Much plagiarized and its contents distorted over the years, Stein's seminal work is a classic of original scholarly and spiritual research. In studying the central Grail narrative of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, Stein takes a twofold approach. On the one hand, he searches historical records for the identity of actual people and events concealed behind the Grail epic's veil of romance. On the other hand, Stein deciphers Eschenbach's hidden spiritual messages, showing Parzival to be an esoteric document containing powerful pictures of the human being's inner path of development.Stein reveals the period of the ninth century to be far deeper and more important than to be of mere historical and academic interest. It is the karmic ground from which grows the very destiny of our modern era--the grand battle that must take place between the powers of the Grail and the hindrance of sinister anti-Grail forces at large today.