The vessel and the road

The Grail enters French as a literary object. Chrétien de Troyes leaves Perceval unfinished. Robert de Boron, around the turn of the thirteenth century, binds the vessel to Joseph of Arimathea and to a sacred lineage. Gautier de Montbéliard is the patron named with that eastern itinerary. None of this is a Templar archive. The Temple’s own papers speak of pilgrims, preceptories, and war, not of a hidden cup.

What can be drawn is a map of places the romances and the last master actually touch. Tabula Itineris, 1199 to 1212, for de Boron and Montbéliard. Tabula Magistri Ultimi, 1265 to 1314, for Jacques de Molay. Attested sites only. The chart is Dawn’s. It is embedded here in full.

The four Temple roads live on the home mid-bar and the Knights Templar page.