THREAD about the Holy Grail

The Grail is not of Christian origin, the inspiration for the invention of the Holy Grail came from magical cauldrons of Celtic myth.

In the “Story of Taliesin,” the godess Ceridwen cooks up a potion to make her ugly son so smart no one would notice his looks. The boy brewing the potion was burned by the liquid and without thinking, licked his sore finger, thus ingesting all the knowledge of the world.

He became Taliesin, a bard well-known for his wisdom, and thought by some to be the inspiration for or precursor to Merlin.

In the "Preiddeu Annwn" (Spoils of the In-World), Arthur is first mentioned questing the Cauldron of Annwn. It was guarded by 9 maidens, and it was quite a battle to get to it. Only 7 of Arthur’s men returned, and we aren’t told if they ever found the cauldron.

Then there is the Cauldron of Rebirth, also commonly associated with the goddess Ceridwen. In the tale of The Mabinogion, there is a story called “The Story of Branwen.” It is here we see the cauldron as giving life back to dead warriors.

In this story, the hero, Bran, leads a group of warriors to find the cauldron, but it is destroyed in a fight. As in the  "Preiddeu Annwn", only seven men survive (seven being a highly symbolic number).

So those cauldrons symbolize the tradition and the eternal struggle not to lose it but also the womb.