galahad, upon finally seeing the Grail, was in such a state of ecstasy that he wished only to die. His request was granted, and on his way back to Arthur and his round table, Galahad was lifted into Heaven. Entering the pearly gates while alive is no easy feat, but for Galahad, who accomplished what he set out to do, it was a victory lap.
Rosslyn Chapel, in Scotland, is regarded as a strong candidate for the Holy Grail’s hiding place. Built in the 1400s by William Sinclair, the chapel’s alleged Templar and Masonic connections have been explored in literary works ranging from The Da Vinci Code to Batman: Scottish Connection. A Grail hypothesis popularized by Dan Brown argues that the Grail was not a chalice that caught Jesus’ blood during the crucifixion, but a womb that carried Jesus’ bloodline, a lineage that includes the Merovingian kings of the Franks and the Sinclairs of Rosslyn Chapel.
Another interpretation, found in Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, is that the Grail is a green gemstone, Lapis exilis, that fell from the sky during Lucifer’s rebellion and offers its possessor eternal life. By reconfiguring the Grail into a rock, a celestial rock but a rock nonetheless, Parzival brings the myth down to Earth. If shards of Heaven are dropping down on us like drops of blood from Jesus’ side, then perhaps this whole globe is one glorious goblet.
Arguing whether the Grail is meteorite or Mary Magdalene, chalice, womb, or world, is ultimately an exercise by crackpots, and the biggest crackpots of them all: etymologists. You follow one thread and you’re looking into dishware; you follow another, and you’re standing in a crater. If wordplay is more your thing, you can tweak san-gréal (Old French for “Holy Grail”) and turn it into sang réal, “royal blood.”
Lucky for you, APOCALYPSE CONFIDENTIAL is a friendly, mist- and myth-shrouded castle for crackpot wordsmiths, so on this Good Friday, seek the Grail, and read
GRAAL
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ART
- FOUR COLLAGES by Aaron Lange
ESSAY
- GRAIL CONTRA CROSS by Justin Geoffrey
FICTION
- THE AWEN OF MERLIN by Glahn
- CHATEAU DE GRAL: AN ORAL HISTORY OF PRINCE CHRISTO’S DEATH BY WHATEVER by Anthony Lien
- DAYSHIFT NEEDS TO DIE by Derek Whorley
- FIDELITY by Billy Lambent
- FISHER OF MEN by Ronald Plumber
- HAIL ARTHUR! by Nick Mace
- MORE MONEY, WORSE FOOD by Daniel Strickland
- RAVEN, OR THE MAID OF THE GRAAL by Vincenzo della Malva
- STONE 80 (HAECCEITY) by Ian Maxton
- THY CHALICE OF INFINITE TEARS by James Callan
POETRY
- “THE ENCHANTRESS” by Michael Edward Díaz
- “ETERNAL VESSEL” by Shawn Scott Smith
- “GRAND ALOFT, GRAVE LAUGHT” by Cristiano Cardone
- A SONNET by Khalid ibn Yaʿqub
- THREE POEMS by Brendan Brewster
Artwork by Robert Voyvodic