Kyot
(still under construction)
The first story of the grail, entitled Perceval or Contes du Gral and Li Contes del Graal, was composed by Chrétien de Troyes roughly between AD1175 and 1185 -- but the poem exists only as an unfinished fragment, which various other poets attempted to complete. The Parzival (c.1200-20) by Wolfram von Eschenbach follows Chrétien's original in most parts, but there are also major additions and changes. They need to be taken seriously, because the continuators of Chrétien are under the suspicion of having been "under orders" to destroy his esoteric concept. They interject false interpretations of the Magic Sword, include ideas of Robert to distort the higher meaning towards Camelot and England, and change the essence of the grail mystery. We should only rely on Chrétien's portion of the poem, and compare it with Wolfram's second opinion. Kyot becomes an important link in this context, because his name is mentioned in Wolfram's only reference to Chrétien (P. 827) near the end of the poem:
"If Master Chrétien failed to do justice to this story, Kyot has a right
to criticize it because he handed us down the right version."
The search for Wolfram's mysterious informant Kyot, first introduced near the middle of the poem, has failed to date because of three key words: Wolfram identifies him as laschantiure (P.416,21), as Provenzal (P.416,25), and as a well-known master (P.453,11). But because a well-known master-chanteur (singer) could not be found in Provence, most scholars suspect an empty word play and identify Guiot of Provins because of his satire La Bible. But he was a troubadour from Provins near Paris, not from the famous Provence in Southern France.
Nevertheless, laschantiure continues to be translated as le chanteur, even in Stapel's excellent prose version into modern German (1). But Mustard and Passage (2), who also consulted his translation, disagree and point out that the philological evidence favors the meaning l'enchanteur (the enchanter). This is a field of expertise where much more research is needed. One scholar noticed the feminine connotation of la schantiure, others have taken the different spelling in other manuscripts into account. They include cantiure, favoring "chanteur", and latschanture and latschantur, which are somewhat ambiguous. Nevertheless, the search for a well-known wizard as Master Kyot was never attempted by the experts, which makes it more interesting for us! Your gatekeeper thinks that a famous contemporary of Wolfram was overlooked who matches "Meister Kyot" to the letter: the celebrated scholar, alchemist, astrologer and wizard Michael Scot:
MEISTER KYOT : MICHAEL SCOT
Yes, it's that easy! Or too easy, perhaps? We will open a FORUM soon, where this controversial suggestion can be discussed in greater detail. Hopefully, some experts will join in who have spent decades with this problem like your gatekeeper. Until proof to the contrary is presented, we will pursue our controversial hypothesis. Be cautious and as analytical as you can be, because most scholars will disagree that we have identified the elusive Kyot.
According to Thorndike (4), Michael Scot was a "leading intellectual" of the early 13th century. He had studied for many years in Toledo (Spain) where "Kyot" allegedly found the astronomical book of Flegetanis, and later became chief astrologer at the court of emperor Frederic II (Stupor Mundi), which is the German connection. Like Wolfram, he was born around 1170, and became a well-known "enchanter" during his lifetime. If Kyot had a right to criticize Chrétien's version, and if he was an astrologer, a few changes of Wolfram begin to make more sense. Especially the timing of grail events. We shall see that Wolfram framed Chrétien's scenario with the planetary positions to help us date the events.
The earliest identification of Michael Scot as an "enchanter" is by Dante (1265-1321) in the Divine Comedy. He meets him in the "Inferno" (Canto XX), among the Diviners and Sorcerers, right after Erypylus. The translation is by John S. Carol (3):
The other who is slender in the flanks, was Michael Scot,
who of a variety of magic frauds did know the game
To make our case, here a comparison of Wolfram's claims with selected quotes from John Ferguson (5), Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, the Reverent J. Wood Brown (6), and Hastings. Please note that this is the first time that KYOT is compared to SCOT:
MEISTER KYOT
Wolfram’s Parzival 453,12-455,13
Based on Stapel, Mustard, Passage
Kyot, the well-known master,
found in Toledo , discarded,
set down in heathen writing,
the first source of this
adventure.
To be able to read it,
he had to first learn the abc's,
but without the art of black magic .
It helped him that he was
baptized , else this story
would still be unknown. No
heathen art could be of use
in revealing the nature of
the Grail and how to
understand its mysteries.
A heathen, Flegetanis, had
achieved high renown for his
learning. This scholar of
nature (fision) was descended
from Solomon on his mother's
side, an ancient Israelite tribe,
until baptism became our shield
against Hellfire,,,.
MICHAEL SCOT
Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics
(Hastings), Ferguson and Wood Brown
At Toledo he learned magic for which
the city was famous, natural magic, or
experimental physics or jugglery, as
well as black magic... (Hast.)
...Scot had become famous....
In Toledo.. he acquired a knowledge
of Arabic and Oriental learning,
to say nothing of the black arts ...
The rudiments he acquired in
Scotland, philosophy at Oxford,
mathematics at Paris, and while
there graduated as Doctor of
Divinity ." (Ferg. p. 78)
It was at Toledo that Michael
Scot wrote his translations...
in which he was assisted by a Jew
named Andrew..." (Ferg.p.80)
This was one Andrew Alphagirus,
who seems to have taken the same
part that Avendeath had formerly
done, by translating the Arabic
of Averroes..." (WB p.117)
(Note: According to Wood Brown, p.46, Johannes Avendeath was identical with John of Seville, a converted Jew and one of the heads of the school in Toledo.)
The Heathen Flegetanis could
tell us how all the stars set
and rise again and how long
every star passes across the sky,
before it returns to its house.
With the orbits of the stars is also
recognized the nature of all people.
The heathen Flegetanis saw with
his own eyes in the celestial sphere,
(gestirn = stars, clusters)
things he was too shy to talk
about, hidden mysteries. He
said there was something called
the Grail, whose name he had
read clearly in the constellations.
A host of angels left it on earth,
when it flew high above the stars...
This is how Flegetanis wrote about
these things. Kyot, the wise master,
began to search for them in Latin
books, to find a people who are true
enough to guard the grail. He read
the chronicles of Britain and elsewhere,
in France and Ireland. He found it at last in
Anschaue, where he read the whole truth
of Mazadan...
His (Scot's) services to astronomy
appeared in the Latin version which
he made from a treatise on the
Sphere'... by Alpetrongi. The
astronomer... flourished about the
year 1190... In the preface to...
the `Sphere' Alpetrongi begs
to be excused if he has ventured to
differ from the traditions of the
ancients in his theory of the
heavenly movements, and especially
from Ptolemy the great master of
this Science... (WB pp.99-1OO)
Even Roger Bacon who blames Michael
Scot so bitterly when language or
philosophy were in question, speaks
in a different way here, calling him
a `notable inquirer into matter,
motion, and the course of the
constellations.'" (W.B., p.145)
In the "Liber Abbaci" (1228), Scot is
addressed "in the highest terms of
respect...` Supreme Master '" (WB p.149)
We see that Michael was at Oxford, Paris, and Toledo, and, according to Wood Brown, refused "ecclesiastical preferment in Ireland " (p.7). Let's pause and think about this for a moment: This all happened 800 years ago, when there were no cars, trains or planes. Most people walked, some could afford a horse, and less a carriage. The latter were pulled by mules, oxen, or several horses. And these were very, very bloody times! Students would have to band together, while traveling, with craftsmen, entertainers, and soldiers. Some could attach themselves to nobility -- as they traveled this way from castle to castle, from country to country. Nevertheless, Michael Scot was traveled more than most of his contemporaries.
Like Kyot, he was in Britain, France, Ireland, and "elsewhere" -- in Germany, Sicily and Spain at the time Wolfram worked on Parzival. One of these countries is probably "Anschouwe" where he found the "tale" of the grail. Some say "Anjou", but the key to the solution is, as we shall see later, that Wolfram mentions a second Kyot from Catalonia (Spanish March).
Dante left us an important clue by describing Michael as "slender in the flanks". This led Thorndike assume that it pertained to his starving student days, but the translator of Dante felt that it had to do with the legend that he could make himself invisible. The Scottish poet James Hogg (1770-1835) has another version: He says in "The Queen's Wake" that Michael was once magically transformed into a hare, which made him so slender in the flanks that he could escape from attacking dogs in the drainpipe of his house. But instead of fingering a German poet, the wicked witch of "Falsehope" was blamed.
The most likely explanation of what Dante was alluding to is a literary controversy that is still discussed today. Most scholars believe that the poet Gottfried of Strasburg, who lists all famous colleagues in Tristan & Isolde, is referring to Wolfram as "The hare 's companion in the field of words" (T & I, 4738), the only famous poet whose name he omits. This is a response to a pun in the prologue of "Parzival", where Wolfram leads from the heart of a doubting man up to the magpie, a black and white bird, to add that this "flying allegory " is too quick for some people, "they can't grasp it, it rushes before them like a startled hare ."
Gottfried uses the hare because he seems to have understood that Michael (Kyot) appears already symbolically in the prologue , in a masterful fusion of Plutarch's Phoenix riddle with Essene ideals from the "Manual of Discipline", Dead Sea Scrolls (6). He also knew, like every hunter, that the zigzags of a hare turn into high jumps, into ups and downs, when startled . Mustard & Passage translate wrongly "rabbit" instead of "hare", which your gatekeeper can accept as well. He has seen jumping rabbits in the Pyrenees, that even have time in plain air to look back at their pursuers. Back to Gottfried, who even implied "laschantiure" after his pun by adding that "few have a chance to read up in books of magic what the poet (Wolfram) really meant" (4685-8).
Based on the symbolism of the watery and fiery triangle, the hare reappears later in Wolfram's poem, divided into the apocalyptic creatures Kundrie and Malkreatur who add the astronomical fusion of the hexagram: the "Key O.T." (in English!) of Balaam's oracle. The diagram shows how the triangles split the "hare" into esoteric symbols of the "Key O.T".
With his pun, Gottfried not only demonstrates that he "grasped" the meaning of the flying allegory, but also his initiation. This could also mean that he omitted Wolfram's name for a good reason: That he may have used a nom de plume.
If true, this wild hypothesis would echo like an explosion though the holy halls where Germanisten hold court. The exception is Joachim Bumke, who encouraged your gatekeeper to write his strange ideas down. Most scholars who read this, are already pulling out their hair like young Parzival, if there is some left. Wolfram also says in in the prologue that those who don't grasp my "flying allegory" should try to grab him inside his hand, where he has no hair -- because they really know wow to "grasp". Although this is also a pun on Wilfried the Hairy and Charles the Bald, ,we better return to Kyot. If we discount the ideas of Chrétien de Troyes and the contributions by Michael Scot, much less of a Bavarian poet from Eschenbach seems to remain. Especially in view of the fact that Eschenbach was always in the hands of the Franks and only became part of Bavaria centuries later. This would explain that Gottfried may have had another good reason to reduce Wolfram to a hare's companion in the field of words.
If Kyot was Michael Scot, a scholar from the Scottish lowlands and an English speaking collaborator of Wolfram, the use of the English language for Balaam's "Key OT" as code for his name could be considered, especially in view of the Arthurian theme. And once English is taken into account, other conjectures comes to mind as well: WOLF-RAM von ESCHEN-BACH could mean Wolf (Pluto), guardian of the secret of the Ram (Aries), about cedars beside a stream (Balaam), or better ashes (German: Eschen) beside a stream (German: Bach). This play with meanings, where the cedars (of Lebanon, where the phoenix feeds) are replaced by ashes is a fitting metaphor for the phoenix rising from ashes. We are almost inclined to consider another reversal, that the poor knight from Bavaria was really an invention of Michael Scot. Wolfram laments that Heinrich von Veldeke, from the German lowlands, "died too young", and after more research we may conclude that he had a second career with Michael under a pseudonym. It will be a fun project when we get deeper into this conjecture!
Nevertheless, the symbolism of both names is nothing but an interesting hypothesis. We only know for sure that pseudonyms were quite popular during the Middle Ages, Alkuin used the names "Albinus" and "Flaccus", Charlemagne liked "David", and his chronist Einhard was "Beseleel" (8). Thus, "Wolfram" could have been an anonymous friend of Michael, and perhaps a poor and talented Pythagorean beggar monk. Wood-Brown relates the legend that Michael took the German baron Ulf (Wolf?) on a magical mystery tour of smiling coasts and people in the far west (9). Was it as far west as Munsalvaesche (Wildenberg), where the Pyrenees meet the Mediterranean? If true, Wolfram would have been a noble knight after all, and we would have to look for him elsewhere.
Thorndike relates two texts, which are a clear link to Wolfram. It is, unfortunately, the most recent biography (1965), but it confirms and expands many conclusions by Ferguson and Wood Brown. Michael is introduced as:
...the leading intellectual in western Europe during the first third of the thirteenth century. Pope Honorius III called him `singularly gifted in science among men of learning'. He introduced works of Avicenna and of Averroes to the Christian West. Roger Bacon credited him with the introduction of a new Aristotle...
Before Roger he had distinguished between legitimate mathematics, as derived from `mathesis', and forbidden divination, connected with matesis'...
Scot anteceded Raymond Lull, who was perhaps born in the year of Michael's death, in the use of the conception chaos...
Extracts from the alchemical writings current under his name were added in the first printed edition (of 1546) of `The Precious New Pearl'". (Th. pp.1-2)
This book, by the way, may have been the source of Kepler's grain, because he also claimed in some letters to have found a pearl. But back to Michael: The first day of creation was 18 March, where the letter g is written in the books of computus, when the sun entered (or would have entered, had it already been created) the sign of Aries...'
In at least one manuscript this account of creation is preceded by the statement that God created everything in the flash of an eye, all together and at once (Th.pp.42-3). Hence, Michael was not only the first to suggest the Big Bang Theory, he even knew that our planet is round: There are inhabitants both above and below the equator, who `hold their feet against ours'." (Th.,p.47)
He shared the ancient belief that at Creation, all "seven planets" began their course in Aries. Consequently, the astronomical events of 860 and 6 BC, AD 849 and 1703 were times of "renewal", the beginning of new eras. According to Plato (Timaeus), the perfect number of time fulfils the perfect year (or Great Year) when the sun, moon, and all planets have completed their course and have again reached their starting-point. Back to Thorndike:
After reaffirming his belief in God and Christianity,
Scot censures superstitious astronomy but accepts
`ymaginaria astronomia' concerning things not plain
to the eye but to the intellect, such as mathematical
lines and spirits in the air. (Th. p.92)
This could explain the mental fusion of planetary triangles into a hexagram -- the magic art of the Biblical astronomers. A direct link to Wolfram's "Parzival" is an astrological method of inquiry which Thorndike attributes to Plato , although Michael claims that it goes back to the ancient codices of Solomon:
An instance of its specific application (M,127b) occurs
if, for example, someone comes to consult you in the
hour of Saturn, who is cruel, evil, and very harmful to
almost all persons, and `incongrua' except about the
end of its regime, near the hour of Jupiter.
In Parzival, the suffering of Anfortas is greatest under Saturn. Relief and healing comes with Feirefiz , who is led by Jupiter.
If the enquirer comes to you early in the hour, tell him that the
object of his inquiry contains blackness and whiteness, or both,
and is complete enough in itself, and is not of great value.
The “Parzival” opens with the flying allegory of the magpie, a European bird which is black and white like Feirefiz.
In or near his hand is something green , or clear like glass or crystal, or something which was in fire or near fire" (Th.,p.107)
The name "Feirefiz" suggests Son (fiz/fils) of Fire (feire/feuer). He marries Repanse de Schoye who carries the grail, a precious stone, on a green cushion. Thorndike also makes two observations which can serve to decode the grail mystery: An emphasis of etymology and numbers. This is consistent with our other findings, because Chrétien uses the word “Graal” to offer etymology as the perfect key to a source. We have also shown Wolfram’s hidden numbers as key to his work and the phoenix.
First, a few quotes by Thorndyke on Michael’s etymology:
"He has a marked command of the Latin language and a wide vocabulary, even coining words (i.e. like Wolfram)" (Th.p.7)
"Michael shows great interest in names, definitions, and etymologies... Michael's etymologies are sometimes from Isidore, sometimes perhaps of his own devising ... This `penchant' for etymology was by no means peculiar to Michael Scot (Th. pp.16-17) (i.e. see Chrétien de Troyes)
Secondly, quotes by Thormdyke on Michael’s numbers:
"Numbers appealed to Michael Scot as strongly as did names. When stating that the rainbow has two names, he adds that the sun has seven. Like music, number seemed to him of prime importance in the constitution and operation of the universe and all its parts... (Th.p.54) "There are numerous verses dealing with `Computus' and the calendar"(p.57). "Like Roger Bacon later, Scot distinguishes between... mathematics, which may be taught freely and publically, and `matematica', which is forbidden." (p.92)
Let's review what we have learned so far: We have found many themes from Wolfram's poem, followed the “Christmas Star” from Kepler to Plutarch, and have realized that the celestial triangles can be fused into a star or phoenix. Retrospectively, we can see that we followed Michael Scot’s advice to the letter, and even used some forbidden mathematics and 'ymaginaria astronomia, of "things not plain to the eye but to the intellect, such as mathematical lines".
Because we have already “trapped” the elusive phoenix, we are ready for Michael's version of the Christmas Star. In view of its great importance for our quest, we definitely need someone to translate the original for us. Maybe there is a bored monk somewhere in the Alps or the Appalachians, who could do this for us, incl. Chrysostom’s sermon? Until then, Thorndike's quotes will need to suffice:
"Michael whose account seems based in part upon a spurious
sermon attributed to Chrysostom says that the three Magi
came respectively from the three continents of Europe, Asia,
and Africa. In accordance with a prophecy of Balaam they
were wont to meet annually on the day when the birth of
Christ was expected.
This time they stood in adoration for three successive days
on Mount Victorialis until a star appeared in the form of
a most beautiful boy wearing a crown , who spoke thus to
them: Go swiftly to the land of Judah where you will find
the king whom you desire to see, born of a virgin, and this
star is Christ and Lord of the whole world.
Descending from the mount they took great gifts of gold,
incense, and myrrh such as befitted a king to offer to the
newborn babe. They then hastened to Bethlehem on dromedaries,
which cover as much ground in a single day as a horse can in
two months .
Beside the star three suns appeared at equal distance apart,
then united to signify the Trinity and Octavianus, the Roman
Emperor saw in the centre of the solar disk the Virgin and
Child ." (Th.p.118)
We can see by the strange names and numbers that we are dealing with a riddle that connects to Balaam's oracle. It is also the earliest mention of a triangle in the sky, and of a fusion with the sun like the “Christmas Star” and phoenix, over seven centuries before the alleged "discovery of modern astronomers” in the Science News -- and four centuries before Kepler. Hence, your gatekeeper is going to give this riddle a first try, quasi as a challenge of your talents, to open the discussion of the subject:
In consideration of Michael's modern ideas, he seems to have been beyond the Pythagorean and Ptolemaic cosmologies and had returned to the heliocentric system of Aristarchos (3rd. cent. BC). This is also suggested in "Parzival" (P.465) where we are advised to follow Plato and the Sibyl, who recommended already in their time to accept old wisdom as new.
Later in life, Michael became chief astrologer at the court of Frederick II, and we would like to assume that he was familiar with the planetary triangles of 6 BC. But why would he change the watery triangle into three fiery suns that unite into the solar disk? Followed by the nonsense of the emperor's vision? We had learned from Plutarch to subtract the lies, but this symbolism is much more complex.
One false claim is obvious: Octavianus did not see the Virgin and Child in the Solar disk. But his emphasis on numbers, as noted by Thorndike, indicates that Octavianus could represent a numeric key, because Octavian's (8) plus Virgin and Child (2) add up to 10. This suggests that we should consider Michael's penchant for etymology and "ymaginaria astronomia" about things not plain to the eye but to the intellect.
The Pythagorean triangle (1+2+3+4=10) conjures up Hesiod's riddle, where a false claim of 10 had also been subtracted to "trap" the Phoenix. This invites us to try our own "numbers magic" once again, because it seems that Michael may have "Christianized" Plutarch's riddle