Corbenic (Carbone ''c''k, Corbin) is the name of the Grail castle, the edifice housing the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...

. It is a magical domain of the Grail keeper, often known as the Fisher King. The castle's descriptions vary greatly in different sources, and it first appears by that name in the

Lancelot-Grail The ''Lancelot-Grail Cycle'', also known as the Vulgate Cycle or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is an early 13th-century French Arthurian legend, Arthurian literary cycle consisting of interconnected prose episodes of chivalric romance originally writte ...

cycle where it is also the birthplace of

Galahad Galahad (), sometimes referred to as Galeas () or Galath (), among other versions of his name (originally ''Galaad'', ''Galaaz'', or ''Galaaus''), is a knight of King Arthur's Round Table and one of the three achievers of the Holy Grail in Ar ...

Grail castle

Chrétien de Troyes Chrétien de Troyes (; ; 1160–1191) was a French poet and trouvère known for his writing on King Arthur, Arthurian subjects such as Gawain, Lancelot, Perceval and the Holy Grail. Chrétien's chivalric romances, including ''Erec and Enide'' ...

' ''

Perceval, the Story of the Grail ''Perceval, the Story of the Grail'' () is an unfinished verse romance written by Chrétien de Troyes in Old French in the late 12th century. Later authors added 54,000 more lines to the original 9,000 in what is known collectively as the ''Four ...

'' (c. 1190), one of the first works to mention the

Grail The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

, it is given no name other than being known as the castle of the Fisher King. As in the later works, the castle is given qualities of

Celtic Otherworld In Celtic mythology, the Otherworld is the realm of the Celtic deities, deities and possibly also the dead. In Gaels, Gaelic and Celtic Britons, Brittonic myth it is usually a supernatural realm of everlasting youth, beauty, health, abundance an ...

(including its invisibility from the outside and seemingly changing locations), as the story's original Grail hero

Perceval Perceval (, also written Percival, Parzival, Parsifal), alternatively called Peredur (), is a figure in the legend of King Arthur, often appearing as one of the Knights of the Round Table. First mentioned by the French author Chrétien de Tro ...

visits it only when invited and then cannot find it again despite searching for years. In

Wolfram von Eschenbach Wolfram von Eschenbach (; – ) was a German knight, poet and composer, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of medieval German literature. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry. Life Little is known of Wolfram's life. Ther ...

's ''

Parzival ''Parzival'' () is a medieval chivalric romance by the poet and knight Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German. The poem, commonly dated to the first quarter of the 13th century, centers on the Arthurian hero Parzival (Percival in English) ...

'', based on Chrétien, the Grail castle's name is Munsalväsche (rendering of ''Monsalvat'', in medieval tradition associated with the name of the mountain

Montserrat Montserrat ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, wit ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

). There, the castle is the home of a secret society of temple knights who guard the Grail (here a precious stone) from the outside world. In the '' Perlesvaus'' continuation of ''

'', it is called the Castle of Souls but originally was called Eden. The Grail is kept with other holy relics at the castle's Grail Chapel, from which they vanish during the time when the castle is conquered by Perceval's evil uncle.

Corbenic

In the 13th-century

(Vulgate) prose cycle, the castle is named as Corbenic for the first time. In the highly Christian mystical Vulgate ''Quest for the Holy Grail'', it is the home of the Grail family from the lineages of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

' followers

Joseph of Arimathea Joseph of Arimathea () is a Biblical figure who assumed responsibility for the burial of Jesus after Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion. Three of the four Biblical Canon, canonical Gospels identify him as a member of the Sanhedrin, while the ...

and

Nicodemus Nicodemus (; ; ; ; ) is a New Testament figure venerated as a saint in a number of Christian traditions. He is depicted as a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin who is drawn to hear Jesus's teachings. Like Lazarus of Bethany, Lazarus, Nicode ...

, whose history is told in the cycle's prologue, the Vulgate ''Joseph''. The ruler of Corbenic is King Pelles. Corbenic Auct

As befits the castle of the

, Corbenic is a place of marvels, including, at various times, a maiden trapped in a magically boiling cauldron, a dragon, and a room where (depending on text) either an angelic knight or arrows assail any who try to spend the night there. As told in ''

Le Morte d'Arthur ' (originally written as '; Anglo-Norman French for "The Death of Arthur") is a 15th-century Middle English prose reworking by Sir Thomas Malory of tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the Knights of the ...

'', witnessing some of these wonders causes Bors to name it the Castle Adventurous, "for here be many strange adventures" (''Morte'', Caxton XI). Yet it can also appear quite ordinary: on an earlier occasion, according to the ''Lancelot-Grail'', the same Bors visited without noticing anything unusual. (Perhaps conscious of this apparent contradiction, T.H. White in his modern '' The Once and Future King'' treats Corbenic as two separate places: Corbin is the relatively mundane dwelling-place of King Pelles, while Carbonek is the mystical castle where the climax of the Grail Quest takes place.) Corbenic has a town, and a bridge which Bromell la Pleche swears to defend against all comers for a year, for love of Pelles' daughter Elaine (''Morte'', Caxton XI–XII). It is on the coast, or at least is mystically moved there for the purposes of the Grail Quest:

Lancelot Lancelot du Lac (French for Lancelot of the Lake), alternatively written as Launcelot and other variants, is a popular character in the Matter of Britain, Arthurian legend's chivalric romance tradition. He is typically depicted as King Arthu ...

arrives at Corbenic by sea at the climax of his personal quest. Corbenic's seaward gate is guarded by two lions, aided by either a dwarf (''Morte'', Caxton XVII) or a flaming hand (Lancelot-Grail). Lancelot's arrival results in his and Elaine's conception of

, the new Grail hero of the prose cycles. It is unclear whether Corbenic is to be identified with the castle inadvertently levelled by Balin when he delivers the Dolorous Stroke upon King Pellam in the Post-Vulgate ''Merlin'' (''Morte'', Caxton II); if so, then Corbenic is in Listeneise (and is presumably rebuilt at some point). The Lancelot-Grail gives the name of its kingdom only as the Land Beyond.

Cor-beneic: 'Blessed Horn' and 'Blessed Body'

Helaine Newstead Helaine H. Newstead (1906–1981) was an American scholar of medieval literature. She was awarded a List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1948, Guggenheim Fellowship in 1948 for her work. She was the first American and the first woman to serve ...

and

Roger Sherman Loomis Roger Sherman Loomis (1887–1966) was an American scholar and one of the foremost authorities on medieval and Arthurian literature. Loomis is perhaps best known for showing the roots of Arthurian legend, in particular the Holy Grail, in native C ...

have presented a convincing case for the origins of the name Corbenic in a myth concerning a type of Welsh

cornucopia In classical antiquity, the cornucopia (; ), also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, or nuts. In Greek, it was called the " horn of ...

– to wit, the horn (of plenty) of

Brân the Blessed Brân the Blessed ( or ''Brân Fendigaidd'', literally "Blessed Crow") is a giant and king of Britain in Welsh mythology. He appears in several of the Welsh Triads, but his most significant role is in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi, '' ...

, a magical, food-providing

talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

. The argument hinges on confusion resulting from two possible meanings for the

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

''li cors'' (a nominative case form) which can mean both 'the body' (Modern French ''le corps'') and 'the horn' (Modern French ''la corne''), leading to the mistranslation, by Christian authors, of ''li cors beneit'' as ''the blessed body'' - the latter readily construed as a reference either to the body of Christ or to the body of a saint preserved as a holy relic. The common scribal error of misreading the letter 't' as a 'c' yielded the second element ''-ben(e)ic''. The original name of Castle Corbenic can thus be reconstructed as ''Chastiaus del Cor Beneit'' - the ''Castle of the Blessed Horn'' (of Brân) – subsequently misunderstood to mean the ''Castle of the Blessed Body'' (of Christ). The origins of the maimed Fisher King, master of the Grail Castle of Corbenic may be found in the maimed King Brân the Blessed, whose story is told in Branwen ferch Llŷr, second of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, Four Branches of the ''Mabinogi''.Newstead, Professor Helaine H., ''Brân the Blessed in Arthurian Romance'' pub. Columbia University Press 1939Loomis, Roger Sherman, ''Arthurian Tradition And Chrétien de Troyes'' pub. Columbia University Press, New York 1948.

References

{{Arthurian Legend Holy Grail Locations associated with Arthurian legend Places in Celtic mythology Fictional fortifications

Grail castle

Corbenic

Cor-beneic: 'Blessed Horn' and 'Blessed Body'

See also

References