Galahad

Sir Galahad is a knight of King Arthur's Round Table and one of the three achievers of the Holy Grail in Arthurian legend. He is the illegitimate son of Sir Lancelot and Elaine of Carbonek, and is renowned for his gallantry and purity. He is perhaps the knightly embodiment of Jesus in the Arthurian legends. He 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".

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 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 the Templars by Pope Eugene III.

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 Guinevere. 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. Merlin prophesies that Galahad would surpass his father in valor 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 Arimathea's brother-in-law Bron (whose line was entrusted with the grail by Joseph).

Upon reaching adulthood, Galahad is reunited with his father Lancelot, who knights him. He is then brought to King Arthur's court at Camelot during Pentecost. 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 Perilous. 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 Grail, the quest to find the famous object is set.

In 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 general sense, this "purity" refers to chastity, Galahad appears to have lived a sinless life, 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 Tennyson'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 (Bors, Perceval, and Galahad), Galahad is the one who actually achieves it. When he does, he is taken up into heaven like the biblical patriarch Enoch or the prophet Elijah, leaving his companions behind.

Galahad in popular culture

In 1949 Galahad was featured in a Columbia Pictures serial, played by George Reeves, the future Superman. It was the first, and only, Arthurian film serial. In "Knights of the Round Table" and "Merlin" he is only shown as a child, (though he is destined to find the Grail after the action of each film); and is left out of "Excalibur" and "Camelot" altogether. Galahad has a minor part in "King Arthur" as an adult rather than a child, but is not the son of Lancelot in this film.

Michael Palin plays the role of Galahad in the satirical Arthurian film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". In one scene he follows a vision of the Grail to a castle, where he encounters a number of beautiful maidens eager to seduce him (a common Arthurian theme).

In the 2005 Broadway musical "Spamalot", his character is combined with another character whom Palin played in the film, Dennis the Politically Active Peasant. This character is called Sir Dennis Galahad the Dashingly Handsome after he is knighted by King Arthur in Act 1.

Galahad remains a medieval knight, albeit in a modern setting, as "Galahad, Knight of the Table Round" in Neil Gaiman's short story "Chivalry." He shows up at the door of one Mrs. Whitaker, who had recently bought the Holy Grail for thirty pence at a junk shop, and offers her various precious items for it, eventually succeeding in obtaining it.

In Grant Morrison's "The Shining Knight", part of his "Seven Soldiers" series, Galahad appears as a villain called the Giant Killer and the Perfect Knight. He is brought under the control of the main antagonists, the Sheeda, and fights against Sir Justin.

Galahad was the subject of a song by Rick Wakeman, is used as a metaphor in a song by Joan Baez, ("Sweet Sir Galahad"), and is mentioned in the song "Tin Man" by America.

External links

* [http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/galahad.html Biography of Sir Galahad] from Early British Kingdoms
* [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/galahad.htm The full text of the poem "Sir Galahad"]