Galahad

Sir Galahad (/ˈɡæləhæd/; sometime referred to as Galeas /ɡəˈliːəs/ or Galath

Galahad
/ˈɡæləθ/), in Arthurian legend, is a knight of King Arthur's Round Table and one of
the three achievers of the Holy Grail. He is the illegitimate son of Sir Lancelot and Matter of Britain character
Elaine of Corbenic, and is renowned for his gallantry and purity. Emerging quite late
in the medieval Arthurian tradition, Sir Galahad first appears in the Lancelot–Grail
cycle, and his story is taken up in later works such as the Post-Vulgate Cycle and Sir
Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. His name should not be mistaken with
Galehaut, a different knight from Arthurian legend.

Contents
Origins
Life
Conception and birth
Knighthood and the Grail Quest
Ascension to Heaven
Victorian portrayals
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
William Morris
Twentieth century and later
Literature
Music
Film and television
Games
Sir Galahad by George Frederick
See also Watts
References
First Lancelot-Grail
Bibliography appearance
External links
Information
Occupation Knight of the Round
Table
Origins
Title Sir
The story of Sir Galahad and his quest for the Holy Grail is a relatively late addition
Family Lancelot, Elaine of
to the Arthurian legend. Galahad does not feature in any romance by Chrétien de
Corbenic
Troyes, or in Robert de Boron's Perceval, or in any of the continuations of Chrétien's
story of the mysterious castle of the Fisher King. Sir Galahad first appears in the early-13th-century Old French Arthurian epic, the
Vulgate Cycle.

The original conception of Sir Galahad, whose adult exploits are first recounted in the fourth book of the Vulgate Cycle, may derive
from the Cistercian Order. According to some interpreters, the philosophical inspiration of the celibate, otherworldly character of the
monastic knight Galahad came from this monastic order set up by St. Bernard of Clairvaux.[1] The Cistercian-Bernardine concept of
Catholic warrior-asceticism that so distinguishes the character of Sir Galahad also informs St. Bernard's projection of ideal chivalry in
his work on the Knights Templar, 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 theKnights Templar by Pope Eugene III.
Life

Conception and birth

The circumstances surrounding the conception of the boy Galahad are explained by Sir Thomas Malory and derive from the Gareth-
Grail cycle. Lancelot mistakes Elaine of Corbenic for his mistress Guinevere. According to Malory, King Pelles has already received
magical foreknowledge that Lancelot will give his daughter a child and that this little boy will grow to become the greatest knight in
the world, the knight chosen by God to discover the Holy Grail. King Pelles also knows that Lancelot will only lie with his one true
love, Queen Guinevere. Destiny will have to be helped along a little; therefore, a conclusion which prompts Pelles to seek out "one of
the greatest enchantresses of the time", Dame Brusen, who gives King Pelles a magic ring that will make Elaine take on the
appearance of Queen Guinevere.

Sir Lancelot and Elaine sleep together, but on discovering the deception, Lancelot then gets his clothes on and runs, leaving Elaine,
but when he finds out that they have conceived a son together, he is immediately forgiving; however, he does not marry Elaine or
even wish to be with her anymore and returns to King Arthur's court. The young Galahad is born and placed in the care of a great
aunt, who is an abbess at a nunnery, to be raised there.

According to the thirteenth century Old French Prose Lancelot (part of the interconnected set of romances known as the Vulgate
Cycle), "Galahad" was Lancelot's original name, but it was changed when he was a child. At his birth, therefore, Galahad is given his
father's own original name. Merlin prophesies that Galahad will surpass his father in valor and be successful in his search for the
Holy Grail. King Pelles, Galahad's maternal grandfather, is portrayed as a descendant of Bron, Joseph of Arimathea's brother-in-law,
whose line was entrusted with the Grail by Joseph.

Knighthood and the Grail Quest

Upon reaching adulthood, Galahad is reunited
with his father Sir Lancelot, who knights him. Sir
Galahad is then brought to King Arthur's court at
Camelot during Pentecost, where he is
accompanied by a very old knight who
immediately leads him over to the Round Table
and unveils his seat at the Siege Perilous, an
unused chair that has been kept vacant for the
sole person who will succeed in the quest of the
Holy Grail. For all others who have aspired to sit
there, it has proved to be immediately fatal. Sir
Sir Galahad in a tapestry
by Edward Burne-Jones Galahad survives this test, witnessed by King
(c. 1894) Arthur who, upon realizing the greatness of this
new knight, leads him out to the river where a
sword lies in a stone with an inscription reading
"Never shall man take me hence but only he by whose side I ought to hang; and he "How Galahad drew out the sword
shall be the best knight of the world." (The embedding of a sword in a stone is also from the floating stone at Camelot."
an element of the legends of Arthur's original sword, the sword in the stone.) Arthur Rackham's illustration for
Galahad accomplishes this test with ease, and King Arthur swiftly proclaims him to Alfred W. Pollard's The Romance of
be the greatest knight ever. Sir Galahad is promptly invited to become a Knight of King Arthur (1917)

the Round Table, and soon afterwards, King Arthur's court witnesses an ethereal
vision of the Holy Grail. The quest to seek out this holy object is begun at once.
All of the Knights of the Round Table set out to find the Grail.[2] It is Sir Galahad who takes the initiative to begin the search for the
Grail; the rest of the knights follow him. King Arthur is sorrowful that all the knights have embarked thus, for he discerns that many
will never be seen again, dying in their quest. Arthur fears that it is the beginning of the end of the Round Table. This might be seen
as a theological statement that concludes that earthly endeavors must take second place to the pursuit of the holy. Galahad, in some
ways, mirrors Arthur, drawing a sword from a stone in the way that King Arthur did. In this manner, Sir Galahad is declared to be the
chosen one.

Galahad for the most part travels alone, smiting his enemies, rescuing Sir Percival from twenty knights and saving maidens in
distress, until he is finally reunited with Sir Bors and Sir Percival. These three knights then come across Sir Percival's sister, who
leads them to the grail ship. They cross the sea in this ship and when they arrive on a distant shore, Percival's sister is forced to die to
save another. Sir Bors departs from the companyin order to take her body back to her own country for a proper burial.

Ascension to Heaven
After many adventures, Sir Galahad
and Sir Percival find themselves at
the court of King Pelles and
Eliazar, his son. These men bring
Galahad into a room where he is
finally allowed to see the Holy
Grail. Galahad is asked to take the
Sir Galahad discovers theGrail in a vessel to the holy island Sarras.
1895 painting by Edwin Austin Abbey After seeing the Grail, Galahad,
however, makes the request that he
may die at the time of his choosing.
So it is, while making his way back to Arthur’s court, Sir Galahad is visited by
Joseph of Arimathea, and thus experiences such glorious rapture that he makes his
request to die. Galahad bids Percival and Bors farewell, and angels take him to
Heaven, an ascension witnessed by Sir Bors and Percival. While it is not explicit that
the Holy Grail is never to be seen again on earth, it is stated (in Malory's Le Morte
d'Arthur) that there has since then been no knight capable of obtaining it. Sir Galahad by Joseph Noel Paton

Sir Galahad's success in the high religious endeavour that was the search for the
Holy Grail was predicted before his birth, not only by King Pelles but by Merlin: Merlin had told Uther Pendragon that there was one
who would fill the place at the “table of Joseph”, but that he was not yet born. At first this knight was believed to be Perceval;
however it is later discovered to be Galahad. Galahad's conception is later glossed by Malory: "And so by enchantment [Elaine] won
the love of Sir Lancelot, and certainly she loved him again passing well.” Galahad was conceived for the divine purpose of seeking
the Holy Grail.[3] But Galahad's conception happened through pure deceit; under a cloak of deception that was very similar
, in fact, to
that which led to the conception of Arthur and of Merlin himself. Despite this, Galahad is the knight who is chosen to find the Holy
Grail. Galahad, in the Lancelot-Grail cycle and in Malory's retelling, is exalted above all the other knights; he is the one worthy
enough to have the Holy Grail revealed to him and to be taken into heaven.

Victorian portrayals

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

In Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, 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 specific sense, this "purity" refers to
chastity, Galahad appears to have lived a generally sinless life and so as a result, he lives and thinks on a level entirely apart from the
other knights around him. This quality is reflected inAlfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Sir Galahad":
 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.[4]

Galahad is able to conquer all of his enemies because he is pure. In the next verse of
this poem, Tennyson continues to glorify Galahad for remaining pure at heart, by
putting these words into his mouth:

I never felt the kiss of love,

Nor maiden's hand in mine.[4]

Sir Galahad pursues a single-minded and lonely course, sacrificing much in his
determination to aspire to a higher ideal:

Then move the trees, the copses nod,

Statue of Sir Galahad byAlfred
Wings flutter, voices hover clear
Turner with quotation from Tennyson
and list of fallen Old Victorians; World "O just and faithful knight of God!
War I memorial at Victoria College, Ride on! the prize is near."[4]
Jersey

Tennyson's poem follows Galahad's journey to find the Holy Grail but ends while he
is still riding, still seeking, still dreaming; as if to say that the quest for the Holy Grail is an ongoing task. Unlike many other
portrayals of the legend of Sir Galahad, Tennyson has Sir Galahad speak in the first person, gives the reader his thoughts and feelings
as he rides on his quest, rather than just the details of his battles, as in Malory
.

William Morris
Sir Galahad's thoughts and aspirations have been explored as well by William Morris in his poem Sir Galahad, a Christmas
Mystery,[5] published in 1858. In this poem, written more than twenty years after Tennyson's Sir Galahad, Galahad is "fighting an
internal battle between the ideal and the human", believing that he is like God and that he is able to be a "saviour capable of
imparting grace",[6] following a dream in which he saves a dying knight with a kiss. Galahad isolates himself because he is a “self-
centred figure".[6] Morris’ poem places this emotional conflict at centre stage, rather than concentrating upon Galahad’s prowess for
defeating external enemies, and the cold and the frost of a Christmas period serve to reinforce his "chilly isolation".[6] The poem
opens on midwinter's night; Sir Galahad has been sitting for six hours in a chapel, staring at the floor
. He muses to himself:

Night after night your horse treads down alone

The sere damp fern, night after night you sit
Holding the bridle like a man of stone,
Dismal, unfriended: what thing comes of it?[7]

Twentieth century and later

Literature
A poem by Thomas de Beverly published in 1925, "The Birth of Sir Galahad", tells of the events leading up to the
conception of Sir Galahad, his birth and a visit soon afterwards by Sir Bors, to see Elaine and the baby Galahad. Sir
Bors sees a vision of the Holy Grail whilst in a chapel with the baby and his mother
. Of the three knights who are
untainted by sin – Sir Perceval, Sir Bors, and Sir Galahad – Galahad is the only one predestined to achieve this
[8]
 honor of attaining the Holy Grail.[8] Alec Warner noted the similarity with God declaring that King David had shed
much blood and was not worthy of building theJerusalem Temple, this honour falling only to his sonKing
Solomon.[9]
Edmund Wilson's story "Galahad", published in 1927, presents a humorous story about the attempted seduction of a
virginal high school student by a debutante.
In John Erskine's novel Galahad: Enough of His Life to Explain His Reputation , Galahad’s main tutor for his knightly
training is not his father Lancelot or King Arthur, but in fact Queen Guinevere. Erskine follows Malory’ s text through
Galahad’s childhood. Just as inLe Morte d'Arthur, Galahad grows up in the court of his mother Elaine and travels to
King Arthur’s court to be reunited with his father and to become a knight. When Galahad arrives at the court,
Guinevere is upset with Lancelot because he does not want to be her lover anymore and she takes an interest in the
young knight, persuading him to go above and beyond regular knightly duties. At first Galahad seems content with
just being an ordinary Knight of the Round T able, going out on quests and saving maidens in distress. Guinivere is
the main contributor to Galahad’s destiny in this work. She says “you’ll waste your life if you don’t accomplish
something new, something entirely your own".[10] This is Galahad’s motivation to seek the Grail.
Matt Cohen satirises Galahad’s virtuous character in hisshort story Too Bad Galahad. Cohen describes Galahad as
the “perfect knight” who does no harm. In part, “Galahad’ s virtue is a compensation for Lancelot’s indiscretion".
However, Cohen, instead of glorifying Galahad's virtuous character, makes it into a weakness. He writes that
Galahad tried to “swear and kill and wench with the rest of the knights but he could never really get into it". Cohen's
Galahad is not well liked by the other knights because he is so perfect and seems unapproachable. Cohen pokes fun
at Galahad's “calling” by saying that his life would be wasted if he failed to remain pure and holy in order to be the
bearer of the Holy Grail.
Thomas Berger's Arthur Rex portrays Galahad differently. In most works, Galahad is depicted as an emblem of
perfection. Berger shows Galahad’s arrival to court in a more satirical light.Gawain comments that he cannot tell
whether he is male or female. Berger shows that even though Galahad is in fact the greatest knight in the world, he
does not appear to be. Appearance versus reality is a common theme throughout this novel. In most versions of the
story of Sir Galahad, Galahad's death comes about after his greatest achievement, that of the Holy Grail. Arthur In
Rex, however, Galahad is killed in a battle wherehe mistakes his own father Lancelot for a Saxon. Galahad is too
weak and sleeps through most of the battle and, when he does wake up, he kills his father as well as being killed
himself. Just like the Grail, perfection is unattainable; only glimpses of the Grail and of perfection can be seen.
In the Everworld fantasy novel series written byK. A. Applegate, the character David Levin fights with the Sword of
Galahad, after witnessing Sir Galahad's death. David is the self-appointed leader of the protagonists and takes on all
the burdens of the group, being troubled by his past in which he was cowardly and feeling he must prove himself to
be a man - in which could be seen some parallels with Galahad's life.
In Ayn Rand's novel We the Living the character Andrei Taganov, an honest and idealistic revolutionary Communist,
sacrifices his career and resorts to blackmail in order to save the life of Leo, the lover of Kira—the woman that
Andrei loves; though hating Leo and intensely jealous of him, Andrei puts Kira's happiness before his own. The
villain Pavel Syerov calls Andrei in derision "Sir Galahad of the blackmail sword"; [11] thereupon, Andrei accepts the
comparison as appropriate.
Knight Galaad of Caer Benic, working for King Arthur , appears in The Lady of the Lake, the final last book of The
Witcher saga by Andrzej Sapkowski. At the very beginning of the story, as a denizen of a parallel world, encounters
Cirilla of Cintra and calls her the Lady of the Lake.

Music
Joan Baez uses the legend metaphorically in her song Sweet
" Sir Galahad", which is about the courtship of her
sister.
The band America mentions Galahad ("... or the tropic of Sir Galahad") in the chorus for the songTin
" Man".
On his EP To the Yet Unknowing World, Josh Ritter has a song called "Galahad", which jokes about Galahad's
chastity and the 'virtue' of his supposed purity
.

Film and television

Galahad is portrayed byMichael Palin in Monty Python and The Holy Grail. His chastity and purity is put to the test
when he finds a castle full of sexually charged nuns.
Galahad is portrayed byHugh Dancy in the 2004 action adventureKing Arthur.
John Larroquette played an elderly, yet immortal Galahad (nowknown as Jenkins) in the TV seriesThe Librarians.
A Knightmare frame that is piloted by the Knight of One, Bismarck W
aldstein, is named Galahad from the anime
Code Geass.

Games
 In the video game Fate/Grand Order, Galahad is a Heroic Spirit that was fused with a girl, making the Demi-Servant
Mash Kyrielight, under the class of Shielder
.
In the 2015 video gameThe Order: 1886, the main character is an heir to the title of Sir Galahad, and is therefore
referred to as such.
The living card game Android: Netrunner[12] features a card named Galahad. It belongs to a sub-category of
Intrusion Countermeasures Electronicscalled "Grail," to whichLancelot, Merlin, and Excalibur also belong.
The board game Shadows Over Camelotfeatures Sir Galahad as one of the characters players can select.
He is also represented bySilver the Hedgehog in Sonic and the Black Knight.

See also
"Sir Galahad" (poem)
HMS Sir Galahad—three Royal Navy vessels named after him, including one lost in theFalklands War

References
1. Pauline Matarasso, The Redemption of Chivalry. Geneva, 1979.
2. Vinaver, Eugene, 1971. Malory: Works. Oxford University Press.The Tale of the Sankgreal, Briefly Drawn outof
French, which is a Tale Chronicled for One of the Truest and one of the Holiest that is in this World
. 1. "The
Departure". pp. 515–524.
3. Waite, Arthur. The Holy Grail: The Galahad Quest in the Arthurian Literature. New ork:
Y University Books, 1961.
4. Tennyson, Alfred Lord: Wordsworth Poetry Library, 1994. The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Wordsworth Editions
Limited. Sir Galahad, published 1834. pp. 181–182. Beginning of the first stanza.Camelot Project (http://www.lib.roc
hester.edu/camelot/Galahad.htm)
5. Sir Galahad, a Christmas MysteryCamelot Project (http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/morrgal.htm)
6. Stevenson, Catherine Barnes; Hale, Virginia (2000). "Medieval Drama and Courtly Romance in William Morris' 'Sir
Galahad, A Christmas Mystery'". Victorian Poetry. 38 (3): 383–91. doi:10.1353/vp.2000.0038 (https://doi.org/10.135
3%2Fvp.2000.0038).
7. Morris, William. 1858. Sir Galahad, A Christmas Mystery. Camelot Project (http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/morr
gal.htm) Sixth stanza.
8. Thomas de Beverly. 1925. The Birth of Galahad. Camelot Project (http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/TDGalahad.h
tm)
9. 1 Chronicles, Ch. 22, 8, - quoted in Alec G. Warner, Biblical Motives in Twentieth Century Literature" in Barbara Kid
(ed.) "New Essays on British and American Literature", New oYrk, 1982.
10. Erskine 192
11. Ayn Rand, We the Living, Part Two, Ch. KIV.
12. Fantasy Flight Games (https://netrunnerdb.com/en/card/06011)

Bibliography
Atkinson, Stephen C. B. "Prophecy and Nostalgia: Arthurian Symbolism at the Close of the English Middle Ages". In
Mary F. Braswell and John Bugge (eds.),Arthurian Tradition Essays in Convergence. Tuscaloosa: University of
Alabama, 1988. 90–95. Print. Atkinson analyses Malory's motives for writing about the Holy Grail quest. He
compares the knights and focuses on how Galahad sticks out from the rest of the knights.
Berger, Thomas. Arthur Rex: A Legendary Novel. Boston: Little, Brown, 1990. Print.
Cohen, Matt. Too Bad Galahad. Toronto: The Coach House Press, 1972. Print. A comical approach to the legend of
Sir Galahad, his quest for the Holy Grail, and his pure character is made to seem foolish.
De Beverley, Thomas. The Birth of Sir Galahad1925. <http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/TDGalahad.htm>. This
poem gives details regarding how Elaine, daughter of King Pellas, receives a magic ring that will trick Lancelot into
sleeping with her and conceiving Galahad.
Erskine, John. Galahad: Enough of His Life to Explain His Reputation . Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company,
1926. Print. Follows the story of Galahad’s conception and his whole life. Underlines the influence of Guinevere on
Galahad’s knightly training, which ultimately pushed him to exceed all others who surrounded him.
 Hyatte, Reginald. "Reading Affective Companionship in the Prose Lancelot".Neophilologus 83 (1999): 19–32. Print.
Explores the varying speculation gravitating around a potential homosexual relationship between Galahad and
Lancelot.
Kennedy, Edward D. "Visions of History: Robert de Boron and English Arthurian Chroniclers".Fortunes of King
Arthur. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2005. 29+. Print. Examines the relationships between the Holy Grail quest and
Galahad by giving overviews of other Author’s inquires.
Malory, Thomas. Le Morte Darthur: The Winchester Manuscript. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
Follows the quest for the Holy Grail and how Galahad became knighted by his father .
Mieszkowski, Gretchen. "The ProseLancelot's Galehot, Malory’s Lavin, and the Queeringof Late Medieval
Literature.” Arthuriana 5.1 (1995): 21–51.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Dir. Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. Perf. John Chapman and John Cleese. Python
Pictures, 1974. DVD. The movie makes a satire of Galahad’ s purity and chastity in the scene with the castle full of
beautiful women.
Ruud, Jay. "Thomas Berger's Arthur Rex: Galahad and Earthly Power".Critique 25.2 (1984): 92–99. Print. This text
expresses how Galahad epitomised perfection in knightly-hood, the clear emulation of him by other knights and the
truth behind his personal actions.
Stevenson, Catherine B., and Virginia Hale. "Medieval Drama and Courtly Romance in William Morris' 'Sir Galahad,
A Christmas Mystery' ". Victorian Poetry 38.3 (2000): 383–391. Print. Shows how Galahad is depicted in William
Morris’ “Sir Galahad, A Christmas Mystery”. Displays Galahad’ s struggle between being perfect and being human.
Tennyson, Alfred. "Sir Galahad".Galahad and the Grail. University of British Columbia. Web. 17 Nov. 2009.
<http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/sechard/344GAL.HTM>. This site contained many pictures depicting Galahad
accompanied by groups of angels. The story accounts Galahads emotions before embarking on the quest for the
Grail.
Waite, Arthur. The Holy Grail: The Galahad Quest in the Arthurian Literature . New York: University Books, 1961.
Print. This text gives a detailed discourse covering Galahad’
s life story from his birth to his death, with specific
emphasis on his contribution to the quest for the Holy Grail.
Wilson, Edmund. "Galahad".The American Caravan. Ed. Van Wyck Brooks, Alfred Kreymborg, Lewis Mumford, and
Paul Rosenfeld. New York: Macaulay Company, 1927. Print.

External links
Alfred Tennyson's poem "Sir Galahad"
Thomas De Beverley's poem "The Birth of Sir Galahad"

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