Did They Ever Get The Grail?

Both historical and modern literature are filled with telling after retelling of Arthurian myth. These stories have shaped much of what we imagine a knight is or should act like. But a central point in the varying stories of the Knights of the Round Table is an impossible task: the quest for the Holy Grail. Did they ever obtain it? Yes, and no.

Sir Percival

Historically, the first knight written as worthy enough to find the grail was Percival, also spelled Perceval. Written in the 12th century by Chretien de Troyes, this story describes Percival as a young man raised by his mother alone in the woods until, at the age of 15, he meets a group of traveling knights. Wholeheartedly impressed, Percival decides to become a knight himself. He then sets off for Camelot and proves his might by killing a wicked knight who had been troubling the court, despite the taunting of another Round Table knight called Sir Kay.

Percival then trains and adventures before deciding to go back and visit his mother. On his journey, he comes across a king fishing in a boat who invites him to his castle. It's here that he witnesses an ethereal procession where young men and women carry legendary objects from room to room, including a bleeding lance, a candelabra, and finally, a grail. Percival, who had been taught that it was more polite not to talk too much, said nothing throughout the whole ceremony. But in the morning, he encounters a crying girl who tells him that if only he had asked about the grail, the wounded king would have been healed.

The story as written by Chretien de Troyes was never finished, but other authors later took up the tale and continued or changed it in various ways.

Sir Galahad

The other knight most associated with the Holy Grail is Sir Galahad, the illegitimate son of Lancelot and a lady named Elaine of Corbenic. Once an adult, his father knights Galahad and takes him to King Arthur's court. When they reach the Round Table, an elder knight shows Galahad a sacred chair at the table, called the Siege Perilous. Whoever sits there without perishing is the sole person who can succeed in the quest for the Holy Grail. Galahad sits down and survives. Arthur sees this miracle and takes Galahad to a river where a sword is stuck in a stone. Galahad, like Arthur before him, withdraws the sword and passes the test with ease, proving, above all, that he is pure of heart and fated to be the one who finds the Grail. A vision of it appears to Arthur's whole court, and all the knight set out to find it.

Galahad travels alone or with two knights called Percival (a different version of the Percival from earlier versions of the legend) and Bors. Percival's sister takes them by boat to a distant shore where they come to the court of King called Pelles. The Grail is in a room in his castle, and Galahad is finally allowed to see what he has been searching for all this time. Pelles asks Galahad to return the Grail to the mystical island of Sarras, and he agrees, but on one condition: that he, Galahad, may die at his hour of choosing. After taking the Grail to Sarras and on their way back to Arthur's court, Galahad is visited by an angel and, overwhelmed by the glory, wishes to be taken to heaven. After that, the Holy Grail is never seen again, and no knight since has had the right combination of purity and destiny to find it again.

Stories Yet to be Told

Mystery and fate surround every legend concerning the Grail. And while a knight may find it and see it, it is never known in full or fully owned by the knights questing for it. But ancient stories left open or ambiguous give room for new imaginings and interpretations. It's through this that the legends of King Arthur's knights live on and evolve even to this day.