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Lance of Longinus

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"The spear was ancient when it pierced the Savior's side, and ancient when it crossed the sea from Erin to the land of the Cymry... Following the Resurrection, the spear would have traveled back to Britain, with Joseph of Aramethea, in plenty of time to make its appearance in the Grail procession."
―Henry Jones Sr.[src]

The Lance of Longinus, also known as the Holy Lance, Spear of Longinus or the Spear of Destiny, was a Biblical relic said to be the Roman weapon that pierced the side of Jesus Christ during the Crucifixion.

However, the spear's history dated back nearly 500 years before that time when it was made in Ireland and called Aredbair, or the Spear of Lugh for its wielder. It eventually traveled to Wales, where it was taken to Roman-controlled Jerusalem, and was in possession of the Roman soldier Longinus. After the Crucifixion of Jesus, it was claimed by Joseph of Arimathea, who also had taken vessels of Christ's blood, and carried the relics to England as a missionary. Near the site of Glastonbury, Joseph thrust his staff which had been the spear's shaft into the ground where it rooted and grew into a thorn tree.

The spear had a metal tip and a shaft made from the wood of a yew tree. According to Celtic mythology, it had to be stored in a cauldron of blood. In Grail mythology, the spear was also stored upright in a vessel, and the spear tip would bleed.

History[]

Origin[]

"There is a darker legend concerning the Spear of Longinus. It is said that he who claims the spear and solves its mystery, holds the fate of the world in his hands... for good or for evil!"
―Henry Jones, Sr.[src]

The Lance of Longinus was made in Ireland, called Aredbair and was known as the Spear of Lugh, the young god who wielded it. Over time, it traveled to Wales and then taken on to Roman-controlled Jerusalem where it became associated with Longinus, a Roman soldier, after the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It was claimed by Joseph of Arimathea, who also had taken vessels of Christ's blood, and carried the relics to England as a missionary. Near the site of Glastonbury, Joseph thrust his staff, the spear's shaft, into the ground from which a thorn tree grew.[1]

Legends that followed[]

Due to its association with the Holy Grail, the Lance of Longinus, similarly known as the Holy Spear, accompanied the Grail's legends throughout the centuries, though usually in minor roles.[2]

A stone statue of the Lance of Longinus being held by its owner in addition to an accompanying shield was eventually crafted and placed at the catacombs erected around 937 leading to the Tomb of the Warrior Giant beneath the Tower of Nicholas V in the Vatican.[3]

In 1485, William Caxton published the late Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which combined the many legends surrounding King Arthur's quests for the Holy Grail, claiming that four angels from Heaven carried the Lance of Longinus, dripping blood all the way, as they accompanied Joseph and Jesus to carry out a mass ceremony in Logres. The Grail was eventually taken away due to the city's population no longer being worthy of the Cup of Christ save for the knights Galahad, Percivale and Bors, with Galahad using the Lance's blood to heal the Maimed King.[2]

In 1885, the German composer Richard Wagner completed Parsifal, his opera which gave the titular hero the dual mission of not only seeking the Holy Grail but rescuing the Lance of Longinus, known there as the Spear of Fisher King Amfortas, from the evil sorcerer Klingsor, who was using the Lance for black magic. Parsifal and his love interest Kundry returned to Amfortas after Klingsor's defeat and cured him by placing the Lance head on his wounds, resulting in Parsifal becoming the new Grail King.[2]

Modern research[]

By the modern era, the spear tip of the Lance of Longinus apparently ended up in the Weltliche Schatzkammer museum in Vienna, Austria.[1] The Lance would become Adolf Hitler's obsession from his time living in the city during the 1910s back when he was an impoverished watercolor artist, his lust being seeded the day he came across an ancient spear on display in the Hofburg Treasure House Museum, purported to be Longinus', leading Hitler to vow to own it.[2] When Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, the spear tip was taken to the museum in Nuremberg, where it was kept by Assistant Curator Otto Nehrkorn.[1]

Note: The following section is ambiguously canon.
It contains information that originates in a source that has not been deemed definitively canon.

Around 1936, American businessman Walter Donovan had come up with his own theories surrounding the Lance of Longinus, with which he bored the National Museum's public relations agent Marion Ravenwood to tears when the two attended the institution's annual gala. Ravenwood excused herself recalling her late father Abner's advice to never trust someone who prioritizes an artifact's value over its historical importance.[4]

Ambiguously canon information ends here.

In 1937, archaeologist Indiana Jones came across the Vatican Longinus statue with his Lance beneath the Tower of Nicholas V as he tried to retrieve a stolen Cat Mummy.[3] By 1938, Jones had become aware that Hitler was looking for the Lance due to its status as an ancient mystical object that could enhance his power and expand his empire, hence his suspicions the Nazi leader would be just as interested in obtaining the Holy Grail.[5] Hitler eventually came into possession of Vienna's supposed Lance of Longinus, thus sending his Schutzstaffel to search throughout Europe for the Grail.[2]

When Jones took up the hunt for the relic himself, he traced the Lance's history to Kaiser Leopold I's tomb within the Imperial Vault, led there by his research that Pope Innocent III had once smuggled a religious artifact via the Ponte Rosso, prompting him to explore the San Pietro Catacombs, the "Red Bridge" and the Tiber river.[6]

Fake Lance

Jürgen Voller discovers the fake Lance of Longinus.

In 1944, Colonel Weber led a Nazi team and recovered what he thought was the Lance of Longinus for Hitler from an occupied castle in the French Alps which hoarded stolen antiquities. However, both Jürgen Voller and Indiana Jones independently realized that it was a much more recent, unremarkable fifty year old fake as Weber and his forces were on their way back to Berlin aboard a Nazi plunder train. Without a prize for the Führer, Weber ignored Voller's insistence that they could present their half of the Antikythera mechanism instead.[7]

Discovery in Ireland[]

Indiana Jones and his father Henry Walton Jones, Senior later sought out the relic in the spring of 1945 when it was still of interest to the Nazis in the final year of World War II. Working with Nehrkorn, Dieterhoffmann claimed the spear tip and traveled to England to find the Holy Thorn tree from which the shaft could be made to complete the spear. When the Joneses and Indy's Irish assistant Brendan O'Neal crossed paths with the Nazi officer and his men in Glastonbury, the spear tip was broken in half, with one half in the possession of O'Neal and the other half in the possession of Seigfried, Dieterhoffman's son. O'Neal was also given a sprig of the Holy Thorn from Edwina Cheltingham, a historical botanist.[1]

In Wales, possession of the halves of the spear tip traded back and forth, with O'Neal swapping in a Celtic weapon tip during an exchange at the Holyhead ferry dock.[1]

Spearofdestiny

In Ireland, O'Neal and the elder Jones hid at the Indy's excavation site and realized the full history of the spear, combining Celtic and Christian lore. O'Neal assembled the spear, carving a shaft from a yew tree, and affixing the bit of the holy thorn, and half of the spear head. Indiana and Rebecca Stein arrived, with another half of the spear tip stolen from Seigfried, but it turned out to be a decoy. When the Nazis arrived with the real other half of the spear head, the spear halves magically reassembled, and the spear flew around the cave site, killing Kurt, Dieterhoffmann's Nazi muscle, and nearly impaling O'Neal, who stood on the Stone of Fal and had commanded the spear to come to him. Henry took the spear, and the morning light of the equinox shown into the cave, illuminating the spear tip. Henry Jones and Dieterhoffman claimed to see that the spear was bleeding from its tip, but a skeptical Indy did not see the marvel. Dieterhoffman then began bleeding profusely and expired. As the cave started collapsing, Henry dropped the spear and when Indy grabbed it, he noticed that Nehrkorn had stolen the tip. Indy stopped his pursuing Nehrkorn to drag a dying Seigfried to safety.[1]

Nehrkorn returned the spear to Germany, where it was kept in a vault in Nuremberg. When American forces captured the city, they claimed the spear and other treasures and Jones learned that the spear was now in the hands of the American government. When Jones visited O'Neal in New York City, New York in August 1945, and revealed to him the spear's whereabouts, they were both reminded of the legend of the spear's power when they heard over the radio of the atomic bomb dropped over Japan by America.[1]

Behind the scenes[]

The Lance of Longinus is directly inspired by rumors that in real-life, Adolf Hitler indeed was interested in the Spear of Destiny and even obtained it. The rumors are a part of the whole Nazi mysticism theory, from which much of the Indiana Jones franchise draws influence.

In regards to Hitler's interest, the first draft of Lawrence Kasdan's script for Raiders of the Lost Ark mentioned the Spear of Destiny, referring to a legend that the spear could decide the fate of the world for whomever possessed it. The story states that the relic resides in the Hapsburg Museum of Vienna, Austria, and reveals that the historical Nazi Anschluss of 1938 is a plot by Hitler to acquire the spear.[8] References to the spear, however, were cut from subsequent revisions[9] and from the film itself.[10]

Novelist Rob MacGregor wanted to include the Spear of Destiny as a possible MacGuffin in his Indiana Jones prequel novel series due to Hitler's interest in it, but was discouraged from using the relic under George Lucas's directives to avoid infringing on a copyright or other related legal issue.[11] Max McCoy also intended to write an Indiana Jones story featuring the Spear of Destiny at one point. Due to the development of Dark Horse Comics' own storyline involving the relic, however, the idea was abandoned.[12]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

See also[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Lost in the Mists of Time: The Muddled Myths of the Holy Grail" – The Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine 8
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
  4. ↑ Disney Magic Kingdoms
  5. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade novel
  6. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny magazine
  7. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
  8. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark (First draft)
  9. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark script development
  10. ↑ Raiders of the Lost Ark
  11. ↑ Interview with Rob MacGregor at El Recoveco del Geek (Spanish site)
  12. ↑ Interview with Max McCoy at TheIndyExperience.com

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