Siege Perilous - An excerpt

Each year, the Knights of the Round Table gathered at Camelot for the Feast of Pentecost, five Sundays after Easter. Here they related their greatest deeds and marvels. Each year, however, their company remained incomplete, for the last place at table remained empty. According to custom, each year, their names were written in gold for them to take their correct seat at table. But this one year, they found a new name written above the empty chair, denoting the words Siege Perilous. They covered this with a silk cloth to hide the words so the rightful knight would not see them and be deterred from joining them at table. Suddenly, an old man entered Camelot’s grand hall accompanied by an unarmed youth. He carried only an empty scabbard. The old man led the boy to be seated at the a table beside Lancelot. Lifting the silk cloth from the chair, all knights saw the lettering had changed to This is the siege of Galahad, the haut Prince. The boy took the seat and the old man left the hall. The knights whispered as they discussed how a boy could possibly take this exceptional seat on King Arthur’s Round Table in Camelot’s grand hall, but Lancelot recognised that this youth was Galahad, his son, and that the prophecy would be fulfilled. 

    The following day, Arthur led Galahad to a lake where his knights had discovered a sword set in stone. The sword was inscribed with lettering that stated only the best and highest knight could pull it from the stone. Sir Gawain and Sir Percival both tried and failed. Galahad easily pulled it clear and the sword was placed into his empty scabbard, a perfect fit. 

     Galahad acquitted himself at the jousts, but did not fight Lancelot nor Percival. That night, as all the knights gathered at the Round Table, a crack of thunder shook the hall. A great light appeared, filling the knights with the grace of the Holy Ghost. They looked fairer but were unable to speak. As their eyes became accustomed to the bright light, they saw a dish, covered by white silk, and all kinds of delicious food and drink. As suddenly as the vision came, it disappeared. Gawain stated he would be the first to search for this; the other knights made similar promises, but Arthur was silent. He recalled the prophecies of Merlin, that his brave knights would go on the search but never return, and the Round Table would be decimated forever. 

     

The quest continued for many years, and the knights searched the land, receiving many extraordinary adventures. Lancelot rode hard for many years and saw the Grail at Carboner Castle in an extraordinary dreamlike experience, with music and green light, a silver table upon which the grail had been placed under red silk. As he reached out to touch it, he was thrown to the ground by unseen hands and spent 25 days in his bedchamber unable to move. But it was Galahad who was destined to fulfil the prophecy with his astounding bravery and knightly skills. After meeting Sir Bors and Sir Perceval,  they rode to Castle Carboner where King Pellas and his son invite them to dine and a bishop conducts mass where Galahad receives the host. There was an extraordinary vision of a Christlike man with great wounds, yet the next day, all three knights are aboard a ship. They took the grail and its table to the city of Sarras where they partook of the host in the mass said for them by the bishop. There they met the son of Joseph of Arimathea. Galahad knew that he was not long for this world and died in the arms of angels who took him and the grail to heaven. Perceval fails to achieve the grail due to his reluctance to ask questions. 

Arthurian Myth & Legend - An A - Z of People and Places by Mike Dixon-Kennedy