And on the morn he turned unto Camelot, where he found King Arthur and
the queen. But many of the knights of the Round Table were slain and
destroyed, more than half. And so three were come home, Ector, Gawaine,
and Lionel, and many other that need not to be rehearsed. And all the
court was passing glad of Sir Launcelot, and the king asked him many
tidings of his son Galahad. And there Launcelot told the king of his
adventures that had befallen him since he departed. And also he told
him of the adventures of Galahad, Percivale, and Bors, which that he
knew by the letter of the dead damosel, and as Galahad had told him.
Now God would, said the king, that they were all three here. That shall
never be, said Launcelot, for two of them shall ye never see, but one
of them shall come again.
Now leave we this story and speak of Galahad.
CHAPTER XVIII. How Galahad came to King Mordrains, and of other matters
and adventures.
Now, saith the story, Galahad rode many journeys in vain. And at the
last he came to the abbey where King Mordrains was, and when he heard
that, he thought he would abide to see him. And upon the morn, when he
had heard mass, Galahad came unto King Mordrains, and anon the king saw
him, which had lain blind of long time. And then he dressed him against
him, and said: Galahad, the servant of Jesu Christ, whose coming I have
abiden so long, now embrace me and let me rest on thy breast, so that I
may rest between thine arms, for thou art a clean virgin above all
knights, as the flower of the lily in whom virginity is signified, and
thou art the rose the which is the flower of all good virtues, and in
colour of fire. For the fire of the Holy Ghost is taken so in thee that
my flesh which was all dead of oldness is become young again. Then
Galahad heard his words, then he embraced him and all his body. Then
said he: Fair Lord Jesu Christ, now I have my will. Now I require thee,
in this point that I am in, thou come and visit me. And anon Our Lord
heard his prayer: therewith the soul departed from the body.
And then Galahad put him in the earth as a king ought to be, and so
departed and so came into a perilous forest where he found the well the
which boileth with great waves, as the tale telleth to-fore. And as
soon as Galahad set his hand thereto it ceased, so that it brent no
more, and the heat departed. For that it brent it was a sign of
lechery, the which was that time much used. But that heat might not
abide his pure virginity. And this was taken in the country for a
miracle. And so ever after was it called Galahad’s well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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