Jessie L. Weston – författare

Acknowledged by T. S. Eliot as crucial to understanding "The Waste Land," Jessie Weston''s book has continued to attract readers interested in ancient religion, myth, and especially Arthurian legend. Weston examines the saga of the Grail, which, in many versions, begins when the wounded king of a famished land sees a procession of objects including a bleeding lance and a bejewelled cup. She maintains that all versions defy uniform applications of Celtic and Christian interpretations, and explores the legend''s Gnostic roots. Drawing from J. G. Frazer, who studied ancient nature cults that associated the physical condition of the king with the productivity of the land, Weston considers how the legend of the Grail related to fertility rites--with the lance and the cup serving as sexual symbols. She traces its origins to a Gnostic text that served as a link between ancient vegetation cults and the Celts and Christians who embellished the story. Conceiving of the Grail saga as a literary outgrowth of ancient ritual, she seeks a Gnostic Christian interpretation that unites the quest for fertility with the striving for mystical oneness with God.

The richness and beauty of medieval English poetry comes alive in this collection of fourteenth-century poems rendered into modern verse by the scholar Jessie L. Weston. These poems, including the classics Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Morte Arthure, are extraordinarily good tales, told extraordinarily well, of an era long past.

The groundbreaking operas of Richard Wagner (1813–1883) changed the nature of the form. In Legends of the Wagner Drama, Weston examines the relationship of Wagner’s grand operas—including Der Ring des Nibelungen, or the Ring cycle, and Parsifal—to the literary and legendary sources upon which they were founded.

The fourteenth-century legend of Sir Gawain and his battle with the Green Knight continues to seize the imagination of readers today. Jessie L. Weston’s translation of this famous poem into modern prose recaptures the heroic adventures of Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s nephew, and perfectly characterizes the knight’s bravery, chivalry, and honor.

Twenty years of Arthurian scholarship are distilled in this 1913 study of one of the Western world’s most enduring symbols. Was the Holy Grail the cup Jesus drank from at the Last Supper? The vessel in which Joseph of Arimethea received the blood of Christ? Or was it something else? Weston argues that the Grail legend is actually nature worship passed on as mystery and tradition.

This brief 1899 introduction to the study of Arthurian literature, penned by folklorist Jessie L. Weston has long been a favorite introduction to the subject for scholars and young students. Fourth in the series Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance and Folklore.