ABSTRACT
We see, then, that the Ritual theory of Grail origins, by which we mean the view that sees in the Grail tradition as preserved to us the confused and fragmentary record of a special form of nature-worship, which, having been elevated to the dignity of a ‘mystery,’ survived in the form of a tradition, offers the most complete solution of the problem hitherto proposed. For, while the sequence of incident in the Grail story corresponds with curious fidelity to well-authenticated forms of ritual procedure, and the result to be obtained is in both cases the same, the ‘mystery’ development explains, as no other theory has even attempted to explain, the divergent forms assumed alike by the Grail and its Guardian.
