You might not suspect
”
The Da Vinci Code
”
and John Steinbeck have much in common. But it turns out Dan
Brown’s mega best-selling novel and the Noble-prize winning writer
with South Valley roots do share a link: They both owe their
success to the ancient Arthurian legend.
You might not suspect “The Da Vinci Code” and John Steinbeck have much in common. But it turns out Dan Brown’s mega best-selling novel and the Noble-prize winning writer with South Valley roots do share a link: They both owe their success to the ancient Arthurian legend.
Last weekend the movie version of “The Da Vinci Code” hit theaters. It made me consider this common connection.
When the novel first came out two years ago, I remember finding it at the Gilroy Costco store and scanning the book jacket summary. The gist of the story involves the murder of the curator of the Louvre museum and how Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon must clear himself of the crime by finding the legendary Holy Grail.
“Intriguing premise,” I thought back then. “But it’ll never sell. It’s way too intellectual for today’s public.”
Little did I know. Brown’s book has sold 40 million copies and counting. It ignited a controversy with Christians over its scandalous premise that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene, and a child resulted from the matrimony.
Like millions of readers, I enjoyed the fast-paced, action-packed adventure mystery. Langdon is essentially a 21st century knight on an impossible quest for the Grail. He’s helped along by a beautiful woman named Sophie, a code breaker for the Paris police force. Together, they confront evil in unexpected places as they unravel the Byzantine mystery.
Throughout the novel’s plot, Dan Brown wove in various “facts” about the Holy Grail’s connection to the Knights Templar, the Opus Dei fringe of the Catholic Church, and a mysterious organization called the Priory of Scion. But much of what Brown proclaims as facts turns out to be wild fiction, scholars assert.
The key to the Da Vinci Code is the Grail legend, a contrivance of the Middle Ages that evolved from Celtic myths. Ancient Welsh and Irish folktales described heroes finding cauldrons that restored life or supplied a never-ending source of food.
The Christianized version of the Grail originated in late 12th and early 13th centuries in France. The earliest identified source is a 12th century church wall painting found in the Catalan Pyrenees showing the Virgin Mary holding a bowl radiating fire.
The first literary mention of the Grail is in a poem by Chretien de Troyes heralding the adventures of noble knight Perceval. While dining with the Fisher King, Perceval is shown an elaborately decorated “graal” – a deep dish – holding a single Mass wafer.
Over time, the graal imagery morphed through the retelling. Medieval author Robert de Boron turned the dish into the wine vessel – the Holy Grail – Jesus used in the Last Supper. By the 15th century, Sir Thomas Malory published his epic tale Le Morte d’Arthur which describes how the spiritually pure knight Galahad (bastard son of Lancelot) achieves the Grail and uses it to heal others.
The Arthurian legend adapts itself to the times. Monty Python satirized the story in the movie “The Quest for the Holy Grail” – which in turn was recently converted complete with “killer rabbit” into the Broadway musical “Spamolot.” And Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” is a version of Galahad’s story that ties in modern contraptions such as cell phones and high-tech spy tools.
Now you’re wondering, how does the Holy Grail tie in with John Steinbeck? Well, when Steinbeck was a child in Salinas, he found that reading was an arduous skill for him to learn. “Books were printed demons – the tongs and thumbscrews of outrageous persecution,” he’d later relate.
But at age 9, an aunt set him on a life-long quest for the Holy Grail. She gave him a gift of Thomas Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur.” The boy Steinbeck opened the pages and found himself falling into the story.
“The magic happened,” he described the moment. “I loved the old spelling of the words – and the words no longer used. Perhaps a passionate love for the English language opened to me from this one book.”
Malory’s epic tale set Steinbeck on a course to become one of America’s greatest story-tellers. Novels such as “The Grapes of Wrath,” “East of Eden,” and “Of Mice and Men” would never have been created if Steinbeck had not fallen enchanted by the ancient spell of noble knight’s quest.
Read Steinbeck’s first best-selling book, “Tortilla Flat,” and you’ll see Malory’s influence. The quirky Mexican characters represent the Knights of the Round Table.
Steinbeck felt so passionate about Malory’s book that in 1956 when he was a well-established author, he set upon his own Grail quest – to translate Morte d’Arthur and bring it to life for modern readers. He spent years in the pursuit, living in the Somerset region of England to absorb the magic of the place of Arthurian legend.
Steinbeck’s translation, titled “The Acts of King Arthur and His Nobel Knights,” was never finished. His efforts ended before he got around to Malory’s version of the Grail quest. Perhaps writer’s block set in because he didn’t think himself a spiritually worthy “knight” to finally find – in a literary sense – that most sacred relic.
Over the ages, the Holy Grail has served as a mythical object filled with many meanings. To the medieval mind, it was the literal cup of Christ, flowing with the blood that brought eternal life. For Dan Brown’s heroes, it represents a literal bloodline of Jesus.
For me personally, the Holy Grail represents what film director Alfred Hitchcock called “a McGuffin” – an object whose only plot importance is to provide a goal for the hero to hunt after. In my own “hero’s journey,” the Holy Grail symbolizes the belief that all humans have within them a spark of the divine.
It’s the personal truth we uncover during the quest for the Grail that’s the real reward. Whether we follow hero Robert Langdon in “The Da Vinci Code” or John Steinbeck translating Malory, through the adventure we discover a greater reality than some wine cup of ancient Palestine. We find ourselves on a path of self-discovery to our sacred essence.
