Free Waste Land Essays: Underlying Myths in The Waste Land

Underlying Myths in The Waste Land

The underlying myths that Eliot uses to provide a framework for "The Waste Land" are those of the Fisher King and the Grail Quest. Both of these myths come to Christian civilization through the ancient Gaelic tradition. Neither is found in the Bible, but both were important enough to Europeans that there was a need to incorporate them into the new European mythology, and so the stories became centered on the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Other examples of these myths can be found in Eschenbach's Parsifal, in de Troyes' Quest of the Grail, and in the various stories of the grail quest surrounding King Arthur and his knights. It is described in works of anthropology, as well, two of which Eliot recommends to readers: Jessie L. Weston's From Ritual to Romance and Sir James Frazier's Golden Bough.

In the Fisher King stories, a journeyer comes to a barren land and discovers a wounded king whose wound has caused the land to become sterile. In some cases, the wounding of the king was sexual in nature. Because these ancient peoples believed that the king and the land were united as one and that they reflected on each other, it was necessary to heal the king in order to heal the land. The journeyer then needs to undertake a quest (which fits the archetypal hero's journey pattern) to heal the wounded king and, through him, the land. In the Grail legends, which are frequently intertwined with the Fisher King legends, a questor searches throughout the land for the Holy Grail, undergoing tests of purity, his character, and his dedication to the quest on the way. The nature of the Grail differs from one account to another: It is sometimes thought of as a cup which caught the blood of Christ when he was pierced by a spear while hanging on the cross (which may be derived from the Celtic legends describing the Grail as a cauldron of rebirth which allowed resurrection to warriors killed in battle but did not allow them to speak of the experience of rebirth -- a pattern into which the story of Lazarus roughly falls), and it is sometimes thought to be a stone (in Eschenbach's Parsifal, the Grail is described as a gem struck from the crown of Lucifer when he was ejected from Heaven).