Film Study: Monty Python's
The Holy Grail
Mr. Steel
The Grail as
depicted in Monty Python's classic comedy
Overview
All students in English
are required by Alberta Learning to engage in a unit of movie analysis and interpretation.
This term, our class will be studying Monty Python's 1975 film, The Holy
Grail. Students will examine the movie on its own merits; however, we will
also study the movie in light of its contributions to comedy, and its mythic
origins in Arthurian legend and medieval literature.
Work and Assessment
A. Students will write a
multiple-choice Movie Terminology Test. This test will evaluate their
understanding of terms relevant to film studies; there will also be some
comprehension questions on the movie itself, and how some of these terms may
help us to appreciate The Holy Grail.
B. Every student will
research and develop a Movie Project/Presentations on The Grail.
Student projects may be done individually, or in groups of up to three.
Movie Projects will respond to ONE of the prescribed thematic questions listed
below. All projects ought to be thoroughly researched, accurately proofread,
and carefully assembled. Projects ought to include textual analysis as well as
visual aids where appropriate. Students will present their movie project to the
class. Projects presentations
will be assessed for their thoroughness in the analysis of themes, as well as
for their effectiveness in oral communication. The use of visuals, audio and/or
multi-media is encouraged.
Project Presentation
Topics:
1. Arthurian Legends: Research one of the
Arthurian knights. Be prepared to tell the class about that knight's quest in
great detail, along with its significance. The knight you choose need not be
one that appears in Python's movie.
2. What is Comedy?: Think about and discuss
what makes something funny. Are there different sorts of humour? Research the
manner in which our understanding of humour differs from culture to culture,
and from generation to generation. Pay particular attention to the differences
between American, British, and Canadian humour. How might we compare and
contrast each? Is part of our identity as Canadians demonstrated through
differences in what we consider to be funny?
3. The image of the quest
in literature: What
is a "quest"? Why are quests popular themes in literature? Why might
quests be an important component of real life as well? Present a book that you
have read to the class in which the symbol of the quest is used. What is the
nature of this quest? What is at stake? What are the components of the quest?
Is the quest successful? Why or why not? What makes a quest successful or not?
4. Modern Re-tellings of
the Grail story: Familiarize
yourself with the original grail story through one of its earliest authors.
Examine a film or a book in which the Grail story is retold (other than
Python's). How is the original story used?
5. Skit Comedy and
Script-Writing: What
makes Python humour unique? For those who are dramatically/comically inclined,
try writing and performing your own Python-esque sketch comedy.
6. Compare and Contrast
Source Texts on the Grail: Choose from among the early accounts of the Grail story, and
recount each of these source tales to the class. Having done so, point out the
similarities and differences between the accounts. What is emphasized, and what
is de-emphasized in each account? Why do you think this is done?
7. The Grail as Symbol: Investigate the various ways
in which the Grail has been viewed symbolically throughout literature and film.
8. The Knights Templar and
the Grail:
Research who were the Knights Templar. What was thought to be special about
them? What were there practices? Where did they live, and how did they live?
What was their supposed relation to the Grail?
9. Joseph of Arimathea: Research who was Joseph
of Arimathea. What significance does he have in the story of the Grail? How
does he figure in the various accounts of this story? Is he prominent in each,
or is he absent in some accounts?
10. Celtic Mythology: Research and present
your findings on the significance of a particular Celtic Myth as it relates to
the unfolding of the Grail legend.
Resources for Research on
The Holy Grail in Literature
(from Wikipedia and The
Catholic Encyclopaedia)
How at the Castle of Corbin a Maiden Bare in the Sangreal and
Foretold the Achievements of Galahad:
illustration by Arthur Rackham, 1917
According
to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail
was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess
miraculous powers. Joseph of
Arimathea is said to have received the Grail from an apparition of Jesus, and
he sends it with his followers to Great Britain; building upon this theme, later writers recounted how Joseph used the
Grail to catch Christ's blood while interring him and that in Britain he
founded a line of guardians to keep it safe. The quest for the Holy Grail makes
up an important segment of the Arthurian cycle. The legend may combine
Christian lore with a Celtic myth of a cauldron endowed with special powers.
Origins of the Grail
The Grail plays a different
role everywhere it appears, but in most versions of the legend the hero must
prove himself worthy to be in its presence. In
the early tales, Percival's immaturity prevents him from fulfilling his destiny
when he first encounters the Grail, and he must grow spiritually and mentally
before he can locate it again. In later tellings the Grail is a symbol of God's
grace, available to all but only fully realized by those who prepare themselves
spiritually, like the saintly Galahad.
There are two veins of
thought concerning the Grail's origin. The first holds that the Grail legend derived from early Celtic
myth and folklore. Parallels can be found between Medieval Welsh
literature, Irish material, and the Grail romances. There are similarities
between the Mabinogion's Bran the Blessed and the Arthurian Fisher King,
and between Bran's life-restoring cauldron and the Grail. Other legends
featured magical platters or dishes that symbolize otherworldly power or test
the hero's worth. Sometimes the items generate a never-ending supply of food;
sometimes they can raise the dead. Sometimes they decide who the next king
should be, as only the true sovereign could hold them.
A second view holds that the Grail began as a purely Christian
symbol. For example, 12th century wall paintings from churches present
images of the Virgin Mary holding a bowl that radiates tongues of fire, images
that predate the first literary account of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes.
Another
recent theory holds that the earliest stories that cast the Grail in a
Christian light were meant to promote the Roman Catholic sacrament of the Holy
Communion. The first Grail stories may have been celebrations of a renewal in
this traditional sacrament. This theory has some basis in the fact that the Grail
legends are a phenomenon of the Western church.
Most scholars today accept that both Christian and Celtic traditions
contributed to the legend's development. The general view is that the central theme of the Grail is Christian,
even when not explicitly religious, but that much of the setting and imagery of
the early romances is drawn from Celtic material.
The
beginnings of the Grail in literature
Chrétien de Troyes
The Grail is first
featured in Perceval, le Conte du Graal (The Story of the Grail) by
Chrétien de Troyes,
who claims he was working from a source book given to him by his patron, Count
Philip of Flanders. In this incomplete
poem, dated sometime between 1180
and 1191, the object has not yet acquired the implications of
holiness it would have in later works. While
dining in the magical abode of the Fisher King, Perceval witnesses a wondrous
procession in which youths carry magnificent objects from one chamber to
another, passing before him at each course of the meal. First comes a young man
carrying a bleeding lance, then two boys carrying candelabras. Finally, a
beautiful young girl emerges bearing an elaborately decorated graal, or
"grail."
Chrétien refers to his object not as "The Grail"
but as un graal, showing the word was used, in its earliest literary
context, as a common noun. For Chrétien the grail was a wide, somewhat deep
dish or bowl that contained a single Mass wafer which provided sustenance for
the Fisher King’s crippled father. Perceval,
who had been warned against talking too much, remains silent through all of
this, and wakes up the next morning alone. He later learns that if he had asked
the appropriate questions about what he saw, he would have healed his maimed
host, much to his honour. The story of the Wounded King's mystical fasting is
not unique; several saints were said to have lived without food besides
communion. This may imply that
Chrétien intended the Mass wafer to be the significant part of the ritual, and
the Grail to be a mere prop.
Robert de Boron
Though Chrétien’s account is the
earliest and most influential of all Grail texts, it was in the work of Robert de Boron that the Grail truly became the
"Holy Grail" and assumed the form most familiar to modern readers. In
his verse romance Joseph d’Arimathie, composed between 1191 and 1202, Robert tells the story of Joseph of
Arimathea acquiring the chalice of the Last Supper to collect Christ’s blood
upon His removal from the cross. Joseph
is thrown in prison where Christ visits him and explains the mysteries of the
blessed cup. Upon his release Joseph gathers his in-laws and other followers
and travels to the west, where he founds a dynasty of Grail keepers that
eventually includes Perceval.
The Grail in other early
literature
After
this point, Grail literature divides into two classes. The first concerns King
Arthur’s knights visiting the Grail castle or questing after the object; the
second concerns the Grail’s history in the time of Joseph of Arimathea.
The
nine most important works from the first group are:
·
The
Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes.
·
Four
continuations of Chrétien’s poem, by authors of differing vision and talent,
designed to bring the story to a close.
·
The
German Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, which adapted at least the
holiness of Robert’s Grail into the framework of Chrétien’s story.
·
The
Didot Perceval, named after the manuscript’s former owner, and
purportedly a prosification of Robert de Boron’s sequel to Joseph
d’Arimathie.
·
The
Welsh romance Peredur, generally included in the Mabinogion,
likely at least indirectly founded on Chrétien's poem but including very
striking differences from it, preserving as it does elements of pre-Christian
traditions such as the Celtic cult of the head.
·
Perlesvaus, called the "least
canonical" Grail romance because of its very different character.
·
The
German Diu Crône (The Crown), in which Gawain, rather than
Perceval, achieves the Grail.
·
The
Lancelot section of the vast Vulgate Cycle, which introduces the new
Grail hero, Galahad.
·
The
Queste del Saint Graal, another part of the Vulgate Cycle, concerning
the adventures of Galahad and his achievement of the Grail.
Of
the second class there are:
·
Robert
de Boron’s Joseph d’Arimathie,
·
The
Estoire del Saint Graal, the first part of the Vulgate Cycle (but
written after Lancelot and the Queste), based on Robert’s tale
but expanding it greatly with many new details.
·
Though
all these works have their roots in Chrétien, several contain pieces of
tradition not found in Chrétien which are possibly derived from earlier
sources.
Ideas of the Grail
Galahad,
Bors, and Percival achieve the Grail
The
Grail was considered a bowl or dish when first described by Chrétien de Troyes.
Other authors had their own ideas; Robert
de Boron portrayed it as the vessel of the Last Supper, and Peredur had no Grail per se,
presenting the hero instead with a platter containing his kinsman's bloody,
severed head. In Parzival, Wolfram von Eschenbach, citing the
authority of a certain (probably fictional) Kyot the Provençal, claimed the Grail was a stone that fell from
Heaven, and had been the sanctuary of the Neutral Angels who took neither side
during Lucifer's rebellion. The authors of the Vulgate Cycle used the Grail
as a symbol of divine grace.
Galahad, illegitimate son of Lancelot and Elaine, the world's greatest knight
and the Grail Bearer at the castle of Corbenic, is destined to achieve the
Grail, his spiritual purity making him a greater warrior than even his
illustrious father. Galahad and the interpretation of the Grail involving him
were picked up in the 15th century by Sir Thomas Malory in Le Morte d'Arthur,
and remain popular today.
Various notions of the Holy Grail
are currently widespread in Western society (especially British, French and
American), popularized through numerous medieval and modern works and linked
with the predominantly Anglo-French (but also with some German influence) cycle
of stories about King Arthur and his
knights. Because of this wide distribution, Americans and West Europeans
sometimes assume that the Grail idea is universally well known. The stories of the Grail, however, are
totally absent from the folklore of those countries that were and are Eastern
Orthodox (whether Arabs, Slavs, Romanians, or Greeks). This is true of all Arthurian myths, which were not well known east of
Germany until the present-day Hollywood retellings. Nor has the Grail been as popular a subject in some predominantly
Catholic areas, such as Spain and Latin America, as it has been elsewhere. The notions of the Grail, its importance,
and prominence, are a set of ideas that are essentially local and particular,
being linked with Catholic or formerly Catholic locales, Celtic mythology and
Anglo-French medieval storytelling. The contemporary wide distribution of
these ideas is due to the huge influence of the pop culture of countries where
the Grail Myth was prominent in the Middle Ages.
Belief
in the Grail and interest in its potential whereabouts has never ceased.
Ownership has been attributed to various groups (including the Knights Templar, probably because they
were at the peak of their influence around the time that Grail stories started
circulating in the 12th and 13th centuries).
Useful Links:
The
Catholic Encyclopaedia on "The Grail"
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06719a.htm
Le
Morte D'Arthur. Thomas Mallory (online text edition)
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Mal1Mor.html
Joseph
of Arimathea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_of_Arimathea
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08520a.htm
The
Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes
http://www.mcelhearn.com/perceval.html
Robert
de Boron's Joseph of Arimathea
(online text)
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4936
Arthurian
Legends
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthurian_legend
Dear
Parents:
All
students in English are required by Alberta Learning to engage in a unit of
movie analysis and interpretation. This term, our class will be studying Monty Python's
1975 film, The Holy Grail. Students will examine the movie on its own merits;
however, we will also study the movie in light of its contributions to comedy,
and its mythic origins in Arthurian legend and medieval literature. Some of the
literary/textual themes we will be exploring through this film include Arthurian legends, the
nature of comedy, comedy as an expression of identity in time and space, quest
imagery in world literature, modern re-tellings of the Grail story, skit comedy
and script-writing, source text analysis, the grail as symbol, the history of
the Knights Templar, as well as both Celtic Mythology and Christian legend and
lore.
As many of you are very
likely familiar with this film, you will remember that it is very silly. There
is little offensive about this film, and it has a PG MPAA rating. However, if
for any reason you do not wish your child to watch this movie as a springboard
into the research topics discussed above, it would certainly be allowable for
your son or daughter to be released from the movie and instead engage in one of
the 10 choice project/presentation topics provided.
Sincerely,
____________________
Sean Steel
BA, BEd, MA, MA