#vs the nuns telling him “you should knight him even if he doesn't ask it because he's your son” in the post-vulgate...

[adhd-merlin]

I was reading the episode of the knighting of Galahad in Keith Baines's rendition of Le Morte d'Arthur and a detail that caught my attention was that, when Lancelot asks if it is Galahad's desire to become a knight, it is the nuns that answer first, "and Galahad assented."

I found it so fascinating that I went to check the wording in Malory's original text – only to find that it's not what it actually says, since in the original version "he [Galahad] and they all [the nuns] said yea", which I think is quite different from Baines's rendition.

Anyway, since I was now curious, I went to check how the same episode is described in The Vulgate and the Post-Vulgate, and I discovered Galahad's involvement and degree of "enthusiastic consent" varies.

Here are the excerpts from the different texts:

— Keith Baines's rendition of Le Morte d'Arthur

Sir Launcelot beheld the young squire and saw him seemly and demure as a dove, with all manner of good features, that he weened of his age never to have seen so fair a man of form. Then said Sir Launcelot: Cometh this desire of himself? He and all they said yea.

— Le Morte D'Arthur: Book 13, Chapter 1

In the Vulgate, Galahad is described as a child; it is the nuns that pray Lancelot to knight him, and Lancelot tells them that he will not deny "their request". Here Lancelot doesn't bother asking Galahad what he wants:

— The Vulgate, The Quest for the Holy Grail

In the Post-Vulgate, Lancelot asks Galahad if he truly wants to be a knight, and Galahad "answers enthusiastically":

— The Post-Vulgate, Part II

It's a small detail but it has interesting implications about Galahad's agency in his own destiny.