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Walsh, Danielle

English

2012

MA

While viewing the Grail Quest as hagiographic is not a common approach to Arthuriana's Grail narratives, the hagiographic qualities present in these stories are undeniable. From the presence ofthe Grail itself as a holy relic to the ability to identify Galahad's presence in the later Grail stories as saintly, hagiography permeates the Grail narratives, particularly those, of Malory and the Vulgate. In the Vulgate, the influence of hagiography is present in its most unadulterated form. Here, the conventions of the hagiographic geme are clearly employed for the purpose of establishing Galahad as the saintly ideal and, consequently, promoting the Cistercian values of the Vulgate. Thus, throughout the Vulgate emphasis is placed upon Galahad's sanctity by drawing continual connections between Galahad and Christ, a movement that is common in hagiography. Furthermore, this hagiographic focus is enough to promote the Cistercian values of the text because it emphasizes Galahad's ability to obtain the Grail through his own inward spiritual purity rather than through the explicit guidance of the Church, which is a common teaching of the Cistercian monks.
In Malory's Le Morte Darthur, on the other hand, the hagiographic qualities of the Vulgate are appropriated for a slightly different purpose. While Malory retains many of the hagiographicelements of his source, the Vulgate, his ultimate goal is not to forward Cistercian values. Rather, Malory uses these hagiographic qualities as a means of upsetting reader expectations in order to prepare his reader for the final sections of the Morte. The hagiographic elements that Malory retains involve a very different set of values compared to the rest of his text. Thus, their presence in the Tale of the Sangrail presents a sharp contrast to the rest of the Morte that leaves the reader less confident in their assessment of what Malory's text as a whole is fundamentally about. This loss of confident understanding is necessary in that it then prepares the reader for the destruction of Arthur's kingdom and the death of Arthur himself which immediately follow the Grail Quest. It is this initial use of hagiography in the Vulgate followed by its appropriation in Malory that I explore in this thesis. I seek to prove first off that hagiography does playa significant role in these two texts and then that Malory adapts the Vulgate's use of hagiography to prepare the reader for the final sections ofthe Marte.