Grail Diary



The Grail Diary was a possession of Dr. Henry Jones Sr.. In it was recorded many of his findings on Grail Lore, which was his life's work. It also bares the signature of Adolf Hitler. This diary was likely young Indy's inspiration to keep his own diary.

Dr. Jones Sr. was near to finding the location of the Grail, and had drawn a rough map indicating the route in his diary. The information in the diary was of integral to the quest and possessing it became dangerous.Hitler's obsession with the occult and supernatural objects was the catalist for his mandate that his ruthless agents should stop at nothing to control it's secrets.

Once hired by Walter Donovan, Jones added a rubbing of Donovan's Grail tabletto his diary. Realizing his colleague, Elsa Schneider was a Nazi, Dr. Jones Sr. sent the diary to his son Indiana Jones to keep it from of Nazis.

Indy brought the Grail Diary with him to Venice where he found the second Grail marker, The Grail Knight's shield. This Marker held the final clue to the Grail's location, a city name...Alexandretta. Indy removed the map from the diary and gave it to Marcus Brody, who traveled to Iskenderun the modern day name of Alexandretta. Indy was captured while attempting to rescue his father from the Nazis. The diary was taken but the map was missing, and the Nazis sent the diary to Berlin to show their progress.

Henry knew that the grail diary was needed to pass the defenses of the Grail Temple, and went with his son to Berlin to retrieve it. Indy disguised himself and took it from Schneider. While leaving, he was caught in the rush of the crowd and was pushed before Hitler. Believing Indy was another autograph seeker, Hitler took the Diary leafed through its pages finaly signing it. After leaving Berlin, father and son studied the diary on their way to Hatay.

Indy's knowledge of his father's research in the diary helped him slip past the traps in the Grail Temple and recover the Grail to save his mortaly wounded father.

Behind the scenes
The diary is actually a detailed movie prop created especially for the film. It contained several sketches, illustrations and notes, as well as some 'insets' kept by Henry (like a dollar bill, dated 1899, the year his son was born). The text on the diary is mainly unreadable on-screen however detailed scans and photos of some of its pages can be seen in the visual guides. In reality, much of the text was taken from the real life-book The Grail: Quest for the Eternal (ISBN 0824500350) by John Matthews.

The richness and heavy detail of the movie prop, has intrigued and inspired a portion of fans who proceeded in making their own replicas of the prop.

A minimalistic replica of the Diary was given in the package of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure video game. It actually served as a copy protection

Appearances

 * Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade