The Passionate Quest

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he Passionate Quest: A Romance of the Grail is based on the earliest complete surviving Grail story, written (or written down?) by Wolfram von Eschenbach around 1100 AD—himself an impoverished itinerant knight. It's hard to say how far back into the mists of time the legend goes before his version. In Eschenbach's account of the Grail legend, Percival, the hero, begins as a naive young man who wants to be a knight; he passes through various mythic trials and tribulations, comes to understand his own true nature, and ultimately is crowned the new Grail King.

Eschenbach wisely never identifies the nature of the Grail (equating the Grail to the cup of Jesus' Last Supper was much later). That leaves it up to us—what is the Grail for you? What are You seeking? What trials and tribulations are you going through as you seek It? You too can come to understand your own true nature and be crowned king/queen of your own Grail—if you persevere.

In many ways this album was inspired by Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The thesis of his book is that the heroic/spiritual quest is an archetypal story that occurs throughout human experience, universally throughout the world in otherwise unconnected cultures. The Grail Quest is yet another 'variation' on this universal human 'theme'.