Celtic Paganism in the Grail Quest

Paper Summary:

Celtic paganism is often used to explain "inexplicable" elements in the Grail legend. However, other explanations are also possible. The paper demonstrates this by showing how some "inexplicable" facets of the Grail legend that are usually ascribed to Celtic paganism may have their origin elsewhere, including in Christianity, secular symbolism, Bede's "Life of Saint Cuthbert" and the Lives of St. Kentigern," and/or medieval history and geography. It also examines whether the historical, geographical and hagiographical sources were used consciously or unconsciously. The paper concludes that, when faced with "inexplicable" elements in a Grail legend, scholars are often too quick to find connections, often very tenuous ones, to Celtic paganism.

From the Paper:

"How are these narratives connected chronologically? And are the similarities deliberate? In their opening plot, these romantic and hagiographical stories are almost perfect Campbellian hero quests, so I think there may have been some pre-existing correlation between the early or oral versions of Peredur and the hagiographies. Yet the details of the Romances are so much like the saints' lives that I believe there is clearly some deliberate imitation. I will now attempt to untangle the way in which these books influenced on another. Bede's Life is based on the anonymous Life, which comes from the tradition that developed in Lindesfarne during or soon after Cuthbert's life. Bede wrote the Prose Life at the end of the 7th century and it influenced the writers of the Lives of Kentigern. The two Lives of Saint Kentigern were compiled in the 12th century, and the author of the fragmentary Life mentions his familiarity with the story of Cuthbert."

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