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Galahad
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SIR GALAHAD

Sir Galahad (/ˈɡæləhæd/; sometimes referred to as Galeas /ɡəˈliːəs/ or Galath /ˈɡæləθ/) among other versions of his name, 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 Corbenic, and is renowned for his gallantry and purity as the most perfect of all knights. 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.
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Sir Galahad (/ˈɡæləhæd/; sometimes referred to as Galeas /ɡəˈliːəs/ or Galath /ˈɡæləθ/) among other versions of his name, 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 Corbenic, and is renowned for his gallantry and purity as the most perfect of all knights. 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.
Galahad, the pure knight in Arthurian romance, son of Lancelot du Lac and Elaine (daughter of Pelles), who achieved the vision of God through the Holy Grail. In the first romance treatments of the Grail story (e.g., Chrétien de Troyes’s 12th-century Conte du Graal), Perceval was the Grail hero. But during the 13th century a new, austerely spiritual significance was given to the Grail theme, and a new Grail winner was required whose genealogy could be traced back to the House of David in the Old Testament. Galahad was, moreover, made the son of Lancelot so that an achievement inspired by earthly love (Lancelot inspired by Guinevere) could be set in contrast to that inspired by heavenly love (Galahad inspired by spiritual fervour). This theological version of the Grail story appeared in the Queste del Saint Graal (“Quest for the Holy Grail”), which forms part of the Prose Lancelot, or Vulgate cycle. The Queste shows signs of strong Cistercian influence, and similarities can be seen between it and the mystical doctrines of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. See also Grail.
Sir Galahad, the son of Lancelot and Elaine of Corbenic, is best known as the knight who achieves the Holy Grail. When Galahad appears, he is the chief Grail knight; in the French and English traditions, he replaces Perceval in this role. Galahad first appears in the thirteenth-century Vulgate Cycle. The opening part of the Cycle, the Estoire del saint Graal, first mentions Galahad; it predicts his birth and his eventual achievement of the Grail. According to this section of the text, Galahad is ninth in the line of Nascien, who was baptized by Josephus, son of Joseph of Arimathea. This lineage connects Galahad to those who are said to have brought Christianity (and the Grail itself) to Britain. A later section, La Queste del saint Graal, recounts his adventures on the quest, which leads from Arthur's court to the city of Sarras, the earthly home of the Grail, and the place where Galahad dies while contemplating the Grail. Stories of Galahad's adventures are exceptionally consistent; the account of Galahad's quest from Malory’s Morte d'Arthur, "The Noble Tale of the Sankgreal," draws on the major events from the Vulgate Cycle. Malory preserves the prophesy and foretelling that surround Galahad; within the Grail Quest, hermits and other religious figures continually appear to interpret dreams and anticipate upcoming events. Galahad’s birth and achievements are foretold in both the Vulgate Cycle and in Malory; this gives the entire Grail Quest a sense of inevitability.
Sir Galahad was the son of Sir Lancelot and Elaine. His name may be of Welsh origin or come from the place name of Gilead in Palestine. Born out of wedlock, he was placed in a nunnery as a child being that the abbess there was his great aunt. On one occasion a “sword in a stone” was seen in a river by King Arthur’s knights and legend stated that only the world’s best knight could pull out the sword. Galahad was led into King Arthur’s court where he sat in the Siege Perilous (the vacant seat at the Round Table reserved for the Knight who would one day be successful at recovering the Holy Grail). Following his seat at the Round Table, Galahad then drew the sword from the stone. Years later while at Arthur’s Court, the Holy Grail appeared in a vision to Galahad and showed him that he was one of the three knights chosen to undertake the Quest for the Holy Grail. He was given a white shield, made by Evelake with a red cross which Joseph of Arimathea had drawn in blood. In the course of his Quest he joined up with Sir Percivale, Sir Bors de Ganis, and Percivale’s sister. Once on board Solomon’s ship, Sir Galahad obtained the Sword of David, and after the death of Percivale’s sister the trio split up for a while and Galahad traveled with his father, Sir Lancelot.
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.
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