- Galahad
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/gal"euh had'/, n.1. Sir, Arthurian Romance. the noblest and purest knight of the Round Table, son of Lancelot and Elaine: gained the Holy Grail.2. a man showing devotion to the highest ideals.
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In Arthurian legend, the pure knight who achieved a vision of God through the Holy Grail.The illegitimate son of Lancelot and the princess Elaine, he alone was worthy to sit in the Siege Perilous at the Round Table, reserved for the one destined to succeed in the quest for the Grail. Unlike his father, who was given to earthly and adulterous love, Galahad was chaste and filled with spiritual fervour. By finding the Grail, he healed the Fisher King and brought fertility back to the land. He appears in many Arthurian romances, notably in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur. See also Perceval.* * *
▪ legendary knightthe pure knight in Arthurian romance, son of Lancelot du Lac and Elaine (daughter of Pelles), who achieved the vision of God through the Holy Grail. In the first romance treatments of the Grail story (e.g., Chrétien de Troyes's 12th-century Conte du Graal), Perceval was the Grail hero. But during the 13th century a new, austerely spiritual significance was given to the Grail theme, and a new Grail winner was required whose genealogy could be traced back to the House of David in the Old Testament. Galahad was, moreover, made the son of Lancelot so that an achievement inspired by earthly love (Lancelot inspired by Guinevere) could be set in contrast to that inspired by heavenly love (Galahad inspired by spiritual fervour). This theological version of the Grail story appeared in the Queste del Saint Graal (“Quest for the Holy Grail”), which forms part of the Prose Lancelot, or Vulgate cycle. The Queste shows signs of strong Cistercian influence, and similarities can be seen between it and the mystical doctrines of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. See also Grail.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
