Holy Grail documentary

[Exulted Unicron]

Just finished watching a fascinating documentary on the History Channel here in the UK. Richard Hammond & The Holy Grail.

In it, he searched for the truth ebhind the Grail. Going right back to the medieval stories, including French romance novels of the time, especially by Chretien De Troyes, where Sir Percival meets a beautiful young woman bearing a Grail. He searches though literature both classic and modern, including Dan Brown and concludes that the Grail as an item is pure fantasy.

He even makes mention of Last Crusade. In which he talks about the grail, if it ever existed as an item, would be plain and not gilded and bejeweled like the literature mentions. While talking about the grail in a french cave near Montsegur, the first 2 minutes of Finale play, while he's discussing the fact that the Cathars, if they had the grail, would have hidden it in a mountain cave. He also makes mention of the Nazi archaelogical division and their supposed search for it, but they came back empty handed. While in a Land Rover on the way back, he whistles the Raiders March.

Then he switches theories and goes by the literal translation of Holy Grail, Holy Blood. And continues his search with the theory in mind that Mary and Jesus got married and had children and that some of those children were Da Vinci, Newton and Victor Hugo.

After a 2 week hunt, he finally comes to the conclusion that if anything, the Grail is nothing more than fantasy and it on;ly exists because we want it to. But while such legends and stories exist, there'll always be people who believe it and search for it.

 

[RaideroftheArk]

Pretty interesting. I believe, I may have seen this. It doesn't really bring anything new to light?

Do you think things like the Da Vinci Code hurt the grail legend?

 

[Montana Smith]

I read the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail many years ago, then visited De Saunier's creepy little church at Rennes Le Chateau, France. Over the doorway is an inscription which translates as "This Place is Terrible", and just inside is a statue of the devil Asmodeus. On the walls are painting showing bags of money. De Saunier allegedly discovered the secret and was paid off by the Catholic church to keep his mouth shut. After his death his housekeeper was seen burning money.

How much of it is true is now in doubt, since the Priory of Sion has been blown apart as a fake (all the Hugo and Newton Grand Master evidence was planted in a French library by the inventer of the Priory of Sion).

Nevertheless, it's still an interesting romp through history. Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code was a literal copy of the original Holy Blood ideas, and when it came to try the case of plaguerisum the writers of the Holy Blood had to admit that it was ideas rather than history (since history can't be plaguerized!)

 

[Exulted Unicron]

In a way, I think that the Holy Blood idea hurts the Traditionalists who go by historical romantic literature, like Arthur and see the Grail as an object...the cup of Christ.

Also one thing to add, the Vatican makes no reference to the Grail in its archives. So as long as the Catholics believe, the Grail does not exist in any shape or form. It also goes to show they'll go to extreme lengths to silence anyone who believes differently

 

[Montana Smith]

In a way, I think that the Holy Blood idea hurts the Traditionalists who go by historical romantic literature, like Arthur and see the Grail as an object...the cup of Christ.

Also one thing to add, the Vatican makes no reference to the Grail in its archives. So as long as the Catholics believe, the Grail does not exist in any shape or form. It also goes to show they'll go to extreme lengths to silence anyone who believes differently

Continuing revelations about Catholic priests show that the extreme methods of silencing the truth go right to the very top.

The original Grail myth was a romantic ideal, of something solid that the chivalrous knights of Malory et al could quest for. Something tangible to prove their devotion and faith. In that regard I always think of Boorman's Excalibur as the archetypal image of the myth.

What the Holy Blood writers did was stir up the static myth, and make the leap through dubious evidence to a 'what if' Jesus had a family.

The idea that Jesus didn't die on the Cross is, I think, elaborated in other books, which makes his 'resurrection' all the more believable. After that it would be quite natural for him to have had a wife and gone forth and multiplied.

As a non-believer I've always found it hard sifting the truth from the morality-story of the Bible. Both are so intertwined that it takes something as controversial as the Holy Blood (even if their evidence was shaky) to ask questions. I love a good mystery, and with the Vatican's massive intelligence network at the centre guarding the secrets, it isn't one that will easily be solved.

 

[Exulted Unicron]

What Hammond discovered in a copy of a 11th century bible, was that the french to english translator screwed up and mistranslated Sangue Raile as Holy Grail. But I guess its helped him because it turned into a medieval romantic mcguffin, much like Excalibur or The Golden Fleece or even Atlantis. Even to this day, people search endlessly for any evidence these existed.

Personally, I think if the Grail ever did exist as the chalice Jesus used at the Last Supper, chances are its either become lost to time or was destroyed by someone, either by raiders or just decayed.

I have read Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and the latest one. I do admit, Dan Brown has done his research, like any other historical writer like Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow or Wilbur Smith, but I personally don't agree with the Grail being a holy bloodline with so called geniuses of each century being part of it, especially when such people are so spread out.

 

[Montana Smith]

The list of miscellaneuous celebrities was definitely one of the red herrings, which was created by Planchard in the 'evidence' he planted in the French library for the Priory of Sion myth. That's not to say that there isn't truth elsewhere in the theory of the bloodline.

I remember there was a book written after the Holy Blood that was serialized in one of the broadsheet newspapers here in the UK. It's claim was that Jesus wasn't much more than an agent of the Romans, uniting disparate tribes into a manageable unit. Some kind of drug was used to simulate his death to allow him to escape - which was taken by Christians as proof of his status as the son of God.

I see the Easter resurrecton myth as really a continuation of ancient Egyptian beliefs, of the Ka walking through the painted door of it's tomb into the afterlife - since Christianity has had a habit of appropriating pagan mythology and turning them into Christian festivals. Hammond and his team were deconstructing these sorts of beliefs, by seeing the Grail cup as a reference to the bloodline.

Reading their books introduced me to the SS officer Otto Rahn, who would have been Indy's real-life adversary in the hunt for the Grail!

 

[Exulted Unicron]

I'll have to dig out my copy of Holy Blood Holy Grail again and give it another spin.

 

[Stoo]

New Holy Grail Documentary

For those in the UK (and those who can receive UK TV channels) be sure to watch this new documentary this Wednesday!

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"Nazi Quest for the Holy Grail"
Wednesday, 20 November, 2013
9:00pm - 10:00pm
Channel 5

Documentary telling the story of one of the Third Reich's most shadowy projects - the hunt to discover the lost Aryan civilisation from which the Nazis believed they had descended. Believing that the mythical Aryan 'master race' was historical fact, Heinrich Himmler helped to launch an array of pseudo-scientific expeditions to find evidence of it and retrieve its ancient wisdom. The film draws on previously unseen photographs and rare archive film to shed light on three of these missions.

 

[Stoo]

A large part of the documentary concerned Otto Rahn, much of which I already knew, but it was still interesting.

Unfortunately, I missed the stuff after Otto's death. Did anyone else watch? If so, what did the last 15-20 minutes talk about?