Graal (Gral, from the old French, but originally Celtic word Greul, Provencal yrazal, and in mediaeval Latin yradaiis) signified originally a " bowl-shaped vessel." The poetry of the Middle Ages makes nu- merous mention of the Saint Gral (in old French San greal), a vessel said to have been made of a precious stone, and endowed with wonderful virtues. Accord- ing to the legend, the vessel was brought to the earth by angels, and kept first by them, then bj'^ a company of knights commanded by a king, in a temple built ex- pressly for it, at the summit of the unapproachable mountain Montsalvage. The legend was developed in the earlj^ part of the 12th century by the addition of Arabic, Jewish, and Christian elements during the wars between the Moors and Christians, and especially in the wars of the Templars in Spain and Southern France. In these countries it became a favorite theme for poets. In 1170 it had became confounded with the legends of Arthur and of the Round Table, by Chretien de Troj^es and other Troubadours of Northern France. In the legend of the Round Table the Saint Graal is considered as the vessel used bj' Christ at the Last supper, and in which Joseph of Arimathea caught the blood that fell from the side of Christ (hence the erroneous meaning attached to the word, as Sany real, i. e. royal blood, blood of the Lord). The legend was made the subject of a poem in old French by Guiot de Provins, which has been lost. This talc furnished Wolfram von Eschenbach the materials for his Parci- t'n^ and Titurel, but he gave the subject a deeply alle- gorical meaning of his own. The subject was more
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thoroutihl}' treated b}' the author of the second Titttrel ill 1"J7U; yet he coiuieets it with the legends of Lohen- grin and of Prester John.
Tlie legend of the Saint Graal is of some importance in the history of the Cliurch. Attempts have been made to show the derivation of the word itself, fjraal, from Garalah (n5"i"), i. c.Joreskin, in allusion to the blood shed in circumcision as the tj-pe of the blood of Christ. But it appears certain that it means a vessel, cup, or shell. A costly cup was really found by the first crusaders at Cwsarea. It was allotted to the Ge- noese, who brought it to Genoa, where it remained for several centuries in the chapel of Jolin the Baptist in the Church of St. Lorenzo, from whence it was trans- ported to Paris. There appears to be some connection between the legend of Prester John, as joined with the San Graal, and the still existing remains of the Gnos- tic sect known by the appellation of Disciples of John (Sabians, Zabians, Nazareans, Mendeans, Baptists). Xot only the name John, but the locality assigned in tlie legend (viz. the interior of Asia, on the southern frontier of the Turkish empire), as well as the fact that in this Gnostic sect the king is at the same time high- priest, seems to favor the idea of a connection. The use of the Graal, according to the tradition, is as fol- lows : It is claimed on every Good Friday there comes into it, from heaven, a holy wafer, which is intended as the food for man}' ; thus the Graal is a sort of con- tinuation of the miracle of feeding the multitude (Matt. XV, 32). It provides food and drink in abundance for the initiated, but to them alone is it visible. It cannot be obtained by violence, but is to be received bj' faith. At the bottom of the legend we find the doctrine of the real presence in the Lord's Supper. The icanderinr/s of the Saint Graal, which came from the East to the West, afterwards to return again to the East, points the Church to the duty of missionary enterprise, etc. In all these poetical legends one point is especially deserv- ing of notice : it is the evidence thej- afford of the ten- dencies of the Christian mir.d in all ages to fathom the unfathomable, and to cling to the memory of past events, and to reproduce them. But for this very rea- son it becomes the more necessary for us to distinguish between the original and the image, between the real fticts and the errors which have grown up around them. By a just criticism, the poetry of the Middle Ages, which in latter times has been much studied, can be made very useful for the history of theology. — Sec Biisching, Der heil. Grcd u. seine Iluter (Altdeutsches Museum, Berl. 1809, vol. i) ; Boisserec, Weber d. Beschreibung d. heil. Grcd's (Mun. 1834); C. Lachmann, Wolfram vonEschen- hach (Berlin, 1833, 2d ed. 1854); San Marte (Schultz), Die Sage v. heil. Gral {Lehen u. Dichlen ll"s v. Eschen- bach, 1841, vol. ii) ; K. Simrock, Parcival und Tilurel (Stuttg. and Tubing. 1842) ; C. F. Goschel, Die Sage v. Parcivnl u. v. Gral, etc. (Berlin, 1855) ; Herzog, Real- Enctjk'op. V, 314 ; Dunlop, History of Fiction, p. 73 sq. (London, 1845, 1 vol. 8vo) ; Bulltinch, Age of Chivalry, p. 185-22C (Boston, 1865, 8vo).
GS-ra'ba. (^Ayoaftc'i ■v.r.'Ayyaj3((,\u\g. Armachd), given (1 Esdras v, 29) as the name of one of tlie Neth- inim (" servants of the Temple'') whose "sons" return- ed from the captivit}' ; evidently the Hagabah (q. v.) or Hagaba of the Heb. texts (Ezra ii, 45 ; Neh. vii, 48).