Week 13 Reading Notes: King Arthur Part B

 Original Story from King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang. Source.

King Arthur (1903) by Howard Pyle. Source.

King Arthur's knights of the round table decided to search for the Holy Grail, which left the kingdom unattended and weakened.

King Arthur took a pilgrimage to St. Augustine and experienced a glimpse of holiness with singing and light. However, Arthur decided to be inspired to become a better man and better king.

The Holy Graal suddenly appears in Camelot's halls briefly. While the King is glad to have experienced a bit of its wonder, all the other knights want to search for it so shirk their duties in order to bring themselves honor. They vow to find it, and vows cannot be broken. King Arthur and the entire court is disheartened that the knights of the Round table are disbanded.

Sir Galahad is a perfect knight. In his quest to obtain a shield, he comes across an Evil dead man who cannot use his powers on Galahad because, "'I see about thee so many angels that my power dare not touch thee."' He is the son of Sir Lancelot and Elaine of Corbenic. (Elaine raped Lancelot by pretending to be his lover Queen Guinevere, also known as King Arthur's WIFE. Sir Galahad was conceived because of foreknowledge of his maternal grandfathert that he would become the greatest knight ever. Yet, Galahad also shirks duties by searching for the holy graal.

Sir Lancelot can not get close to the Holy graal in the old chapel because his sins are heavy and weigh him down. (Sins of worldly adventures for worldly desires. He tries to search for the Holy graal as if it is a worldly thing.) The holy graal heals another old knight.

Seige perlious to be sat by the knight who finds the Holy Graal.

Knight of a King to the Knight of God transition? Earthly, sinful knights are weak compared to heavenly, righteous knights.

Half of the Knights of the Round Table are killed in the Quest for the Holy Graal. Sir Lancelot goes back to Camelot after seeing his son, but Galahad continues the quest.

Galahad had a vision with the Holy Graal and sees much more joy in eternal life in Heaven compared to life on Earth. Galahad becomes prays to go to Heaven already, so he dies.

Morderd, Arthur's son and nephew, plots to kill Arthur. Arthur is wounded, Excalibur is returned to the lake it came from (despite one knight's plans to keep Excalibur for himself). Arthur sails to Avalon to be healed but is as good as dead to the mortal world. Guenevere becomes a nun and reject's any further affair with Lancelot (funny how she respects marital fidelity when her husband is dead compared to when he was alive). Lancelot also dies later. The end.

Retelling Ideas:

Lancelot was tricked into sleeping with Elaine, so how can sucha union be the prophetic conditions for the greatest knight who ever lived. Also, How was Galahad the greatest knight who ever lived if he decided to stop helping people when he was young to go to heaven a few decades earlier?

Kign Arthur tells the knights to care for their people more! Help their fellow men instead of mudering people to find the Holy Graal.