Mystic Grail: The Challenge of the Arthurian Quest

By John Matthews

The Grail...continues to exert a powerful fascination over everyone who studies it...John Mathews offers both a historical and a psychological depiction of the various ways in which people have found meaning in the Holy Grail.-- The Celtic Connection. John Matthews has a gift for telling a story that broadens the imagination and inspires the soul. Matthews...as a master historian and a skilled storyteller...beautifully illustrated with time-honored art...-- An Scathan. 96 pages (all in color), 5 1/4 x 8 1/2.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806996048
• ISBN13: 9780806996042
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Sterling Pub Co Inc
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

A bit more than the usual...

John Matthews' "The Mystic Grail: Challenge Of The Arthurian Quest" is a 96 page trade paperback. Published in 1997 by the Sterling Publishing Co. of NY, this work concerns itself with the allegorical holy grail of Celtic legend and Medieval romance. Beginning with Taliesin's poem of the Cauldron of Annwn and Chretien de Troyes' "Perceval, or The Story of the Grail", Matthews takes us on the quest for, if not the grail itself, then the reasons behind the legends and the actual quests for this object of antiquity. Unlike many analysts of the Arthurian quests for the grail, Matthews does not leave us with the trite answer that 'the meaning of the quest is not in it's achievement, but rather the lessons learned along the way' (which is true, but not the entire answer), but goes further, analyzing how the achievement - or lack thereof - in the quest changes the lives of those who seek it. The book contains not only quotes from the original tales, but also reproductions of early prints and lavish color reproductions of Medieval and Rennaisance grail art. This is a must for anyone interested in the subject of the Holy Grail and/or the Arthurian romances.