(2.1) “Galahad and the Grail – The Silver Shield (this post is in process and incomplete at this time)
(2.1) “Galahad and the Grail” – The Silver Shield. (this post is in process and incomplete at this time)
Book Two: “Adventures of the Quest“ (by “book” is meant a large section in this installment of Guite’s Arthuriad).
Stave One: “The Silver Chair” (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.) Quest – As a noun, a quest is an intense and single-minded search for something important. When understood as a very active verb in the context of knighthood, 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. In this chapter the knights all embark on a special quest that will take them far away from Camelot.
(2.) Galahad – “… the gentle knight without a shield.” The two supposed bodyguards of young Galahad on this Quest, Sir Percivale and Sir Bors, were apparently not up to the job, because the first thing we see in this chapter is Galahad riding along in the middle of nowhere all by himself. Galahad isn’t troubled in the least, however, as he comes along to an old abbey, where he is warmly welcomed by the monks there. Galahad immediately finds two other guests in the same abbey who turn out to be fellow knights of the Round Table, who have heard of the mysterious Silver Shield guarded in the abbey’s chapel.
(3.) The Silver Shield – This particular has quite the history. It was brought to Britain by the legendary Joseph of Arimathea 400 years earlier and been guarded in this abbey ever since. It is made of silver so purely refined that whoever looks upon it sees clearly his own perfect reflection “… in and through the cross – a fair red cross on silver graved, the emblem of the Lord who saved the lost and fallen whom He loved, whose love redeems all loss.” . In the middle of this shining silver shield is that bright red cross that was drawn by Joseph in his own blood as he lay dying. The Silver Shield has been waiting all these years for the chosen one, the one greatest knight who alone is worthy to bear it up and use it for the sake of healing the land. Anyone unworthy of this shield who tries to use it will only come to grief, with bad consequences soon to follow for that person.
FYI: The Silver Refining Process. The Silver Shield was no doubt refined the perfect seven times. The process looked like this back in the day: The refiner’s goal is to remove the dross from precious metals like silver through a fire’s intense heat. The refiner’s fire does not consume the silver, it does not destroy anything that is worthwhile or precious in the metal. The fire is completely constructive and purposeful, and results in perfectly pure and highly valuable silver. Dross is an old word that means impurities, foreign objects, waste materials, worthless and unwanted substances imbedded within the metal. Dross is anything that is keeping the precious metal from being completely pure. The process looks like this:
- The refiner places the silver ore into an intensely heated furnace at 1,800 degrees F.;
- When the metal reaches the needed temperature, the refiner adds oxygen by blowing air over the molten metal, usually by a refiner’s bellows;
- As the metal melts down, the dross rises to the top surface of the molten metal;
- The refiner either blows the dross off of the surface or scrapes it off before it cools;
- The more this process is repeated, the purer the silver becomes, until it literally has a glowing light. Usually, two or three repetitions are enough. When silver is refined one time in a furnace, it is fairly pure. At its 7th refining, it is utterly and unquestionably pure of any impure, harmful or foreign matter. This reminds us of the psalmist David’s mention of this process in Ps. 12:6: “Every word God speaks is sure and every promise is pure. His truth is tested, found to be flawless, and ever faithful. It’s as pure as silver refined 7 times.” Seven is the Biblical number that represents perfection, completeness, wholeness, fulfillment, finished.
(4.) The Foolish Knight – One of those other knights, known as Sir Bagdemagus, foolishly seized the Silver Shield even though he knew he was not the greatest knight and therefore unworthy of it. He arrogantly took it up and rode away with it until meeting up with a mysterious knight who seemed to appear out of thin air, completely covered in glowing white armor.
(5.) The White Knight – This strange, otherworldly knight suddenly appeared, “… and all around him shone a light that glittered on the dew.” The foolish knight challenged the white knight and soon regretted it as the imposter found himself wounded and helpless on the ground. The knight’s squire was instructed to take Bagdemagus back to the abbey to recover from his injurie, and to tell Galahad to claim this Silver Shield for himself, that he was destined to bear the shield in his quest for the Holy Grail and the healing of the land. And the white knight added another message, to tell Galahad to meet him in the morning with the silver shield, then closing his instructions with the beautiful word… “for Love is a refining fire where all must be revealed.” When the squire asked the name of the White Knight, the knight responded rather mysteriously… “No earthly man may know my name, a wild white knight whom none can tame. I do not seek for earthly fame…”
FYI: The Nameless One – The White Knight’s response to the squire in refusing to reveal his name reminds us of an awesome scene in the Hebrew Bible after the heavenly birth announcement of Samson to his parents: “And Samson’s father asks the Angel of Yahweh, ‘What is your name, that we may honor you when your words come true?’ The Angel replied, ‘Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding. It is a name of wonder.” (Judges 13:17-18).
(6.) Galahad – On receiving the White Knight’s momentous words from the squire, Galahad immediately realized that he needed to commit his ways to the Lord, so he went to the abbey’s chapel and kept an all-night prayer vigil, “… and all night by the altar white he kept his vigil true. And through the chapel windows there the bright moon shone both full and fair, and filled the incense-scented air with glimmerings, and in his prayer young Galahad saw visions rare and felt more than he knew.”