Caitlín Matthews - 16 July

For all who still go on quest

All those who travel the road can still see the story there, sealed all in parchment.

THE THIRD CONTINUATION OF THE GRAIL

THE LOST BOOK OF THE GRAIL

Any book written by these authors is worth noting, but this is a real tour de force. The Lost Book of the Grail takes us right into the heart of the Grail tradition. It addresses a key, very cryptic text ironically called The Elucidation, and step-by-step we are invited into its secret heart. We are shown the central act of wounding, which devastates the union between human beings, the sacred land, and the Sidhe, who are guardians of the secret life of the land. We are shown the branches of story that lead us into the restoration of the flowing life and love that are the hallmarks of the presence of the Grail. There is so much in this book; it's sure to become a classic work for all who seek to heal the wasteland and seek the Grail. Thoroughly recommended.

IAN REES, PSYCHOTHERAPIST AND PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF THE ANNWN FOUNDATION

This book is a wonderful new exploration of a little-known work in the rich cycle of Grail legends that elucidates with a new translation and commentary. A product of scholarly work that shows great erudition, it is also a pleasure to read and easily accessible to the general public. Caitln and John Matthews are unparalleled experts on the Grail and Arthurian legend. Their work shows a whole range of insight that comes from a lifetime of study.

KREIMIR VUKOVI, PH.D., POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW AT THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF CROATIA

I share the Matthews' view that The Elucidation draws in large part on authentic Celtic lore, as does the Grail legend. As Welsh scholar Sir John Rees suggested well over a century ago, the poem has a very ancient ring.' The Lost Book of the Grail not only illuminates but, I believe, rightly emphasizes the contemporary witness of the countryside being tragically subjected to relentless, irreparable destruction.

NIKOLAI TOLSTOY, AUTHOR OF THE QUEST FOR MERLIN AND THE MYSTERIES OF STONEHENGE

You do not just read this book, you experience it as a seeker. Read it slowly and savor each page as it is a map into the mystery of mysteries. A literary tour de force by the authors.

DOLORES ASHCROFT-NOWICKI, AUTHOR OF THE SHINING PATHS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

F irst and foremost, great thanks are due to the anonymous storyteller who gave us The Elucidation. Like a small shrine encompassing a great treasure, this text has given us waybread for the road as we researched. Many known and unknown Grail writers must also be thanked for leading us through the labyrinthine stories of this myth: they went there first; we merely followed their story, though our conclusions are our own.

It has long been our desire to prepare an edition of The Elucidation that any could read, with notes, commentary, and other supporting materials, without the dismissals with which this text has been greeted by many scholars who have failed to see its central importance. We are immensely grateful to Gareth Knight for the opportunity to work at last on a text that we regard as central to an understanding of the Grail and its teachings. Not only has he provided an excellent translation, to which we have contributed, but his vision in seeing this book through to the end has been inspirational.

Thanks to Nigel Bryant whose wonderful translation of the Grail Continuations has made this year's writing a great joy and comfort: his many other translations of the Arthurian corpus have made our hearts glad, as well as providing an extraordinary service to the world of Arthurian scholarship. To our Illyrian friend, Kresimir Vukovic, with whom we shared many mythic after-dinner conversations at various Oxford colleges: a big thank-you for your good companionship during this quest. To Ari Berk, much gratitude for his illustration of the Court of the Grail Guardians and for his enthusiasm and support over many years. To all our students and readers worldwide, thanks for your engagement with the quest, and your patience in awaiting this volume. A very special thank-you to all who participated in our public teaching of this text at Voices of the Wells at Hawkwood College in December 2016: what a wonderful weekend with your good help!

Court of the Grail Guardians by Ari Berk

INTRODUCTION

REVEALING AN UNKNOWN GRAIL STORY

[These are the] words our Hermes uttered when he hid his books away. O holy books, who have been made by my immortal hands, by incorruption's magic spells, free from decay and incorrupt from time! Become unseeable, for every one whose foot shall tread the plains of this our land, until old Heaven doth bring forth meet instruments for you, whom the Creator shall call souls. Thus, spake he and, laying spells on them by means of his own works, he shuts them safe away in their own zones. And long enough the time has been since they were hid away.

KORE KOSMOU

THE RETURN OF THE WELLS

E mbedded within the Western mythic tradition is a long testimony of hidden texts that become revealed in due course. From the account of Hermes burying his teachings in the ground in the Hermetic Kore Kosmou text, right up to the Rosicrucian texts that seemed to spontaneously emerge and spread all over Europe in the seventeenth century, many wonderful teachings have come to light. Most recent is the discovery of the greatest cache of Gnostic texts ever found, revealed at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945.

While we may marvel at the revelations contained within these texts, we wonder even more at the careful timing of their rerelease into the world, in an era when their teachings can be safely received and be heard once more. Any earlier discovery and these texts would have been regarded as heretical documents, fit only to be burned. As it was, the Nag Hammadi texts barely survived going on the fire of the Egyptian finder's mother, who was intent on cooking his supper with these very precious fragments used as kindling! Now these Gnostic texts form part of a recognized and major branch of scholarship.

Like the hidden writings of Hermes that are buried for some future era to discover, some bodies of knowledge remain hidden until the right time arrives. That time has now arrived for The Elucidation. Back in the mid-nineteenth century, with rather less of a flourish of trumpets, the 484 lines that comprise the thirteenth-century French text called The Elucidation were first discovered, bound into the beginning of a manuscript known as the Mons, Bibliotque communale, no 4568. Within this thirteenth-century French verse text, long seen as a prequel to Chrtien's Perceval, ou le Conte du Graal, are contained the most astonishing revelations, which are never quite elucidated.