The Elucidation

I know that I've been jumping all over the place here, but I feel I must provide you all with some information regarding The Elucidation. "The secret that no man may tell." How will anyone ever discover the grail if they don't know how to find it. Someone out there must no the secret and it should be told to the noble knights. I'm not suggesting going around and letting everyone in on the secret. That would be quite ridiculous. However, the grail might be achieved faster, if the correct grail seekers knew this secret and told the appropriate ones. In which case, "some man must tell." They just don't have to tell everyone.

Perronik, the Innocent.

Yes, it is I, Perronik the Innocent. The very same one who took over the noble knight’s quest for the Golden Basin and the Diamond Lance. The one who conquered the lion, outwitted the unsleeping dragon, escaped the scaly monsters, eluded Sirens and eventually achieved my quest to become the king of Jerusalem. It was no easy task I tell you, but it was something that I knew that I would be able to accomplish given my creative nature and my ability to think on my feet. I've looked at my fellow grail seekers, and I cannot think of anyone would have been able to achieve this quest as I did. Well, maybe a couple, I might be building myself up too much here. But nevertheless I feel that I have conquered all of the great challenges of the world, and now I can just sit back on my magical throne and let the world come to me.

Sir Gawain

Hello there,
It seems that I fell victim to a terrible habit of mine and have been sound asleep under a tree for quite some time. In doing so, I've neglected to give you much of the information in the goings on of the grail world, but I'll try my best to get up to speed. This Gawain seems to have the same bad habits that I do. In fact much of his quest results in sleeping under trees and then drinking wine with his comrades. Sounds like a good time. A good time indeed. I believe that Gawain and I would get along quite well. For why go after the Holy Grail and all its glory if you can simply eat, sleep and drink all day long and be content with your life in doing so.
Perronik.

Grail givining Dan Brown fame?

Hello fellow Grailquesters. As you all know, I Trevrezent, am very well versed with the workings of the almighty lord. Furthermore, I am sure that everything he does is fairly mysterious, and is always done for a very precise reason. So, when I saw what our mutual friend Gawain wrote regarding how he believed that Dan Brown was given credit for Baigent's theories, I wasn't quite sure what to think. I have now come to the conclusion that the grail is given to noble men, (Wolfram de Eschenbach regarding his work Parzival, pg 293) and would therefore not give fame and riches to someone who, according to baigent, took it from someone else.

Make sense? No, most likely not. I guess it just takes a very good understanding of the grail to understand baigent.

-Treverezent-

Who Knows?

Well, I'm not so sure about these questers. They certainly have a unique way of searching for the grail; In my day were grabbed a sword, mounted a horse, and wandered around in the woods looking for a cup. It seemed to work for a few of us, anyway. At any rate, I don't believe all the speculation and dot connecting Baigent and his footmen have been doing will amount to anything. If you will all recall, the grail has been achieved and has left this earth forever. That's it. All gone. Besides, it would seem to me that the true value of the grail is in the lessons to be learned from its romances: Charity, faith, loyalty, caritas, and love for your fellow man are what count. Even Indiana Jones learned that in the end. Beides that, does Baigent not wind up like Perceval after he neglects to ask about the grail? Bitter and jaded, his faith gravely injured? All the work on his theory was promptly scooped up by Dan Brown who made BANK from it. Baigent even lost the law suit against him. It looks like the grail ultimately served Mr. Brown best. Furthermore, if the theory of Jesus' bloodline is correct, might it not be something better left a secret? It was, after all designed to be a secret from the beginning. Perhaps God was making his own statement about it when he elevated the man who turned the theory into fiction, and forsake the man who unveiled the secret as fact to the world. Who knows?

Was T.S. Eliot trying to speak in parables as I did to my followers? If so, his meaning is much harder to grasp. Maybe I should give him some pointers. I think his poem "The Waste Land" is about just that, the Wasteland narrative that is the foundation of many Grail texts. Eliot was a modernist that felt frantic and hopeless in a violent and fragmented post-WWI world. The metaphor of a wasted land would obviously be appealing to him. He used the Wasteland imagery for that purpose, and not to quest for an elusive Grail of any kind. The Grail is hope, and Eliot's poem is, in essence, a hopeless message.

Weston, the Wasteland, and Wayward Conspiracy Theorists

I've been an errant knight of late and missed my opportunity to engage with Damosel Weston. While the likelihood that the grail emerges from eastern fertility rituals seems slim, I must admit that I'm a bit impressed by the fact that she is able to account for most of the variations of the tale. What do the rest of you think?

Apparently, T.S. Eliot thought her ideas were worthy of a poem on the subject. Through his textual references and annotations, it is clear that the Fisher King, Parsifal, and even the Chapel Perilous make appearances, but is this nearly indecipherable poem really about the grail? It seems to me unlikely.

And finally, what are we to make of the Baigent clan? They see Wolfram's text as the key to much of the grail secrets that might threaten Christian orthodoxy. How about you? Are you threatened?