[Gocamino] grail etymology

[Kathy Gower]

There is a very interesting bit of reseach out by a Joseph Goering, 
published by Yale University Press...called "The Virgin and the Grail".  In 
it, Dr. Goering of the University of Toronto (spoke at the Toronto 
Gathering) makes a case that there are several old images in churches high 
in the Spanish Pyranees of a "radiant bowl" (called a grail in the local 
dialect).

The images predate Chretien de Troyes by some 50 years (documented by legal 
papers regarding the churches) nd the various images show  a woman with an 
aura, holding what appears to a be a bowl with rays.  These chuches are 
located somewhat off the pilgrimage path, in the region of Andorra, but the 
research is compelling regading the Parcifal legend carried by the French 
troubadors.

fascinating discussion...!


From: David Hough on gocamino <camino2003 at sbcglobal.net>
To: gocamino at oakapple.net
Subject: [Gocamino] grail etymology
Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 13:41:47 -0700 (PDT)

Rosina asked me to pass along the following posting
to the St James list by Doreen Fleming, quoting a
dictionary of catholic terms:

The meaning of the word (Grail) has also been
variously explained.  The generally accepted
meaning is that is given by the Cistercian
chronicler Helinandus (d. about 1230), who, under
the date of about 717, mentions of a vision,
shown to a hermit concerning the dish used by Our
Lord at the Last Supper, and about which the
hermit then wrote a Latin book called "Gradale."
"Now in French," so Helinandus informs us, "
Gradalis or Gradale means a dish (scutella), wide
and somewhat deep, in which costly viands are
wont to be served to the rich in degrees
(gradatim), one morsel after another in different
rows.  In popular speech it is also called
"greal" because it is pleasant ( grata) and
acceptable to him eating therein" etc.  The
medieval Latin word "gradale" because in Old
French "graal," or "greal," or "greel," whence
the English "grail." Others derive the word from
"garalis" or from "cratalis" ( crater, a mixing
bowl).  It certainly means a dish, the derivation
from "grata" in the latter part of the passage
cited above or from "agr'eer" (to please) in the
French romances is secondary.  The explanation of
"San greal" as "sang real" (kingly blood) was not
current until the later Middle Ages.  Other
etymologies that have been advanced may be passed
over as obsolete.

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