20 Facts About Galahad

Sir Galahad, sometimes referred to as Galeas or Galath, 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.

Galahad is the illegitimate son of Sir Lancelot du Lac and Lady Elaine of Corbenic and is renowned for his gallantry and purity as the most perfect of all knights.

Story of Galahad and his quest for the Holy Grail is a relatively late addition to the Arthurian legend.

Galahad first appears in a 13th-century Old French Arthurian epic, the interconnected set of romances known as the Vulgate Cycle.

The Cistercian-Bernardine concept of Catholic warrior asceticism that so distinguishes the character of Galahad informs St Bernard's projection of ideal chivalry in his work on the Knights Templar, the Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae.

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Significantly, in the narratives, Galahad is associated with a white shield with a vermilion cross, the very same emblem given to the Knights Templar by Pope Eugene III.

Circumstances surrounding Galahad's conception derive from the earlier parts of Grail prose cycles.

Galahad is born and placed in the care of a great aunt, who is an abbess at a nunnery, to be raised there.

Lancelot knights Galahad after having been bested by him in a duel, the first and only time that Lancelot ever lost in a fair fight to anyone.

Galahad is then brought to King Arthur's court at Camelot during Pentecost, where he is accompanied by a very old knight who immediately leads him over to the Round Table and unveils his seat at the Siege Perilous, an unused chair that has been kept vacant for the sole person who will succeed in the quest of the Holy Grail.

Galahad is promptly invited to become a Knight of the Round Table, and soon afterwards, Arthur's court witnesses an ethereal vision of the Grail.

Galahad is asked to take the vessel to the holy island Sarras.

Galahad was conceived for the divine purpose of seeking the Holy Grail, but this happened through pure deceit; under a cloak of deception that was very similar, in fact, to that which led to the conception of Arthur and of Merlin himself.

Galahad is able to conquer all of his enemies because he is pure.

Galahad pursues a single-minded and lonely course, sacrificing much in his determination to aspire to a higher ideal:.

Tennyson's poem follows Galahad's journey to find the Holy Grail but ends while he is still riding, still seeking, still dreaming; as if to say that the quest for the Holy Grail is an ongoing task.

Unlike many other portrayals of the legend of Sir Galahad, Tennyson has Sir Galahad speak in the first person, giving the reader his thoughts and feelings as he rides on his quest, rather than just the details of his battles, as in Malory.

Unlike Malory and Tennyson's pure hero, Morris creates a Galahad who is emotionally complex, conflicted, and palpably human.

Galahad then "saves" the knight with a kiss before he finally expires.

The poem opens on midwinter's night; Sir Galahad has been sitting for six hours in a chapel, staring at the floor.