The chapel perilous

Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (c 1500)

The Chapel Perilous is a feature of Arthurian Grail legend. Jessie L Weston, whose book From Ritual to Romance was a significant influence on The Waste Land, explains:

Students of the Grail romances will remember that in many of the versions the hero—sometimes it is a heroine—meets with a strange and terrifying adventure in a mysterious Chapel, an adventure which, we are given to understand, is fraught with extreme peril to life. The details vary: sometimes there is a Dead Body laid on the altar; sometimes a Black Hand extinguishes the tapers; there are strange and threatening voices, and the general impression is that this is an adventure in which supernatural, and evil, forces are engaged.

It is a test that only the true hero may pass, and the surrounding area is litttered with the tumbled graves of those who have failed. The surreal images in Eliot's chapel include a mysterious woman and bats with baby faces: scenes reminiscent of the work of Hieronymus Bosch.

In this part of the poem, Eliot has explored the various crises facing our western civilisation:

• the despair of the disciples on the road to Emmaus suggests a loss of religious faith; 
• the materialist and godless "hooded hordes" threaten to sweep away our political and moral philosophy; 
• the Chapel Perilous symbolises the threats to our spiritual well-being.

At this time of greatest peril, however, hope appears in the form of life-giving rain from the East.

Back to poem