When the time came, Galahad, who had dreamed of being a night, left his home at King Pelles’ castle. His mother was Elaine, Pelles’ daughter. Lancelot visited the castle one time, Elaine came to him in the evening, and he slept with her thinking that she was Guinevere. Galahad was their child, and in the hermitage he came to, he asked Lancelot to make him a night, which he did, neither knowing the relationship to the other. Shortly afterwards, at the feast of Pentecost, Galahad arrived at Camelot. Shortly before, a stone with a sword in it floated to the shore, along with a prophecy of warning. Lancelot demurred when Arthur asked him to try to pull it out, but several others tried and failed. Galahad’s arrival was accompanied by several wonderous signs, and he pulled the sword out.

The sword was the one that Balyn killed his brother with, after he had struck the dolorous blow (wounding Pelles with the holy spear with which the centurion Longinus had pierced the side of Christ). The result of the blow was that Pelles’ wound would not heal, and since the king was tied to the land, the land became a wasteland. Galahad recognized the sword, and recognized that he was the one to fulfill the prophecy of restoration. Then at the meal, the whole company briefly saw the Holy Grail, and all the knights who dared set off, alone, to seek the Grail.

However, only four knights were destined to come to the Grail: Galahad, Percivale, Sir Bors, and Lancelot. Galahad’s trial was to rescue a naiad whose well had been polluted by a knight who had defeated all other knights, so Galahad could have no expectation other than death, but he attempted anyway, and defeated the knight, finding him to have become all clockwork due to his consuming interest in industry and wealth. On his journey to Solomon’s ship he unseated Percivale and Lancelot, none of which recognized each other, and Galahad galloped away so that his opponents, obviously famous, would not be embarrassed by knowing who had bested them.

Percivale met Lancelot after many days and together they were challenged by Galahad. Lancelot, of course, responded immediately, and was easily unhorsed, defeated for the first time. Percivale attacked by sword and was wounded. He tried to follow Lancelot, but could not, and so he took the offer of a woman, who offered him a magic horse. The horse took off after Galahad at a crazy pace, and almost killed Galahad before he signed the cross and it disappeared. Going down towards the water, he found a snake wrapped around a lion killing it. He killed the snake, and the lion indicated that he should go towards the beach, and it protected him until they arrived, when it disappeared.

Sir Bors made it to the Grail party through purity: he resisted the temptation of helping his brother rather than a maiden in distress, the temptation of eating in celebration despite his vow of bread and water, and the temptation of making a very willing woman his. The last he crossed himself when, distressed, he did not know which way knightly courtesy required (he cannot accept the woman, but there were a bunch of maidens saying they would jump off the ledge of the castle’s tower if he did not, and he was supposed to help maidens); at the sign of the cross everything disappeared and it was revealed to be demonic temptations.

Lancelot’s trial, after being unhorsed, was to confess his sins (pride, the daliance with Elaine, loving Guinevere) to the hermit, and after he was able to do so, he found his heart softened and able to receive God’s love and return his love. Afterwards, he, along with the other three, independently were guided to the ship of Solomon, steered by Percivale’s sister Dindrane.

Dindrane had also wanted to be a great knight, although of course that was impossible. Yet she was giving a noble quest of her own. Through prophetic dreams she saw that she would be the one that would guide the knights to the castle of the Holy Grail, which could not be reliably found. From the hermit Nacien she learned how to pray and keep vigil, and also to study the creatures in nature, so that she would be able to call them. When she was well practiced, Nacien told her to call the ship that Solomon had made for this time, and it came to her. Then the ship sailed and she picked up the four knights, and they sailed west, coming to an island where they found the White Hart, and through mystical perception, also saw it to be Jesus. After this, they had to cross a magic one-way bridge which took them back to land.

Continuing, they came to a castle, where Dindrane freely gave her blood for the healing of the princess there, but then bled to death. They came on a wounded knight fleeing a pursuer, and of course Lancelot took off to save the wounded knight, which he did, and Galahad sadly blessed his father, saying it was good to ride a while with him. Lancelot brought the knight to a small nunnery, where the sisters tended the knight and brought Lancelot a letter from Elaine. She had died taking a boat in following her son, and left a letter for Lancelot, blessing him, and telling him that her boat would take him to the Grail castle. This it did, and Lancelot was allowed to see the Grail through the open side door of the chapel, but not allowed to go in. When the priest lifted the Grail, it turned into the person of Christ, but Lancelot, seeing only with earthly eyes, thought that this would surely be too heavy a burden for the priest and charged in to help him. Disaster resulted, and Lancelot, ruing that everything he did was wrong, took the ship back and brought a message of what had happened to Arthur’s court.

Galahad, Sir Bors, and Percivale arrived at the Wasteland. It was filled with a soul-sucking absence of life, and noxious air. They came to a dry well, and needing water for themselves and their horses, Galahad sung a song and persuaded the naiad that they had come to restore the land. She was able to briefly restore the waters of her well, and water the Oak, (Haw)Thorn, and Ash trees. They water the horses first, of course, then drank. The three trees gave each of the three knights a gift, which each used to repel demonic attacks. After the attacks, they came to a castle with open doors and writing over the walls saying that their death awaited. The other two would have left, but Galahad said that the tree that gave him the gift also prophesied that he would need to go through this door. So they did, and it closed behind them, leaving them in total darkness. A voice jeered at them. Galahad regretted his decision as they could find no way to get back out the doors, but after a while Sir Bors realized that the prophecy did not say to go back out, but through, and they found the postern gate and exited that way.

Then they came to the Grail castle. There they achieved the Quest, and saw the Grail. “Seeing” the Grail was to also perceive that the Grail was Christ, which happened during Mass, when Christ made himself into bread and wine for them to eat. Galahad was able to perceive better than the others, and only he saw that when the Grail rose by itself to start the procession back out, it was Jesus who carried it. The king was healed, and Percivale was made the heir of Pelles and given his long-awaited love Blanchefleur to marry. Galahad, saying this his days were ended, stepped onto the Solomon’s ship. They say Christ give Galahad the Grail, but only Galahad saw him enter the below-decks where Dindrane’s body had been laid. He raised took her by the hand, and she stood up, alive. Then Christ made himself bread and wine, she took communion, as well as Galahad’s kiss of marriage (for they had known each other to be their true love when they first met). Then they put the Grail on the prow and sailed out of the world into heaven, where the Grail shone like a star. Sir Bors was the only one left to return to Camelot and report that the quest for the Holy Grail had been achieved, and to tell Lancelot that his son had done it.

Macolm Guite has written a really interesting version of the Galahad cycle. The structure is similar to the Iliad, whether by accident or design: a call to sing, then a brief introduction to the situation, tales of a individuals, and finally the events leading to the resolution. The characters are mostly warriors, too, although here the exploration is what purity looks like for a man of arms, while the Iliad portrays the urge for courageous glory but suggests that the price might be too high. In Guite’s book, the knight who seeks courageous glory succeeds the least, and it is only by repentance and humility that he even is able to see the Grail. Success here is through overcoming temptation by prayer and trust in Christ.

Guite has also included a female knightly tale, through the quest of Percivale’s sister. Tolkien apparently added Eowyn, a valkyrie of Rohan, when his daughter pointed out that there were no women in his story. Guite seems to have taken a similar approach, but wove Dindrane into an essential element of the story. She does not rescue from danger by force of arms, of course. Instead, through prophetic insight, deep understanding of the world, and faith in Christ to lead her, she guides each of the knights, and also is essential in procuring the boat necessary to bring them to the second part of the quest. In the end, she becomes a picture of Christ through her willing sacrifice of her life for the healing of another. Guite paints a portrait of a heroism that is distinctly feminine. She could be seen to be the “helpmate” to the knights, yet helper here is shown as anything but the subordinate role that contemporary culture assumes it to be.

The poetry flows very well, and the ballad form, inspired by “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, has an easy lilt and a steady rhyme, while not overdoing it. There are the occasional lines where the rhythm was off; compared to Lattimore’s Iliad where this seems to never happen, it felt like Guite had not spent as much time as he could, although perhaps it highlight’s Lattimore’s genius and obsessiveness. Still, Guite maintains a good balance between poetic structure, plot, and poetic insight, in a form that is accessible to everyone yet also with the rhyme that is the default expectation of poetry in English. It is definitely well done.

My only criticism is that the plot and character development is somewhat shallow. Perhaps part of it is that Guite is simply following his source material (the Caxton version of Mallory), but I thought there was a lot of poetic verbiage compared to the plot elements, which were quickly told. Each temptation or difficulty was generally one or two stanzas, and since the victory is so rapid, the reader feels little tension. There also seemed to be an element of amazing-young-people-win-the-victory, while the grizzled old guys get a participation award and go back to Camelot. For feats of arms I can buy that—although the grizzled old guy with less raw strength but with masterful technique is a guy to be feared—but I have yet to see a 20-year-old who is mature enough to achieve the Grail. Even Jesus was 30 before starting his Grail quest. This is probably all in the source material, which I have not read, but some adjustments here would be welcome.

The strength is in the mystical aspects. There is clearly more going on here than just the events, even during the relatively light first part. By the end, it has gone from poetic insight to descriptions of mystical experiences. The White Hart is seen to be Christ, but never changes form. The Grail, also, is Christ, yet not physically, as Lancelot’s physical interpretation leads him to disobedience. Christ “makes himself bread and wine”, he both is the Grail but holds the Grail. These are just the fairly overt references; there is some quality about it that makes you feel like you need to read it again because you missed something, but cannot even articulate what it is.

I think there is a strong, Schmemann-type sacramental perspective, by which I mean his definition that a sacrament is that which enables a participatory knowing of God, or even the less strong perspective of sacrament as a window through which we perceive the divine. I think another reading is necessary to verify this, but certainly the suggestion that “achieving the Grail” is not a physical arrival, but a mystical experience whereby the Grail is perceived as Christ, or even where we perceive Christ in the taking of bread and wine of Communion. Of course, clearly perceiving God in the world is usually an experience that is clearly real, yet the physical thing which began the experience is also clearly irrelevant. And yet, you must maintain your hold on the physical thing, since it is mediating the experience by means its connection as the source of the thoughts which God energized. Guite’s poetry is the first thing I have come across which conveys some element of this. (Although I am unconversant with poetry; perhaps the Romantic poets manage something similar.)

This is only the second time I have read anything about King Arthur since I was a kid. That first introduction was a fairly voluminous version (pink and green cover with a castle, in my memory), but I came away thinking that Robin Hood (probably the Pyle version) was way more interesting. The setting of knights of Camelot sounded interesting, but the quests did not seem to do much. Guite’s explanation that Camelot and medieval courtly love was a way of trying to imagine what a holy warrior looks like explains my reaction. I still think that there’s way to much pietism going on and not enough adventure, but at least Guite includes the mystical element. Of course, as a child, mysticism would have gone right over my head, and as a Baptist, all the Eucharistic references would have gone over my head as well. Guite does a good job of trying to keep some actual adventure in a story that is really a mystical commentary. A very good read, and with a lot of beautiful artwork as well. Even if you are not enthused about Camelot, practising Christians will find a lot to appreciate here.