Lancelot: Lancelot is the greatest of Arthur’s knights. Although son of King Ban of Benwick, he is known as Lancelot of the Lake or Lancelot du Lac because he was raised by the Lady of the Lake. Among his many adventures are the rescue of the abducted Queen Guinevere from the evil Meleagant. He quests for the Holy Grail. He rescues the queen after she is condemned to be burned to death for adultery.

Galahad: 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. 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.

Gawain: There are more medieval romances devoted to Gawain’s exploits than to those of any other of Arthur’s knights, including Lancelot and Galahad. In romances like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sir Gawain and the Carl of Carlisle, for example, he is the embodiment of courtly virtue. In such romances, both in English and in French, Gawain is often a “fixer” of sorts, either repairing the damage done or completing the quest flubbed by another knight. A model of prowess and courtesy, Gawain is able to succeed where the other (often, but not always, a boorish Sir Kay) has failed. La mule sans frein and the Carle of Carlisle romances, for example, feature Gawain making up for Kay’s typical shortcomings, though in the unusual Marvels of Rigomer, Gawain comes to the rescue of no less a knight than Lancelot himself.

What a fun assignment. Good luck and have fun with it.