(3.4) “Galahad and the Grail” – The Castle and the Custom

(3.4) “Galahad and the Grail” – The Castle and the Custom (this article is in process and incomplete at this time)

Book Three: “The Achievement of the Grail“ (by “book” is meant a large section in this installment of Guite’s Arthuriad).

Stave Three: “The Castle and the Custom” (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.”

The Chapter’s Storyline, Part 1: So the five questers of the Grail… Dindrane, Lancelot, Galahad, Percivale and Sir Bors… have crossed the enchanted bridge after departing the magical island, traveling from a mysterious land to their more natural world. After crossing the bridge, they looked back, and the bridge had disappeared. Galahad, the group’s usual pillar of faith then says, “Now we must turn and take what God may send. He granted us a little while the gift of vision on that isle, to lift for us the mortal veil, to see Him and ourselves so well that no deceit nor scheme of hell might cloud what the four Gospels tell us: Our Savior is our friend.” May we all be able to lift the veil of our imagination as we walk the life of faith in God.

The Story Continues: They soon came upon a tall castle just as a loud horn blared. As the castle gate opened, ten armored knights rode aggressively out through the gates and toward the questers. Lancelot fearlessly told the knight to stand their ground, and the captain of this group asked if this maiden Dindrane was a virgin. Dindrane refused to cooperate with this captain, so the captain leaned over his horse, grabbed Dindrane by the hair, and demanded that she come with him and his knights into the castle to fulfill an unexplained custom. Percivale, Dindrane’s brother, immediately pushed the captain away from her, telling him that the code of chivalry demands courtesy, and that virgin maidens are considered holy and thus have free passage. Percivale reminded the captain that they are required to honor Dindrane or face the consequences. As this standoff continued, another troop of knights emerged from this castle, and this new group of knights were guarding a young woman who was carrying a strange silver dish. The captain then explained that every virgin that passed by the castle must drip her blood into this dish or their weeping maiden would die. So this was the mysterious custom of the castle.

The Custom of the Castle: The four honorable Knights of the Round Table formed a circle around Dindrane and told the captain, “Over our dead bodies! Anyone laying a hand on Dindrane will not live to tell the tale!” So the four knights fought off one wave of knights after another, until an apparently noble knight in golden armor sounded a silver horn and yelled out with authority, “Stop! There is a good reason for this strange custom. Please enter my castle and you will learn the secret. I guarantee you safe passage.” Incredibly, it was Dindrane who encouraged the questers to trust this golden knight, enter the castle, and learn the secret of this custom. After an adequate meal together inside the castle, all of them were taken to a beautiful chamber which contained a bed being used by a pale-faced maiden who looked as if she was at death’s door. It turns out that this beloved lady was the victim of an evil witch’s dark spell, and only the pure blood of a holy virgin will break the spell, heal her, and bring her back to life.  The golden knight sadly explained that many maidens had passed by his castle, spilled their blood into the dish, but have not been able to heal his bewitched maiden. He went on to explain that only a voluntary sacrifice will heal his lady, not blood that had been spilled by force. “All healing works from our free will, blood must be freely given. From the compassion of the heart must flow the sacred healer’s art, freely to take another’s part. That is the way of heaven.” 

The Pure Sacrifice: Dindrane then declared that it was God’s will that she be the one to offer her blood for the life of this innocent bewitched maiden. “I am a follower of Christ, who gave His blood in sacrifice to heal us all.” And then she uncovered her arm and offered it for the cut that would draw her own precious blood. Her brother Percivale, of course, was profoundly objecting and continued to cry  out in protest of her plan. He was alarmed at the thought of their not being able to stop the flow of blood from Dindrane’s arm. She bravely stood her ground, saying she might be the only one who is able to undo the witch’s spell. So the sharp knife did its work on her arm, and her blood began to flow into the silver dish until it was completely filled with Dindrane’s blood. Sure enough, the wicked spell was broken, the lady was healed, but Dindrane started to fade since her blood would not stop flowing from her arm. The healed maiden wept in gratitude as Dindrane lay dying. Dindrane spoke quietly into the maiden’s ear, whispering, “I know I have not lived in vain. So bless others if you can.” Galahad wept with all the other knights and ladies, uttering the truth that Christ has promised they will meet with her again. Her dying words were that she trusts in Christ alone. “Remember me in all your prayers. Commend me to my Savior fair and to His sacrifice. I go in confidence that my soul was bought at a great price, and though I leave this life on earth, I do not fear the touch of death.” She then gave herself to Christ as she breathed her final breaths.

The Chapter’s Conclusion… Laying Her to Rest. The four devastated Knights of the Grail made a silken trestle strewn with roses to carry Dindrane’s body to the enchanted ship that mysteriously sailed into the harbor. They bitterly wept in grief and sorrow as they bid her farewell and witnessed the ship sailing into the mystical sea towards its unknown destination.

The True Myth of Blood Sacrifice. Ancient stories about sacrificing a pure virgin to appease an angry god or to break an evil spell has come down to us through the centuries from basically every culture. Somehow this disturbing idea has captured the imagination of people seemingly forever, that only the blood of a pure maiden could heal someone who was bewitched or cursed. And to our horror the idea of blood sacrifice wasn’t limited to pure virgins, but also to innocent children or to heroic men whose blood was considered sufficiently pure. As with so many of these ancient myths, there is a good reason why they are so deeply entrenched in the human imagination… some of these fictional myths hint at a real truth. Some of these ideas continue to haunt or entertain or befuddle us because they point to something real, suggesting the possibility that the idea may find fulfillment somehow, at some point. In this case with Dindrane’s pure blood sacrifice healing an innocent lady by breaking an evil spell, this story in the King Arthur saga points to its fulfillment in the truth of the Son of God’s pure blood sacrifice that broke Satan’s evil spell infused into mankind. We all were cursed, needed to have the curse broken, and only the blood of Jesus Christ could accomplish that. Just as only Dindrane’s blood could bring the innocent maiden back to life, only Jesus’s blood can overpower the devil’s curse and renew us to life again. Some thoughts on the Scarlet Thread of blood running through history:

1. Pre-History of Blood. “The precious blood of Christ, who like a spotless and unblemished lamb was sacrificed for us, a part of God’s plan. For Christ was chosen and destined for this before the foundation of the earth was laid!” (1 Peter 1:18-20). The history of blood in the Bible actually begins with a pre-history, a beginning that occurred even before creation. Creator God knew before the first official day that a sacrifice would have to be made in order to restore what was inevitable… a broken relationship between Creator and created. God loved creation so much that He was planning our redemption before there was even the first sin. God had a divine plan in place before He invented blood, and sure enough, blood was at the center of His plan. Innocent blood would have to be spilled for the guilty. God put into place His destiny for Christ, who “was slaughtered before the world was founded.’” (Rev. 13:8). Of course, we are confronted here with a deep, impenetrable mystery: that Jesus was somehow slain outside of time. When God put this plan into play before the foundation of the world, He said it’s as good as done. So, incomprehensibly, the Cross is an eternal event. The Cross has been somehow in the continuous present before there was even the presence of time itself.
2. The Crimson Tsunami. “According to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood…” (Hebrews 9:22). The scarlet thread that is sewn into Holy Scripture from beginning to end is unmistakable. There is no doubt whatsoever that the Bible is blood-centric, that there is an overriding theme of blood wherever we look. We don’t need to be super-detectives to discover blood patterns in the Word. The Scripture seems practically preoccupied with blood, and one could be excused for observing that God seems to be out for blood. We find out why this is the case in Leviticus 17:11 and 13… “The life of all flesh is in its blood. The life is in the blood.” The Word of God seems preoccupied with blood only because God is preoccupied with life. God is out for blood only in the sense that He is out for Life. The Bible is blood-centric only because God is life-centric. In fact, the term “scarlet thread” is not strong enough. Instead, the Bible has a powerful crimson tsunami flowing through its pages from Genesis through Revelation, from before creation to the New Creation.
3. The Miracle of Human Blood. The tangible reality of human blood suggests the sanctity of blood in the spiritual world. We depend on human blood for our physical survival, and we depend on Christ’s blood for our spiritual survival. Human blood is a glorious, miraculous fact of physical life: Blood is the fluid in our body that transports live-giving oxygen and nutrition to our lungs and body tissues; it promotes clotting and thus prevents tragic blood loss; it carries disease-fighting antibodies and develops our immune system; it carries away waste products to the kidneys and liver and so is vital to cleansing our body and blood; it brings chemical hormones to give directions to our body; it regulates our body temperature. Human blood takes only 30 seconds to travel from the heart through the body and back to the heart. The average adult human body contains about 1.3 gallons of blood, roughly 8% of our body weight. The average adult heart pumps 1.5 million barrels of blood through a circulatory system of over 100,000 miles of blood vessels. If we stretched one person’s blood vessels end-to-end, it would circle the earth two and a half times over!

“Many daughters have done well, with the strength of character that is steadfast in goodness, but you excel them all… A woman who reverently and worshipfully fears the Lord in wonder and awe, she shall be honored and praised!” (Proverbs 31:29-31, Amplified Version).

Who is this ‘Capable Woman’ in Proverbs 31: “She is a woman who is attentive to herself and to those around her. Her heart is bound up in the well-being of others. She is creative and resourceful, and she radiates beauty in her own unique way. She cares for herself, but she knows she is more than just a physical body; she emanates this beauty from her soul as well, in servitude and in love. She is fully aware of her place in the plan of God, seizing each moment with intention. This practical and spiritual woman aligns her thoughts, body and actions for the sake of heaven. She approaches life with fortitude and presses forth despite obstacles. She might be single, she might be married; she might work in the home, she might be a corporate executive; she might be a teenager or a grandmother. Whoever she is, she is the woman who strives to live a full life of service to God.” (Dr. David Stern, Bible scholar and translator, from his notes in his “Complete Jewish Study Bible“).

A Woman’s Daily Martyrdom. What a life-sacrifice might look like now in the current culture of death… Any woman willing to sacrifice personal achievement and career to marry and raise a family; any woman willing to sacrifice her personal independence and individual autonomy to marry a man, join with him, and become as one; any woman willing to resist the pull of the culture to disregard the sanctity of the unborn child; any woman willing to live into being made in God’s image and not the image of society; any woman who has willingly surrendered to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in her quest for life’s meaning purpose; any woman who follows Jesus into her decisions regarding fertility and sexuality.