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Jessie Laidlay Weston
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From Ritual to Romance Paperback – November 2, 2011

by Jessie L. Weston (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 97 ratings
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Acknowledged by T. S. Eliot as one of the chief sources for his great poem "The Waste Land," Jessie L. Weston's From Ritual to Romance remains a landmark of anthropological and mythological scholarship. In this book she explores the origins of the Grail legend, arguing that it dates back to a primitive vegetation cult and only later was shaped by Celtic and Christian lore.
To prove her thesis, Weston unites folkloric and Christian elements by using printed texts to prove the parallels existing between each and every feature of the legend of the Holy Grail and the recorded symbolism of the ancient mystery cults. Specifically, she finds the origin of the Grail legend in a Gnostic text that served as a link between such cults and later Celtic and Christian elaborations of the myth.
With erudition and critical acumen, the author provides illuminating insights into diverse aspects of the legend: the task of the hero; the freeing of the waters; medieval and modern forms of nature ritual; the symbols of the cult (cup, lance, sword, stone, etc.); the symbolism of the fisher king; the significance of such deities as Tammuz, Adonis, Mithra, and Attis; the meaning of the adventure of the Perilous Chapel in Grail romances; and much more.
Awarded the Crawshay Prize in 1920, this scholarly yet highly readable study will interest any student of the Arthurian legends, mythology, ancient religion, and Eliot's poetry.
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  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Dover Publications
  4. Publication date
    November 2, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    5.44 x 0.45 x 8.4 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0486296806
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0486296807
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Acknowledged by T. S. Eliot as crucial to understanding 'The Waste Land, ' Jessie Weston's book has continued to attract readers interested in ancient religion, myth, and especially Arthurian legend. Here she reinterprets the saga of the Grail by exploring the legend's Gnostic roots.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dover Publications; Dover ed edition (November 2, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0486296806
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0486296807
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.44 x 0.45 x 8.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 97 ratings

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Jessie Laidlay Weston

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Samuel
    5.0 out of 5 stars Going to the Source
    Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2000
    Verified Purchase
    Because Eliot's "Waste Land" is taught in virtually every British and American lit survey course, the name "Jessie Weston" and the title "From Ritual to Romance" have become familiar to perhaps millions of readers throughout the world. However, if readers hope to get beyond the "trivial pursuit" question of the source to which Eliot was indebted and to a genuine understanding of the "Fisher King" myth, they will need to read that source for themselves. Though not a quick and accessible read, the book repays the reader's patience. Not only does it help bring Eliot's poem to life but it illuminates the poetic tradition from Chaucer to Eliot and makes more meaningful the numerous adaptations of the myth in modern culture--from David Lodge's "Small World" to Robin Williams' "The Fisher King." Not for a sophomore survey course, but definitely for any upperlevel course on Eliot or Arthurian legend.
    60 people found this helpful
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  • Sir Real
    5.0 out of 5 stars After ‘Apocalypse Now’
    Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2022
    Who’s here after seeing Kirtz’s bookshelf in Apocalypse Now (1978)?
    22 people found this helpful
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  • "denise815"
    4.0 out of 5 stars A great place to start....
    Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2000
    Jessie Weston's work on the Fisher King is a great starting point for the reader interested in the possible origins of the Fisher King myth. Weston has catalogued all of the many versions of the myth, the various important elements, and proposed origins. However, since there is no way to definitively prove the origins of the Fisher King myth, the reader should proceed with extreme caution when working with Weston's book. Since the Fisher King myth is highly derived and we have no manuscripts that mention the Fisher King before Chretien, Weston's hypotheses are highly speculative. Nevertheless, this book is a great "introduction" to the many aspects of the Fisher King myth. For the student of Arthurian literature, this book is a "must read."
    25 people found this helpful
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  • Carla O'Harris
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Synthesis of Grail Literature with Mystery Cults
    Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2006
    The review below which tries to discredit this amazing book is propaganda based on innuendo and inaccuracies. Actually, Weston's book does not fall with the fall of Frazer's theories. Many of Frazer's theories are still quite valid, something the reviewer doesn't bother to mention ; what are mainly critiqued in Frazer was his evolutionary approach to religion (a common characteristic of scholars of the time which is disparaging of less technologically developed societies), his simplistic notions of the distinctions between religion and science and their interrelationship, and at present, his use of the comparative method is not in style in the academy, although such trends tend to follow a pendulum development. What is undisputed is his firm grasp of classical material (he was a Classics scholar), and his accurate rendering of European folklore, which does fit the classical models he invokes. There is nothing radical in these ideas ; however, there is an agenda to discredit them by those who oppose the "Jesus Myth" theory. All of this is preface to an apologetic for Weston's book, because it demonstrates that the polemics against Frazer are inaccurate, and therefore the primary arguments she draws from Frazer stands. However, she herself has done independent research showing the interrelationship of the themes in common between ancient religious complexes like the Osiris-Adonis-Attis dying and rising gods who renew the fertility of the land, and the Wasteland themes in the Grail. It is popular nowadays to dismiss Weston's view as if she were naive ; in fact, she is quite aware of her critics even in her time and takes the time to carefully answer them. What is clear is the following : 1) The cult of Tammuz/Adonis was in fact about a king whose life, death, and resurrection were linked to the fertility of the land (as was Osiris as well), 2) The seasonal festivals described by Mannhardt and Frazer (as well as multiple other folklorists) does fit the Tammuz pattern in striking fashion, and 3) The Grail themes Weston outlines do in fact exist in the literature, and do match 1) and 2)above. You may disagree with her conclusions, but these three commonalities are FACTS that must be reckoned with. In short, this is an excellent book that connects many of the dots in an ancient mystery, in a satisfying and thorough manner.
    34 people found this helpful
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  • Jim
    1.0 out of 5 stars Incomplete
    Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    This version does not contain the footnotes. Since this is a scholarly work, there are at least a few on each page, but the text for them isn't at the bottom of the page or in the back. Look for another edition.
    10 people found this helpful
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  • travler
    3.0 out of 5 stars hard going
    Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    This is intensely academic in its writing, but the point seems valid and well supported. If I had known at the time, I would simply have downloaded it from Gutengberg, book-bying money must be conserved.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Timothy Dougal
    5.0 out of 5 stars An interdisciplinary revelation
    Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2001
    This book, published in 1920, was a seminal influence on both T.S. Eliot in "The Wasteland" and Ernest Hemingway in "The Sun Also Rises". Eighty years later, it's still easy to see why. Although the book is short-just over 200 pages-it is almost unbelievably wide-ranging. As she deconstructs the elements of the various versions of the tales of the Holy Grail, Ms. Weston takes the reader globetrotting and time-traveling, from Vedic India to turn of the century Africa and Japan, with stops in between in Europe and the Middle East from antiquity to her own time. She relates the Grail stories to archaic sacred kingship, fertility rituals and dances, the rites and myths of Adonis, Attis and Mithra, as well as Gnostic Christianity. If you're interested in the Grail, the history of western culture, the history of religious ideas, or the transmission of myth and ritual into literary forms, "From Ritual To Romance" is truly a revelation.
    29 people found this helpful
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  • ex nihilo
    5.0 out of 5 stars searching for the roots
    Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2002
    this book is a must for anybody interested in the tales and legends centred upon the Grial. It is also very pleasant to read. The author presented here the (then, that is 1920) revolutionary theory that most elements in the cycle of the Grial stories are actually the remnants of incredibly old fertility rituals that, somehow, survived in remote parts of the Roman empire. It is extremely interesting to see how the author reached this conclusion and how she was prepared to defend it against the campaigners for the christianity of the Grial. And on top of everything, she writes in a deliciously archaic English, sprinkled with French and Latin (mind the quotations. They are not translated)
    11 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Amazon Customer
    2.0 out of 5 stars I think it's not worth for the price
    Reviewed in India on September 18, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    I don't feel it worth for the price..I just got it today.. I haven't barely started it but even though i felt it little compressed in content..Also hardcover seems very cheap and blurry...i suggest to go for the Princeton University press published edition for authentic content,even its costly in comparison
    Customer image
    Amazon Customer
    2.0 out of 5 stars
    I think it's not worth for the price

    Reviewed in India on September 18, 2020
    I don't feel it worth for the price..I just got it today.. I haven't barely started it but even though i felt it little compressed in content..Also hardcover seems very cheap and blurry...i suggest to go for the Princeton University press published edition for authentic content,even its costly in comparison
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  • AJfied
    1.0 out of 5 stars Horrendous edition!
    Reviewed in Japan on September 16, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    It's like someone typed and printed this at home: the text is tiny, no bibliography or index whatsoever, chapters are not properly separated etc. Poor craftmanship, waste of money, garbage!
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  • C. Nicholls
    5.0 out of 5 stars Where would TS Eliot's The Waste Land be without this book?
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    A fascinating book on its own but so important in its influence on modern poetry.
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  • Marc John
    4.0 out of 5 stars A book with valuable and timeless insight!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2006
    Verified Purchase
    This study of how the Grail legend originated and developed is very knowing. The author successfully and rightly connects ancient Nature Rituals to the Grail ceremonies to show how timeless and unremitting is Mankind's quest to become one with the powers of the universe. Where once ancient, agricultural communities held their leader/king to be a divine force upon whose health or sickness their whole survival depended, so too is this basic scenario enacted in the Grail legend; where the adventure of a hero (Gawain, Perceval etc) is to restore to vitality a wounded, sick or even dead king. The relvance of this achievement, on both the public (exoteric) level as well as the personal (esoteric) level is very skillfully examined - and puts it beyond doubt that all great modern literaure and art (not just the Grail stories) are, one way or another, actually all based on a variation of this principle. It will leave you with food for thought, especially if books by the likes of J.G Frazer and Joseph Campbell already intrigue you. Indeed, this is a book better approached only after having read Frazer's The Golden Bough. One small criticism is that the author is sometimes overly pre-occupied with addressing expectant critics and far too often deviates from her investigation to make pleas directly to her peers to consider her evidence/theory with an open mind. Doing this once would have sufficed, but at least half a dozen times Weston departs from the main text and repeats her direct appeal to whoever her scholarly circle is - a bit too concerned (obsessed?) with her status within the literary elite perhaps?The flow of the text would have benefitted from a far more assured attitude, but Weston was a woman in the early 20th century, so having a bit of an inferiority complex was, I suppose, to be expected. Also, Weston assumes the reader will already have ample knowledge of the Grail stories, rather than making it beginner-friendly. She refers to various Grail texts without presenting much background and you're left to fill in the blanks if you can, which isn't too difficult but, as a literary style, it is not very thorough. However, overall this is still superlative stuff.
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  • Lollypop
    1.0 out of 5 stars This edition is very poor--buy another one!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 3, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    I am not here primarily evaluating the book itself (an intelligent, thorough, if old-fashioned investigation into the Grail legend--it's 100 years old, after all!) but the edition from Okitoks Press, 2017. (The one with a Pre-Raphaelite painting of knight being dubbed by a woman.) It is missing some quotations and all of the footnotes--note numbers are given but the notes themselves aren't there. It is clearly a print scan, as there are many strange typos, especially in French words with diacritical markings. The print is tiny and margins sometimes faulty.

    There is a much better version available printed by Amazon itself--the one with a white cover and 3 simple mediaeval figures on it. It has the full title, including 'Folklore, Magic and the Holy Grail'. It has bigger, readable print, all the notes, and some material not in the other version. There is very little cost difference, so go for this one. The Okitoks verfsion has 87 pages, the Amazon one has 247, and that tells you a lot.

    When I have a chance, I will review the content more thoroughly on the site with the better version.
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