Nicolas Cage and his very real hunt for the Holy Grail that took him to Glastonbury
Indiana Jones may have successfully tracked it down, but the search for the Holy Grail is one that’s spanned centuries and consumed countless lives, not that it deterred Nicolas Cage from heading out on his own quest to uncover the mythical artefact.
It sounds like something ripped right out of his National Treasure movies, but the Academy Award winner really did embark on a globe-spanning expedition that even took him to Glastonbury. Naturally, he credited the Disney-backed blockbuster for igniting his passion in the first place.
The prospect of a ‘grail quest’ is often used metaphorically, but as it applied to the famously eccentric actor, his was quite literal. In fact, he had to clarify that when he was telling the story of his adventures, which saw him fritter away even more of his personal funds as part of the reckless spending that forced him into an extended sabbatical into the world of VOD dreck.
“That was the time when I almost went on, you might call it a grail quest. I started following mythology, and I was finding properties that aligned with that. It was almost like National Treasure. Of course, that didn’t sustain,” he explained to the New York Times. “On top of which, I said, ‘I’m going to get off philosophy’, because I became like a kite with a string but no anchor. No one could understand what I was talking about. And I thought people would rather see me as an orangutan than as an eagle meditating on the mountaintop anyway.”
Clarifying what he meant by “finding properties”, Cage ended up being drawn into a rabbit hole of his own making. “One thing would lead to another. It’s like when you build a library. You read a book, and in it there’s a reference to another book, and then you buy that book, and then you attach the references,” he continued. “For me it was all about where was the grail? Was it here? Was it there? Is it at Glastonbury? Does it exist?”
Descending upon the site of the famous music festival, Cage stopped by the Chalice Well, which has “a spring that does taste like blood”. After leaving Glastonbury empty-handed, though, the next destination on his whistlestop tour was Rhode Island, where the star intimated that he may have bought a house specifically for its alleged connection to the Holy Grail.
“There’s speculation that the Knights Templar, an ancient order who legend holds were guardians of the Grail, built a mysterious stone structure that stands in Newport, Rhode Island. And yes, this whole thing is very National Treasure,” he said. “I don’t know if I’m going to say that’s why I bought the Rhode Island property. But I will say that is why I went to Rhode Island, and I happened to find the place beautiful.”
Sadly, the history books will not remember Cage as the person who finally solved the mystery and unearthed the whereabouts of the Holy Grail, but at least it sounds as though he had fun trying.
