Who does the Grail Serve?

[bibliogramma]

To the Chapel Perilous, Naomi Mitchison

Just getting to read this book was the fulfilment of a quest. In a comment on my discussion, many months ago, of Naomi Mitchison’s Memoirs of a Spacewoman, wolfinthewood recommended this book, Mitchison’s take on the Matter of Britain. There was no question about it, I knew I had to read this book.

But a quick search revealed that it is out of print, although there had been a recent edition released by Green Knight Publishing, and copies were available via used booksellers and Ebay. My partner looked about in the local used bookstores without success, so we ordered a copy online from a bookseller in Canada; it was shipped and supposedly delivered by the post office, but vanished before we saw it. We tried again, ordering the book from a US bookstore to be delivered to an American friend of ours. It never arrived.

The third time was the charm, and my long-awaited copy arrived just before Christmas.

And by all the gods and goddesses, it was worth it.

The book is a marvel. The premise – what if journalists, much like those of modern times, had been covering the events of the Grail Quest – allows Mitchison to present a story that is deeply satisfying on many levels. It is at once an exploration of the nature of reality, a satire on the influence of the media over public knowledge, and the influence of the rich and powerful over the media, a feminist interpretation of the Arthurian legend that positions women as independent agents, an Arthurian scholar’s delight in its incorporation of multiple source materials and variations, and a damned good romance in its own right.

By sending her main characters – reporters for rival newspapers – on a journalistic quest to uncover the true Grail among all the reports of a completed quest, Mitchison is able to retell the multiple versions of the Grail quest in the various sources that precede what is now generally considered the definitive version of the tale, found in Malory’s Morte D’Arthur.

The journalistic process of investigation, interview, writing, editing, high-level editorial intervention and political influence described in the novel, which winnows many credible Grail stories down to a single media interpretation parallels the evolutionary process through which the definitive story – Galahad’s successful Quest – was established in the real-world development of the Grail material. We see through the eyes of the journalists and the various knights all the shapes and powers that the Grail has assumed in all the literary and mythic threads and traditions that were woven over time into the final widely-known version.

And we learn some great truths – that the Quest is open to all and anyone can follow the Grail that is truly meant for them, and that the story decided on by the rich and powerful to further their own purposes, often bears little resemblance to the realities that may be determined by each person for themselves.

Comments

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

Oh good. I am so glad you found in it what I do. And thanks for a very fine appreciation.

[bibliogramma.livejournal.com]

Thank you for recommending it. It's one of those rare books that speaks on so many levels, and I suspect that the next time I read it - for it is one of those books that one reads more than once - I will see other levels, references I missed this time through, new parallels to explore, other truths to consider.

I'm just starting to realise how remarkable a woman Mitchison was, and the continuation of my quest is to locate more of her books, and to read her autobiographical writings.

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

It's a pity there's an ocean between us. I have a number of her books, including a copy of the rare thirties realist novel We Have Been Warned. Though there are others of hers I'd recommend much more strongly. The Corn King and the Spring Queen is very good, and not hard to find; it apparently sold well in the thirties, when it came out, and was reprinted in the eighties by Virago. Virago also reprinted her delightful children's book, Travel Light, about a girl who is brought up by dragons and befriended by a valkyrie. I see it has recently been reprinted again.

There are lots of other books of hers I like.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I've read a great deal about We Have Been Warned. I wonder - if I can't find a copy for sale, or a copy in the library system that I can photocopy (we have done this before in order to be able to read rare books we simply had to read), might you be willing to photocopy your copy and mail it to me? I would naturally cover all expenses including your time.

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

I don't think I could. I'm really sorry. But I've just been looking at it. It is a fairly thick book in a thirties cloth binding which is already becoming brittle. I think it would almost certainly fall apart if I did that. And it's the only copy I have ever seen outside a library. Cross fingers you can get it through inter-library loan.

It's not, in my opinion (and most people's) one of her best books. More of an interesting period piece.

[(Anonymous)]

Please don't apologise - I certainly wouldn't want you to risk damaging your copy. There must be a copy somewhere in Canada that I can, if not buy, then access through interlibrary loan.

I'm interested in it, not so much for the literary value in this case, but because the descriptions I've read suggest that it would be interesting to look at in terms of the development of her politics.