Editing Holy Grail (section)

===Literature===
The story of the Grail and of the quest to find it became increasingly popular in the 19th century, referred to in literature such as [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]]'s Arthurian cycle ''[[Idylls of the King]]''. A sexualised interpretation of the grail, now identified with female genitalia, appeared in 1870 in [[Hargrave Jennings]]' book ''The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries''.<ref>Writing of the Order of the Garter ceremonies Jennings writes on page 323:- The whole refers to King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table; set round as sentinels ('in lodge') of the Sangreal, or Holy Graal--the 'Sacrifice Mysterious', or 'Eucharist'. But how is all this magic and sacred in the estimate of the Rosicrucians?' an inquirer will very naturally ask. The answer to all this is very, ample and satisfactory; but particulars must be left to the sagacity of the querist himself, because propriety does not admit of explanation. Suffice it to say, that it is one of the most curious and wonderful subjects which has occupied the attention of antiquaries. That archaeological puzzle, the 'Round Table of King Arthur', is a perfect display of this whole subject of the origin of the 'Garter'; it springs directly from it, being the same object as that enclosed by the mythic garter, 'garder', or 'girther.'</ref>

* [[T. S. Eliot]]'s poem ''[[The Waste Land]]'' (1922) loosely follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King combined with vignettes of contemporary British society. In his first note to the poem, Eliot attributes the title to Jessie Weston's book on the Grail legend, ''[[From Ritual to Romance]]''. The allusion is to the wounding of the Fisher King and the subsequent sterility of his lands. A poem of the same title, though otherwise dissimilar, written by [[Madison Cawein]], was published in 1913 in [[Poetry (magazine)|''Poetry'']].<ref>{{cite web |title=January 1913 : Poetry Magazine |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=1&issue=4&page=4 |access-date=25 November 2024 |publisher=Poetryfoundation.org}}</ref>
* In [[John Cowper Powys]]'s ''[[A Glastonbury Romance]]'' (1932), the "heroine is the Grail,"<ref>"Preface" to ''A Glastonbury Romance''. London: Macdonald, 1955, p. xiii.</ref> and its central concerns are with the various myths and legends, along with the history associated with Glastonbury. It is also possible to see most of the main characters as undertaking a Grail quest.<ref>Krissdottir, Morine. ''Descent of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys''. London: Overlook Press, 2007, pp. 252-3.</ref>
* The Grail is central in [[Charles Williams (UK writer)|Charles Williams]]' novel ''War in Heaven'' (1930) and his two collections of poems about [[Taliesin|Taliessin]], ''Taliessin Through Logres'' and ''Region of the Summer Stars'' (1938).
*''[[The Silver Chalice]]'' (1952) is a non-Arthurian historical Grail novel by [[Thomas B. Costain]].
* A quest for the Grail appears in [[Nelson DeMille]]'s adventure novel ''The Quest'' (1975), set during the 1970s.
* [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]]'s Arthurian revisionist fantasy novel ''[[The Mists of Avalon]]'' (1983) presented the Grail as a symbol of water, part of a set of objects representing the four [[classical elements]]. 
* The main theme of [[Rosalind Miles (author)|Rosalind Miles]]' ''Child of the Holy Grail'' (2000) in her ''Guenevere'' series is the story of the Grail quest by the 14-year-old Galahad.
* The Grail motif features heavily in [[Umberto Eco]]'s 2000 novel ''[[Baudolino]]'', set in the 12th century.
* It is the subject of [[Bernard Cornwell]]'s historical fiction series of books ''[[The Grail Quest]]'' (2000–2012), set during the [[Hundred Years War]]. In his earlier series ''[[The Warlord Chronicles]]'', an adaptation of the Arthurian legend, Cornwell also reimagines the Grail quest as a quest for a cauldron that is one of the [[Thirteen Treasures of Britain]] from Celtic mythology.
* Influenced by the 1982 publication of the ostensibly non-fiction ''[[The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail]]'', Dan Brown's ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'' (2003) has the "grail"  taken to refer to Mary Magdalene as the "receptacle" of Jesus' bloodline (playing on the ''sang real'' etymology). In Brown's novel, it is hinted that this Grail was long buried beneath [[Rosslyn Chapel]] in Scotland, but that in recent decades, its guardians had it moved to a secret chamber embedded in the floor beneath the [[La Pyramide Inversée|Inverted Pyramid]] in the entrance of the [[Louvre|Louvre museum]].
* [[Michael Moorcock]]'s fantasy novel ''[[The War Hound and the World's Pain]]'' (1981) depicts a supernatural Grail quest set in the era of the [[Thirty Years' War]].
*German history and fantasy novel author [[Rainer M. Schröder]] wrote the trilogy ''[[:de:Die Bruderschaft vom Heiligen Gral|Die Bruderschaft vom Heiligen Gral]]'' (''The Brotherhood of the Holy Grail'') about a group of four Knights Templar who save the Grail from the [[Siege of Acre (1291)|Fall of Acre]] in 1291 and go through an odyssey to bring it to the [[Square du Temple|Temple in Paris]] in the first two books, ''Der Fall von Akkon'' (2006) and ''Das Amulett der Wüstenkrieger'' (2006), while defending the holy relic from the attempts of a Satanic sect called Iscarians to steal it. In the third book, ''Das Labyrinth der schwarzen Abtei'' (2007), the four heroes must reunite to smuggle the Holy Grail out of the Temple in Paris after the [[trials of the Knights Templar]] in 1307, again pursued by the Iscarians. Schröder indirectly addresses the Cathar theory by letting the four heroes encounter Cathars – among them old friends from their flight from Acre – on their way to Portugal to seek refuge with the King of Portugal and travel further west.
* The 15th novel in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' series by [[Jim Butcher]], [[Skin Game (The Dresden Files)|''Skin Game'']] (2014), features [[Harry Dresden]] being recruited by Denarian and longtime enemy Nicodemus into a heist team seeking to retrieve the Holy Grail from the vault of [[Hades]], the lord of the Underworld. The properties of the item are not explicit, but the relic itself makes an appearance and is in the hands of Nicodemus by the end of the novel's events.
* The Holy Grail features prominently in [[Jack Vance]]'s ''[[Lyonesse Trilogy]]'', where it is the subject of an earlier quest, several generations before the birth of King Arthur. However, in contrast to the Arthurian canon, Vance's Grail is a common object lacking any magical or spiritual qualities, and the characters finding it derive little benefit.
* ''Grails: Quests of the Dawn'' (1994), edited by [[Richard Gilliam]], Martin H. Greenberg, and Edward E. Kramer is a collection of 25 short stories about the grail by various science fiction and fantasy writers.
* In Robert Bruton's ''Empire in Apocalypse'' (2023), the Holy Grail appears as General Belisarius's Vandal chalice, recovered with other treasures the Vandals had stolen during the sacking of Rome.