Morte D'Arthur - end of the Grail quest

[Bruce N H]

Hi all,

I'm re-reading Morte and re-listening to the Mythgard Academy classes. In session 30 we were finishing up the Grail quest. Corey notes that it feels like the quest comes to a conclusion when Galahad, Percival, and Bors "came to the castel of Carbonek / And whan they were entryd within the Castel kynge Pelles knewe hem / thenne there was grete Ioye / For they wyst wel by theire comynge that they had fulfylled the quest of the Sancgreal" And they celebrate the mass (along with nine other knights, and the maimed king is healed. They have enchieved the Grail.

But.

Then they have a few more adventures. Our three heroes then take the Grail with them and go off on a ship. They come to the city of Sarras, where they find, and bury, the body of Percival's sister, and there are also some miracles, but "Thenne the kynge was a Tyraunt / and was come of the lyne of paynyms / and toke hem / and putte hem in pryson in a depe hole" - they are imprisoned by the evil pagan king of the city. "BVt as soone as they were there oure lord sente hem the Sancgreal / thorow whoos grace they were al waye fulfylled whyle that they were in pryson" - So for a year they were in prison, but the Grail came to them and provided for them. Eventually the evil king lets them out and they forgive him and the king dies, and after a while of being king Galahad dies and goes to Heaven.

I actually think this whole bit is an extended allegory of the Christian life on at least two levels. I think the point is that the moment of receiving Christ (i.e. enchieving the Grail and receiving mass at King Pellas' castle) isn't the end of the story. Instead the Christian takes up his cross daily (they take the grail with them on the ship) in a world dominated by sin, death, and the devil (the evil king). But even through this tribulation (imprisonment) they are sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit and/or through communion (the Grail comes to them in prison and provides for them) until the end of their lives/final entry to Heaven. Instead of looking at this as the story of the individual Christian, this could also be read as the story of the Church ever since the Day of Pentecost - persecuted in the world but sustained by the Spirit until the Second Coming. Maybe the city of Sarras is the parallel to the City of Man in the whole City of God/City of Man dichotomy going back at least to Augustine.

-
Edit later - I see in the Wikipedia entry (I know, I'm such a scholar) that some traditions put Sarras on the road from Babylon to Jerusalem. Tons of imagery of course throughout Christian (and Jewish) history and literature about Babylon being bondage to sin and Jerusalem as paradise, so placing Sarras between those fits with this episode being at a place between the moments of justification (repenting and becoming a Christian) and glorification (dying and going to Heaven).


Bruce

 

[MelkorsHubris]

I am forever glad to see more Thomas Malory chat in here!

Those are some interesting observations and subsequent theories you suggest. In a modern telling of events, we'd have likely ended things in the Enchievement of the Knights but Malory seems interested in presenting a "complete" "Grail Telling" from Arthur to Galahad/Grail enchieving. One of the factors that I've had to recognize in exploring the Morte DArthur is trying to discern what existed outside of Malory and what is Malory's reformulation of existing narratives. "Fisher-King" makes much more sense in the original french when it's a near homophone for "Sinner-King", for example, and trying to discern that seemingly unexplainable naming convention from an anglophone/middle-english framework.

That said, Malory has not often introduced stories without themselves being a framing-story, the story that was previously framed, or otherwise allegorical in my point of view. There is a legitimate case for proposing this section of the book is a representation of the Catholic's view of their passage through the world: Through Christ and Salvation can we endure/overcome the trials of the Pagan world and become rulers after a time of faith. This all happening in the hypothetical origin source of the "Saracens" (arguably in Malory's mind, Saracens would come from Sarras?) might imply the finality of Christ's teachings reaching the ends of the world implicitly through the conversion of their lands to Christian rule? Once Christians enchieve the Grail, Christ shall be made whole over the earth's reaches? ?

I find it note-worthy that it's mentioned they were only kept prisoners for a year, which is fairly consistent with the accepted imprisonment period for other jailers in the story up to now. He's described as a tyrant and pagan, but his imprisonment isn't harsher than other previously mentioned Christian lords?