The Legends of the Holy Chalice
About the Holy Chalice of the Last Supper
The theme of the quest for the Grail, a marvellous object and source of life, is central to medieval Franco-Germanic literature, and its origins lie above all in the works of Chretien de Troyes, who left his work Perceval or the Tale of the Grail unfinished around 1190; the nature of this jewel is not explained here, and it was Wolfram von Eschenbach who gave it the form of a chalice in his poem “Perceval the Welshman”
It is believed that he conceived his Parsifal at the beginning of the 13th century, in the mythical castle of the Wartburg, the cradle of poets and troubadours, and that he completed it in 1215. There, in this castle, where these singers of Love, these Master Singers, whose three main rules, God, their lord and the beloved woman, were the source of their inspirations, Wolfram composed his great work. For he was the prince of the troubadours, the leading figure alongside Walter von der Vogelweide and Heinrich Tannhäuser.
Recent research, such as that of Michael Hesemann “Die Entdeckung des Heiligen Grals. Das Ende einer Suche”, Ed. Pattloch 2003 –, place the origin of these legends in Spain and on the basis of the agate chalice of San Juan de la Peña, and we cannot forget that they were the source of inspiration for Richard Wagner's great poetic-musical works “Tannhäuser” “Parsifal” and “Lohengrin”.