Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

353promoting increase, wealth, and rejuvenation.The Grail a Talisman of AbundanceThe character of a cornucopia, a symbol and agent ofabundance and vitality, clings closely to the Grail in all versionsof the legend. Even in the loftiest and most spiritual of these,the “Parzival” of Wolfram von Eschenbach, this quality is verystrongly marked. A sick or wounded man who looked on itcould not die within the week, nor could its servitors grow old:“though one looked on it for two hundred years, his hair wouldnever turn grey.” The Grail knights lived from it, apparently byits turning into all manner of food and drink the bread which waspresented to it by pages. Each man had of it food according tohis pleasure, à son gré—from this word gré, gréable, the nameGral, which originated in the French versions, was supposed tobe derived. 245 It was the satisfaction of all desires. In Wolfram'spoem the Grail, though connected with the Eucharist, was, aswe have seen, a stone, not a cup. It thus appears as a relic ofancient stone-worship. It is remarkable that a similar Stone ofAbundance occurs also in the Welsh “Peredur,” though not asone of the mysteries of the castle. It was guarded by a black [410]serpent, which Peredur slew, and he gave the stone to his friendEtlyn.The Celtic Cauldron of AbundanceNow the reader has by this time become well acquainted withan object having the character of a talisman of abundance andrejuvenation in Celtic myth. As the Cauldron of the Dagdait came into Ireland with the Danaans from their mysteriousfairy-land. In Welsh legend Bran the Blessed got it from Ireland,whither it returned again as part of Branwen's dowry. In a strangeand mystic poem by Taliesin it is represented as part of thespoils of Hades, or Annwn, brought thence by Arthur, in a tragicadventure not otherwise recorded. It is described by Taliesin as245 The true derivation is from the Low Latin cratella, a small vessel or chalice.