Barren Land; Barren King

Despite several distinctive interconnected themes and readings of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, the most apparently clear is the allusive connections to the the Arthurian Holy Grail legends and quest. In the foreword, Eliot directly mentions this relationship when citing Jessie L. Weston’s From Ritual to Romance, a book about the Holy Grail and Fisher King legends. Eliot continues stating the book may “elucidate the difficulties of the poem much better than [his] notes can do,” (1317). Furthermore, the theme clearly reveals itself through several allusions and motifs throughout the poem.

To understand the parallels between the tale of the Fisher King and The Waste Land a basic understanding of the tale is necessary. The Fisher King legends stems from the Holy Grail tales in Arthurian literature. The Holy Grail was a magical cup or dish that granted eternal youth, healing, and happiness in the Arthurian literature stemming a connection to Jesus Christ. The Fisher King is searching for the Grail after a stabbing left him paralyzed and impotent. As he was now barren and unable to produce an heir for his kingdom, the land began to deteriorate as well. The water dried, the crops failed, food and resources were scarce creating the wasteland that Eliot titled his poem after. In search for the healing power of the chalice, the king sends a knight to search for it. When the knight cannot locate the Grail, the Fisher King ends the legend unhealed, barren fishing, as his name indicated.

In the opening passage, titled the “Burial of the Dead”, Eliot describes the wasteland that occurred in the legend. “A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water,” (line 22-24). Eliot describes the desolate land of the kingdom clearly in this passage. This barrenness is an elongated metaphor that continues when Eliot writes of the women facing reproductive issues as well as the lack of clean water throughout the poem such as the absence of the water (line 331).

In addition, the Grail quest is referenced several times more. In footnote 1, Eliot explains the evident parallel to the Chapel Perilous that appears in Weston’s novels as an obstacle the knight must face on his journey to find the Grail (1326). In Eliot’s Chapel Perilous however, there is no “questing” knight preparing to fight horrors within (1326). By not including the knight which aids the king in his search, Eliot depicts the king as helpless without any help in healing himself and the land.

This foreshadowing conclusion is cemented in the last stanza of the poem as the Fisher King sits, “upon the shore, Fishing, with the arid plain behind [him]” (line 424-425). It is clear this is mimicking the ending of the Arthurian legend in footnote 9 when Eliot explains the tale ended with the king fishing in his deteriorating wasteland, hence the name the Fisher King.

            Due to correlating footnotes by Eliot, distinct allusions, and enduring motifs, as well as direct mentioning in the foreword, it is clear TS Eliot utilized Jessie L. Weston’s From Ritual to Romance as reference and inspiration in The Waste Land. This theme of the Holy Grail quest and the Fisher King is the most repetitive and clear reading of the poem.