The Holy Grail [Paperback]

Norma L. Goodrich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 1993

In the final volume of her fascinating, comprehensive, and authoritative Camelot tetralogy, Norma Lorre Goodrich examines one of the most enduring themes of all time, the search for the Holy Grail.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The author of three Arthurian-related books-- King Arthur ( LJ 2/1/86), Merlin ( LJ 1/87), and Guinevere ( LJ 4/1/91)--claims here to "trace the history and legend of the Holy Grail . . . to bring us the true, historical facts of the matter." Basing her argument on careful reading of translated 12th- and 13th-century French manuscripts, plus a unique interpretation of mythology, Goodrich contends that the grail is "a group of objects and phenomena associated with an early Christian worship" and that King Arthur was the first of the grail questers. She assumes readers know and accept her previous theories about the historicity of Arthur, Merlin, and Guinevere, which makes many points difficult to follow. In addition, her prose is often disjointed and confusing. For large collections in Arthurian literature where scholars need to review the latest.
- Pamela A. Grudzien, Central Michigan Univ., Mt. Pleasant
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Exploring 2000 years of Christian, Hebraic, Celtic, and academic lore, Goodrich brings to her own quest for the Grail that same successful combination of learning, common sense, energy, and romance that distinguished her Guinevere (1991) and Merlin (1987). From the ``marvelously mysterious'' surviving Grail tests, most written in Old French during the 12th and 13th centuries in Wales, France, Germany, and Spain, Goodrich traces a history of belief in the Grail--an ``awful and terrible mystery'' variously conceived as a chalice (perhaps containing Christ's blood), a silver platter, a reliquary, a sword, a spear, or a book by Jesus, Solomon, or any of the Apostles. Allegedly rescued from Jerusalem in A.D. 700, the Grail apparently appeared in Marseilles, where it is still honored in ceremonies at the Church of the Saints Marie; in Scotland, at Glastonbury, as an integral part of the Arthurian legends; in Spain, where it appears in the writings of Cervantes and St. Teresa and is associated with the cathedral at Valencia; and in Germany, where Wolfram von Eschenbach immortalized it in Parzival, Wagner revived it in Parsifal, and Hitler supposedly worshiped it as an affirmation of his power. In whatever form, country, or period, the Grail always appears, Goodrich contends, in times of war, religious bigotry, and the persecution of women and children, offering an aristocratic version of peace, spirituality, and female power. The rituals, castles, and queens associated with it; the experiences of hallucination, blindness, and confusion in its presence; and the elevation of women around it--these recur in all Grail texts except Wagner's, making the association that Goodrich draws to Hitler (based partly on her firsthand observations of Nazi symbols) seem strained. Refuting contemporary scholars, Goodrich argues convincingly for the historicity of many of the legends, particularly the Arthurian, and for the power of the Grail as, if not a fact, then a necessary illusion. A reading adventure. (Ten line drawings.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (July 6, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060922044
• ISBN-13: 978-0060922047
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,176,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What Do I Win?, January 28, 2001

By 

Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Holy Grail (Paperback)

Surely, after reading this entire book, I deserve some sort of prize as reward for my efforts. Undoubtedly, reading this book requires an uncommon effort on behalf of the reader. Goodrich employs a writing style even more idiosyncratic and unwieldy than my own. I don't think she is a terrible writer, all the same, and I must praise anyone who is able to get an editor to accept passive sentences. Nonetheless, there are sentences that, no matter how many times I read them, do not seem to be sentences at all, just expressions that often make no sense. On a broader level, many passages in the book either do not seem to relate to the topic at hand, namely the Holy Grail, or else they only make sense if the reader already knows much of the information that the author assumes her readers know (doubtless, she assumes we have already read her books on Arthur, Merlin, etc.). I never really grasped the relevance of Esclamonde in the story, even though the author devotes a lengthy chapter to her. There are some sections, I must say, that are interesting and less arcane, particularly the section about the innately interesting Knights Templar. A remarkable sentence in this section leaped out at me (as no other sentence did, I assure you). When alluding to the tortures inflicted on the Knights Templar in France, she writes "No woman, it is certain, can believe that any man alive would torture another man in such ways." Regrettably, to my morbid tastes, she doesn't really detail these horrible acts. What makes this sentence so interesting is the fact that Goodrich's feminism is clearly evident throughout the whole book. In fact, some sections seem to degenerate into a feminist diatribe bearing almost no relation to the Grail quest. I guess the sentence referenced above means that women are less bestial than men; if not, it sounds like a Victorian sentiment about the daintiness of women. In the end, I can't really recommend this book to the general reader. You just aren't going to find a lot of substantive information about the Holy Grail here, at least not the kind of information I was looking for. Maybe an expert in mediaeval literature would find this book much more stimulating and relevant than I did. If you want to prove to yourself that you are truly an intellectual, though, this may be the best test I can think of for you. Good luck.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Completely unreadable..., September 14, 2000

By 

"protag" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Holy Grail (Paperback)

This book displays some of the worst writing I've seen since editing my elementary school newsletter. I can't believe this thing made it through an editor. Bad grammar, twisted logic, and non-sequiters abound, and I didn't even make it to page 50. It would be pointless to try to address how well the author conveys her thoughts, because if those thoughts are present in the book at all, they're unreachable. Pick up something by Baigent and Leigh if you're interested in actually learning about the Grail legend.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Emminently unreadable., March 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Holy Grail (Paperback)

Reading contrary interpretations or views of historical events and influences often means mining for facts, for bits of intellectual insight which enable the reader to reassemble the necessary sequences to distinquish cause from effect. The reader's mining of such information from this book is tedious, laborious and minimally productive. The text is full of fits and starts, restarts and redundancies, and so many non sequiturs that it approaches comedic proportions. I kept reading in hopes of finding something worthwhile or substantive, with little actual result. I kept wanting to throw the book across the room in frustration. Don't study it and hope to retain your sanity for long.