(1.3) “Galahad and the Grail” – The Dangerous Chair and the Adventurous Sword
(1.3) “Galahad and the Grail” – The Dangerous Chair and the Adventurous Sword.
Book One: ‘The Coming of Galahad’ (by “book” is meant a large section in this installment of Guite’s Arthuriad).
Stave Three: ‘The Siege and the Sword” (a “stave” is an old-fashioned term for the stanza of a poem, a verse in a song, or a chapter in a long story).
Why is Malcolm Guite retelling the King Arthur saga, no less in the form of English ballads? He has gone on record as saying… The KA mythical tales echo something real about sin, redemption, and the hope that was broken in us and in the world that can be made whole again… Every generation that asks good questions of King Arthur legends gets good answers… The modern world could use a resurrection of the ideal of chivalry and honor… Ancient myths and stories aren’t just relics of a pre-modern imagination, they are carriers of truth we’ve forgotten how to see with modern eyes… Legends like these don’t distract us from the real world, they reveal it… These stories restore the spiritual elements that have been shorn away, and they renew their deepest meaning. The English ballads were composed in a poetic form that were made to be sung or chanted out loud. They are rhythmic and musical, and one gets the sense that with ballads, “the poem on the page is lying asleep. And the job of the reader is to wake it up and breathe into its being by reciting it out loud, because that physicality of sound and breath and speech is what it’s made for… Above all, enjoy it. Poetry is meant to give pleasure.” It’s clear that composing this first installment of the King Arthur saga was a labor of love for Malcolm Guite, and that, as he put it, “This is the tale that makes my heart rejoice.”
Characters and Elements in this Chapter of Malcom Guite’s Retelling of the King Arthur Saga:
(1.) Whitsunday – This newest drama in Dr. Guite’s version of the Arthurian legend is in the context of the Feast of Pentecost. This celebration is historically considered one of the major feast days in the Christian church year, right up there with Easter and Christmas. Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit to Christ-followers after His Ascension into His heavenly realm. Whitsunday is simply another term for Pentecost and is an Old English term for “White Sunday.” Pentecost services in church were popular occasions to hold baptisms, and since those being baptized were traditionally dressed in white robes to represent purity, the term Whitsunday became used often enough as a parallel term for Pentecost.
(2.) A Feast for All – “And then they strode into the hall made ready for the feast, where Arthur was to welcome all, the greatest and the least.” King Arthur earnestly desired to celebrate this important feast day by reflecting what we see in Christ’s parable of the Great Feast in Luke 14:15-24… “Quick! Go out into the streets and alleys of the city; bring in the poor, the disfigured, the blind and the crippled! Then go out to the country roads and boundary walls, and insistently persuade people to come in, so that my house will be full!” Earlier in the story there was the beautiful phrase that Arthur hosted the feast with “royal hospitality.” So true.
(3.) The Siege Perilous – As soon as everyone entered the castle court, they noticed something new about the Round Table. It was customary that all the chairs around the Table were assigned seats and even had the knight’s names in gold to reveal the persons who were intended to sit there. But surprisingly, they all saw a vacant chair at the Table with no name at all, and instead had some rather ominous words written upon it in shining gold. Merlin, who had designed and built the Round Table way back when, had said earlier when he had set this unique chair at the Table that the knight who eventually claimed this chair would be the one who would be given the quest to “heal our lands and bring us health.” Merlin made sure everyone knew that this chair at the Table was reserved for one knight in particular, the Holy Knight, the Chosen One who alone was qualified because of his purity of heart. The Old French word for “seat” or “throne” was siege, so this term has come to mean “the Perilous Seat” or “the Seat of Danger.” And not only that, Merlin had said, but whoever was unworthy to sit in this reserved Perilous Seat but tried to claim it anyway would be instantly killed! Only the brave Lancelot was able to read the golden words on the Siege Perilous, and “with wonder on his face” he read aloud the words that it had been 450 years since the Lord’s Passion and His mission to heal the world, and that this chosen knight to come will fulfill the Seat’s destiny. As far as we know, no one ever tried to sit in this dangerous chair and so there is no report of a knight’ death after assuming that chair of danger was reserved for him.
(4.) The Quest – It is suggested strongly in this scene that there will soon be what has famously come to be known as a “Quest.” When understood as a very active verb, to quest is to engage in a long, difficult and adventurous journey that requires hard work in order to achieve a worthwhile goal or a valuable possession; to give oneself to a focused search, a single-minded pursuit, that frequently involves challenges, exploration, and personal growth; to invest personally in a prolonged endeavor in which the process is just as important as the product; to engage in a mission or expedition in an extensive search to discover something important. It won’t be long before the knights all embark on a special quest that will take them far away from Camelot.
(5.) The Sword of Adventure – As soon as the drama from the Siege Perilous had died down a bit, a squire announced that everyone including the king needed to come down to the dock by the riverside immediately to “see a wondrous thing.” And there in the river they all witnessed a marvel, a huge block of blood-red marble stone somehow floating instead of sinking, and sticking out of the marble was a “fair rich sword.” After pulling the marble to the dock, they read the gold lettering on the handle of the sword… “None shall ever draw me hence, save only him who’s called to wield me as a blade of light, to ride and set the world to right, and he shall be the purest knight, the greatest in the world.” King Arthur immediately spoke what was obvious to all standing there at the river… Lancelot, come on down! You’re my true and loyal friend and the greatest knight around, go ahead and pull that Sword of Adventure out of the marble. Well, for one thing, the reader already knows that Lancelot is not Arthur’s true and loyal friend whatsoever, because of his looming affair with Queen Guinevere, so he has disqualified himself in the search for the purest knight in the land. And then Sir Gawaine gave it a try and failed, and then the famous Sir Percival tried as well without success. It appears they gave up the futile exercise of locating the one chosen knight who is able to pull the Adventurous Sword out of the floating marble. So everyone simply shrugged their shoulders at this unexplainable mystery, and they all returned to the Pentecost feast in the castle hall. Perhaps they were all able to do what is so difficult for most of us… leave the mystery in God’s hands, trust that His will be accomplished, and keep moving forward so we can celebrate the Feast! The readers discover later that Merlin had magically put the knight’s sword into a huge slab of red marble and sent it floating downriver to Camelot, and decreed that only the best knight would be able to remove the sword from the marble. The suspense is building in the story for who would be worthy to not only sit in the Siege Perilous but also remove the Sword of Adventure from the floating marble. Let’s see what happens next, right?