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King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
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Book 3, Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 3 “The Quest of the Holy Grail”
Book 3, Chapter 1 Summary: “How the Holy Grail Came to Camelot”
The night before Pentecost, many knights arrive at Camelot. A lady pleads for Launcelot to follow her, promising to return him before the feast the next day. She brings him to a chapel where nuns present his now grown son, Galahad. They ask Launcelot to knight the boy, who has been trained in combat and virtue. Launcelot knights him and leaves for Camelot, but Galahad remains behind at his vigil. At the Round Table, Siege Perilous shows a new inscription declaring that today a knight will fill the siege. The knights cover the siege to await the worthy knight.
Meanwhile, Balyn’s sword—still driven into the stone—appears in a nearby field. Arthur’s knights try to remove the sword, but they know they aren’t the chosen men. Naciens presents Galahad at the Round Table, and the boy takes his seat at Siege Perilous, which now has his name inscribed. Galahad easily pulls the sword from the stone—knowing it’s his destiny—but refuses a shield from Arthur. The knights joust in celebration, and Galahad defeats all who come against him. A woman weeps for Launcelot, who is no longer Logres’s greatest knight.
Arthur celebrates the greatness of their now-complete company. Suddenly, the Holy Grail arrives on a beam of light and the knights fall silent in reverence. When the Grail departs, every knight vows to search for it for Logres’s glory. Arthur laments how many men will die on the quest, remembering Merlin’s prophecy of Logres’s demise. The knights renew their oaths and set out on the quest.
Book 3, Chapter 2 Summary: “The First Adventures of Sir Galahad”
Galahad doesn’t find many adventures in his first days of travel. He meets two other knights, King Bagdemagus and Sir Ywain, who were drawn to an abbey because of a mysterious shield. Only the chosen Grail Knight can wear the shield without danger. Bagdemagus tries to wield the shield first, but a heavenly White Knight jousts him to the ground in the forest, proclaiming the shield is Galahad’s only. Bagdemagus’s squire tells this tale back at the abbey, so Galahad takes the shield and rides away.
Galahad meets the White Knight and asks about the shield’s mystery. The white shield came to Britain on Joseph of Arimathea’s Enchanted Ship, and he drew its red cross with his own royal blood. The White Knight leaves peacefully, and Galahad knights Sir Melyas, who overheard the story. The two travel together until they see a fork in the road: One path leads easily to their destination, and the other leads to adventures. Melyas follows the dangerous path and finds himself wounded after battling for a golden crown. Galahad fights the other knight—who is actually a hermit—and wins without injuring the man. The hermit offers to heal Melyas now that he learned his lesson. Galahad continues his journey, finding many adventures. Eventually, he comes to the Enchanted Ship that awaits to take him, Percivale, and Bors to the Grail.
Book 3, Chapter 3 Summary: “The Adventures of Sir Percivale”
On his quest, Percivale jousts with Galahad, not recognizing the man’s new shield. Percivale becomes angry that an unknown knight could defeat him and chases after Galahad. He stops at a hermitage, where a holy Recluse reveals Galahad’s identity. The Recluse warns Percivale to stay pure of heart, which will allow him to find the Grail and his lost love Blanchefleur. When Percivale leaves he crosses a horde of 20 knights who all descend upon him, wounding him and slaying his horse. Galahad appears and defeats the horde, but he rides off before Percivale can thank him.
Percivale wanders the forests and meets a woman, who offers him a new horse. He mounts the huge horse, and the beast rides directly into a ferocious river. Percivale prays, and the horse bucks him off before drowning him. Percivale prays all night and in the morning sees a snake attack a lion. He saves the lion, and the lion follows Percivale to protect him on his journey. Percivale comes to the ocean shore, not knowing where to go next. There another woman finds him. She knows his quest and offers to help.
Percivale rests in the lady’s pavilion, where she gives him a great meal and sweet wine. She sings magical charms to trick Percivale into dedicating himself to her, but Blanchefleur’s memory and his prayers to God save him from her spell. A wind carries the lady across the sea and Percivale again prays through the night. Percivale’s sister, Dindrane, arrives with the Enchanted Ship. She allows Percivale to board to await the other knights.
Book 3, Chapter 4 Summary: “The Adventures of Sir Bors de Gannis”
Sir Bors meets Naciens the Hermit and asks how to find the Grail. Naciens houses Bors and teaches him the proper piety and virtuousness necessary to complete the quest. Bors leaves and has few adventures. He comes to a fork in the road and must decide between saving his brother Lionel—who is unarmed and under attack—and saving a woman from an evil knight. Not wanting to break his knightly oath, Bors prays for God to protect his brother while he saves the woman.
Bors overtakes the evil knight, defeats him, and escorts the woman back to her castle. The woman offers Bors a fine meal, a soft bed, and her love, but Bors—remembering Naciens’s teachings—remains humble in his feast and pure in his actions. At night, the damsel and her ladies bring Bors to a tower where they force him to accept the damsel or else they will all jump to their deaths. Unsure which to choose, Bors prays. When the moon shines, Bors finds the ladies and the castle mysteriously gone.
Continuing on, Bors finds Lionel alive and well at an abbey, but his brother seems possessed and demands that Bors fights him. Bors begs for mercy, but in his irrational state, Lionel tramples his kneeling brother with his horse. A monk shields Bors and Lionel strikes off his head. Before Lionel beheads Bors, Naciens banishes the evil that possesses the knight. Lionel stays at the abbey to do penance, and Bors continues his quest. At the coast, Bors finds the Enchanted Ship, meeting Percivale onboard. The two exchange stories and learn from Dindrane while they wait for Galahad.
Book 3, Chapters 1-4 Analysis
Merlin’s prophecies from Book 1 about the Holy Grail and Galahad coming to Camelot are realized in Book 3 Chapter 1, signifying the climactic moment of Logres. The text likens Galahad’s arrival to the coming of Jesus, as the inscription on Siege Perilous reads, “Four hundred and fifty and four years after the death of our Lord Jesus Christ this siege should be filled” (271). Galahad is the embodiment of perfect knightly virtue and piety, who arrives for the purpose of bringing glory to the citizens of Logres. Galahad’s pulling of the sword from the stone symbolizes his chosen destiny to find the Grail—a trial Merlin created back in Book 1 Chapter 2—and even the other knights know it is not their destiny to pull the sword. The moment of the Round Table’s completion is bittersweet for Arthur, as he knows at once that Logres is at the “highest hour” (278) of its glory while also knowing “never again will this full company be met together here” (279). These moments connect to the theme of fate, as Arthur and his knights bear witness to the foretold destiny of Logres.
Book 3, Chapter 2 develops the theme of British nationalism and mythological history through Galahad’s significance as a figure of legend, particularly through the shield he receives. The White Knight’s color identifier directly connects with his role as heavenly guide, as the white armor indicates his purity and holiness. The shield he allows Galahad to carry therefore is God-given. The shield is pure white with a red cross on it from the holy Joseph of Arimathea who “drew the cross upon it with his own blood” (284). England’s national flag has the same design—a white background with a stark red cross—so this story acts as a mythological history of the flag’s iconography. The text uses Galahad’s holiness, as shown through the shield only he can carry, as evidence of Britain’s history as a sacred, God-appointed realm.
Following the shift in Book 2 of quests of strength becoming quests of virtue, Book 3 separates the Grail Quest as a journey of devotion to God. As visualized in the crossroad Galahad and Melyas find, the path to the Grail is not about how many adventures a knight has, but it is about whether the knight can “trust ever in God” (286) to lead them the correct way—even if the way is unexciting. Galahad, Percivale, and Bors all receive advice about proper piety and devotion on their quests, such as from the Recluse who tells Percivale, “go forth […] in pureness of heart and in obedience to the law of Heaven” (289). This advice is different from the moral lessons of previous quests due to the explicit connection to Christian theology and the avoidance of sin. Whereas on the quests in Books 1 and 2 the knights learned how to keep to the Order of Chivalry, the Grail Quest teaches them how to properly serve God. The Enchanted Ship stands as a trial of their spirituality, as only the worthiest knights can board the holy vessel that brought Joseph of Arimathea to Britain.
On their solo quests, the knights learn to trust the guidance of God through prayer. Galahad’s trials are few—as he is already perfectly pious—but Bors and Percivale develop their godly devotion. When the horse tries to carry Percivale to Hell by drowning him in the river, he “[makes] the sign of the cross” (292) and asks God for help. Percivale prays the rest of the night in gratitude, and his devotion garners him help in the future when he is in danger again; he knows to cross himself, pray, and trust in God’s mercy. Percivale also witnesses a snake attacking a lion, which serves as an allegory for humans being bombarded by sin. When the lion looks to Percivale for help, Percivale understands how he similarly “would have perished miserably had [he] not called to God for help” (293).
Bors also learns to trust in God’s guidance and mercy, but his quest focuses on making decisions between two evils. Bors first must decide between letting his unarmed brother battle evildoers or letting a woman be vanquished by an evil knight, and then he must decide between breaking his oath of chastity or watching all the women of the castle die. Bors does not want to choose the lesser of two evils—as any decision would be committing a sin—so he “pray[s] for guidance and [makes] the sign of the cross” (302), trusting that God will aid him. In both events, a third path reveals itself: God saves the unarmed Lionel from harm and eviscerates the magic castle and its demon inhabitants. These events suppose that a solution can always be found if the knights look to God for help.
The motif of trials and temptations appears in each solo quest to test the men’s worthiness before boarding the Enchanted Ship. Galahad’s trial—which he easily overcomes—is the temptation of earthly glory. By choosing the correct path and maintaining pious focus, Galahad easily arrives to the Ship. Percivale experiences temptation in the woman’s pavilion; she offers him extravagant earthly pleasures, like “the finest meal that ever he had seen” and “the strongest wine that ever he had tasted” (294). Percivale overcomes the final temptation of the lady’s love by remembering his oath of chastity and loyalty, prompted by the sight of his sword that glowed “like a great shining crucifix” (295). Bors similarly meets with temptations of food, wine, and love, but he rejects all of them by following Naciens’s advice to remain humble. Both men find their way to the Enchanted Ship, proving they are able to overcome diverting earthly pleasures.
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