Galahad

Sir Galahad

Sir Galahad was one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. He ascended to Heaven after drinking from the Holy Grail. But the Grail didn't go with him. [1]

Real World Background

Sir Galahad first appears in the Arthurian cycle in the Vulgate Cycle's Quest of the Holy Grail, in the early 13th century. His story was retold by Sir Thomas Malory in his Le Morte d'Arthur.

Galahad was the son of Sir Lancelot by Elaine, the daughter of King Pelles. Elaine had fallen in love with Lancelot, but he took no notice of her, thanks to his own love for Queen Guinevere. Pelles, aware of his daughter's feelings for Sir Lancelot, and aware, also, that their union would lead to the birth of Galahad, consulted an enchantress named Dame Brisen, who used her magic (assisted by drugged wine) to trick Lancelot into believing Elaine to be Guinevere and going to bed with her. Thus Galahad was conceived.

Despite this unpromising beginning, Galahad grew up to be a young man of great virtue and purity. When he reached knighting age, he came to Camelot (after being knighted by his father at the nunnery where he had gone to school) to be admitted to the Round Table at the annual Pentecost feast; here he revealed his nature by alone being able to sit in the Siege Perilous at the Round Table (all other knights who had dared sit there were consumed by fire) and alone able to draw a sword out of a floating stone (both Gawain and Percival had made the attempt and failed; Lancelot had refused even to undertake the adventure). During the feast itself, a vision of the Holy Grail appeared before the assembled company of the knights of the Round Table, all of whom, including Galahad, vowed to go on the quest for it.

Galahad had many adventures on the Quest of the Holy Grail, in all of which he distinguished himself well - better than any of the other knights upon it, even Percival and Bors. He alone was able to bear a marvellous shield (white with a red cross upon it); all others who tried were unhorsed by a mysterious white knight and made to yield up the shield. He drove seven evil knights out of the Castle of Maidens, which they had been using as a base for their predatory actions, and ended many terrifying enchantments. In the company of Percival and Bors, he boarded a ship built by King Solomon for the knight who would someday achieve the Holy Grail, where he received another miraculous sword that had once belonged to King David, Solomon's father.

At last, Galahad, Percival, and Bors came to Castle Carbonek, where they achieved the Holy Grail. Afterwards, they followed the Grail to the city of Sarras in the Middle East. There Galahad died, and upon his death, the Grail was taken up to Heaven. (Roger Lancelyn Green's adaptation of the Arthurian legend, one of Greg Weisman's primary sources, omits Sarras, and has Galahad die at Carbonek, after presiding over the wedding of Percival and Blanchefleur.)

Presumably the career of Galahad in the Gargoyles Universe was mostly the same as in Malory's account (and Green's), except that in the Gargoyles Universe, the Grail did not mount up to Heaven upon his death, but remains still on Earth.

See also

• Galahad at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia