Sir Galahad is a
knightKnights of the Round Table were those men awarded the highest order of Chivalry at the Court of King Arthur in the literary cycle the Matter of Britain. The table at which they met was created to have no head or foot, representing the equality of all the members. Different stories had different...
of
King ArthurKing Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated...
's
Round TableThe Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of...
and one of the three achievers of the
Holy GrailAccording to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers...
in Arthurian legend. He is the illegitimate son of
Sir LancelotIn the Arthurian legend, Sir Lancelot is one of the Knights of the Round Table. He is typically considered to be one of the greatest and most trusted of King Arthur's knights and plays a part in many of Arthur's victories...
and Elaine of Carbonek, and is renowned for his gallantry and purity. He is perhaps the knightly embodiment of
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
in the Arthurian legends. He first appears in the
Lancelot-GrailThe Lancelot-Grail, also known as the Prose Lancelot, the Vulgate Cycle, or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is a major source of Arthurian legend written in French. It is a series of five prose volumes that tell the story of the quest for the Holy Grail and the romance of Lancelot and Guinevere...
cycle, and his story is taken up in later works such as the
Post-Vulgate CycleThe Post-Vulgate Cycle is one of the major Old French prose cycles of Arthurian literature. It is essentially a rehandling of the earlier Vulgate Cycle, also known as the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, with much left out and much added, including characters and scenes from the Prose Tristan.The...
and Sir
Thomas MalorySir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author or compiler of Le Morte d'Arthur. The antiquary John Leland believed him to be Welsh, but most modern scholarship assumes that he was Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire...
's
Le Morte d'ArthurLe Morte d'Arthur is Sir Thomas Malory's compilation of some French and English Arthurian romances...
.
Cistercian inspiration
According to many interpreters, the philosophical inspiration of the celibate, otherworldly character of the monastic knight Galahad came from the Cistercian milieu, in particular St. Bernard of Clairvaux (Pauline Matarasso,
The Redemption of Chivalry, Geneva, 1979). The Cistercian-Bernardine concept of Catholic warrior-asceticism undergirding the character of Galahad also informs St. Bernard's projection of ideal chivalry in his work on the
Knights TemplarThe Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar or the Order of the Temple , were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
,
De laude novae militiae. Significantly, in the narratives Galahad is associated with a white shield with a vermilion cross, the very same emblem given to the Templars by
Pope Eugene IIIPope Blessed Eugene III , born Bernardo da Pisa, was Pope from 1145 to 1153. He was the first Cistercian to become Pope.-Early life:...
.
Galahad's career
Galahad's conception comes about when Elaine, daughter of the Grail King Pelles, uses magic to trick Lancelot into thinking she is
GuinevereGuinevere was the legendary queen consort of King Arthur. She was most famous for her love affair with Arthur's chief knight Sir Lancelot, which first appears in Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart...
. They sleep together, but on discovering what has transpired, Lancelot abandons Elaine and returns to Arthur's court. Galahad is placed in the care of his great aunt, the abbess at a nunnery, and is raised there. According to the
Prose Lancelot (part of the interconnected set of romances known as the Vulgate Cycle) "Galahad" had been Lancelot's original name, but it had been changed when he was a child.
MerlinMerlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
prophesies that Galahad would surpass his father in valour and be successful in his search for the Holy Grail. It is also interesting to note that Galahad's maternal grandfather Pelles is generally considered to be a descendent of
Joseph of ArimatheaJoseph of Arimathea was, according to the Gospels, the man who donated his own prepared tomb for the burial of Jesus after Jesus' Crucifixion. A native of Arimathea, he was apparently a man of wealth, and probably a member of the Sanhedrin, which is the way bouleutēs, literally "counsellor", in ...
's brother-in-law Bron (whose line was entrusted with the grail by Joseph).
Upon reaching adulthood, Galahad is reunited with his father
LancelotIn the Arthurian legend, Sir Lancelot is one of the Knights of the Round Table. He is typically considered to be one of the greatest and most trusted of King Arthur's knights and plays a part in many of Arthur's victories...
, who knights him even though lancelot is not a king. He is then brought to King Arthur's court at
CamelotCamelot is the most famous castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the fabulous Arthurian...
during
PentecostPentecost is one of the prominent feasts in the Christian liturgical year. The feast is also called Whitsun, Whitsunday, Whit Sunday, and Whitsuntide, especially in the United Kingdom. Pentecost is celebrated seven weeks after Easter Sunday, hence its name...
. Without realizing the danger he is putting himself in, Galahad walks over to the Round Table amidst the revelry and takes his seat at the
Siege PerilousIn Arthurian legend, the Siege Perilous is a vacant seat at the Round Table reserved by Merlin for the knight who would one day be successful in the quest for the Holy Grail. This knight is either Perceval or Sir Galahad, depending on the version of the story...
. This place had been kept vacant for the sole person who would accomplish the quest of the Holy Grail; for anyone else sitting there, it would prove to be immediately fatal. Sir Galahad survives the event, witnessed by King Arthur and his knights. The king then asks the young knight to perform a test which involves pulling a sword from a stone. This he accomplishes with ease, and King Arthur swiftly proclaims Sir Galahad to be the greatest knight in the world. He is promptly invited to join the Order of the Round Table, and after an ethereal vision of the
Holy GrailAccording to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers...
, the quest to find the famous object is set.
In Malory's "
Le Morte d'ArthurLe Morte d'Arthur is Sir Thomas Malory's compilation of some French and English Arthurian romances...
", Galahad's incredible prowess and fortune in the quest for the Holy Grail are traced back to his piety. According to the legend, only pure knights may achieve the Grail. While in a general sense, this "purity" refers to chastity, Galahad appears to have lived a sinless life, like the Christian Jesus, and so as a result, lives and thinks on a level entirely apart from the other knights of the legend. This quality is reflected in
Alfred, Lord TennysonAlfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS , much better known as "Alfred, Lord Tennyson," was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language.Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, "In the valley of...
's poem
Sir Galahad and its first four lines which state, "My good blade carves the casques of men,/My tough lance thrusteth sure,/My strength is as the strength of ten,/Because my heart is pure."
Despite, and perhaps because of his sinless nature, Galahad as a character seems inhuman. He defeats rival knights apparently without effort, speaks little to his fellow knights, and leads his companions to the Grail with a relentless determination. So of the three who undertake the quest for the Grail (
BorsBors circa 540s-580s, is the name of two knights in the Arthurian legend, one the father and one the son. Bors the Elder is the King of Gaunnes or Gaul during the early period of King Arthur's reign, and is the brother of King Ban of Benoic. Gaunnes is the Fredemundian dynastic kingdom of Neustria...
, Perceval, and Galahad), Galahad is the one who actually achieves it. When he does, he is taken up into heaven like the biblical patriarch
EnochEnoch is a name occurring twice in the generations of Adam. In one reference, Enoch is described as a grandson of Adam via Cain, and as having had a city named after him...
or the prophet Elijah, and the Christian Jesus after he is risen from the dead, leaving his companions behind.
Early in Galahad's portrayals, Galahad has been portrayed as "the most perfect knight" as declared by King Arthur. Galahad has been written with a dismal tone as can be seen in the work of Sir Thomas Malory's
Le Morte d'ArthurLe Morte d'Arthur is Sir Thomas Malory's compilation of some French and English Arthurian romances...
and also within T.H. White's
The Once and Future KingThe Once and Future King is an Arthurian fantasy novel written by T. H. White. It was first published in 1958 and is mostly a composite of earlier works....
. Within these works Galahad is portrayed as a conceited, cold and pious young man who shows little interest in the concerns of his fellow knights. In Later portrayals, such as that in works of Mary MacGregor's Sir Galahad and the Sacred Cup and other such works as Sir Galahad, A Christmas Mystery by William Morris, Galahad's character is changed to portray a knight that feels contempt for those around him. He also starts to embody a code of chivalry and romance that was not previously given to him in early works. These changes can be attributed to a changing of society throughout the ages.
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