On the Trail of the Holy Grail Book

Index Map     xi
Preface     xv
Introduction     3
An Opening Door     1
The Grail in literature
Pagan and Christian roots
Crusades
'King' Arthur
Oral traditions
Growth of Romances
Roots among Celtic-speaking peoples
Links to Germanic mythology
Situation in Scotland
The Warrior Way     12
Arthur
Gododdin
Warrior society
Tribal system
Kinship not kingship
Cattle-raiding
Scots not Irish
Language situation
Cultural commonalties
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Nine Maidens sites
Scotland outside the Roman world
Arthur's Battles     25
Arthur's Battles
Pagan sites attacked
Importance of hilltop sites
Notable locations
Heroes and legends
Highland clan system
Ancestor worship
Arthurian locales
Sleeping warriors and kidnapped musicians
Fertility/femininity
Tribal not national loyalty
Idealised hero
Quests and Questers     39
Idea of the Quest
The Grail as Chalice
Lancelot and Galahad
Roots in P-Celtic tales
Gawain
Traprain Law
Early Scottish saints
Bride in Scotland
Suppression of feminine role
Shamanism
Symbolic cauldrons
Rosslyn and Templar fantasies
Avalon
Glastonbury
Ancient Roots     53
Importance of the Mabinogion
Bran's severed head
Cauldrons of rebirth
Votive offerings
The Carlin and the Cailleach
Fairies as ancestors
Cerridwen and Taliesin
Links to Stone Age
Cauldron as a symbol
Pictish symbols
Deer assymbol
Glamis Manse stone
Christian re-usage of sites
Continuities and Contacts     64
Surviving fire-festivals
Wells
Sacred numbers
Storytelling exists alongside literacy
Cultural contacts
Scottish references in the Grail
Romances
P-Celtic survivals
Over reliance on language as a mark of ethnicity
Links to Europe
Continuities since Megalithic period
Scotland Christianised late
Origin of British
Landscape markers     79
Lack of Early Scottish manuscripts
Cailleach survives in story and place-names
Suggestion of a Fairy Cult
Rituals at ancient sites
Druids and shamans
Nemetons
Cailleach and mountains
Paps and Ciochs
Dual goddess
Mountain clusters
Cailleach and Bride in the landscape
Cauldron as symbol
Norse roaring cauldron
The Feminine Principle     93
Calanais and cailich na mointich
Lunar standstill
Cailiness cluster
Glen Clova
Sleeping Giant of Benarty
Beltain rites
Continuities and survivals
Celtic studies ignoring Scotland
Islands of Women
Possibility of deer-priestesses
Pictish symbols
Thomas the Rhymer
Into the Cauldron     107
Beltain rite
Cailleach and the whirlpool
Dalriada and Kilmartin
Spirals and cup-and-ring marks
Local tales
Paps of Jura
Gododdin and Taliesin poem Harrying of Annwn
Megalithic contacts
Hamlet's Mill
Extensive sea-travel
Notes     125
Bibliography     129
Index     133