Making Sacred - The Well Maidens

The Elucidation is an anonymous 13th Century French poem, which was written as the prologue to Chrétien de Troye's Perceaval - Le Counte Du Graal it preludes the story of the Fisher King and the knights of Authur's search for the Grail Castle, which opens with the kingdom as a wasteland. The story of the Well Maidens explains why the land became this way.

The Well Maidens tended the wells of the land, offering food and water from their golden cups. A king came who did not respect the sanctity of this grace-filled offering, took advantage of a lone maiden and stole her golden cup. Many knights followed suit until the maidens of the wells hid themselves from sight. The water they tended was now tainted, sullied and became impure. The land became a wasteland and the Fisher King, the faery king of that land, was wounded, either in the…