ABSTRACT
In the past the quest for the Holy Graal has been more easily detachable from an early British context than most Arthurian material. It did not figure in Geoffrey of Monmouth in the early twelfth century, and only comes into an Arthurian context as the Holy Graal in the unfinished Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes, though the later-recorded Welsh tale that Arthur and his men went over to Ireland in search of the cauldron of Annwfn points to an earlier stage in the legend.1 Thereafter, however, it persists within the framework of Arthurian materials to become almost a defining association; and it has continued to fuel the popular appetite for Arthurian and Celtic mysticism. In popular parlance ‘finding the Holy Graal’ of this or that has become proverbial for a well-nigh unattainable goal, to be mentioned in the same breath as the philosopher’s stone.
