The Account of the Fisher King

It begins with the king as a boy, having to spend the night alone in the forest to prove his courage so he can become king. Now while he is spending the night alone he’s visited by a sacred vision. Out of the fire appears the Holy Grail, (often in the form of a cup or chalice) a symbol of divine grace. And a mystical voice says to the boy, “You shall be keeper of the grail so that it may heal the hearts of men.”
But the boy is blinded by greater visions of a life filled with power and glory and beauty.
And in this state of profound amazement he feels for a brief moment not like a boy, but invincible, like a God,
… so he reaches into the fire to take the grail,
… and the grail vanishes,
… leaving him with his hand in the fire to be terribly wounded.
Now as this boy grows older, his wound grows deeper.
Until one day, life for him loses its reason. … He has no faith in any man, not even himself.
… He cannot love or feel loved.
… He is sick with experience.
He begins to die.
The only past time which relieves the Fisher King of his pain is fishing, symbolizing seeking in the unconscious for understanding and help – creative passage back to himself.
Then, one day a fool wanders into the castle and finds the king alone. And being a fool, he is simple minded, he doesn’t see a king. He only sees a man alone and in pain. And he asks the king,
“What ails you friend?”
The king replies, “I’m thirsty. I need some water to cool my throat”.
So the fool takes a cup from beside the king’s bed, fills it with water and hands it to the king.
As the king begins to drink from the cup, he realizes his wound starts to heal. He looks in his hands and there is the chalice of the Holy Grail, that which he sought all of his life and he turns to the fool and says in disbelief,
“How can you find that which my brightest and bravest could not?”
And the fool replies,
“I don’t know. I only knew that you were thirsty.”

*As told in the Film, “The Fisher King” by Terry Gilliam