Galahad is the son of Lancelot and Elaine of Corbenic. Galahad was conceived when Elaine tricked Lancelot into thinking he was meeting and sleeping with Guinevere. Galahad is best known as the knight who achieves the quest for the Holy Grail. As the chosen knight he is allowed to sit in the Siege Perilous, the seat at the Round Table that is reserved for the Grail Knight. The first appearance of Galahad in medieval romance is in the thirteenth-century Vulgate Cycle. His coming is predicted in the first romance in the cycle, the Estoire del saint Graal, where he is said to be the ninth in the line of Nascien, who was baptized by Josephus, son of Joseph of Arimathea, and who was one of those who is said to have brought Christianity to Britain. Galahad remains the pre-eminent Grail Knight in Malory's Morte d'Arthur and in Tennyson's Idylls of the King. A shorter poem by Tennyson, "Sir Galahad," presented the popular image of the perfect knight whose "strength was as the strength of ten" because his "heart is pure." The popular painting "Sir Galahad"(1862) by George Frederic Watts (1817-1904) also presents Galahad as an idealized figure.
Galahad was the supreme example of the pious knight: pure in mind, body, spirit, and intention. As such, he was a stark contrast to his famous father, Lancelot, begat him from a union with Elaine, with whom he was not married. From earthly sin would come perfection, it would seem.
One story even has Galahad drawing his own sword out of a stone. This took place when he sat in the Siege Perilous, a seat at the Round Table that was destined for the greatest knight in the world. Separate traditions say the Siege Perilous was destined for the Grail Knight. Many stories say Galahad was both.
He first appears in the Queste del Saint Graal, in which he performs various feats of bravery and daring and completes the double test of sword and seat mentioned above.
He it was who was ordained to fulfill the Grail Quest.
