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The Holy Grail

Giles Morgan

Publication: February 2005
Extent: 160 pp
Format: Crown Octavo (186 x 124mm)
Price: 9.99
ISBN: 190404834x
EAN: 9781904048343
13 Digit ISBN: 978-1-904048-34-3
Binding: hardback
Market: history
Rights: World
BIC Code:

  • The Holy Grail is a controversial and mysterious subject that appeals to mainstream and fringe audiences.
  • The phenomenal success of The Da Vinci Code indicates the continuing public fascination for areas where myth and historical fact cross over
  • Arthurian legends and historically based dramas currently have a high profile due to the success of films such as Lord of the Rings, King Arthur, Gladiator and Troy.
  • The continuing popularity of Glastonbury festival promotes a fascination with the history of Glastonbury and its relationship to the Holy Grail.
  • Interest in Antiquarianism and related mythologies is currently very high and likely to increase with the forthcoming release of Julian Cope’s book, The Megalithic European.

The Holy Grail is a subject that fascinates and intrigues. Through its various guises as magic cauldron, cornucopia, horn of plenty and chalice cup it has remained at the centre of popular culture from antiquity right up to the present day. An object of marvel and mystery it inhabits a place in mythology that has its roots in historical facts. The Grail has been a major inspiration and catalyst for literature and the arts in Western Culture. From Celtic mythology to the flowering of the medieval romances it has in many ways fulfilled its mythical role as a nurturing and regenerative vessel by providing such a rich and seemingly perpetual source of interest to writers and artists.

Charting the emergence of the story of the Grail offers a revealing insight into the cultural shift from Celtic paganism to the emergence and domination of Christianity in Western Europe. The influence of Eastern mysticism emerges in the Grail romances as a result of the medieval crusades with its clash of cultures and subsequent cross-pollination of ideas. The Grail has come to symbolise the ultimate achievement in the modern mind and it became an object of fascination for the psychologist Carl Jung and the poet TS Eliot. Wagner, William Blake and the Pre-Raphaelites are just some of the artists to have fallen under its enduring spell.

Giles Morgan is the author of the Pocket Essentials on The Holy Grail, Byzantium, Freemasonry, Saints, Saint George and Dracula. He currently lives in Harrow.

For a review copy or further information, please contact Chris Burrows PR
on 0161 445 6635 or email chris-burrows@o2.co.uk

Distribution UK: Turnaround, 3 Olympia Trading Estate, Coburg Rd, London N22 6TZ.
Pocket Essentials, PO Box 394, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 1XJ
Tel/Fax 01582 761264         http://www.pocketessentials.co.uk