THE TEMPLE AND THE LODGE
MICHAEL BAIGENT AND RICHARD LEIGH
5
Celtic Scotland and the Grail Legends
If , in the years following Bannockburn, an enclave of Templars did indeed settle in Argyll and intermarry with the clan system, the region would have constituted a natural habitat for them, and a most congenial one. In certain respects, it might almost have represented something akin to a homecoming. The Templar s were, of cour se, ‘ a legend in their own lifetime’ . In Scotland, however , and particularly in Argyll, there were other legendary antecedents with which the Order , in the eyes of the populace, would have been identified. In effect, Argyll offered a context of legend into which the Templar s would have been effortlessly incorporated.
Towards the end of the twelfth century, the first of the so- called Grail Romances appeared in Western Europe. By the beginning of the fourteenth century — by the time of Bruce, that is, and the suppression of the Temple — the Grail Romances as a genre were still much in vogue, and had spawned an immense corpus of collateral literature. The concept of chivalry, as expounded by such works, was then approaching its zenith. Christian ruler s self consciously aspired to the lofty models of Parsifal, Gawain, Lancelot and Galahad — or , at least, sought to purvey such images of themselves to their people. Thus, f or example, Edward I endeavoured to por tray himself as a latterday Arthur , even to the point of holding ‘ Round Table’ jousts. Thus, on the day bef ore Bannockburn, while the two armies aligned themselves for battle, Bruce and the English knight Henry de Bohun met in single combat — the kind of personalised duel to the death so celebrated in chivalric romance.
The Grail Romances, although condemned by ecclesiastical authorities elsewhere in Europe, enjoyed a particular currency in Scotland. Bruce, it must be remembered, was seeking to re- establish in Scotland a Celtic kingdom whose traditions extended back through David I to the Dalriada. And the Grail Romances contained an important Celtic element, a corpus of Celtic lore and legend not to be found in later literaturrissuing from Norman England or from the Continent.
In the form that we know them today, the Grail Romances are a peculiarly hybrid genre reflecting a complicated process of crossfertilisation. As we have discussed in a previous work, 1 they contain an impor tant corpus of Judaeo- Christian material concealed or disguised in elaborate dramatic form. But this material has been graf ted on to a body of legend and saga which is uniquely Celtic. Long bef ore the Grail itself appeared in literature, with its specifically Christian impor t, there were Celtic poems and narratives chronicling a chivalric quest for a myster ious sacred object endowed with magical properties, a remote castle with a crippled or impotent king, an inf er tile wasteland suffering from the same blight as its ruler . Thus, some recent scholar s carefully distinguish between the ‘ Christian Grail’ of the later , better – known romances and the ‘ pagan Grail’ of their precursor s. And indeed, it was the confusion of the miraculous cauldron in the ear lier works with the more nebulous ‘ Grail’ of the later ones that led to the definition of the Grail as a cup, bowl, chalice or vessel — rather than to the sang réal, the blood royal, to which it in fact referred.
On to the foundations of the earlier Celtic sagas, then — the sagas of cauldron and wasteland and castle perilous — a Judaeo- Christian super structure was added to produce what are now called the Grail romances. And this Judaeo- Chr istian super structure, significantly enough, is repeatedly associated with the Templars. Thus, f or example, in Parzival, perhaps the single greatest and most important of all the Grail stories, Wolfram von Eschenbach portrays the Templar s as ‘ guardians of the Grail’ and of ‘ the Grail f amily’ . Wolf ram also claims to have heard the Grail story from a certain ‘ Kyot de Provence’ , who can be identified as Guiot de Provins, a Templar scribe and propagandist. 2 More telling still is the fact that the Grail Romance known as The Perlesvaus, second only to Wolf ram’ s version in significance, contains unmistakable allusions to the Order — not only in its depiction of knights in white mantles emblazoned with red crosses presiding over a sacred secret, but also in the very tenor of its thought and values. The Perlesvaus abounds with a meticulous, detailed and accurate knowledge of weapons and armour , of techniques of fighting and characteristics of wounds. It is obviously the work not of a troubadour or romancier , but of a fighting man. And so pervasive is the Templar influence in it that the anonymous author is widely believed to have been himself a Templar . In such works as Wolf ram’ s Parzival and The Perlesvaus, the reader is confronted with a syncretic accretion of two diverse traditions — one Judaeo- Chr istian, one Celtic. And the ‛adhesive’ , so to speak, the metaphorical framework holding these two components together , is implicitly or explicitly Templar .
By Bruce’ s time, Celtic tradition, Grail mystique and Templar values had fused into a single, often confusing, amalgam. Thus, for example, there is the well- known Celtic ‘ cult of the head’ — the ancient Celtic belief that the head contained the soul, and that the heads of vanquished adver sar ies should therefore be severed and preserved. Indeed, the severed head is now regarded as one of the hallmarks of archaic Celtic culture. It figures perhaps most prominently in the myth of Bran the Blessed, whose head, according to tradition, was buried as a protective talisman outside London, face turned towards France. Not only did it protect the city from attack. It also ensured the fertility of the surrounding countryside and warded off plague from England as a whole. In other words, it performed functions strikingly similar to those performed by the Grail in the later romances. It sur f aces later as the socalled ‘ Green Man’ , the vegetation god and tutelary deity of fertility.
At the same time, the Templars had their own ‘ cult of the head’ . Among the charges preferred against them, and one to which a number of knights pleaded guilty, was that of worshipping a mysterious severed head sometimes known as ‘ Baphomet’ . Moreover , when the officers of the French king burst into the Paris Temple on 13 October 1307, there was found a silver reliquary in the shape of a head, containing the skull of a woman. It bore a label denoting it as ‘ Caput LVIIIm’ — ‛Head 58m’ . 3 This might at first seem a meregrisly coincidence. But in the list of charges drawn up by the Inquisition against the Templars on 12 August 1308, there appears the following:
Item, that in each province they had idols, namely heads . ..
Item, that they adored these idols . . .
Item, that they said that the head could save them.
Item, that [it could] make riches . . .
Item, that it made the trees flower .
Item, that [it made] the land germinate . . . 4
These attributes are precisely — so precisely as to be at times verbatim — the attributes ascribed by the romances to the Grail, and by Celtic tradition to the severed head of Bran the Blessed. It is thus clear that both the Grail Romances and the Templar s, despite their primary Christian orientation, incorporated crucial residues of Celtic tradition. These residues, baffling and gruesome though they may appear today, would have struck a familiar atavistic chord in the Celtic kingdom Bruce was endeavouring to re- establish.
Thus, although the Celtic prototypes f or the Grail Romances did not feature the Grail itself , at least under that name, other components of the later story were certainly present. The Grail itself made its début in a long narrative poem entitled Le Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes, writing in the last quarter of the twelfth century. Wolfram’ s Parzival and the anonymous Perlesvaus, dating from a quarter of a century or so later , draw on material and sources of information to which Chrétien was not apparently privy; but it is still from Chrétien’ s poem that these works, and all the other Grail Romances, ultimately, to one degree or another , derive.
Little is known about Chrétien, and little can be gleaned except from the dedications to his works and internal textual evidence. What emerges is meagre enough, but it would seem clear at least that Chrétien worked under the tutelage and sponsor ship of aristocratic courts — namely the courts of the counts of Champagne and of Flanders. These courts were closely associated with each other , and were also associated with heterodox religious attitudes, including a skein of heretical Cathare thought. Both courts were also closely associated with the Templars. Indeed, some three- quarters of a century before Chrétien, the Comte de Champagne had been a key figure in the creation of the Order . Hugues de Payens, first Grand Master of the Temple, was a trusted vassal of the Comte de Champagne and seems consistently to have been acting on the count’ s instructions. Subsequently, the count himself , repudiating his marriage, was taken into the Order , thus (in a cur ious paradox) becoming the vassal of his own vassal.
Much of Chrétien’ s early work is dedicated to various members of the court of Champagne, and particularly to the countess, Marie. But his version of the Grail story, composed between 1184 and 1190, is dedicated to Philippe d’ Alsace, Comte de Flandres. Chrétien states explicitly that the nar rative of the Grail was originally recounted to him by Philippe, who then instructed him to weave whatever romance he could around it.
Unfortunately, Chrétien died bef ore he could finish the work completely. But in what exists of the poem, there are a number of points of interest. For example, it is in Chrétien that Arthur ’ s capital is named for the first time as Camelot. And Chrétien repeatedly designates Perceval by a f ormula that will later be adopted by Wolfram and other romancier s, and will eventually come to figure prominently in later Freemasonry — ‘ the Son of the Widow’ . This formula concealed a meaning which was still legible in Chrétien’ s age, but was subsequently lost.
Most important to note for our particular purposes is that Chrétien, in the Celtic elements of his poem, is drawing on some fund of information other than established English and Welsh sources. Not, of course, that he ignores those sources. On the contrary, he owes much to them. He relies heavily on Geoffrey of Monmouth’ s History of the King s of Britain, a quasi- legendary account written around 1138 which first brought Arthur to the public consciousness. He also relies heavily on such archaic tales as ‘ Peredur ’ and other narratives from the Welsh Mabinogion. But there are other aspects of Chrétien’ s poem which owe nothing to such traditional sources — aspects which are specifically and uniquely Scottish. Indeed, it is clear that Chrétien has some independent source of inf ormation about Scotland; and experts conclude it to be from Scotland that Chrétien derived certain key features of his poem’ s geography and topography.
Thus, f or example, Chrétien’ s hero, ‛Perceval le Galois’ , might be supposed at first to come from Wales. In fact, however , the term ‛Gualeis’ or ‛Galois’ was applied, in Chrétien’ s time, to natives of Galloway in Scotland. The Grail knights, in Chrétien’ s poem, defend ‛les por s de Galvoie’ — ‛the gates of Galvoie’ — this being the land on whose borders they operate. Scholars of the Grail Romances concur that ‛Galvoie’ must be Galloway.5
In Geoffrey of Monmouth, there are ref erences to ‛Castellum Puellarum’ which, in some of the later Grail Romances, but not Chrétien’ s, becomes the famous ‛Castle Per ilous’ . Writing in 1338, the commentator and translator Robert of Brunne says that ‛Castellum Puellarum’ is in fact the real castle of Caerlaverock in Galloway. As one modern biographer of Chrétien observes, Robert of Brunne ‘ may well be repeating accredited tradition, for in his youth, at Cambridge, he knew the future king Robert the Bruce’ . 6 In any case, Cae laverock was only some ten miles from Annan, the seat of the Bruce family, who had been made lords of Annandale by David I in 1124. The castles at Annan and Caerlaverock were both of ten said to have ‘ guarded the door to Galloway’ . Although Chrétien does not speak specifically of ‛Castellum Puellarum’ or ‘ Castle Perilous’ , he does speak of a ‘ Roche de Canguin’ — which, according to at least one scholar , ‘ derives from an embellishment of Caer laverock’ . 7 In Chrétien’ s poem, it is this site, significantly enough, which ‘ guarde les por s de Galvoie’ .
In Chrétien’ s poem, Arthur ’ s second residence after Camelot is called ‛Cardoeil’ . Until 1157, the capital of Scotland was Carlisle, which, in the days of The Anglo- Saxon Chronicle , was called ‛Cardeol’ and then evolved into ‛Carduil’ . Chrétien also mentions a religious site called ‘ Mont Dolerous’ . This is believed to be Melrose Abbey in Northumber land, founded in 1136 and known in Chrétien’ s time as ‘ Mons Dolorosus’ . It was here that, nearly two centuries later , Bruce’ s heart was to be buried.
From this and much similar evidence, it is obvious that Chrétien, in whose work the Grail first appears, is grafting his specifically Christian concept of it on to a corpus of much older material, some of which refers very precisely to Scotland. But why should a romancier working under the patronage of the courts of Champagne and Flanders f ocus so pointedly on Scottish sites when the Judaeo- Chr istian super structure of his poem derived from very different sources?
Chrétien claimed to have received the outlines of the Grail story from Philippe d’ Alsace, Comte de Flandres, who told him to make whatever he could of them. And Philippe’ s contacts with Scotland were numerous and close. As lord of Flanders, he had extensive dealings with Scotland and a considerable knowledge of the country, its people and their traditions. Indeed, throughout the twelf th century, cer tain ties had been deliberately forged between Scotland and Flanders. During the reigns of David I (1124—53) and Malcolm IV (1153—65), there obtained a systematic policy of settling Flemish immigrants in Scotland. The newcomer s were installed in large organised enclaves in upper Lanarkshire, upper Clydesdale, West Lothian and the north of Moray. According to one commentator , the ‘ Flemish settlement seems a systematic attempt to implant in upper Clydesdale and Moray, at the expense of local aristocracy and church, a new aristocracy’ . 8 As we have seen, Bruce’ s own family is now believed to have been of Flemish, not Norman, descent. A similar or igin has been traced for such other prominent Scottish families as Balliol, Cameron, Campbell, Comyn, Douglas, Graham, Hamilton, Lindsay, Montgomery, Seton and Stewart. 9 Some of these f amilies have already f igured in our story. They, and others as well, will f igure even more prominently later .
The purpose of the Flemish settlement in Scotland seems to have been to build up urban centres in the country. Flanders had already become an urbanised, commercialised region, with great trading cities such as Bruges and Ghent straddling the mercantile routes to the Rhine, the Seine and the British Isles. It also included in its territory Boulogne and Calais. The Scottish monarchy, needing the revenue to be obtained from town rents, looked to Flanders as a model of urban development. Flemish settler s were thus actively encouraged to come to the country and establish metropolitan centres on the Flemish pattern. They were welcomed, too, for their expertise in agriculture, in weaving and in the wool trade.
The association of Scotland and Flander s, begun with David I and Malcolm IV, continued through the reign of Malcolm’ s successor , William ‘ the Lion’ . When William invaded England in 1173, he was reinforced by a Flemish contingent — a contingent sent to him by Philippe d’ Alsace. And in military matters, as well as in urban development, the Scots learned f rom Flander s. In 1302, the burgher s of the Flemish town of Courtrai rose in revolt. Using the so- called ‛schilltrom’ formation — men formed in a square with long pikes anchored in the ground and pointing outwards — they managed to defeat a large and powerful French army. For the first time in Western Europe, Courtrai broke the hither to invincible power of the mounted and armoured knight. Bruce learned f rom the battle. It was precisely the ‘ schilltrom’ formation that he deployed so successfully at Bannockburn, until the mysterious ‘ fresh force’ appeared on the scene to turn the tide.
There was much cross- fertilisation and reciprocal influence between Scotland and Flanders. As a result of the influx of Flemish settlers, Scottish towns assumed certain distinctly Flemish characteristics, while elements of Scotland’ s ancient Celtic her itage f ound their way back to Flander s — where they surfaced in (among other things) the Grail Romances. Once they had begun to evolve as a genre, the Grail Romances were carried back to Scotland, where the original Celtic component in them would have been duly recognised and appreciated.
It is not hard to imagine how congenial the exiled Templar s would have found Scotland, this setting for the adventures of Grail knights and fictionalised Templars. It was so to speak, ‛ready-made’ for them. Presenting themselves as ‛real- life’ Grail knights, they could aid Bruce in his campaigns, and be welcomed as chivalr c saviour s as well. Where else could they have found a climate so hospitable to survivors of the Order wishing to secularise themselves, integrate themselves and perpetuate themselves, safely insulated from their persecutors elsewhere?
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