In later books of the Phantammeron there is forged by the dwarves – the slaves of the giants called the Guligarma – a magical cup or chalice which holds the insipid waters of a dark pool. This pool gets created in the first book of the Phantammeron in the heaven of the Gods called Phantaia. This chalice is in fact a ‘cursed grail’ called the Argal-Pyr (‘silvered-cup’) which is designed to contain the last waters of the Sacred Pool of Eternity after it gets destroyed in my earlier books.
In my later books this cursed grail becomes a vile relic, something self-righteous, manipulative, and corrupt; a force that creates sacred love (Laveanna and Leannan), forbidden love (Fey-Ama and Culmowan), and even incestual love (Alfenn and Gwynne) between characters whose lips dare taste its cursed waters.
All those who drink from the cursed grail instigate “unlooked for bonds” which in the end drive the tragedy of the conflict and the secret desires of the waters held in that haunted cup to change the world. For it was made to tempt and so destroy relationships in the end.
The ancient conflicts between the Giants, the Gods, the Fairies, the creatures, and characters appears on the surface to be the main theme in my books. However, it’s the manipulation by the Sacred Waters in this hated perverse cup that drives the real story. For the cursed grail’s purpose lies beyond all knowledge.
But its the pool’s own sorrows for the children of the world who are meant to bear it that is its drive, too. And so in my novels I’m exploring the Celtic concept of water as a redemptive religious theme tied to the Holy Grail as a conflicted force that is both life-giving and life-taking. These are ideas which I will be revealing in the Phantammeron books as they evolve.
All these themes of strange cups and cursed grails is based on the fact that the Welsh and Irish believed in the “magic cauldron” as a fertility symbol tied to the earth, the oceans, and the Earth Mother. For her spirit they believed controlled the resurrection of the sun-child and the living earth itself. And it lived in the magical cauldron their Druids drank from.
As such the cursed grail represents the Earth Mother in a more modern theme which I have wholly adopted for my books. For in her eternal archetype lies many mysteries…
– the Author
Created Dec 29, 2016, 11:06 PM
