The phenomenal success of Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code has once again brought the Holy Grail and its myriad hunters into the spotlight
The Last Supper lies at the heart of any quest for the Holy Grail, because the Holy Grail is the cup from which the disciples shared the wine. Or is it? The existence and the identity of the Holy Grail is one of the most enduring mysteries of all time. Was it a cup or a chalice? Was it the bowl that Joseph used to collect Christ’s blood? Did it come to Glastonbury? Or was it a much darker secret, whose shattering significance has been concealed for 2,000 years?
Like so many Grail hunting epics, Dan Brown’s book claims to be based on much research and fact, revealing the existence of a hitherto secret organisation supposedly set up to protect the Grail in the 11th century. It identifies Leonardo Da Vinci as one of the few in history who are in on the secret – one that can only be revealed in code. Could Leonardo’s Last Supper suggest the Grail is altogether different and much more mysterious. If so, how could the artist know something that history had forgotten for 1500 years? Forgotten… or suppressed? It is questions like these that have intrigued millions and millions of people for the last millennium as the Grail appears, disappears and resurfaces in legends, stories and oral history tales.
Dan Brown believes the Grail is neither a cup nor a dish, but a secret - a 2000 year-old secret, and just about the most important secret in the history of the Western World. It goes like this: Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. She was the co-founder of Christianity, and on her husband’s death was nominated the leader of the infant church. And, talking of infants, she and Jesus had a child. This is the true secret of the Grail, suppressed by the Christian church for the last two millennia. They have erased Mary Magdalene’s real importance to Christianity, and reduced her instead to a prostitute. To understand how Dan Brown ends up at this extraordinary conclusion, Tony Robinson goes on his own personal Grail hunt in this entertaining but thoughtful inquiry. Travelling to the Middle East, France, Spain, Italy and America - and Glastonbury of course – he gradually strips away the layers of myth to arrive at his own extraordinary conclusion.
