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moldavite - holy grail-stone
Specimens of Besednice moldavite are sometimes called "hedgehogs" due to their spiky perimeter.
At the time moldavite was discovered, Bohemia was part of the Austrian Hapsburg's Holy Roman Empire in which German was the official language. With the collapse of the empire at the conclusion of World War I, Bohemia become part of the new Czech state (Czechoslovakia) in 1918 and reverted to it's own language. Thus the Moldau became the Vltava, a name said to have come from vltat meaning "wave" or "ripple," which itself comes from valiti, meaning "roll." It's also been called the Blue Ribbon, the Artery of Bohemia, the Silvery River, and the Great River.
Flowing north through Bohemia and the historical 'old town' of the Czech capital city of Prague, the Vltava River divides the city in two. Eventually the river drains into the Elbe and crosses Germany, finally emptying into the North Sea.
Dr. Franz Xaver Maximilian Lippe -- the person who coined the term moldavite -- was the German curator of the mineralogical collection in the Vlasteneck Museum in Prague.
In some accounts, the "Stone of the Grail" is guarded by angels who wait for "a Knight of Conspicuous Excellence" to discover it and use it with compassion as a talisman of healing.
For many years, before general acceptance of the meteorite impact theory, moldavite had little value as a gem. It could be purchased for less than 10� a gram. (Today it sells anywhere from $2-$20 a gram.)
Used as pendants and heads of walking canes in central Europe, moldavite was first exhibited at the Jubilee Exhibition in Prague in 1891.
A monastic military order of humble beginnings, it was in 1118, during the reign of Baldwin II -- and shortly after the end of the First Crusade (1095-1101) -- that Hugues de Payens, a knight of Champagne and eight companions bound themselves by a perpetual vow, taken in the presence of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to defend the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. Baldwin accepted their services and assigned them a portion of his palace, adjoining the temple of the city; hence their title "pauvres chevaliers du temple" (Poor Knights of the Temple). The name also alludes to their historical headquarters in a place sacred to both Muslims and Jews: the "Dome of the Rock" or "Temple Mount".
moldau magic
A relatively new phenomenon to the scientific community, this strange green stone was first mentioned in scientific literature in 1787 by Josef Mayer of Charles University in Prague, while the German name moldavit was first used by F.X.Zippe in 1836.

vltava river: prague

Moldavite's name is a tribute to its point of discovery -- near the Moldau River in the Besednice (Budejovice) area of southern Bohemia -- where it is found in what is called the Moldavite Strewnfield. (Located in the current day Czech Republic, the Moldau River is now known as the Vltava and, at 275 miles in length, it is the longest river in the Czech Republic.)
With the discovery of moldavite, an new interpretation of an old legend quickly followed. Almost immediately, people made a connection between moldavite and the legend of the Holy Grail, much storied and romanticized through the ages as an other-worldly green 'grail-stone.'
the holy grail
Often identified as the drinking vessel used by Jesus at the Last Supper or alternatively a cup that caught his blood when he was on the cross, the Grail said to have the power to heal all wounds.

the holy grail; dante gabriel rossetti, artist

An item much sought after in medieval times, the Grail was also said to give eternal youth and immortality to anyone that drank from it.

According to one legend, the Grail was brought to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea, when he travelled to the British Isles as the first Christian missionary to the country and established the first Christian church.

The Grail is also the theme of a famous medieval cycle of romances linked to the mythical court of King Arthur -- even though the quest for a divine vessel was a popular theme in Arthurian legend long before medieval writers introduced the Holy Grail to British mythology).

knights templar seal

It was the supremely wealthy and powerful medieval Crusaders, the Knights Templar -- who dominated medieval Europe for nearly two centuries -- who did much to keep the "legend of the greenstone" alive.
Some think that when the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem in the twelfth century and searched the Temple mount they found relics and treasures, including the Holy Grail.
Inevitably, the immense wealth and power of the Knights Templar challenged that of the Catholic Church and over a period of several years, many members were charged with heresy and blasphemy, tortured and killed. Their power broken, the Templars seemed to fade away. Many think they took the secret of the Grail with them...
parzival

wolfram von eschenbach (1310-1330)

Wolfram von Eschenbach (died ca. 1230), generally regarded as the greatest of the medieval German narrative poets (and a self proclaimed illiterate), wrote Parzival (also known as Parcifal) an Arthurian romance regarding a search for the Grail.

He is said to have believed that the Grail was actually a green 'grail-stone,' the lapsit exillis that fell from the sky out of a crown of a high-ranking angel; hence, the connection to moldavite: the only 'cosmic' gemstone known.