Grail, The Holy

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Grail, The Holy, or Sangreale (perhaps Old Fr., from Lat., gradale, ‘dish’). The legendary subject of several romances in the late Middle Ages. In some versions, (principally the Estoire dou Graal or Joseph of Robert de Boron, c.1200) the sacred object is the chalice or dish used at the Last Supper which passed into the possession of Joseph of Arimathea. The origin of the whole cycle of legends is obscure; it is not even clear whether the Christian elements are primary. In the 13th cent. it reinforced the ecclesiastical propaganda of Glastonbury Abbey and later on was coupled with the legend of Prester John.

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