Mount of Salvation
"Munsalvaesche" (Eschenbach's name for Corbenic).
Mount of Salvation
“You suddenly see out of the mists appear an ancient castle….”
The Grail Castle: The Inner Temple
“Corbenic means "Holy Vessel". Within Corbenic are the Church of Notre Dame and the residence of the Fisher King, which was known as the Palace of Adventure.”
Judging from the claim that Munsalvaesche derives from the French word for “wild,” it can be assume that this term might well mean something like “wild mountain.” According to Bennette, the name “Munsalvaesche” can be translated from the old Occitan language of the French and Spanish Pyrenee Mountains into a name more familiar to the area. In modern Spain, the mountains near Jaca in which the San Juan de la Peña monastery is housed are referred to as San Salvador – “Munsaelvaesche” in Occitan. In this regard, Wolfram’s Munsalvaesche might be better translated as “the Mountain of Salvation.”
“According to Perlesvaus (c. 1210), the Grail Castle was called Castle of Souls, but originally it was called Eden, and then Castle of Joy, before it received its current name. The Grail and other holy relics were kept in the Grail Chapel.
And according to the German romance, Parzival (1200), this Grail Castle was called Munsalvæsche. It was the home of the Grail family, a secret society to protect the holy vessel from intruders. The castle was guarded by the formidable temple knights. Could Wolfram von Eschenbach be referring to the historical order where these crusading warriors were commonly called Knights Templar?”
“Corbenic (Carboneck, Corbin) is the name of the Grail castle, the edifice housing the Holy Grail in Arthurian legend. It is a magical domain of the Grail keeper, often known as the Fisher King. The castle's descriptions vary greatly in different sources, and it first appears by that name in the Lancelot-Grail cycle where it is also the birthplace of Galahad.”
In the early 20th century, esoteric writers identified Montségur, a stronghold of the heretical Cathar sect in the 13th century, as the Grail castle.
Similarly, the 14th-century Rosslyn Chapel in Midlothian, Scotland, became attached to the Grail legend in the mid-20th century when a succession of conspiracy books identified it as a secret hiding place of the Grail.
Grail Castle
In Wolfram's telling, the Grail was kept safe at the castle of Munsalvaesche (mons salvationis), entrusted to Titurel, the first Grail King.
- The Grail is kept in the mountain of Salvation
“In Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail (c. 1190), one of the first works to mention the Grail, it is given no name other than being known as the castle of the Fisher King. As in the later works, the castle is given qualities of Celtic Otherworld (including its invisibility from the outside and seemingly changing locations), as the story's original Grail hero Perceval visits it only when invited and then cannot find it again despite searching for years.
In Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, based on Chrétien, the Grail castle's name is Munsalväsche (rendering of Monsalvat, in medieval tradition associated with the name of the mountain Montserrat in Catalonia). There, the castle is the home of a secret society of temple knights who guard the Grail (here a precious stone) from the outside world.
In the Perlesvaus continuation of Perceval, it is called the Castle of Souls but originally was called Eden. The Grail is kept with other holy relics at the castle's Grail Chapel, from which they vanish during the time when the castle is conquered by Perceval's evil uncle.”
- Wikipedia
“As befits the castle of the Grail, Corbenic is a place of marvels, including, at various times, a maiden trapped in a magically boiling cauldron, a dragon, and a room where (depending on text) either an angelic knight or arrows assail any who try to spend the night there. As told in Le Morte d'Arthur, witnessing some of these wonders cause Bors to name it the Castle Adventurous, "for here be many strange adventures" (Morte, Caxton XI). Yet it can also appear quite ordinary: on an earlier occasion, according to the Lancelot-Grail, the same Bors visited without noticing anything unusual. “