Let’s continue on in our quest for the Holy Grail, as told in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur.
Summary of Chapter 5: “Sir Gawain”
The main character in chapter 5, obviously, is Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain is the knight who called for a quest for the Holy Grail back in chapter 1. In a sense, he, and all the questing knights, reflect that story of the Fisher King—they are given a glimpse of the Grail and immediately want to possess it. And that is what leads to the breaking up of the fellowship of the Round Table. Simply put, Gawain is a sinful and deeply flawed knight—he will not be a knight who completes the Grail quest.
In any case, we are told that Gawain ends up not having adventures on his quest. He is just alone and wandering until he meets up with Sir Ector. The two of them find an old, ruined chapel and fall asleep. Like so many tales in the Grail story, they both have dreams/visions. Gawain’s vision was of a flowery meadow and 150 bulls at a feeding rack. There were 147 black bulls, 2 white bulls tied together, and one bull who was mostly white, but with one black spot. The 147 bulls rushed around madly while the other 3 remained settled and still.
In Ector’s vision, he saw himself and Launcelot seated in two chairs. They then both got off their chairs, mounted horses and went to seek what they would never find. Launcelot ended up getting beaten, stripped, dressed in rags, and placed on a donkey. The donkey took him to a well to drink, but every time Launcelot bent down to get some water, the water receded. After that, Launcelot returned to his chair. Ector rode to a wedding in progress, but the king of the castle wouldn’t let Ector come in, and said there was no place for him.
When Gawain and Ector woke up, as they were telling each other their dreams, an arm appeared with a bridle on it, and the hand holding a burning candle. Then a voice told them, “Knights, both: these symbols have failed you, hence you shall not achieve the quest of the Holy Grail!” They both then ride to see Nacien the hermit, but on the way, they encounter a knight. Gawain jousts with him and wounds him. The wounded knight then asks Gawain to take him to an abbey to make peace with God before he dies. It turns out the wounded knight is Sir Uwayne.
When they arrive to see Nacien, he explains to them their visions. He tells Gawain that the feeding rack was the Round Table, and the 150 bulls were the knights of the Round Table. The 147 black bulls were sinful knights; the two white bulls tied together were Galahad and Percivale; and the white bull with the black spot was Bors. Nacien tells Gawain and Ector that of those three, only Bors will end up returning to Camelot.
Nacien then interprets Ector’s vision: Launcelot was humiliated because of his 24 years of sin—it was his penance; the donkey he rode was the donkey Christ rode; eventually Launcelot would return to Camelot. As for Ector’s not being let into the wedding—he was not going to achieve the Grail. As for the arm that appeared—that was the charity of the Holy Ghost; the bridle represented abstinence; and the candle represented Christ. Thus, the reason why Gawain and Ector had not had any adventures on their Grail quest, and the reason they would not achieve the Grail is because, as Nacien tells them, “You’ve killed many men, therefore you won’t achieve the Holy Grail. All you’ll win on this quest is shame. You’re like an old, withered tree.”
My Commentary on Chapter 5
Gawain’s tale typifies the plight of most of the knights from Arthur’s court who go questing for the Holy Grail. It ends in disappointment and shame. The various visions and dreams both he and Ector have drive home the main themes in the Grail story: Launcelot’s humiliation and penance, the purity of Galahad, Percivale, and Bors, and the general sinfulness and brutishness of most of the knights.
Summary of Chapter 6: “Sir Bors”
The main character in chapter 6, obviously, is Sir Bors. He is the white bull with the black spot in Gawain’s vision. When he leaves Camelot to go on the Grail quest, Bors soon encounters a holy man, who tells him to wear a red “garment of chastisement” and eat only bread and water until he sits at the table where the Holy Grail is set. He must do this to account for his one sexual encounter (the one time he “sinned in the flesh”) with the daughter of King Brandegoris.
He goes on his way and soon sees a large bird on a withered tree, plunging its beak into its chest to feed its starving young with her blood. After that strange site, Bors comes to a castle, where a beautiful young noblewomen offers him choice meats and wine. Bors, though, refuses—he stays faithful to what the holy man told him to do. It turns out that the noblewoman gets notified by her sister that unless she can find a knight who would fight and defeat Sir Prydam, her sister’s champion, that she would lose her castle. Bors, being the chivalrous knight he is, decides to fight for her.
That night, Bors has a dream/vision: A white bird (swan) tells him, “Sustain me and I will give you the greatest riches on earth, and you’ll be made white like me.” Then a black bird (raven) tells him, “Serve me and my blackness will prevail over all that is white.” Then in his dream, Bors finds himself in a chapel, with a rotten tree on one side and two white lilies on the other side, but they were fading. A holy man touched the two white lilies, and they bloomed and bore fruit. Bors is told, “The lilies can be saved, but not the tree.” What could this mean?
In any case, the next day, Bors fights and defeats Sir Prydam, who then, along with all knights in that realm, swear allegiance to the noblewoman. Bors then rides off and soon sees his brother Lyonel naked and being beaten by two knights, as well as a young lady being dragged into the forest by a knight. Bors must choose whom to save—he chooses to save the lady. It turns out that the young knight had gone crazy, and by saving the lady, Bors also saves the young knight. In any case, Bors rushes back to look for Lyonel, but instead comes across a man in priestly garments riding a black horse who tells him that Lyonel is dead. The man takes Bors to a corpse that appears to be Lyonel. They then bury the body, and the priest explains to Bors the significance of the white bird he saw. He tells Bors it represented a lady who loves him dearly; the man tells Bors not to refuse her.
Bors rides off to a castle and meets the lady of the castle. She is even more beautiful than Gwenevere, and soon she tries to seduce him. When Bors refuses, she and her 12 gentlewomen climb the battlements, and she tells Bors that unless he sleeps with her, they will leap to their deaths. Just then he crosses himself and everything vanishes. It turns out they were wild fiends.
Bors rides off to a monastery and finds the abbot, who gives him the correct interpretation of not only his vision, but his weird dream as well. The abbot tells Bors that the white bird represented Christ and his passion—he shed his blood to feed his followers. The withered tree upon which the white bird sat represented the world. The abbot then tells Bors that the young noblewoman he fought for represented the new church, while her sister represented the old church. As for the dream: (A) the white bird was actually the old church; (B) the black bird was the new church; (C) the rotten tree was Lyonel; and (D) the two withering white lilies that were healed were the young lady and the young knight. Furthermore, the priest on the black horse was actually a fiend in disguise, Lyonel was actually still alive, and the beautiful heiress who tried to seduce Bors was Lucifer himself.
At the end of the chapter, Bors finds Lyonel, and Lyonel is not happy. In fact, he is enraged that Bors didn’t try to save him and so attacks Bors. A hermit jumps in to try to come to Bors’ aid, but Lyonel then beheads the hermit. Another knight jumps to try to help Bors, but Lyonel beheads him too. At that point, a voice from heaven tells Bors to flee from Lyonel and find Percivale. Bors obeys and eventually comes to an abbey by the sea. Lo and behold, there is a ship with white samite awnings on the shore. Bors steps on board and finds Percivale asleep in his armor. Only Galahad is missing now.
My Commentary on Chapter 6
The first thing to note about Bors is that although he is going to be one of the three knights who achieve the Grail, since he is not a pure virgin (having had sex once with the daughter of King Brandegoris), he still has to undergo a certain amount of penance. Just as Launcelot was told to wear a hermit’s hair shirt, abstain from meat and wine, and go to mass as much as he could, Bors wears a garment of chastisement and eats only bread and water on his quest.
Being the “white bull with one spot,” Bors is overwhelmingly a chivalrous and good knight. He has the will power to refuse the meat the young noblewoman offers him, but also can fight for her honor and her castle. Being a Grail knight, Bors sees the white bird in a ruined tree, making itself bleed to feed her chicks. It is symbolic of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and emphasizes the symbolic meaning of the Grail—it is the blood of Christ that brings spiritual nourishment and healing to those living in this sinful, ruined world.
Bors’ dream is tricky. Most of the time throughout the Grail story, “white” is associated with Christ and the “new church”, while “black” is associated with evil, or the Devil, or even the “old church” (i.e. Judaism). But here, the symbols are reversed. The white bird is the “old church,” whereas the black bird is the “new church.” And that sets up the attempted deception of Bors. He rightly chooses to save the young lady from the young knight—and by doing so, saves both of them. But the Devil preys upon his guilt for not helping Lyonel by sending a fiend disguised as a priest to lie to Bors into thinking Lyonel was dead and telling Bors a false interpretation of his dream. By telling him that the white bird is a lady who loves him and whom he should not refuse, he is attempting to set Bors up to give in to the seducements of the “beautiful lady” who, as it turns out, is the Devil. Bors, though, because he stays faithful, crosses himself—and it is the cross of Christ that exposes the Devil’s schemes.
Bors’ encounter with Lyonel at the end of the chapter shows that Bors was right to choose to save the young lady. Lyonel, like the withered tree in Bors’ dream, is sinful and beyond saving. Bors has passed his trials and now is with Percivale, waiting for Galahad.
