Book Of The Grail By Josephus

Description

'The authority of the scriptures tells us that since the death of our Lord upon the Cross, no earthly king has taken up the cause of Jesus Christ more boldly than King Arthur of Britain.' The opening words of this beautiful version of Sir Percival's quest for the Holy Grail -- one that predates Mallory -- remind us that the Arthurian Legend was originally a lesson from history and a religious tract. This, in part, explains the enduring fascination with Arthur: did he exist? Is there a timeless and important moral or sacred wisdom in the story? In this version, prepared and annotated by Ernest Coleman, we find significant differences in the story we all know. The Sword in the Stone? Here, we find both a sword and an arrow, which had to be drawn from stone columns. Sir Kay is not the good knight of other versions, Excalibur does not exist, Merlin is but briefly mentioned and Queen Guinevere suffers a tragedy rather than the exposure of her love for Sir Lancelot. We are told in the original introduction: 'This history was written by the good clerk Josephus by command of the Lord God, who spoke to him through an angel.' Although Ernest Coleman has established a fairly accurate date for the work's creation -- that is all we know of the author, which only adds to the mystery and the delight.

Author description

E. C. Coleman served in the Royal Navy for 36 years, which included time on an aircraft carrier, a submarine, and Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory. During that time he mounted four Arctic expeditions in search of evidence from the 1845 Sir John Franklin Expedition. He has written many books on naval, polar, medieval and Victorian subjects and contributed the foreword to two volumes of Captain Scott's diaries. His interest in the Grail legend is longstanding and he is currently researching a new (and linked) work on the Knights Templar. He lives in Lincolnshire.