According to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers. The connection of Joseph of Arimathea with the Grail legend dates from Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (late 12th century) in which Joseph receives the Grail from an apparition of Jesus and sends it with his followers to Great Britain; building upon this theme, later writers recounted how Joseph used the Grail to catch Christ's blood while interring him and that in Britain he founded a line of guardians to keep it safe. The quest for the Holy Grail makes up an important segment of the Arthurian cycle, appearing first in works by ChrГ©tien de Troyes - a French poet and trouvГЁre who flourished in the late 12th century. His work on Arthurian subjects represents some of the best of medieval literature. Perceval, the Story of the Grail (French: Perceval, le Conte du Graal) is an unfinished romance probably written between 1181 and 1191. Though ChrГ©tien did not complete it, it had an enormous impact on the literary world of the Middle Ages. Over the following 50 years, four different poets took up the challenge left by ChrГ©tien and continued the adventures of Perceval and Gawain.

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