When legend becomes fact

Crickhowell castle, from a 1831 engraving

The Grail Castle and its Mysteries
by Leonardo Olschki.
Translated from the Italian by J A Scott and edited, with a foreword, by Eugène Vinaver.
Manchester University Press, 1966.

Graal: “scutella lata et aliquantulum profunda in qua preciosae dapes divitibus solent apponi gradatim, unus morsellus post alium in diversis ordinibus” (a wide and deep saucer, in which precious food is ceremoniously presented, one piece at a time in sundry rows)
— Helinand de Froidmont (early 13th century)

If you were thinking the mysteries of the grail castle were to do with long-lost holy relics, Last Supper chalices, magical stones, Celtic cauldrons, secret occult societies, witches, extraterrestrial visitors or even the blood of Christ you will need to look elsewhere. (There are whole libraries in Babel to cater for each and every taste in such mysteries.)

First published in 1961 as Il castello del Re Pescatore e i suoi misteri nel Conte del Graal di Chrétien de Troyes (‘The Castle of the Fisher King and its mysteries in Chrétien de Troyes’ The Story of the Grail’) this is not a publication aimed at a popular market: with a foreword by a foremost Arthurian scholar, key extracts from the medieval romance in the original French, and furnished with footnotes, endnotes and a select bibliography, this monograph (less than a hundred pages) is very much a closely argued academic paper from someone very familiar with the literature and theology of the period in question.

The author also effectively — though very politely — demolishes alternative theories from his fellow scholars as to the nature of those mysteries.