Lancelot, Galahad
and their
Quest for the Holy Grail
In the Arthurian Legend, Sir Lancelot is viewed as the powerful and skilled “White Knight”, on the other hand, he is also considered as the “Sinful Adulterer” for his disobeyment to the knights’ code of chivalry. Despite his innocence, these corrupt sins led to his unsuccessful quest for the Holy Grail. Instead, Galahad, the illegitimate son of Sir Lancelot, is destined to achieve the Holy Grail, his spiritual purity making him a greater warrior than even his prominent father.
For one thing, Sir Lancelot du Lac is viewed to be the greatest and the worst knight of king Arthur’s Round Table. Firstly, Lancelot is widely known to be the greatest swordsman of the Round Table. Legend tells
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that as a child, Lancelot is left by the shore of the lake, where he is found by Vivian, the Lady of the Lake. She fosters and raises him, and in time Lancelot became one of legend’s most powerful knights. Additionally, he never fails in gentleness, courtesy, or in courage. He is said to be the bravest and most pure of heart and is always willing to help others, saving a great tremendous amount of people during his lifetime. Nonetheless, Lancelot is also conflicted as the ill-made knight who commits the horrible sin of adultery. Queen Guinevere, King Arthur's wife, and Lancelot fall deeply in love and have an affair that is eventually revealed by Mordred. Lancelot betrays the trust of Arthur and goes against his vows as a knight. Through this sin, Lancelot feels great remorse and regret as he tells the weeping king in Mallory’s Le Morte D’Arthur: “Nay,” said Sir Lancelot, “....for once shamed may never be recovered” (Book 3, Chapter 1, page 314). Even though Lancelot is considered to be the greatest knight in Arthur’s court, he struggles constantly with feelings of guilt and inadequacy. Lancelot, regardless of his greatness, is now overlooked by one failing that has caused his whole reputation to fall apart. Through his adulterous love for Guinevere, Lancelot is witnessed as the traitor who commits treason against the king. Encircling these two conflicting opinions, Lancelot is viewed as both a powerful and highly skilled knight and a corrupt and repulsive sinner who is disloyal to his king and fellow knights. Furthermore, since Lancelot loses hold of the title of being the world’s greatest knight, his son, Galahad, takes his place instead.
Elaine of Astolat falls in love with sir lancelot, but he doesn’t return her affection. Elaine, the daughter of King Pelles, tricks Lancelot into sleeping with her by disguising herself as Lancelot’s one, true love, Guinevere. As a result of this tryst, Galahad is born. Immediately after the conception of their new child, Elaine explains to Lancelot that she planned to sleep with him in order to attain a prophecy, and that she now carries in her womb: "the moste nobelyste knyght of the worlde" (469.39-40). Galahad is practically perfect and invulnerable. He is actually the only knight holy enough to find the Holy Grail. More of an angel than a human, Galahad literally has no faults whatsoever. Many of the other knights even dislike Galahad, mostly because they are jealous of his flawlessness. Similarly, Galahad grows up to fulfill the role as one of the three achievers of the sacred Holy Grail. Uniquely, Elaine is actually the daughter of a family with an ancestry stretching back to Joseph of Arimathea, the original keeper of the Holy Grail – the cup that Christ used at the Last Supper. Therefore, in Galahad, martial skills, coming from Lancelot, and his faith in religion, coming from Elaine’s side, intermingle to create a perfect storm of a knight. In other words, he's good with a sword, and with a prayer. Galahad is known to be the purest …show more content…
and best “Christian Knight” for he is the most deeply moral and religious character in the novel and stays a virgin for his entire life. Furthermore, when the knights took their seats at the Round Table, Galahad sat in a special seat that goes by the name of Siege Perilous. It is said that only the knight destined to find the Holy Grail could occupy this seat and remain unharmed. All others who have sat in this seat had instantly perished. When Galahad sits on it and remains unharmed, it became clear that he would accomplish great things. After Galahad's arrival at Arthur's court, the knights begin their search for the Holy Grail. Galahad first goes off alone but later joins two other knights, Perceval and Bors. Their journey takes them to the city of Sarras, where they are captured by a wicked king and imprisoned. However, when the king is sick and dying, he sets the knights free, and the people of the city , guided by the voices of heaven, choose Galahad to be their next king. After ruling Sarras for a year, Galahad has a vision in which the Holy Grail is revealed to him. Content with having achieved his life's goal, he prays to be allowed to die then. According to the legend, his request is granted and :"a great multitude of angels bore his soul up to heaven”, he never returns from the quest, having become too perfect to return. Moreover, the Holy Grail represents the unattainable perfection that Arthur’s knights strive towards.
Although, this quest goes quite differently for Lancelot and Galahad. Galahad saw the Holy Grail and fulfilled the impossible-sounding Quest of the Holy Grail. Lancelot himself only sees a blurred vision and dies knowing that his own sin causes him to be unable to see the wondrous, sacred object. Due to being free of the touch of women, Galahad is able to see the Holy Grail, an achievement of which Lancelot falls short due to his affair with the Queen. Lancelot simply tripped over one obstacle on his way to achieve the Holy Grail, but unfortunately that obstacle costs him his chances of fulfilling the most holiest quest as it signified the pursuit of union with God: “When I was little," he [Lancelot] said, "I prayed to God that he would let me work a miracle. Only virgins can work miracles. I wanted to be the best knight in the world. I was ugly and lonely. The people of your village said that I was the best knight of the world, and I did work my miracle when I got you out of the water. I did not know it would be my last as well." ( Book Three, Chapter 3) Lancelot’s affair with Guinevere truly crushes his goals. He wants to be the best and obtain the Holy Grail, but instead he commits a sin that creates a wall between him and achieving his goal of the Holy Grail. Due to Galahad’s purity and virginity, he claims the Holy Grail and brings it back to heaven, dying shortly after
having seen the vision of the Grail for he gives up his life so he could remain pure. As the Round Table descends into chaos, Galahad's story is a reminder of the perfection that's in reach for the knight who goes beyond earthly ideas and makes use of their power and violence in the direction of a spiritual end. In conclusion, Lancelot was viewed as a great, powerful and chivalrous knight while simultaneously being known as a corrupt sinner for his misconduct towards the king and the code of chivalry. In result of Sir Lancelot’s one misdeed, the adulterous love he shared with Queen Guinevere, he is unable to hold the title of the world’s greatest knight. Alternatively, Lancelot’s son, Galahad attains the sacred quest for he is the most purest of all the knights, making Galahad the world’s greatest knight.
While Gawain fails to accept the truth about his immoral identity, he also fails to maintain a sincere and truthful relationship with God. Camelot believes that Gawain is a perfectly chivalrous and Catholic knight, when in actuality he is an actor with an impure thought. Gawain is driven by selfish motives; he only considers what is best for him and as a result, uses God as a vehicle to get what he wants. Gawain acknowledges God when he desires comfort and “crosses himself, and cries on Christ in his great need,” of a castle (761-761). Likewise, Gawain prays when he wants protecting; his shield, decorated with the highly symbolic Pentangle and Virgin Mary, is the ultimate Holy accessory for his battle. Gawain only regards God when he is either wishing for comfort or for safety. Furthermore, Gawain strays from Catholicism completely by expecting the green sash to save him in the fight. Believing that the magical Pagan article will truly redeem him, demonstrates fear and proves Gawain lacks faith in God. Gawain lacks morals when abandoning Catholicism for a Pagan artifact, and when he does pray to God his spiritual motives are impure and
T.H. White is directly referenced within the film and Malory’s idealization of the glory of chivalry can once again be seen. In my essay, I will show how chivalry is used in all the texts above as a bonding agent between all Arthurian knights. As Arthur’s knights honor and respect chivalry they remain as one cohesive group, but once they begin to abandon chivalry the Round Table begins to crumble and chaos ensues. Annotated Bibliography Sprague, Kurth “Conclusion.” Arthuriana 16.3 (2006): 129-152.
The love triangle of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guenever is a constant theme throughout every account of the Arthurian legend. Geoffrey Ashe's The Arthurian Handbook states that "We may say that these knights are expected to serve their King..."(81). The revelation of the affair finally comes when Sir Agravaine shouts, "'Traitor Knight! Sir Lancelot, now art thou taken'"(White 569). Lancelot was summoned to Queen Guenever's bedroom, and Sir Agravaine is finally exposing the affair and gaining revenge on Lancelot for unhorsing him many times in the past. The two people that Arthur trusts most are Guenever and Lancelot. Arthur is well aware of the affair between the two, but chooses to pretend that nothing is going on. Due to this naivety, Arthur earns the disrespect (and even hatred) of Agravaine and Mordred, who eventual...
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.
The “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is a satirical 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) comes to them from a cloud and tells them to find the Holy Grail.
Lanval, a handsome knight, falls desperately in love with a beautiful maiden, who grants the knight her love on the condition that he keep their bliss in full secrecy. Upon returning home, Lanval is confronted by Guinevere, who attempts to seduce him . After her initial advances are rejected, the Queen tries a new tactic, attacking Lanval 's masculinity: "I have been told often enough that you have no desire for women. Base coward, wicked recreant, my lord is extremely unfortunate to have suffered you near him. " By questioning Lanval 's worthiness to serve by Arthur, Guinevere is questioning Lanval 's very status as a knight, and once again we see a knightly protagonist put into a hopeless situation as many of his chivalric duties--- courteousness to the Queen, faithfulness to his King, honesty and loyalty to his lover, and defense of his own honor--- are forced into an unresolvable conflict. Lanval defends his honor and honors his King 's trust, but breaks his promise to his lover and grievously insults the Queen: "I love and am loved by a lady who should be prized above all others... you can be sure that one of her servants, even the very poorest girl, is worth more than you, my lady the Queen, in body, face and beauty, wisdom and goodness. " Lanval 's inability to simultaneously commit to all of his knightly responsibilities is comically underscored by his polite hesitation ("my lady the Queen") even
In the Medieval Period, knights dedicated their lives to following the code of chivalry. In Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, a number of characters performed chivalrous acts to achieve the status of an ideal knight. Their characteristics of respect for women and courtesy for all, helpfulness to the weak, honor, and skill in battle made the characters King Arthur, King Pellinore, and Sir Gryfflette examples of a what knights strove to be like in Medieval society. Because of the examples ofchivalry, Le Morte d’Arthur showed what a knight desired to be, so he could improve theworld in which he lived.
Lancelot is portrayed mostly as a love-struck man and not a very logical knight. From the first moment he is introduced, he is seen as someone sick from love. He will do anything to save his love, Gweneviere; even if that meant dishonor. When Lancelot rode on the cart, he was immediately labeled as someone bad. He pushed aside reason for love. “Because love ordered it, and wished it, he jumped in; since Love ruled his action, the disgrace did not matter.” (212) There seemed to have been nothing that could stand in the path of Lancelot.
Lancelot, Bors, and Perceval all strive to become more like Galahad, and the author effectively uses these characters to teach his readers lessons about spiritual chivalry and personal salvation. The author provides each of these knights with a series of monks and hermits who counsel and guide him in the ways of spiritual chivalry, for only the most pure Christian knights have any hope of finding the Grail. The adventures of Perceval are very straightforward and easy to interpret, so he provides readers with a suitable introduction to spiritual chivalry and the importance of virginity, asceticism, and complete faith in God. The author faces Bors with more complicated challenges and visions than anything Perceval must handle; since the author tells Bors' adventures after Perceval's, readers should be more prepared to interpret their meaning and significance with regard to spiritual chivalry and personal salvation. The advice Lancelot receives from his series of monks and hermits shows readers the importance of confession and penance, but the author makes it clear that readers should not emulate Lancelot's life of sin ...
...ghthood within their story. Both poets remind the readers of the disparity between the ideals of chivalries presented in romances, and the reality of lived knighthood, highlighting how problematic the understanding of chivalry and Christianity (knighthood) could be for medieval audiences. Though chivalry shines as a brilliant light of the high civilization in the fourteenth century, both tales suggests that chivalry is at best a limited system, which achieves its brilliant at the cost of a distortion of natural life. It was part of the social and ethical system but did not take into account the entire range of human needs, mainly the fact of human morality and sense of human frailty. The context in which knights are depicted and celebrated in the medieval romance does not support a smooth connection between the harsh realities of a century of internecine strife.
Even court life need not be washed completely of human sin and the natural instincts all animals rely on, for being godly, as Gawain is, should not be viewed as the primary characteristic of being moral. There should be a balance between humanity and godliness, similar to Aristotle's idea of a golden mean, that all these knights seek. By showing that knights should achieve this balance, the author extends his message to the common people, who look to knights as role models of morality. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight challenges the contemporary ideals of morality, presenting instead a golden mean that the common people would not have associated with their knightly role models before.
Sir Lancelot, from the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, has become by far the most popular and well-remembered knight. Through Malory's rendition of traditional materials, we have inherited a character that has become the image of the quintessential knight. How is it that "the outsider, the foreigner, the 'upstart' who wins Arthur's heart and Guinevere's body and soul" (Walters xiv) has taken the place that, prior to Malory, was reserved for Sir Gawain? Malory has made this character larger than life. Of the grandeur of Lancelot, Derek Brewer says, "In the portrayal of Lancelot we generally recognize a vein of extravagance. He is the most obsessive of lovers, as he is the most beloved of ladies, and the greatest of fighters" (8). To achieve this feat, Malory has molded Lancelot to fit the idea of the perfect knight and the perfect lover.
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight has prompted scholars to examine and diversely interpret the medieval narrative. One of the underlying questions that has been proposed embodies the analysis of the relationship between Christian and Pagan ideals and how knightly chivalry is influenced by religion during the Arthurian Romance period. It is no mistake that the two varied religious ideals are intertwined throughout the poem due to the nature of classical antiquity. Amidst the overlap between superstitious rituals and Orthodox- Christian beliefs it is clear that Sir Gawain has a sense of personal integrity guided by a moral compass.
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.
How would you describe Sir Lancelot? Most people would say he is the strongest, bravest, and kindest knight of the round table. Some might say he is the biggest Benedict Arnold of all time because of the adultery he committed with Queen Guinevere. However, his chivalry and code of honor make him the epitome of a true gentleman. These contrasting qualities set Sir Lancelot apart from all the other knights and characters in the “Morte D’Arthur.” Lancelot’s gallant, courageous, and conflicting personality make him a complex character in this dramatic tale of love and betrayal.