Grail Quest

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

“What is the grail? Whom does it serve?”

A Grail Quest is a specialized version of The Quest which seamlessly blends the search for a MacGuffin with personal growth and tests of same for the Quester. The MacGuffin, whatever it is, has strict requirements for what constitutes a "worthy" owner/wielder; it, or Fate, or the Powers That Be, or the natural laws of the universe will conspire to force anyone looking for it to prove at length that he deserves access to it. Note that the object of a Grail Quest need not be a good or holy item; it's entirely possible that a malevolent object might present the same challenges to one seeking it, to ensure that they are strong or ruthless or sociopathic enough to use it "properly".

As the quester progresses along his path to the item he seeks, he will encounter a series of Sidequests, Threshold Guardians and Wacky Wayside Tribes. Each one will embody some manner of literal, symbolic or metaphoric barrier to the completion of the quest, by presenting a challenge (sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden, and far too often deviously complex) that the quester must overcome. The challenges will range from simple acts of kindness to moral/ethical choices to feats of arms. Sometimes they will be outright surreal in nature, and sometimes they will force the quester to face seemingly Sadistic Choices. However they are presented, though, each one is an opportunity for personal growth or a test that the quester meets the MacGuffin's requirements. Success at each challenge confirms the seeker's worthiness and/or validates his dedication to the quest. Failure can result in the quester being trapped (either blatantly or subtly), or being sent wildly off course to never come near his goal again, or even in his death. Truly dedicated seekers can sometimes redeem themselves and return to the correct path. Other questers may also rescue them, after which they might give up the quest entirely, or join forces back on the correct path.

From the outside, and sometimes from the inside, the quest may resemble a Random Events Plot -- but on a higher level everything all ties together. In some cases the object of the quest is actively grooming its recipients -- leading them through an adventure that will force them to become what it needs in a wielder/owner -- if they aren't killed or driven away by the difficulty of the tasks they face. Ultimately a Grail Quest is a transformative process for the quester, who must always progress from unworthy to worthy before reaching his goal. In many ways a Grail Quest is similar to a Vision Quest, and no few scholars have noted the similarities between the original Grail Quest and various pagan and shamanistic initiatory practices.

Note, by the way, that the person going on a Grail Quest need not be a Knight Errant -- anyone can undergo a Grail Quest.

The Trope Namer is of course the Quest for the Holy Grail from the legends of King Arthur, most specifically the long and involved version presented in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.

Historically, it's suspected that the Grail legend (and the corresponding quest motif) ultimately derives from rituals from early Celtic shamanism, during which an initiate was required to face and overcome certain tests (symbolic and not) in order to attain a higher state of consciousness and enlightenment, not unlike a Vision Quest. In this context, then, a Grail Quest would have been a quest for the meaning of life, the nature of the divine, and symbolize one's true purpose in living.

Not to be confused with the series of Choose Your Own Adventure books entitled Grail Quest Solo Fantasy.

Examples of Grail Quest include:

Anime and Manga

Film

  • Although the plot of Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a typically Pythonian Random Events Plot almost entirely driven by the Rule of Funny, Galahad's encounter with Castle Anthrax, its inhabitants, and the temptations they offer is a perfect example of the kind of challenge found on the original Grail Quest, starting right from the "Grail-shaped beacon" used to lure him in. (Which only makes sense, because Graham Chapman, as we have noted elsewhere on the wiki, was an Arthurian scholar and made sure that the movie was accurate as well as funny.) The only break from the pattern is the team of knights that rescue him from the castle -- in a proper Grail Quest challenge, Galahad would have had to overcome or fail on his own merits and actions.
    • And ultimately, Arthur demonstrates his worthiness to pass the final barrier to the Grail castle with knowledge he gained in literally the first scene of the film.
  • John Boorman's 1981 film Excalibur presents a thoroughly-mystical Grail Quest strongly influenced by that found in Le Morte d'Arthur (see below).
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade features Indy undergoing this, under protest. As he tells a guardian of the Grail that attacks him and Elsa, he's not seeking the Grail; he's looking for his father Henry Jones, Sr., who went missing. When he and his father reunite, however, Henry convinces him to go back into enemy Nazi territory and seek the Grail after they barely escape with their lives because he says that the Grail must not fall into enemy hands. Indy just wants to take his dad home but can't argue with the logic that a cup providing immortality and constant healing to Nazis would be dangerous indeed. He ends up proven right; while they do make headway towards the tomb where the Grail is, the Nazis beat them to the punch and realize that Indiana is the only one who can traverse the various challenges and death traps; to incentivize him, Donovan shoots Henry Sr. in the stomach and tells Indy to hurry up or his dad will die. A man must be penitent, take a leap of faith, and choose wisely. Fail any of these tests, and you may lose your head, or your youth. Turns out there is no way to remove the Grail from the holy area; as soon as it goes beyond the giant cross on the floor, the whole space is set to collapse. Elsa dies trying to retrieve it from the collapsing ruins, while a healed Henry Sr. convinces Indiana to let it go in the rubble before pulling him upward. Indy is more than annoyed that the quest ended up being All for Nothing in that if he and Henry had gone back to England, which is what he suggested to do in the first place, the Grail never would have been found by the Nazis.

Literature

  • As noted in the main text, the Quest for the Holy Grail in the legends of King Arthur. In Le Morte d'Arthur it spans hundreds of pages as the narrative follows the knights of the Round Table in their search for the Grail -- and their many and varied failures. The Grail demanded an almost unmeetable moral standard from the knights seeking it, and threw all manner of temptations in their way -- including the inevitable lures of the flesh, but also some where the knight was tempted to abandon the quest to take up another lesser, though noble, duty than finding the Grail. Ultimately, the Grail required a state of pre-eminent spiritual purity and focus that most of Arthur's knights could not achieve or maintain; ultimately only three qualified (Galahad, Percival and Lancelot -- and strictly speaking Lancelot was an "almost but not quite"). Furthermore, one could argue that the quest was so stressful that it effectively shattered the fellowship of the Round Table.
  • The War Hound and the World's Pain, a 1981 novel by Michael Moorcock, revolves around a Grail Quest taking place during the Thirty Years' War. Mercenary freethinker Ulrich von Bek finds himself a damned soul in a castle owned by Lucifer, who bizarrely charges him with seeking the Grail, which will reconcile Lucifer with God and save von Bek's own soul. As might be expected, the quest tests von Bek almost to destruction.
  • In the 1977 novel Lancelot by Walker Percy, the eponymous protagonist[1] explicitly draws numerous parallels between a Grail Quest and his life in the American South of the 1970s. Despite the setting, it is laced with medieval and explicitly Arthurian allusions, not the least of which is Lancelot's best friend and companion through the book, Percy (Percival). But Lancelot is seeking the dark reflection of the Grail, what he calls an "Unholy Grail", and sees the violent and disruptive events of his life being his tests and challenges on his way to it. As the result of his experiences in the novel, he ultimately chooses violence as his path of liberation, and defines his "Unholy Grail" as violent sex, particularly rape. No, it's not a happy book.
  • T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land draws heavily upon Arthurian sources -- indeed, the central conceit revolves around the original Fisher King and his devastated kingdom as a metaphor for Europe in the wake of World War I -- and he structures the entire poem as a Grail Quest, with the Grail itself a savior for the wounded land. Ultimately, though, the Quest is subverted, as the Grail does not magically appear at its end; instead, the poet suggests that it is up to the individual to find his own salvation.
  • Inverted in the short story "Chivalry" by Neil Gaiman. Mrs. Whitaker finds the Holy Grail in a secondhand shop and buys it because it will look nice on the mantlepiece. When Sir Galahad comes on a quest for the Grail, Mrs. Whittaker politely turns down his offers of money because she has enough in pension, while treating him to meals every time he comes and asking for help with chores. Realizing she wants an item in exchange, Galahad goes on several quests offscreen to find magic items and barter with her. They end up inking a deal where she takes a philosopher's stone and egg of eternal truth in exchange for the Grail since they also look nice on the mantlepiece, and she packs some snacks for him and his horse on the long journey home, while putting the Grail in nice wrapping paper for him. Mrs. Whittaker then nearly buys a lamp at the same shop but thinks better of it when she realizes what it is.

Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends

  • The original tale of this comes from the saga of King Arthur. He sent his knights to find the Holy Grail, and they would undergo quests to find that cup. Sometimes Galahad and Percival, on finding the Grail after these trials, ascend to heaven.
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight shows Gawain undergoing a variant. The Green Knight asks to be beheaded, and so he complies. Turns out the knight survives this, and says Gawain must come in a year and receive the same. Despite this being an obvious Suicide Mission, Gawain agrees. He has to spend three nights in a castle where the knight's wife is the hostess, and resist all that she offers.

Theatre

  • Being an adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot naturally features this. After Arthur spends the first act recruiting Knights for the Round Table and introducing them to Camelot, God intervenes and asks them to go on a quest to find the grail. Arthur determines that in addition to God's "missing mug," the grail is a symbol (cue cymbal crashing) of something they should pursue to make their life more fulfilling. In Arthur's case, he realizes that he wants the Lady of the Lake, who wants him as well. Sir Robin finds his calling is "musical theater" where he can sing and dance as he likes without soiling himself in fear. Lancelot gets the happiest ending, where he uncharacteristically is convinced to put down his weapons to come out of the closet. He and Prince Herbert find each other, getting married. Act Two has Arthur and the Knights find a shrubbery and host a musical on Broadway for the Knights Who Say Ni, destroy the Killer Rabbit with a Holy Hand Grenade, and search the audience for the grail. They then award the audience member whose seat has the Grail under it with the title "Most Useful Peasant."

Video Games

  • In Devil May Cry 3, the power Sparda keeps sealed on the Temen-ni-gru is a subversion of this: one has to overcome several puzzles and trials to advance, and the path must be fully opened with pieces of an amulet and using the blood of a priestess which helped Sparda in sealing the gateway to the demon world with her life. However, as the Temen-ni-gru is a gate to the demon world, trying to obtain the power of Sparda even for good use can only end badly for mankind as demons can easily and great numbers enter Earth if it is unlocked. The puzzles, the bosses, and the blood sacrifice are there because Sparda intended it to be nearly impossible for anyone to get to the end.
  • In the first God of War, Kratos's search for the Pandora's Box to defeat Ares. There are several puzzles and trials testing his strength and smartness, not to mention a sacrifice made to the gods. Depending on the version you're playing, it's either an undead soldier(Europe) or a very living human being who begs Kratos to not kill him(USA). In the latter, it's clearly made to determine someone's willingness to kill an innocent man for the ultimate good. In contrast with his usual willingness to kill everyone and everything in his way, Kratos does it with clear regret.
  • Fate/Grand Order: Humanity has been destroyed by an event known as the Human Order Incineration Incident except for the Chaldea Security Organization. Chaldea's main objective is the Grand Order aka Quest for the Holy Grail "Grand Order" to reverse the eradication of humanity. Humanity's incineration can be undone by eliminating temporal anomalies known as Singularities; their sources are Holy Grails. Therefore, the organization sends Ritsuka Fujimaru and their last Servant, Mash Kyrielight, aka Shielder, to Singularities to retrieve Holy Grails that are the source of the anomalies. On this journey, Ritsuka is an untrained and inexperienced mage. Still, they have the unique capacity to make a contract with many Servants, which they summon along their journies in the Singularities. Shielder is a Demi-Servant who doesn't have access to the full powers of the Heroic Spirit she is fused with but develops abilities, especially her Noble Phantasm, as she ventures with Ritsuka.

Visual Novels

  • Actively defied by the Holy Grail Wars in Fate/stay night and the other various Fate works. The Grail cares nothing about the Masters seeking it except that the winner has defeated all the others in what amounts to a brutal tournament. And while the best results are gained by killing all one's competition, it's not mandatory -- the Grail doesn't care about anything save that there is only a single winner standing at the end. Then again, it's hinted that it is not the true Grail, but an ersatz version created by mages in the distant past, and one already corrupted by the time it appears onscreen at that.

Western Animation

  • Season two of Amphibia has Anne, Marcy and Sasha navigate to three temples to recharge the Calamity Box gems. To do so, the temples contain tests and puzzles that seek them to look inward. Marcy, for example, has to know when to fold on a dangerous game, Anne has to face her past mistakes, and Sasha has to persist against insurmountable odds. With that said, the tests don't necessarily make the girls grow as people: Sasha still plans to launch a coup against Andrias, Marcy is still keeping it a secret that she got her friends stranded in Amphibia on purpose. That and Valeriana had a suspicion that Anne would need to keep her powers to face Andrias and the Core, testing if she was a worthy replacement for the Cosmic Guardian.
  1. ↑ Who is, in fact, practically a Villain Protagonist.
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