The Quest for the Holy Grail was the greatest and noblest of all quests for King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. The Holy Grail was believed to be the cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, and it was the cup that caught Christ's blood when he was thrust in the side with a spear at his crucifixion. Joseph of Arimathea, the wealthy man who allowed Christ to be placed in his tomb, is said to have brought the cup with him to Britain, but it was later lost. It was said that the cup disappeared because of the sins of the times, but many believed it to be hidden, and still in England. The Quest for the Holy Grail, led by King Arthur was to find this divine cup.
The search started as one day the Grail appeared to the knights as they were gathered around the Round Table. It was a dazzling and profound vision of light that touched each knight, spiritually filling them with wisdom and generosity and leaving them speechless. The Grail filled the hall with delicious odors and that night, the knights feasted and drank, as they had never done before. The search for the Grail was started here.
Curiously, one seat in particular always remained empty at the Round Table, and it was reserved for the one who would find the Holy Grail. When that brave knight arrived in King Arthur's court and took his place in the Siege Perilous at the Round Table, the Quest for the Holy Grail began officially began. This knight was Sir Galahad. King Arthur, however, was not very excited for he feared the loss of many of his bravest and best knights. Indeed, many knights set forth on this noble quest, but only a few returned.
According to legend, the holy cup was housed in the Grail castle, Carbonek, a heavenly other world guarded by the most beautiful, wondrous, and enchanting spirits. Several of the knights did indeed manage to reach the Grail castle.
One of the most enduring myths in the Western world is that of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Regardless of the origins of the tales, the fact is that by the time they had been filtered through a French sensibility and re-exported to England, they were representations of not one but several ideals. Courtly love and chivalry and the various components thereof, such as martial prowess, chastity, bravery, courtesy, and so on, were presented as the chief virtues to aspire to, and the knights as role models. Arthur's eventual fall is precisely because of having failed at some level to fulfill these ideals in his life.
The poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tells of one knights struggle to uphold the code of chivalry. What makes a knight a noble knight? Why does this social standard force us to hold this individual to higher expectations? What should we think about Sir Gawain when he breaks his vows in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight? How does Sir Gawain and Arthur’s court pass the test of The Green Knight? This paper will argue that Sir Gawain, despite his mistakes, is the greatest knight because of his repentance and the lesson he learns when he encounters The Green Knight.
Chivalry was largely based upon the church’s teachings and many of the pillars of chivalry are directly involved with the church. The Knights of the Round Table are full of pride and enjoy many worldly comforts. Sir Gawain is the most chivalrous of these knights and so the one most aligned with the church. Sir Gawain is tempted throughout the story without giving into the comforts of this world, he rejects them again and again, all but one. This sash that he keeps not only causes him to be cut on his neck but also to realize that he was not a true chivalrous knight, he gave into the love of this world and his life, this failing kept him from being a proper knight in the eyes of the church, the code of chivalry and himself. By wearing his new sash and striving against the temptation to indulge in this world Sir Gawain became an even better knight, a knight who has no fear of
In 1241, King Louis IX was 27 years old, when he decided to build the Sainte Chapelle to house his great treasures – the relics of Christ. In the thirteenth century, the kingdom of France was a prosperous nation in wealth and power. The popular and well-known university, Notre dame was located in Paris that occupied over 200,000 students from many different cultures. “In 1237, the new Franc Emperor of the East, Baudoin II de Dourtenay, was faced by heavy expenses of a mainly military nature; he tried to meet these by selling the Relics of the Passion that were preserved in Byzantium and which he had already partly pledged to the Venetians” (Finance 4). In 1239, Louis bought from him the Holy Crown of Thorns, and two years later bought from him fragments of the True Cross and other relics connected to Christ. King Louis IX was a model for all Christian kings, and this reaffirmed his devotion to Christ, made his kingdom shine in western Christianity, and supported the empire of France. “It is probable that from this date onwards the king thought of building a monumental reliquary to house the precious relics in a dignified manner within the palace precincts, in a similar fashion of the Christian Emperors of the East” (Finance 5). The Sainte Chapelle sparkles like a rare jewel that has magnificent architecture and decoration; the stain glass windows seem to be inside of a jewel case. The many jewels seem to change color every hour with the sunlight rays bouncing back and forth. “The founder, King Louis IX, the future St. Louis, who had it built to house the Holy Relics of the Passion, today dispersed” (Finance 1). The spire has statues of Christ’s apostles at the base of the spire and has angles decorated above the apostles. The ...
Currin, Nathan. “Sir Galahad | King Arthur & The Knights of the Round Table.” King Arthur & The Knights of the Round Table | History, Legend and Everything in Between. N.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2011.
As this mythical poem begins readers are quickly introduced to the pinnacle of this “pyramid of power”, the king and queen. King Arthur and his “full beauteous” wife Queen Guinevere were “set in the midst, placed on the rich dais adorned all about” (Neilson 3). During this time, royal monarchs often hosted large illustrious gatherings in order to display their wealth, prestige and power. This display of rank is evident when the all powerful “King Arthur and the other knights watch approvingly as Sir Gawain advances” to take the place of his cherished king and accept the Green Knights challenge (Swanson 1). Randy Schiff further clarifies the difference between kings and knights in medieval times when he states, “ Displaying his mastery of courtly deference, Gawain in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” publicly defines himself through kinship, telling Arthur that he is praiseworthy only “for as much” as Arthur is his “em” (uncle)”(1). In the fourteenth century feudal system the top ranking social class position belong to the king and the queen.
The setting in the beginning of the story is in King Arthurs Court at a New Years Celebration. The celebration seems to be going well until the arrival of an uninvited guest. The Green Knight is introduced to the story when he arrives at the feast and asks the bulk of knights if they are willing to join him in a game. The point of the game is that he will allow which ever knight that chooses to challenge him one swing with an ax to try and chop off his head, but in order to play the game, the accepting knight must meet the green knight one year later at the green chapel so that he may do the same. After a great deal of taunting, the Green knight had finally provoked one of King Arthurs knights to accept his challenge. It just so happens that the bold knight Sir Gawain was the knight to step up to the plate. With only one swing, Sir Gawain is successful in chopping off the Green Knights head. To much astonishment, immediately after the knight is decapitated, he stands up, picks up his head and is on his way. After a year, Sir Gawain sets off a journey to find the Green Chapel. While on his travels, Sir Gawain arrives at castle and is invited by the Lord to stay for the remainder of his trip.On the first morning of his stay, the Lord makes a deal with Sir Gawain. The deal is that the Lord will go out and search for the Green Cas...
The passage (130-202) of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight describes the appearance of a strange knight in King Arthur's court. The anonymous author of the epic describes the rider in great detail, emphasizing the importance of this character. The passage is intended to arouse readers' curiosity, and at the same time, to introduce the mighty danger that the main character, Sir Gawain, will have to face. Furthermore, the strange knight is shown to be a test or trial for King Arthur and his knights. Finally, the passage presents the actual dynamics of Arthur's court as incompatible with the poet's initial praising of nobility, justice and chivalric ideals.
In the opening scene Sir Gawain faces his first trial when the Green Knight proposes his “Christmas game.” The room falls silent for “If he astonished them at first, stiller were then/ All that household in hall, the high and low;” (lines 301-302). The Green Knight begins to mock the court; and then boldly, King Arthur accepts h...
The Court of King Arthur in the Tales of Lanval and Sir Gawain the Green Knight
The Quest of the Holy Grail is an exciting tale that follows the adventures of King Arthur's knights as they scour the countryside for the legendary Holy Grail. Throughout their journeys, the knights engage in many exciting jousts and sword fights with a variety of enemies. The author of The Quest of the Holy Grail intends for the story to be more than just entertainment: the knights' search for the Holy Grail is analogous to the pursuit of morality and spiritual chivalry, showing success through asceticism, confession, chastity, and faith.
The Holy Grail, according to legend and “Indiana Jones,” is the cup that Jesus and his disciples drank from during the last supper. Later writings also tell that the cup was used to catch Jesus's blood while he was being crucified. While sometimes depicted as a rather fancy, jeweled chalice, it is much more likely that Jesus, the poor son of a carpenter, would have drunk from a simple wooden cup (Ford).
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is a satiric comedy about the quest of King Arthur. The movie starts out with Arthur, King of the Britons, looking for knights to sit with him at Camelot. He finds many knights including Sir Galahad the pure, Sir Lancelot the brave, the quiet Sir Bedevere, and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Lancelot. Through satire and parody of certain events in history (witch trials, the black plague) they find Camelot, but after literally a quick song and dance they decide that they do not want to go there. While walking away, God (who seems to be grumpy) come to them from a cloud and tells them to find the Holy Grail. They agree and begin their search. While they search for the Grail, scenes of the knight's tales appear and the reasons behind their names. Throughout their search, they meet interesting people and knights along the way. Most of the characters die; some through a killer rabbit (which they defeat with the holy hand grenade), others from not answering a question right from the bridge of Death, or die some other ridiculous way. In the end, King Arthur and Sir Bedevere are left and find the Castle Arrrghhh where the Holy Grail is. They are met by some French soldiers who taunted them earlier in the film and were not able to get into the castle. The movie ends with both King Arthur and Sir Bedevere being arrested for killing a real-life man who was a historian.
The novel/poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is the story that begins the Arthurian Courts. During the Christmas festivities, a strange Green Knight enters wanting to play a game with the men personified as the most chivalrous men. Sir Gawain volunteers in the place of King Arthur in this treacherous game. In the game, Gawain beheads the Green Knight but surprisingly the Knight fails to die but instead lives with his head cut off. The Knight places a quest on Gawain that before the New Year he must travel to the Green Chapel to complete the quest. In the novel/poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight represents God.
The Quest for the Holy Grail is the most well-known of the Arthurian Legends. It describes King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and their journey to find the holy cup, from which Jesus drank and caught his spilled blood on the cross. This Grail supposedly had the ability to heal wounds, and provide means of life for those who drank from it. This quest is riddled with stories about the the legendary knights of the Round Table, and describes their exciting search across the country for the Holy Grail.