4/22/06 An Arthurian style romance published in 1992 that forcasted the second war of Iraq, George Bush Jr. and the battle in Afghanistan.
Copyright © 1992-2006 Mel West. All rights reserved

This story was written for my daughter. It was written to explain to her how my unusual Quest, which led to Bodrum, Turkey on numerous occassions, resulted in my encounter of her beautiful mother and our subsequent love.

I travelled with many people along the way and carried only a small bag and a sleeping bag. I found that the further and longer I travelled the less I needed in baggage. I often slept on roofs wherever I could find a pension which offered those accommodations.

I loved Turkey so much I travelled the entire western half of the land, but was compelled to return to one city, a favorite tourist site of the Turks, called Bodrum. Bodrum is the home of the great historian, Herodotus, and the city, known as Halicarnassus in ancient times, had one of the seven wonders of the world, called the Mausoleum, within it. I lodged in a roof-top pension a few doors away from the Mosque which was situated in the center of the embarcadaro of its nicely arced harbor. A few doors away on the other side of my pension was the American Cafe, where I would hang out. My roof-top room faced the harbor. The owner was adding another story to the building and only the concrete block walls were up. There was no roof and the windows had not been installed in the openings of the wall.

On the right hand side of the harbor, as I viewed it from my rooftop suite, was a modern yacht harbor, and to the left, where a spit reached across the harbor, was a Castle. Along the embarcadaro were moored beautiful Turkish sailing vessels for the Tourist Trade. They were varnished, gleaming in the sun-light, and reminded me of Spanish Galleons. There were power boats of all sizes for charter there as well. The smaller power boats were used as taxis to take you to one of the many beaches nearby. Other beaches were accessible by Jeep. Bodrum was both picturesque and a nice town in which to live. I loved it so much I kept going back to it. On my last visit to Bodrum, through a series of unusual circumstances, I met a the mother of my daughter. It was an extraordinary romance which began near the foot of a castle overlooking the bay of Bodrum and ended in Paris, France. But the Fates drove me out of France to write this book and others, and my yacht turned out to be a place where I could write without distraction, as in the Cave of the Unicorns.

Realizing that I may not be able to explain to my daughter what happened, from another point of view I wrote this story. I put it in French (poorly written I confess) just in case she would never learn English. It explains how I was separated from her to write cetain works, and much of what I came to write is on all the major religions, reconciling them as it were. My daughter is the Grail Princess in the story.

I published this work in a series of tiny books which could fit in a shirt pocket. These, along with others, I was giving to the homeless in San Francisco who used them to raise money for themselves. I had organized about 200 of them on Powell Street in San Francisco, and they wanted to set up a Tent and run it as a processing center where they could work with churches and other organizations to help those who wanted to get out of the pit do so. But our efforts were spoiled when Mayor Jordan of San Francisco introduced his "Matrix" plan, directed at cleaning the homeless off the streets. The materials were confiscated.

You can identify the segments of the book by a date at the end of each one. Because of the nature of publishing the segments, I reviewed what happened before in the story, so anyone picking up one of them could get a sense of where the story was coming from. That's the reason for the re pit it ion.

The form of the story is a story within a story within a story and tends to involve a lot of digressions, perhaps familiar to the Children of India who have read the great collection of stories which included, The Lion King. The book is a history in its own way, mixing times and events together, reflecting back into the past and looking forward into history, switching back and forth to review the complicated details that formed Western Civilization, as we know it, and the complications involving our relationship with the Moslems and the Asians. The history stretches from Britain to Mongolia and China, and all of the dates and characters in each nation are pretty much accurate. As said, the characters of my family are from the Romances, and in that context they are true. King George of Quakin-bush, and Gory Vitellus are mythical characters I created, along with Ogmios of Ocoui. Ogmios is modelled after a true monk in the Middle Ages, although the name and character is also from Celtic mythology and may resemble a character of modern times. Princess Yuri-rita, is a person who worked at the print shop, where I printed my tiny books, who looked then as I described her, and claimed the ancestry I wrote about her. Gregori managed the print shop and is Italian. Sir Caldemore is a banker friend. The genealogies are accurate except where I injected these and some other characters.

The gods of the Heretics are distortions of historical figures who condemned the Jews, who helped formulate the Heretic views. To explain this condemning god, I created the god Antijude. Antijude is known in the book as the god who hates the poor and blesses the rich. Among all faiths in the world, discussed in this book, God, who is ineffable, defends the poor and encourages you to be charitable, honest, merciful, not to kill, not to steal; in a word, practice the Golden Rule. Antijude hates the Golden Rule. In reflecting back on the book I suppose King George, the Heretics, and their god, Antijude, now and then appear in the hearts of all people. This becomes evident where I review the conflicts, wherever they occurred, whether they took place in Kazakhstan, Byzantium, Jerusalem, Afghanistan or in China.

The book is written from the wacky view of the unicorn.

I wrote the book from the point of view of my mythical Arthurian heroes who, according to the criteria of the written legends, were of Jewish lineage and would thus have a point of view more akin to that of St. James. They would also be more likely to be able to reason with the Moslems.

In light of the events of September 11, 2001, I lament over the satirical line I took towards America. I had intended the romance to be a children's book, but because of the complex issues it addresses it turned more to an intellectual level.

Children can enjoy the book for many reasons. The colorful knights are an invitation to their parents and them to draw the characters and color them. To know their colors. They can try to find the places named in the geography of the work and draw the maps I might have provided.

The Book is a history in its own way and there are some distortions, as mentioned. The book is prophetic. One can look back over the last ten years and see things the book addressed. I would never have believed 9-11, however, had I seen it in a vision. Perhaps I saw it and didn't want to address it.*

* It was the last paragraph in the book. I have edited and made format changes but not altered anything from the original book. This Preface is the only change to the book.

Peace.

M/6/14/04

In our last adventure we covered some of the history behind the powder of the Unicorn, how Sir Gwain had come to observe the strange Joust of the Ravens at King Arthur's camp and then went on in pursuit of the Grail Princess Anais who had been kidnapped by the vile servant of the Chief Giant Ysbadden. The servant was a fiend named Boors whose lower canines protruded above his lower lips when he was confused. He had kidnapped Anais and hid her in the same secret tower in which Sir Lancelot had been held captive because she held the Keys to the Grail Castle and its Holy Grail and the tower was impregnable. With the keys the vile steward, Boors, intended to control the Holy Grail for himself. He would obtain those keys, he thought; with the capture of the Grail Princess Anais and with her chaste and virtuous beauty win the rare and highly prized Unicorn. With the discerning power of the Unicorn he would then be able to locate the hidden keys to the Grail Castle and control it, and, as its Messiah, control the entire world and even alter the course of future events! Little did Chief Giant Ysbadden know his sinister servant's plan.

Chief Giant Ysbadden was the chief overseer of the magic fountain called Joseph's Well, and he lived in a castle nearby that well. Those drinking of that fountain, or even sprinkling (asparsio) a bit of it on their person, would be healed of their hurts and wounds. Understand then how highly prized a visit to the fountain was, since continuing visits could assure eternal life!

Sir Gwain had made many pilgrimages to Joseph's Well. On each occasion he had to fight the giant and each time he cut off the giant's head. Each time, after Sir Gwain passed beyond Chief Giant Ysbadden's castle, the giant would then go to Joseph's Well and renew himself!

As he spread the tops of the trees and peered through them, watching Sir Gwain approach from the distant plain, seeing that the train of knights and the Joust of the Ravens were not sufficient to deter Sir Gwain, Chief Giant Ysbadden had to invent a new ploy to prevent Sir Gwain from reaching the magic fountain. For it was certain that another joust with Sir Gwain would be fatal. As grisly as this tale may seem, the liberation of Joseph's Well depended upon separation of the Giant so that he could not return to its healing waters again.

Dangerous waters to fakers! To protect the well from unvirtuous adventurers who would use it for ill gain, the moment one would touch the healing waters there would be marvelous winds, thunders and lightning, followed by hailstones the size of walnuts and larger. Only the virtuous could survive such a storm and most adventurers were, if not deafened by the thunders or blinded by the flashes of lightening – or worse struck dead – would be driven off by the harrowing hailstorm which followed. No shield (except the Shield of Aravat), no matter how stout the timber from which it was fashioned, or the hardness of its steel covering, could protect from those hailstones. Helmets and shields would be shriven into chips in seconds once the storm ensued.

Unbeknownst to knights who were not Grail Knights the magic fountain could be easily approached (after Chief Giant Ysbadden were overcome) by means of a magic shield that shined so brightly that no one could see its owner. By day it would appear with a silver background and two black water-signs and midst a gold and silver checkerboard pattern the sign of a white Unicorn; at dusk the silver turned to a crimson color and the two water-signs became white as the wooly head and beard of the Father of the Ages and in the form of a Unicorn.

There are other means by which the magic fountain may be safely approached. With the mantle called Gwenn, as we saw in Part 1, one could also approach the castle without fear. The white mantle was presented to King Arthur at the Joust of the Ravens, but also laid across the withers of the horse which carried the Green Knight (a Double Chief Giant Ysbadden created to confuse Sir Gwain) who delivered the mantle – then appearing red – to Lady Owen, the giant's beautiful daughter. The giant's principal power laid in his ability to create illusions (even his castle was an illusion), always leaving the magic mantle called Gwenn, in the possession of Lady Owen. Illusion, delusion; it made no matter! Sir Gwain had delivered Gwenn to her for safe keeping some years before! Anyone wearing that mantle, which is the same crimson, seamless robe worn by Christ, would be completely invisible! Another means of approaching the castle was with the Ring of Angelica, the daughter of the Lady of the Lake: hidden by the magic ring one could easily approach the magic fountain. The ring long ago was first in the possession of the Prussian Blue Armored Sir Owein, whom we saw at the Joust of the Ravens playing chess with King Arthur. He was given that ring by a maiden of a castle who was Angelica in disguise. With it he could not only make himself and his horse invisible; but also he had the ability to transport himself to any place and time he wished. This ring was now in the possession of Princess Anais, and she, the Unicorn, and the magic ring were being held captive by the Boor. Alors! She lost the Ring! As her cage was lowered by a unique engine made of a tripod and gears, into the high tower – there was no way to enter it except through the high ceiling – she dropped the ring to the precariously tipping and swaying floor, where it rolled off and tumbled down to the top parapet of the tower!

"Why,” many have asked, "didn't Princess Anais use the ring to escape the Boor's brutal hands?" The Boor had shrewdly tied the Unicorn in a separate cage, and neither Unicorn nor Grail Princess would abandon the other; only if she were mounted on the Unicorn could they escape this hellhole using the ring. Separated from one another the ring was useless and now rested in a tiny niche atop the high tower of the Boor. Compounding this problem was the fact that after the cages of the Virgin Anais and her Unicorn were lowered to the floor of the high tower, the Boor began raising the ceiling of the tower ever the more higher, adding ceiling upon ceiling, like the ceiling of the Great Pyramid! After he finished six more ceilings he rubbed his filthy hands and smirked at his own ingenuity, how any knight who tries to rescue the fair damsel will be thwarted by not only the beasts he sets to guard his high tower but more so by the confusion of the ceilings. Little did he know he had lost the ring somewhere in the niches of the ceilings! The only way to find that ring would be to dismantle the tower piece by piece!

How Chief Giant Ysbadden was foiled by the Harpies

Knowing that Sir Gwain possessed the Shield of the Unicorn, Chief Giant Ysbadden grew ever the more fearful. Now and then the giant's eyes would water from a flash from the plain, and he would lose sight of Gwain when he rubbed his eyes. The light flashing off of Sir Gwain's shield, called Lothian but is remembered as the Shield of Aravat, swung first this way then that, as a beacon in the wilderness. Bolts of Light zapped across the plain, from the giant's castle and Joseph's well below, eastwards across the Cave of the Harpies and off to the northeast to the high ridges where Anais and her Unicorn were held captive. As she struggled from her cage to calm her precious Unicorn tethered nearby, she saw a flash of light come through the high window of her tower, searing her ceiling. Then she knew that her knight in shining armor was on the way. She knew it because the light was unlike any other; for each beam had a flavor to it, as it seared the air of her dusty tower!

How Sir Gwain was outfitted. Sir Gwain made a striking figure mounted upon his great steed, Gryngolet. At the withers Gryngolet was 17 hands high and his shiny black hide bristled the closer he approached the forest through which the eyes of Chief Giant Ysbadden peered. Both horse and rider were covered with a gold trimmed, green samite mantle. The halter was of green cordovan, and the matching bridle was made of gold and red medallions to match the ears of Gryngolet. The tail of Gryngolet had a red band, at the haunches, causing the long flowing tail to have a perky air about itself. There was no greater, or prouder, high-stepper than Gryngolet! This charger sired many great steeds, not the least among them being the magnificent and faithful Bayard!

His rider was no less magnificent, adorned with a burnished gold and silver helmet with a flowing green samite scarf. On his hip, in a matching green case of Cordovan leather, with a silver tip, was the double-edged Sword of Aravat. Its hilt was solid gold with black sapphire inlays repeating the double water-marks – the sign of the Unicorn – and at the top of the hilt was a dark blue sapphire; three brilliant rubies decorated the cross bar of the hilt. To keep the straight path the sword had inscribed on it: faithful and true. The sword itself was so great it took two men to swing it; but Sir Gwain's huge frame could easily swing it with one hand, while the other, his left hand, gripped the equally heavy and matching Shield of Aravat. Beneath the helm of Sir Gwain were uncut, long flowing, auburn locks, framing the well formed and finely whittled features of a western, hazel-eyed highlander and the most chaste of Nazarites.

Beneath the gold rings of his mail coverlet was a black tunic and his stockings, bought in Caerleon, were of gold and silver checks; his high-calved boots were also of black cordovan leather with gold and silver spurs. His green javelin – made of a rare hardwood from Ethiopia – carried a red grip and had a burnished silver tip. At the point of the javelin was a red-fielded Pennant, with its white unicorn, like his shield.

As Sir Gain approached the forest where Chief Giant Ysbadden knelt, he saw a dark cloud descend over the valley, accompanied by the sound of Harpies, absolutely the vilest creatures ever found in heaven and earth. They sent out an ear piercing shriek and were covered with all kinds of filth: their own excrement, lice, fleas and even maggots which still held onto the decaying morsels of meat in their pockets! Because of their filth they carried diseases of all kinds. They had the figures of men but had claws like a Griffin, faces and wings of locusts, and voraciously fed only on dead animals. Their teeth could sever the limbs of the stockiest draught horse.

The Harpies were previously locked in a cave between Chief Giant Ysbadden's castle and the crossroad where one turned off to go to the Boor's Tower. Searching the high crags for the best stones in the area, which were found near the Harpies' Cave, the Boor's laborer's accidentally freed the Harpies as they removed a slab of granite from the northern side of their cave!

How the Heretics' Chapel Collapsed

Noting the gaping hole in the mountain as he passed the crossroad, and hearing the Harpies in the distance, Sir Gwain turned to inspect the cave with the intention to restore the escaping Harpies to it. He clicked to Gryngolet, gently twitching his right rein, and followed the northern road leading to the high scarp of the Harpies.

Nearby the Cave of the Harpies was a monastery which had been taken over by a mad sect of Heretics who for years had been feeding the Harpies, in spite of the law against feeding them (Long before even Julius Caesar himself had placed a bronze plaque on the face of the cave, forbidding feeding them). In defiance of the rule – they hated all rules which were not invented by them – in a fake pretense of feeding the poor, the Heretics had converted the monastery into a Retreat, for rest and relaxation; and to fund it they secured hordes of gold from kings under the guise of passing the Harpies off as the poor! Many Heretics even claimed the Cave of the Harpies as their orphanage to gain even more contributions of gold! No king could deny giving gold to support orphans!

Among the marvels of the 7th Century there was no more magnificent looking edifice than the sleazy monastery by the Cave of the Harpies. It was even ranked along with Solomon's Stables for being one of the wonders of the world. The Carriage House serving the monastery covered ten acres alone, and its thousand horses were of the finest Arabian breed; no carriages of any autocrats in their time were more ornate than theirs. The most famous artists of Europe were found to create these chariots, carrying their holy shepherds to retreat in the most regal Heretic Style.

Each carriage of the Heretics had doors painted with heavenly scenes and steps where ten footmen could ride. The trunk of each carriage could hold four armored knights (matching the colors of the carriage) and up front again another four. Each carriage was a formidable arsenal which only the most daring highwaymen would attempt to rob: over-wrought in gold and silver ornaments – fit only for a king – their racks alone held luggage and silver to support a household of ten and its armed guard!

The Heretic Monastery was perched on a high triangular bluff next to the cave. Between the bluff and the cave was a narrow bridge carved from the rock upon which one could usually see a long train of gas-masked pastors and priests in gold brocade, blood smeared robes, carrying smelly, putrid slabs of slaughtered victims. From the far side of the bridge they would throw down below them, into the cave's gaping mouth, a shoulder, a neck, a leg, etc. of a beast. Often they threw into the sinister cave's mouth wild pigs, one of the favorite foods of the Harpies. In addition, from their back pocket the Heretics would toss a rolled up document after the food; these were illuminated books not unlike modern comic books. To the Grail Knights like Sir Gwain the subjects of the Heretic's books and their characters were comically treated and anyone supposing them to be Holy Scriptures would instantly see them as charades. Hear now their preposterous beliefs and practices which infuriated Sir Gwain which we record for your edification and amusement!

Hating Jews and others Leads to Salvation!

They believed salvation depended upon hatred! Leading to their Abbey is a colonnade of their proof deities. Chief among them is Slues, followed by Turtolius, Cuprius, Orikinus, and many other historical deities who hated Jews and mankind; all ordered in succession of holiness to their creed. Above the chapel door, as the deity of Ports, is now a statue of Merthinius Loatherius whose niche was first occupied by statues of the gods Janus, then Vespasian and later Domitian.

Reformed Ancient Temple Rites. We know from the enclosure of the port, which was rebuilt in the 16th century – after the purge of the West Country by Henry VIII, that this monastery was once a temple. Many of the heretics' churches were reformed temples. In this place in particular the statue over the portico was never changed, only repaired and given a new nose and bronze dedication. Janus was a god who had two faces. Today, under the name of Merthinius Loatherius, he stands pointing towards a bas relief of the Cave of Harpies with this inscription: “What shall we do with these damnable Jews?” and then it goes on to advocate the destruction of their homes, synagogues and places of employment. It further says one must not feed Jews nor give them any protection on the highways, with it being permissible to rob and murder them until not one of them is left alive. Pilgrims through time, for the names noted above, proudly recorded earlier, identical plaques. Where "Jews" is now written was once the word "Christians" and before this the word "Harpies.”

The inscription by the other face of Janus is the Golden Rule with the prayer, "Jesus, save me from the Jews, etc." As with the other inscriptions similar plaques have been dug up where the name "Jews" is substituted for Christians, Harpies, etc. as the whims of the Heretics churned.

Before the Harpies were lured into that cave, many Jews, even the sons of David, had been held captive there (from this site – instead of fox hunts – Domitian conducted weekend Jew Hunts, chasing foremost Jude and the surviving sons of David). Before they were thrown into the cave they were fried in cauldrons, placed upon steel chairs under which hot coals were stoked, searing their flesh until they suffocated from their own fumes; others were put on wracks, and many more, when caught, were simply tied between two bent over trees which were then released, flinging torn limbs the length of a Jousting Field. In the monastery's library were many livres coquere showing how to properly prepare Jews before and after the hunt. Later, when the Harpies, smelling blood, came to the cave, people were simply dismembered on wracks and their parts thrown into the mouth of the cave. Many people died there, but the Jews were the first to be fed to the Harpies in the cave.

Of all the places on earth there was no place more disgusting to Grail Knights than the Cave of the Harpies and its monastery. For the Grail Knights were Jews. Through their heritage from Joseph of Arimathaea, they carried on the Jewish teachings of Joseph's cousin from antiquity, Jesus the Christ, and were the original Christians of antiquity. Any attack against the Jews, the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament), Jesus or St. Peter was an abomination to them!

In this area, called the West Country – from Caerleon and the tip of Cornwall north beyond the furthest reaches of the Severn – the Christian Kingdom of the Grail Knights and their Round Table held St. Peter as the leader of their Church, after Jesus the Christ. Like St. Peter and the original apostles they were practicing Jews. They still circumcised their boys and many still would not eat pork in obedience to the law; however intermarriage with other peoples eroded the old Jewish laws, aggravated the more by persecutions from the heretic church which despised St. Peter, urging that everything in shambles should be eaten (Slues op. cit. 10.25). Heretics used this latter teaching to eat in shambles to justify pillaging city after city.

As one passes through the doors of the Heretic's Abbey one comes to gaze upon a bronze statue of an enthroned St. Peter, whose nose, ears, fingers and toes had been rubbed off. This was not one of the deities of the Retreat but called a type and shadow of a Paraclete. Of this false advocacy misusing St. Peter, their Saint Cuprius, said, "The Lord founded the Church upon Peter, [his rock and the one who held the keys to the Kingdom of God, ed. note] and taught and demonstrated that unity originated in him." Through these and earlier teachings St. Peter's chair (cathedra) of the church was confuted in a hocus pocus wave as the origin of unity in the church, removing thereby from St. Peter the headship or chairmanship of the church. Saying, Hocus Pocus – waving at the chair – the heretics chastised St. Peter, the eleven apostles who still adhered to Jewish Scriptures, and their Jesus. Condemning Jews was abominable to the Grail Knights, and seeing St. Peter's cathedra being wrongly rubbed – used to feed Harpies and persecute Jews – made Sir Gwain furious! Equally disgusting, by the colonnade was a Baptismal Fount carrying this hateful writ from Cuprius:

"Those who are baptized in the Church are brought before the bishops of the Church, and, by our prayers and the imposition of our hands, they receive the Holy Spirit and are made perfect by the Lord's Seal. It follows, dearest brother, that there is no need to suppose that we must yield to the heretics and hand over to them the baptism which was given to the one and only Church, and to no one else. It is we who, by divine permission, water the thirsty people of God, it is we who guard the boundaries of the fountains of life."

The writ on this fount marks the holiest site of the Heresy, checking even the Holy Sepulcher as the most sacred site of Christendom.

The waters for their holy fount came from a spring from the scarp, and from it pastors took vials back to their parishes to sell as anointing waters of Jesus. Wagons overloaded with five-gallon amphora filled with holy water were often seen leading from the mount of the retreat. One amphora could reap in the black market over £20, a fortune in those days.

Standing before the colonnade of deities were several novices in shaved heads that sold their comical books to pilgrims. A popular book was entitled, "How the disciples of John the Baptist were fed to the Harpies.” It explained that the disciples of John the Baptist, being outside the church, did not have the blessing of the Holy Spirit and any baptism by John the Baptist's disciples was false, not approved by God; and one baptized by them must be re-baptized by the anointed priests of the monastery or fed to the Harpies! At first everyone in the West Country thought the entire cathedra of the heretics was completely ludicrous and paid them little attention, until they began to arrest Jews and others, feeding them to the Harpies. Before this Grail Knights riding their horses through the port of this abbey saw the whole thing as a comedy of error and its scriptures as buts of their jokes at board. The comic on John the Baptist's Heresy would be passed around the table while laughing at the guff that, because Jesus was baptized outside the church by John the Baptist, Jesus has to be re-baptized by the Heretic's Pope! The entire idea of using St. Peter's cathedra or chair to condemn the Jews and their Scriptures only added to the comedy. As sons of David, the Holiest thing to them was their Holy Grail, which affirmed, one day, through their blood, the Son of David, a Jew, would again walk on earth and reign from his throne in Jerusalem. At the center of this bloodline was Princess Anais. By her loins will the Son of David, Messiah, arise and [sic.] defend the Scriptures!

How Sir Gwain's fury overturned the Heretic's hateful temple. The power that was in Sir Gwain's sword and shield was unstoppable. One look at the white Unicorn of his shield causes heretics to shrivel as a flower in a hot wind; many merely collapse from heart failures, as more particularly witnessed some time later, when Rogero, a Paladin of Charlemagne, owned the shield, and an entire field – Saracens and Christians alike – died from fright by just looking at it out of the corners of their eyes!

Hear now how Sir Gwain destroyed the alter of the Heretics at the Cave of the Harpies: He charged Gryngolet up the steps breaking through the doorway of the Abbey with his lance in its rest and shield held near his chin-straps! A flash of light entering through the Clerestory hit the shield and beamed directly to the altar, melting all the gold and silver chests, cups and tongs of the service. The chapel was filled with 500 pastors singing praises to Jesu Antijude, their chief god. All rose out of their velvet lined seats in the chapel, mouths open and startled at the noise of the hoofs and the falling timbers of the doorway; to the tune of brass hinges clanging like cowbells upon the marble floor, the flash of the shield struck them dumb, fulfilling the saying, "False lips were struck dumb!"

As he galloped through the chapel and swung to his left to pass out through the side passageway, his Javelin swept across the top of the marble altar, sending molten ornaments flying everywhere, searing the flesh of the heretics; then the Javelin scraped the right pillar, bringing the entire structure down upon the heretics' heads! And behind the flying red hooves of Gryngolet huge blocks of stone from the chapel rolled in clouds of dust down the ravine, filling the new hole in the north wall of the cave.

With dust clouds rising behind him Sir Gwain then rode across the bridge at full gallop and down the trail on the scarp into the valley, where Chief Giant Ysbadden could be seen fleeing ahead of the Harpies. The Harpies had instantly gone after the giant, and to the giant, more so even than to men, they were not only filth of the worst kind, carrying every kind of lice and itch but also a host of plagues! Once they began crawling on a giant's flesh it was impossible to get them off!

Thus, Sir Gwain did not fight the pathetic giant whose voice boomed far off, being chased at the heals by shrieking, nipping Harpies.

Thus ends Chapter 2 of our history. From here we go on with the rescue of the lovely Princess Anaïs from her high prison and awful tower, where neither floor nor ceiling are discernible!

King Lionel, King of all France and the Franks, had just been laid to rest outside Paris at St. Denise. King Lionel was a younger brother of Sir Lancelot and his son, Constantine, now sat on the thrown. To secure the inheritance of the Grail Castle which would turn to King Lionel's family upon the death of the aging Parzival, King Lionel had arranged a marriage between Princess Ioceiles, daughter of King Aleric of the Visigoth Kingdom of Spain, and Constantine. This would achieve several things. First it would secure a treaty between all the lands of Aragon and Castile, which were not under Saracen rule, and France. Secondly, it would remove the tension between the Saracen Sultanates in the south of Spain and Europe, since Ioceiles' mother, Queen Anna, was the daughter of the Saracen, Sir Palomides, who was the Duke of Province; and Sir Palomides' wife was the Grail Princess Elethua, who was the sister of Sir Bors of Gaunes. There was no more holy marriage at that time – they both were direct heirs of the greatest lineage known to man – than the marriage between Prince Constantine and Princess Ioceiles. It was their daughter, Princess Anais, who was abducted by the fiend, Boors, on her eleventh birthday! He was the servant of Chief Giant Ysbadden, who guarded the magic fountain called Joseph's Well. We left Sir Gwain, uncle of Princess Anais, having just destroyed the Monastery of the Heretics at the Cave of the Harpies and now galloping down the canyon wall to the valley of Joseph's Well and then on to free Princess Anais from captivity.

The Harpies had escaped from their prison in the cave and Sir Gwain, as he careened down into the valley, could see them, blacker than any cloud of locusts, chasing after the horrified Chief Giant Ysbadden. Nothing was viler on earth than the Harpies who not only lived in filth but also carried it and every kind of disease known to man on them. To giants they were the greatest abomination, since no giant, once infected with Harpies, ever has been known to get them off or get rid of their itch! Because the giant was occupied with the Harpies the path to Joseph's Well laid wide open to Sir Gwain.

As Sir Gwain approached the well, he peeked into the Cave of the Unicorns – where Unicorns molted and shed their horns every hundred years – being careful to hold up the Shield of Aravat to ward off the lightning bolts at the entrance to the cave. Satisfied that nothing there had been disturbed he left his great, black steed, Gryngolet, tied nearby and proceeded down the foot-trail to the well, where he could hear the tiny stream sprinkling upon the rocks far below. The stream itself was about a foot wide and its waters clear as the finest looking glass: as it came from the Cave of the Unicorns, filtered through the gravels of the cave which were composed of the broken shards of the Unicorn's horns. Occasionally the shards washed from the cave down the ravine to Joseph's Well, making the sands of the well a multicolored Pool of Jewels, with gems of brilliant blue, red, purple, yellow, green, white and black. Many were shaped like moonstones.

While there were often all kinds of animals peacefully drinking at the well, the lion was never found there, for the lion and the Unicorn were mortal enemies. Hear this popular nursery rhyme:

The lion and the Unicorn
Were fighting for the crown;
The lion chased the Unicorn
All around the town.

The chief herald of the Grail Knights – like King Arthur and Sir Gwain – was the Unicorn, the mightiest beast in nature, and many knights contested for its herald, like old King James. Merlin had prophesied that one day the lion would supplant the Unicorn but in the Last Days, like the phoenix raising itself from its own ashes, the Unicorn – the herald of the Son of David, the Messiah – would again rein supreme. Most people of the seventh and, at this time, the cusp of the eighth century, believed that the Last Days would occur in 1,000 A.D.

In the Hercynian Forest, first reported by Julius Caesar, Sir Gwain did not fear any beast, as the Unicorn was there and supreme!

How the first winged Unicorn was conceived. As he reached down to cup the chilly waters of the magic fountain in his hand, spreading aside some small periwinkles whose colorful shells were glued together from the gem-like fragments of Unicorn Horns, Sir Gwain heard the cry of the Golden Fawn. "No,” he thought to himself, as he looked up the ravine, sipping the healing waters, "it was not the Golden Fawn or the Golden Stag; it was too low and had to be a Hippogriff!"

Normally Hippogriffs remain in the Riphæan Mountains during this time of the fall, when their mating season begins. Like a griffin they had the head of an eagle. This one, being female, had a white head with reddish brown neck plumage; its body was that of a mottled grey horse, (usually they are either black or white), with powdery white, red-tipped wing feathers and red hooves armed with extremely sharp black talons. The Hippogriff's body was the size of a horse, but their tails and manes were usually silkier and longer, usually reaching to the ground, and their unruly manes always flipped on both sides of their neck.

Alarmed, Sir Gwain grabbed the Shield of Aravat and his burnished gold and silver helmet with its green samite plume and rushed up the trail of the ravine back to Gryngolet. He expected the flying Hyppogriff and Gryngolet to be engaged in mortal combat when he arrived but lo and behold they were nuzzling each other, beak to muzzle! Then he realized that the two had just mated. He stealthily approached them from the downwind side, trying not to disturb them, but he broke a small twig, as he removed his steel gauntlet, placing it on the ground. Though a slight noise, the red ears of the Hippogriff straightened, and alarmed at the intrusion she leaped into the air and disappeared in the clouds above the forest canopy.

Gryngolet, with the true heart of an adventurer, was ready to get going anyway--eager to rescue the fair Princess Anais--and instantly trotted to his master when he appeared.

After Sir Gwain mounted Gryngolet and departed for the crossroad leading to the rescue of Princess Anais, the Hippogriff returned to the Hercynian Forest and sixty days later gave birth to a winged horse. In the third year after this incident its foal – a stout withered charger with the body of his father, Gryngolet, and white wings of his mother – returned to the forest to mate and found waiting a beautiful and gentle, powdery white mare Unicorn which itself had never mated. This occurred in the year 693 A.D., marking the forty-fourth Jubilee and the year in which the first winged Unicorns were conceived in the Hercynian Forest. Their foal would subsequently mate with that very same Unicorn now laying its head in the lap of the sweet Virgin Anais in their cruel and terribly gloomy prison. We now turn to tell the tale how the fiend Boors kidnapped her, and how the old and ugly King George of Quakin-Bush had a part in it in his desire to subvert the people where the high tower of her captivity was erected. For it was the vile King George who gave Boors the idea of kidnapping the fair Princess Anais!

How King George Bought His Throne

The Grail King Parzival assumed the lordship of the Grail Castle after his uncle, King Anfortas of the wounded thigh, went on to meet his maker. Parzival married into the family of old King Mark--of Tintagel fame (Sir Lancelot was born there) – whose estates now included all of Cornwall, Dumnonia, Somerset, Dyfed, Powys and the countryside in Ireland around Dublin. Parzival's marriage added to the realms of the Grail Castle the estates adjacent to Joseph's Well, which included Quakin-Bush. This state was nestled in the pleasant Valle of Crucis beyond the ridge where the Cave of the Harpies stood. Rich it was in all kinds of produce, from wheat and oats to many kinds of vegetables and fruit.

Rude King George, as he was then called, had come into the area with two hundred well-armed knights from Saxony. He was unusually cruel and known for breaking his word, being unsurpassed in rude behavior in the civilized world of the time, having murdered, after taking power in Britain, two hundred thousand people once on a whim.

Before arriving in Britain, he had been thrown out of his Kingdom in Saxony for having misled the Saxon lords of that realm into a misadventure into Hungry, where all of his retinue, except himself and three of his cowardly men, were shamefully wiped out at a bohort. It was at the wedding of Queen Kriemhild and King Etzel (Atilla) the Hun in his castle near Buda, Hungary. Not understanding the courtesies of the east and being misadvised by the infamous murderer, Hagen, King George wiped his feet on the carpet below him when he first dismounted in King Etzel's hall.

This was a vulgar practice of the Greeks abhorred by the Huns and the Turks, for the Greeks required everyone passing either from Turkish or Hunish territories into Greece to wipe the foreign dust off their feet before touching Greek soil, showing how they despise Hungarian land! King George's rudeness was soon turned back upon him, for a dispute arose and the bohort contestants began to use unblunted lances, turning them first upon George! The first cause of the dispute involved the muddy carpet soiled at George's feet, and the other cause was Seigfried's murder. Siegfried's widow, Queen Kreimhild, now betrothed to King Etzel, was seeking revenge against Hagan, her husband's murderer. Seeing Kreimhild's legion turn towards him in accusation, Hagan struck back, first striking King George. At the first parry King George threw his sword, clanging like a cheap tambourine, to the white marble floor of the hall and bolted to the stables, where he and his squire saddled their horses and cowardly rode off, leaving his wife and men (and their families) behind him! When the survivor's of his retinue caught up with him at the first ford of the Rhine, he would have been beheaded there were it not for his favorite sister, Greunbilda, who met them at the ford and interceded on his behalf: she ransomed herself to the survivors – among whom was brother Arnot – to save George's unworthy life!

Hearing of the disaster and the shameful way King George conducted himself, all of Saxony refused to give him hospice, and he had to charter a ship to carry him and his small contingent across the channel to Britain. But words run faster than the quickest ships and before he and his men could disembark in London the ship was turned back because of his disgrace. They ended up in Caerleon where news of his misadventure had not yet been received.

He purchased twenty more soldiers at Caerleon from among some East Saxon workers on leave, on a pilgrimage to the holy temple of Freya at Bath, and then, after outfitting them, headed northwards, up the Severn to a place called Valle Crucis. While Rude King George may have lost his dignity and kingdom – even his wife! In Hungary, he still held on to his main treasure, which was gold and silver coins! How he had acquired his enormous horde is a story too long to tell here, but you can guess by his nature that he was one who had not gained it ethically. He, in fact, had pilfered much of it from King Seigfried, after Seigfried had appointed him Duke over his Saxon estate now in East Prussia. It was Hagan who had recommended him for knighthood and his subsequent appointment as Duke of Seigfried's Saxon lands. While George was not in on the subsequent murder of Seigfried by the vile Hagan, George knew of it. He could have notified Siegfried’s wife, Queen Kreimhild, to beware of Hagan's ruse on the foxhunt, where Siegfried was to be murdered, but instead, because he owed Hagan a favor, he kept silent. He and many other close-mouthed fiends in history have much to account for at the Pearly Gates!

Hagan had him continually doing favors in return for his privileged estate under Siegfried. The new George, Duke of Saxony, began pilfering from Siegfried and extorting a double tax on the people, paying part back to Hagan. Rather than paying debts with income from Siegfried’s estate, he took out loans to pay them from Hagan and others, even the Bulgars, unbeknownst to Siegfried, and pocketed the difference, leaving the estate with unpaid debts and in financial shambles. By the time of Siegfried’s murder, George had amassed quite a fortune. After Siegfried’s murder, George extorted even more of Siegfried’s riches, accompanying Siegfried's most trusted troops, when they hid Siegfried’s Treasure Chests in the deep waters of the Rhine (another story). On their way to the site where the treasure would be hidden, George pilfered some priceless crowns, bracelets, brooches, torques and necklaces. Some of the diamonds and rubies from this collection are now in the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London! With the treasure he was able to buy the Crown of Saxony, with Hagan's lobby, and his title was changed momentarily from Duke of Saxony to King. As said, he soon lost his Kingdom of Saxony at Kreimhild's wedding the year after Siegfried's murder and his coronation.

Where George lacked in virtues he compensated himself with gold. After Kriemhild's wedding in Hungary – his shameful conduct at the bohort – and his disgusting reception in Saxony and later in London, as King George arrived in the lands of Quakin-Bush, he was more resolved to buy his way into power. He was taller than most people, looming over them in an intimidating sort of way, skinny but in good health, rich, and talked out of the side of his mouth quite convincingly, but had the most shallow, faded blue eyes ever seen. He told the people of Quakin-Bush he'd bring them peace. Little did they know they would be starved and stripped of all they own!

The lands, though rich and productive, were suffering at the lack of leadership resulting from the breakup of King Arthur's empire. All kinds of sleazy men – like carpetbaggers – came out of the cracks of the earth at that time to hack up the empire. Greed was the god of the times and net worth was measured not according to honesty, fealty or honor but one's Treasure Chest. Thus we account King George and the likes of Boors, Chief Giant Ysbadden's fiendish servant, and others who worshipped the irreverent and deceptive policies of the new King of Quakin-Bush.

In the contest for control of King Arthur's empire were still some of the old cohort of the Round Table, but most of them, like Sir Bors of Gaunes and Sir Parzival, were old men. King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, his son Sir Galahad, King of Saras, Queen Guinevere, and all of their generation except Sir Gwain were dead.

How Rude King George, the pilferer and liar, achieved sovereignty over the lands of Quakin-Bush we can briefly tell here. As Hagan did with him, he bought off with favors whom he could and repaid them through revenues raised by over-taxing the land, as he had in Siegfried’s Saxon estate. Hear now how, through the extortions of Rude King George, many lands were abandoned. The small landowners went first, because the taxes piled up against them made it impossible for them to make a living off the land. Once they abandoned the land Rude King George then claimed it for himself and then passed it on, as a favor, to one of his patrons. By then the land would be worth nothing – unless there were good rock quarries or mines – so the lands usually went fallow and in many places turned into marshes suitable only to the birds. The lords of those failing estates were still expected to bring the correct taxes to Rude King George's castle each year. This, in turn, forced those who had land and money to extort the poor ever the more, even looking into neighboring countries to see where they might be able to defraud them too!

The despair – lo, the excesses! – of Quakin-Bush gained a reputation for Rude King George which made him the scourge of Europe: all the kings of Britain and Europe avoided him like the plague, but it took them twelve years of penury to finally discover the truth about him! Just as he had lied about his accounts to Siegfried, so too did he keep false accounts with neighboring kings!

As said, King George was quite adept at keeping false accounts, and the State of the Kingdom which he delivered each year was each year more and more falsified to cover mounting debts which he now owed to many of the Kings of Europe, not to mention the least of which was fair Anaïsfille's father, Constantine, King of France. King George was then the world's greatest debtor!

At the time there was no one who cared in the land of Quakin-Bush about the people or their persecution. Search the history books! The only care anyone among all their people had was money, from the priests of Heretics atop the Mount of the Harpies to the merchants and city elders; the struggle for money became so fierce, millions – rich and poor alike – fell into poverty. There is no kingdom, which has represented greed and the dictum, every man for himself – a creed abhorrent to the Grail Knights – more than the Kingdom of Quakin-Bush under vile King George. As said, hiding his corruption Rude King George sent out false reports on the State of his Kingdom, citing how prosperous his Kingdom continued to be when, after a time, everyone knew the reports were false. Before long emissaries returning to Europe began to report how the land acutely suffered from poverty in contrast to George's phony State of the Kingdom reports. For instance, the numbers of the homeless victimized by the vicious king were beyond counting and the way they were being treated was unconscionable. For he had passed edicts in the land forbidding the poor to raise a shelter over their head, to keep out the rain, sleet, wind, and snow; other edicts turned off fountains where the poor could wash and drink; other more hateful edicts prevented them from being fed altogether. It was Rude King George's intention to cover up the poverty he had authored either through forcing his victims to find other lands, or casting them to the Harpies!

The despair of the poor in Quakin-Bush was obvious, and the treatment of them atrocious compared to world standards, but because everyone accepted Rude King's George's repulsive standards justifying his conduct against worse villains, there was no man who would intervene on the poor's behalf, except, of course, Sir Gwain!

A shocking plan which would turn back on him!

Hear now the heinous plan Rude King George had in using the Cave of Harpies to swallow the poor! The king had been subsidizing the Monastery of the Heretics (he knew that their Cave of Harpies was a ruse to defraud honest people). The time Sir Gwain destroyed the monastery, Rude King George had been negotiating with the Heretics to round up the homeless and put them in the Cave of the Harpies. To cover up the poverty in the land he would feed the innocent and helpless, stripped victims of Quakin-Bush to the Harpies. Since many of the rich Heretics of the Monastery had already sold out to King George long ago – they controlled most of the enterprises of the kingdom thanks to him – though repulsed by the idea, the elders of the Monastery actually agreed to begin the round up! By the time Sir Gwain arrived at the mount, several thousand men, women, and children had been collared in the wine cellar of the Monastery, waiting their turn to climb down the ladder into the mouth of the Cave of the Harpies. Here they would simply be allowed to starve, deep down in the cave, after which the filthy Harpies would swoop down upon their lifeless skin and bones, spread their black, lice ridden wings over them, and disembowel them. In this way all King George's accomplices, in this novel ghetto of the Cave of the Heretics, could claim innocence should anyone enquire.

Betrayed at the Bath!

When the fiend Boors kidnapped Princess Anais he had no way of knowing her great lineage.

The King of France had sent Queen Ioceiles and her daughter, Princess Anais, on a sabbatical to the town of Bath, where they could partake of the healing mud baths and mineral waters of that place. In addition to having a heathen temple at the site, the town also was known for its wonderful church. Of course, everyone on a pilgrimage to Bath from France passed through Avalon and its famous Cathedral whose new wing was then being built in the innovative Gothic architecture of St. Denise.

Boors has been sent to Bath to secure some new samite fabrics for Chief Giant Ysbadden. While there, and negotiating with a vendor in its market, he heard that Rude King George - – now in his seventies and fearing death – had put out a reward for information which could lead to the seizure of a Unicorn, from whose horn, shaved into powder, he could extend his health and life.

In visiting the baths Boors spied an entourage, whom he did not know was of the Queen of Castile and Aragon, and overheard them inquiring after the finest virgin white samite. The material was needed for the fair Virgin Anasifile, they said. To make a long story short, the Boor rammed his bulbous chin into the midst of their group and offered to provide them a special samite, which, he claimed, was made by silkworms of the Oriental city, Saras, introduced there by Prestor John himself! "But,” he urged, "you must bring the fair damsel to me here for a color match to her skin; and then I can arrange for the necessary cords of fabric to be procured for her". Unsuspecting foul play, the next day – near the eight columned temple of Freya of all places – the shy princess was presented to Boors and his leather vested cronies, who instantly threw a special sack of samite over her and made off with her screaming and crying on their shoulders. Before the shocked mother and her ladies could respond the scoundrels had disappeared down the street. Later, moved from hide-out to hide-out, the unfortunate Princess was placed in the High Tower once occupied by Sir Lancelot in his long captivity and originally built by Chief Giant Ysbadden. As for Rude King George's offer for information on the Unicorn, Boors contrived a new plan and used the ivory skinned maiden in her new white samite sheaf to capture his very own Unicorn!

Learning of the kidnapping – and suspecting foul play because of Rude King George's phony history – the venerable king of France, Constantine, sent his Ambassador to Bath to inquire of his daughter's whereabouts. Disembarking in the Ilse of Avalon, they proceeded towards Bath but on the way heard reports from frightened Heretics how Sir Gwain had destroyed the Monastery of the Heretics. Noting the Emissary's pennant and expecting royal sympathy, the Heretics contrived another of their great lies, reporting that Sir Gwain was a thief whom they had given hospice and who made off with their gold and silver! They did not know that the King of France was Sir Gwain's cousin, admittedly a generation removed. The ambassador knew, of course, that Sir Gwain, above all men, was beyond false conduct. It was customary for all the people in Rude King George's land of Quakin-Bush to lie, and others to pass their lies aside, but Sir Gwain was one man who could always be depended upon for the truth, for an example of virtue, and a standard of humility. He was first among men, was he not? He was selected by King Arthur as the guard at his coronation long ago in London! In any event the uninformed King George's stooges, the Heretics of the Monastery of the Caves, led to George's undoing, directing the French Ambassador directly to Sir Gwain, sleeping not far from the crossroad where we left him. After waking him sleeping peacefully upon his helmet, they then, under Gwain's Oak, laid a plan to undo Rude King George and free Anais from the Boor whom he patronized. Sir Gwain would wear the gold brocade robes of the Heretics and accompany the royal mission to Rude King George's castle. With the ambassador's entourage, Sir Gwain, in disguise, entered the brass and iron doors of George's castle, and proceeded at leisure to the Scriptorium and library to examine the king's phony account books. There he found the precise location of Boor's Tower, which is our next topic.

Ma petite choue, my beloved, we approach in our history some terrible events which threaten even our own jubilee. Hateful King George, the tempter of all kinds of evil – whose spirit agitates again to singe the world to come, caused many terrible events. Nevertheless, my spirit is lifted in my view from the Joyeuse Guard de la Mer and, as Sir Gwain before me, express my haunting grief over things yet to come, knowing that righteousness will shoot forth before long.

From father Joseph of Arimathaea to Sir Gwain is a long line of prophets of Judah and Aaron. Sir Gwain is unusual because he is not a prophet in the usual sense of the term. He is rather a Judge. Knowing the future and warning mankind, as in the case of Jonah, is the nature of a prophet. Sir Gwain, on the other hand, cannot say in warning to the wicked like King George and his people, if you continue on your evil path such and such will happen to you. Although he may know of their fate and may judge them he may not use his knowledge to intimidate them. Better it would be for them were he allowed to do so!

The next part of our story includes some prophecies, which came from small books, stored in the Cave of the Unicorns, leading to these. This part of our story includes events often recreated time and again, many of which are being recreated even as I speak. Knowing this we can now return to Sir Gwain, his encounter at the ruined Monastery of the Heretics, and the subsequent events leading to the rescue of Princess Anais.

The son of Mahomet freed

Among several thousand people collared in the wine cellar of the Heretics at the Cave of the Harpies, there was one wonderful lad named Nascien, given his name from a Saracen ancestor from Sarras. From the first Nascien was the line of the Grail Kings – sons of David through Joseph of Arimathaea – recorded. According to the tradition Sir Lancelot de Lac was eighth in line from Jesus Christ among the Grail Kings and Sir Galahad was ninth. Their part of the line died out, however, switching the Grail King into the houses of Gales and Anjou, which then filtered through the House of Burgundy and Valois, much later to be discussed. The King's heritage, my well beloved, comes from both houses of Gales and Anjou doubled, which we shall mention momentarily.

How the swarthy lad Nascien, fits into this petite histoire is a maze far too complicated to justify here, but must be summarized at the least since through him the Grail Mystery is revealed.

To appreciate the swarthy lad Nascien's story one must understand the motive of prophecy. One of the basic problems between God and mankind is man's lack of a baseline for judgment and vanity. In the scriptures, to combat this, a scenario – a set of prophesies we say – was created to demonstrate judgment: how God's Will would overcome man's will in the end. This entire story line reduces down to the creation of an anointed King, Messiah – as God in the flesh we say – to lead mankind to judgment and God.

The Messiah – a manifestation of God – has certain characteristics, which are engraved on his soul. Unlike man he is humble. Unlike that practiced by most religious zealots, His cause – following the first twelve Psalms and the other prophets – is with the poor, the afflicted and the meek of the earth: to defend them from those who puff themselves up at them. To distinguish Him from imposters he was given a name known only to himself, and he is identified as the Servant of God, who can only serve His Lord's Will in the most humble sort of way, always keeping in mind the needs of the oppressed, the orphan, and the downtrodden in heart. He sets free all who are collared by Vanity, as in the case of the people of the haughty, unfeeling King George and his people of Quakin-Bush.

In the paradox of the Unicorn, he works alone. As with the Unicorn the prophets – God we say – prevented him so that he cannot cry out, raise himself up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. As the Unicorn he carries with him discernment – the judgment of God – and he can see through the hearts of men. Because of his discernment, knowing the secrets of men, people tend to fear and avoid him, as they know in their hearts he has the ability to expose them.

He is merciful in all of his judgments. Where there is an exception in his Mercy is in those cases where someone has endeavored to rob God, or his crown. This exception harkens back to the old conflict between Lucifer (the angel of Light) and God. After a time Lucifer's knowledge got the best of him and he thought to be equal to his creator and God. For thinking to be equal to God he was thrown out of Heaven. One thing the Messiah is not is one equal to God. He stands in Service to God and cannot superimpose his will over that of God, something the heretic Slues did not understand.

The early Christians--St. Peter and the original eleven Apostles we say – knew this criteria, that the Messiah cannot be equal to God, or, as one might say, "another god who can compete with God." This understanding was normal to the Jews, from the Pharisees and their Oral Tradition, to the Essenes and their Monastery by the Dead Sea. This was the understanding Jesus had as he carried out the first mission of the Messiah (called Christ in Greek). Contesting this point of view were the Heretics led by Sleus who presented Jesus Messiah as a new god "who" he said, did not see it robbery to be equal to God"! [op. cit. Slues VI.2.5]. Under the disguise of this lie the name of Jesus was used to justify an entirely new set of Scriptures and Covenant.

Rebelling against this abuse of the Scriptures, the prophet Mohammed recorded in the form of the Koran not only the confirmation that the Jewish Scriptures were true (as opposed to the Heretic's condemnation of them) but also the reaffirmation that Jesus is the Messiah .For its view of Jesus see Koran IMRANS 3:45 and TheTable 5:44; for its view of the Jewish Scriptures see The Cow 2:116 and The Creator 35:25. Agreeing with the early Christian church in Jerusalem – including the children of Joseph of Arimathaea – and to rebut the heresy of Slues, the prophet Mohammed (Mahomet) rooted the Koran on the fact that God would not create another god who can compete with God, meaning that it opposed the Heretics cutting up scripture to their own purpose. As noted they used Scripture to kill and exploit others by making Jesus another god advocating the enslavement and murder of everyone who is not like them! In truth, we may entitle the Koran as a work perhaps better called, Against Slues and his Heretics.

At the core of Slues' New Covenant was the condemnation of the Jews and their Law, including the disciples of John the Baptist and St. Peter and the other original apostles in Jerusalem and later to include the disciples of the Koran of Mahomet. A forerunner of Mahomet was a sect called the Ebionites, meaning poor, who challenged the idea that Jesus is either a god or God, but rather a man, the Messiah, the Servant of God. They saw him as another Adam, from whose flesh a new man would be born, who would return from Heaven, as Enoch before him, to set up his Kingdom and Judge the quick and the dead. His return would be again in the flesh, as a man and as a Son of David. When he would return was clearly marked in prophecy, as was the Messiah's creation. He would return in the Latter Days, a day of darkness and gloominess, where there is no light, and lead the prisoners (in their dark prison house) out into the light. This would be on the 70th Jubilee after the first coming out of Egypt (1491 B.C.), which now is 1998. A Jubilee is a year of Mercy, tolerance, and forgiveness, where one forgives those who transgress them, who gives the land and its debtors a special rest every 50th year. The number 70 is a special number in the history of Israel, relating first to the seventy starving Israeli souls who were first led into Egypt, into their first captivity, to the time when the Jews were taken again into captivity to Babylon. Jeremiah and Daniel, that the Jews would be in captivity in Babylon only seventy years, prophesied it beforehand.

History unfolded like a book. Because of the influence of the prophets – God, we say – on history one would be a fool not to understand them. Men like the sinister King George who thwart all attempts at truth would lead you to accept that neither the God of heaven and earth or his prophets have any affect on you. But my darling do not be deceived, for many there are who believe in God and the prophets from the days out of Egypt until now and, guided by prophecy – seeing a prophecy can be fulfilled by them – they fulfill it! The Bible is full of such instances, such as in the persons of Zerrubabel and Cyrus the Great, or even Mahomet, and to think that such men following scripture cannot influence history or the future of your loved ones is foolishness, as the people of the vile King George will soon note. They would be well advised to understand that regardless whether they believe God exists the prophecies themselves can be self-fulfilling! Thus, we write for their edification, which we know, owing to their own vanity of being greater than God, will give them no concern. Yet, as a book, as small as it is, we can stretch our words out in the Heavens and expect that the heretics and King George's people will not read it! Thus, understand why Sir Gwain need not warn them, as another Jonah, but is more like Noah who simply entered his ship in the judgment.

Because of the vain like the people of King George's estate, much of Scripture was revealed in parables, or stories, as with this one. For discussions of Scripture can wear down even the most acute minds; and we, I dare say, have surely now lost many of those who were following our tale to this part. But, my darling, our story is like playing chess with the wicked. Like Mahomet and others, my move as a simple pawn in prophesy can mean nothing to the likes of King George, until they see me standing on the square where the Bishop once stood! How this occurs is through the paradox of the wicked being caught in the same snare as they set for others, which is that story line we now approach. This principal is laid in the foundation of the Messiah's direction and judgment. The Messiah, as Sir Gwain, is glorified as he waits quietly, like a leopard, as the wicked walk into his or her own net!

These things are easy for the Grail Knights and their Princesses to understand, for they are already engraved on their souls.

Sir Gwain and his adventure with the Emissary of the French King

Sir Gwain was in his verdant armor, resting with head on his helmet, and was surprised by the ambassador, not knowing him who stood over him or how he knew Sir Gwain's name! He reached for the Sword of Aravat, fearing calamity ahead, but the ambassador, standing beside his fleur-de-lis standard, reassured him that no harm was intended and that his cousin, King Constantine of France and then Logres, would ask a favor of him. As Sir Gwain rose up, dusting himself off, the ambassador kneeled before him, saying, "My Lord sends you his greetings and begs you to intercede on his behalf on the urgent matter of the family's dauphine.”

Sir Gwain bid him to rise and answered, "My Lord, her plight has already come to my hearing, and I was on my way to the palace of King George to judge the matter."

The ambassador was dumbfounded that Sir Gwain would already know of the abduction, but dared not inquire, so he then proposed under Sir Gwain's oak tree a plan by which evil King George may be brought to judgment; as the ambassador believed that King George was behind the kidnapping of fair Princess Anais. Sir Gwain knew that the Princess had been abducted by the scoundrel Boors, servant of the Chief Giant Ysbadden, "whose thunders,” said Sir Gwain, "can be heard far off beyond the distant ridge as he is now being chased by the filthy Harpies.” The Harpies had just escaped from their cave near the Monastery of the Heretics. Gwain then told the ambassador what he knew about the matter, how the princess had been confined in the crumbled, yet high tower once used to confine Sir Lancelot during his trials as a Grail Knight. It had but one window, too high to reach by a man, and it was double walled out of both stone and brick. To ensure that there could be no escape from the tower this time, the fiend Boors added to it, using the best stone and hardest bricks, by which his lackeys, quarrying the best stone, accidentally opened a hole in the mountain of the Cave of the Harpies and unfortunately released them to once again scourge mankind (the event was prophesied beforehand). There was no man in those times that had not known of the Harpies, how they carried every filth and plague known to man. Even so, they were fed by the Heretics against all the laws of God and mankind! Those same heretics are now again feeding mankind with the great plague of the Harpies called "AIDS!”

"Lord," said the ambassador, "we met some of those Heretics who escaped from the Monastery of the Harpies told us of your wonderful exploits, how you brought down their chapel without drawing even your sword! But I have some terrible news, there were many thousands of captives in the wine cellar of the monastery and I am afraid they also may be lost."

Sir Gwain took up his helmet and quietly reached for the reins of his black steed, Gryngolet, and, beckoning to the ambassador's men for assistance, commenced to mount his horse. With all of his armor it was difficult to mount Gryngolet, as he stood over seventeen hands high at the withers; allowing for the extraordinary weight of Sir Gwain's armor an ordinary man could carry with difficulty, mounting his horse was a chore. His sword alone took two men to swing, but he managed it easily with one hand.

"Our first duty", Gwain said, "is to free the captives, then we will attend to the princess", so the entourage followed him back up to the mountain ruins of the Monastery of the Heretics.

Arriving there, and shifting through the dust and rubble, they could hear the muted suffering from the people below. Following the now open steps into the wine cellar, whose ceiling was still intact – grace be to God – the men discovered in the dark, waterless, putrefying cellar, several thousand different, people all collared into one mass of groaning, starving victims. Here, all signs of vanity had been completely erased. They all looked up to the horsemen entering their choking and wheezing hell, and neither said a word nor raised a hand. Sir Gwain could see from their marks that many of them were slaves from Africa and the Orient. Behind their tattered robes – many held together with a piece of wicker rope – there were princes and princesses, nobles and chiefs – robbed of all dignity – whose sole possession was now but the spirit of hope.

Sir Gwain placed the Shield of Aravat in the corner of the death chamber, as he entered hell to attend to them, reaching hand by hand to raise each of them up from their small place.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw his shield flashing. To most people it had the appearance of a mirror, but a few saw in it a red shield with a white unicorn, then changing to a silver shield with two black water-signs. His shield was now flashing out that red shield but with a white cross where the unicorn was!

A Swarthy Arab of la Croix Blanche

"I perceive,” Gwaine said to the ambassador, as he took off his gauntlet, searching the room with his eyes, "that there is a Grail Knight in this room besides myself – or if not a Grail Maiden!"

Seeing a swarthy young man about the age of a page sitting next to the Shield of Aravat, Sir Gwain walked over to the shield, and looked at the boy, saying, "What is your name and who was your mother, boy?"

The young man attempted to jump to his feet, and swatted at his robe as if to create some kind of order in the actual mess that he was in. "My name is Nascien ibn Ali ben Abdullah and my mother was Bethule, daughter of the Queen of Zazamac, " he answered, being careful to keep his eyes looking downward.

Sir Gwain interrupted him, saying, "Was your grandmother that Queen of Zazamac named Belcane and your grandfather Sir Gahmuret?"

"Yes, my lord," he answered.

Sir Gwain turned to the ambassador, motioning him to come near and quietly told him that the boy is a Grail Prince, and while he explained who he was, the ambassador's men carried him out of the cellar out into the daylight and bathed and dressed him in the clothing of a squire ready for knighthood.

How a swarthy son of Mahomet came to carry the Grail. The boy's name, Nascien, was a name then unique and peculiar to the Grail Kings, beginning with the brother-in law of the King of Sarras, whose name was Evelech and after conversion to Christianity by Joseph of Arimathaea baptized Modrain, the afflicted king. In cementing their friendship Joseph of Arimathaea gave the hand of his daughter, Bethabara, in marriage to al-Ashraf, or Seraph, a brother of King Modrain and now brother-in-law to Joseph of Arimathaea. When Seraph was converted to Christianity – principally through the influence of Bethabara – he was baptized, Nascien, meaning, "newborn,” signifying one born again in the spirit of the Christ.

It began in 75 A.D., when Joseph and his band sought refuge in Sarras as a result of the destruction of Jerusalem and Judaea by Rome. After old Nascien, a Saracen and pagan, became a Christian and forswore the heathen law, he believed so zealously in God, and loved his Maker with such fervor, that he was a very pillar and mainstay of the faith. That he was an upright man and true was made apparent when our Lord gave him the vision of the high secrets and the mysteries of the Holy Grail, which no knight of his time had seen, except for Joseph, unless it were fleetingly, nor have they been contemplated since by any knight, save as it were in dream.

How Nascien and King Modrain came to be converted is too long to tell here, but essentially Modrain was being threatened by King Tholomar, and Josephus, the son of Joseph of Arimathaea, counseled him how to overcome Tholomar. Following Jospehus' prophesy Modrain rode out against Thalomar and all things came about exactly how Josephus had said. So when he saw himself in such a danger that he thought he must surely die, he uncovered his shield and beheld in the centre the bleeding figure of a man crucified. Then he spoke the words that Josephus had taught him and through them won victory and overcame Tholomer and all his men. When he re-entered the city of Sarras he proclaimed to all the people the truth that Josephus had shown him and bore such witness to Christ Crucified that Nascien was baptized. Now it happened that during his baptism a man passed by holding his severed hand, which had been smitten off at the wrist in the battle with Thalomar. He approached when Josephus called him, and directly as he touched the cross on the shield his hand was restored. Nor was this the end of the miracle. For the cross, which had been on the shield, imprinted itself on the arm of him that was healed, and the shield itself remained blank ever after. Then King Evelech himself was baptized and given the new name of Modrain.

Later, when Joseph and his son went to Britain they met with a cruel and wicked king who cast them into prison with other Christians in their community. Hearing their plight from abroad – as Joseph of Arimathaea had worldwide fame – King Modrain and his brother-in -law Nascien left for Britain with several hundred vassals and fighting men and routed the captors, not only freeing them but also laying the foundation for the Christian faith to be established throughout the land. These two so loved Josephus they never re-embarked but cleaved to him and followed him in all his journeying. As Josephus lay at last on his deathbed and Modrain realized that he must leave this world, he came to his chamber and said to him, weeping tenderly, "Sir, when you leave me, I – who left my kingdom for your sake – shall remain alone in this country. Since you must depart this life, for the love of God leave me some relic of yourself which will be a remembrance of you when you are dead!"

Josephus thought for a moment and then bade him to bring the shield he had given him to ward off the evil Tholomar. He did as bid and at the moment when he was given the shield, Josephus's nose began to bleed profusely and could not be staunched. He took hold of the shield at once and in his own blood traced the cross.

While the shield is normally blank to most eyes and shines as a mirror, before Grail Knights it reveals its secrets and often that of the cross – drawn in Josephus' blood.

After explaining this story to the ambassador, he pointed upstairs, saying, "My Lord, there is no doubt that this boy will be the next Grail King, not only judged on this part because of the reaction of the Shield to him – as it reacted to Sir Galahad, Grail King of Sarras – but also as it reacted to myself, Sir Gahmuret, Sir Parzival and others. It is a truth, Sir, that this boy will be the next custodian of the shield."

Sir Gwain confided to the ambassador, that the Shield of Aravat is a means of tracing the Grail's Bloodline. Young Nascien's story will continue later, how the Shield of Aravat was maintained in his line and carried by Sir Rogero, whom we noted earlier, was a Paladin of Charlemagne.

For some the following genealogy can be boring, but we must mention it because it shows why Sir Gwain knew that he must transfer the Shield of Aravat into the hands of the young Arab Nascien and how it influences modern prophetic events.

The ambassador knew of Nascien's sire, Sir Gahmuret of Anjou. Who hadn't? He, together with Sir Lancelot de Lac and Sir Bors of Gahnes, were that famous generation through which the Grail passed. In the direct line of descent Lancelot and his son stood first, because they inherited the Holy Grail through both sides of their family. There are eight sires from Joseph of Arimathaea, beginning with his grandson Celydoine to Sir Lancelot de Lac, with Sir Galahad being the ninth. Sir Galahad was born of Sir Lancelot (also called Galahad) de Lac, son of King Ban of Benwick. King Ban married Elizabeth, meaning the Oath of God, the sister of King Bors of Gahnes, and daughter of King Bric. King Bors--Sir Lancelot's uncle--was a son of King Elain le Gros, the younger brother of King Pellam. He married a daughter of King Ban, whose name was Helen, sister of Sir Lancelot de Lac, and produced two sons, King Bors and Sir Lionel, who later assumed the throne of France.

La Maison Haute

This includes two brothers containing the Premier Branch of the Grail, including two sons of King Jonaan: Pellam (Pelles I) and Elain le Gros. The first part of the Branch comes through the eldest son of King Pelles, King Ban, through his son, Sir Lancelot, and through his son, Sir Galahad. After Galahad's death the title of La Maison Haute passed to Sir Ector de Maris, Sir Lancelot's younger brother, and Sir Ector's descendents.

The other surviving part of the branch of La Maison Haute comes through King Bors, son of King Elain le Gros.

In memory of their Trojan ancestors King Ban and Elizabeth named their second son, Ector de Maris, after Hector, the great Trojan hero and prince who was slain by vain Achilles of the maimed heal outside the walls of Troy. After the death of Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad the shield of King Ban, which was silver with two black bends, passed to Sir Ector de Maris. From Ector was born two sons, Melias and Jonaan. Melias married the sister of Utependragon, whose name was Schoyes, and begat sons by the name of Clythe, Dyfed, Howell, Dwight and four daughters. One lass married the King of Denmark, begetting King Melias.

As with tradition, when Lancelot was born he was given over to a foster parent, the Lady of the Lake, sister of Merlin the Prophet, after whose name his is derived, who taught him all the traditions of the Grail and about his nobility. It is she who guarded the sacristies of the name of Joseph of Arimathaea and lived in a small castle near the tomb of Nascien. From Nascien's tomb came forth oracles and miracles of the most wonderful kind. For example, it was from Nascien's tombstone that Galahad, the son of Lancelot, was told, "..your coming must be compared to the coming of Jesus Christ, in similitude only, not in sublimity. And even as the prophets who lived many years before the advent of Our Lord had announced that he should come to earth and deliver His people from the chains of hell, even so did the hermits and the holy men foretell your coming fully twenty years ago. They predicted every one that the Kingdom of Logres would never be loosed from its bondage until you came. We have waited so long for you that now praise God, you are come."

Often when that voice was heard – at various places and times – there appeared the similitude of a man robed in white, of venerable age and bearing, with graying hair and beard, yet not a knight. Before he was seen often would come a lovely young lady, called the Damsel de Lac, of the fairest blonde hair ever seen and dressed in a pure white linen shift and riding on a white palfrey. In those days women were prized by their ivory white skin and fair hair, and those who carried these treasured, pallid features, were given the title of "blanche mains,” etc., referring to the whiteness of their flesh.

The Old Man made a particularly dramatic appearance in King Arthur's hall, at the Round Table, when Sir Galahad was anointed to take the Siege of Danger upon which was a curse against false knights and upon which no man dares sit under threat of instant death. Many tried to sit in the chair and met an unusual and horrifying death right after!

The Siege of Danger had been purposely covered with its own white mantle, so that no one could read the name inscribed on it, ever since the Round Table was first set up in Camelot. It fully had 150 chairs around it! arranged like other parliamentary halls. Escorting the young knight Galahad to the chair, the Old Man removed its covering. To everyone's surprise the name inscribed on it, destined to sit in it, was that of young Galahad himself! So the Old Man said, "King Arthur, I bring you the Desired Knight, he who stems from the noble house of King David and the lineage of Joseph of Arimathaea, through whom the enchantments on this and other lands are to be loosed and the marvels of this court, and of strange realms, shall be fully accomplished. Behold him here!"

Now the Old Man was referring to the prophesy of Haggai which said that God would shake the Heavens, the earth, and all the nations and the desire of all nations shall come and fill his house with glory. This is that sign of the return of Jesus Messiah the world had been expecting. From Galahad's similitude is seen the real Messiah in the end of days. At that time the people believed the end of days and the time of the Messiah was come; and the closer the clock moved to 1,000 A.D. the closer they believed they were to the Day of Judgment, the Last Day, called Dooms Day! So Galahad's Siege of Danger at the Round Table was serious prophesy being fulfilled!

After Sir Galahad took his place at the Round Table King Arthur toasted him, saying, "Sir, you are welcome, for you shall move many good knights to the quest of the Holy Grail and achieve that never knights might bring to an end." King Arthur then took Sir Galahad down to the lake where the stone with the Sword Excalibur hovered on the water, and Galahad removed it. Then, seeing Galahad needed a shield, Arthur said, "God has readied it and shall soon send it to you.”

A special joust was called on the greens after that to celebrate Sir Galahad's anointing and the transfer of the custody of all things treasured in the Holy Grail to Sir Galahad. Sir Galahad rode so magnificently and unhorsed so many knights, with spears splintering even into the stands, that all men wondered at him. Only two men were saved from the bruising experience of being tossed over the end of their saddle, and they were the naive youth Sir Parzival and Galahad's father, Sir Lancelot. Then came Damsel de Lac on a white palfrey and told Sir Lancelot that his days of glory must give way to Galahad and, turning to King Arthur, said, "Nascien himself willed King Arthur the greatest worship in the world, more than any king before or after.” This prophecy surely was true!

After that the Holy Grail appeared at the Round Table and miraculously fed every knight there! From that moment on Sir Galahad was charged with the Quest of the Holy Grail, upon which adventure the Damsel de Lac said he should die within the year after once possessing the Grail and looking into it.

As mentioned earlier, Lancelot's father, King Ban, was a son of Pelles I of Listinoise, who was also called King Pellam, who was maimed by the mysterious sword. Many Grail Kings after King Pellam carried an affliction in their days defending the Holy Grail, as exemplified in the latter case of Sir Galahad who himself was afflicted to death when He took possession of the Holy Grail. With Sir Galahad's death the Holy Grail passed out of the line of King Ban to King Ban's younger brother, Mazadan. Mazadan's seed by the name of Grail King Anfortas, with the maimed thigh, will momentarily possess the Holy Grail and its castle; and he will pass it on to his nephew, Sir Parzival, cousin of Sir Lancelot, only after Sir Parzival inquires about how he, the Grail King, had been wounded. Only, after many attempts to penetrate the Grail Castle did Sir Parzival, prompted by a Grail Princess, understand that to enter the sacred precincts of the Holy Grail he need only inquire of his uncle, Anfortas, how he was wounded. This follows the tradition from Grail King Pellam who was first maimed in defense of the Grail. When Parzival asked the right question many secrets of the Grail were suddenly revealed and the Holy Grail was transferred to Sir Parzival. Of course, he could not believe that entry into the presence of the Holy Grail could be that easy! We hesitate to say this at the risk of weak minds underestimating the challenge of the Grail; as there is much involved in the story of the afflicted Grail King, which we cannot take up here. We leave this legacy on the one note, which should be obvious to everyone: how caring for the Afflicted Soul brings forth the Salvation of God.

The tradition of the Afflicted Grail King began with King Pellam – Pelles I – who was maimed from the magic sword of evil King Balin le Savage who had just before killed his own brother Balan. It seems that Evil is more eager to enjoin prophesy than good, for it was prophesied that the Antichrist himself would die at the hand of his own brother. This comes from several precedents but ultimately starts with the curse placed on the evil son of Adam called Cain, after he killed his own and innocent brother Able. Now King George the Rude is following in the footsteps of Balin le Savage and we shall see shortly how the tables will be similarly turned against him!

King Pellam and his brother, Elain le Gros – named after their ancestor – were sons of King Jonaan, who was the son of Isaiah, who was the son of Elian, who was the son of Narpus, who was the son of Celydoine, the son of the Saracen Nascien and Bethabara, Joseph of Arimathaea's daughter. The shield of this family, carried by King Lancelot, the eighth in the succession, was known as a silver shield with two black bends or wavy bands, earlier described as water-signs, of the sign of Aquarius. That shield yet lives (through Ector de Maris) and is seen even today on the standards of a family from the West Country of Britain. Of this lineage said Queen Guinevere, inspired by the Holy Ghost as she toasted the marvel of the Holy Grail when it appeared at the Round table, "Sir Galahad is of all parties come of the best knights of the world and of the highest lineage; for Sir Lancelot is come but of the eighth degree from Our Lord Jesus Christ, and Sir Galahad is of the ninth degree from Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, I dare say they are the greatest gentlemen of the world!"