Originally posted by: Yoda Is Your Father
They probably did exist at some point and may still exist but are lost. Whether or not they had/have any 'magical' powers, well it could just be legend. That's the thing about legends - you never know. Have you read the Da Vinci code? If not, it's a pretty good 'popular' introduction to an old grail theory.

This is where I laugh. Now, I'm not laughing at you, YIYF, but, well, I'll admit that as a teenager, I was enthralled by grail theories and conspiracies and that. I read all the books and literature on the subject, including 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' and then learned a terrible truth. Pierre de Plantard made up everything he said about the Priory of Sion. Now, that doesn't mean the Grail never existed, but it did mean that book lost a lot of its credibility. There's documented evidence that the Priory of Sion was creadted in 1956 to protest a housing commision in France. The stuff about it guarding the grail and the holy bloodline and todays Knights Templar, well, it's crap.

Nonetheless, when I heard about 'Da Vinci Code', I knew I had to read it (and Angels and Demons). It's a popularist fancy, and an engaging story, but it's just that, STORY. If you do read it, don't think of any of it as true. It's a romanticism of 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail', even mentioning it in the book. It's as though Dan Brown read HBHG and thought, "That's really cool, let's make it a novel!" without reading anything else. Now, it's still a fun book, but you can't even think of the theories as theories, since most of them have been proved bunk.