Editing Galahad (section)

===William Morris===
[[File:Schmalz galahad.jpg|thumb|upright|''Sir Galahad'' by [[Herbert Gustave Schmalz]] (1881)|alt=]]

Sir Galahad's thoughts and aspirations have been explored as well by [[William Morris]] in his poems ''The Chapel in Lyoness'', published in 1856, and ''Sir Galahad, a Christmas Mystery'',<ref>''Sir Galahad, a Christmas Mystery'' [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/morrgal.htm Camelot Project]</ref> published in 1858. Unlike Malory and Tennyson's pure hero, Morris creates a Galahad who is emotionally complex, conflicted, and palpably human. In ''A Christmas Mystery'', written more than twenty years after Tennyson's ''Sir Galahad'', Galahad is "fighting an internal battle between the ideal and the human", and tries to reconcile his longing for earthly delights, such as the romantic exploits of Sir Palomydes and his father Sir Lancelot, and the "more austere spiritual goal to which he has been called".<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal |last1=Stevenson |first1=Catherine Barnes |last2=Hale |first2=Virginia |year=2000 |title=Medieval Drama and Courtly Romance in William Morris' 'Sir Galahad, A Christmas Mystery' |journal=Victorian Poetry |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=383–91 |doi=10.1353/vp.2000.0038|s2cid=161534115 }}</ref> In the companion piece ''The Chapel in Lyoness'', a knight lies dying in winter "in a bizarre realization of Galahad's nightmare vision of his own fate". Galahad then "saves" the knight with a kiss before he finally expires. It is here that Galahad progresses from "a somewhat self-centered figure" to "a savior capable of imparting grace".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Morris' poems place this emotional conflict at centre stage, rather than concentrating upon Galahad's prowess for defeating external enemies, and the cold and the frost of a Christmas period serve to reinforce his "chilly isolation".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The poem opens on midwinter's night; Sir Galahad has been sitting for six hours in a chapel, staring at the floor. He muses to himself:

{{Poem quote|
Night after night your horse treads down alone
The sere damp fern, night after night you sit
Holding the bridle like a man of stone,
Dismal, unfriended: what thing comes of it?<ref>Morris, William. 1858. ''Sir Galahad, A Christmas Mystery''. [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/morrgal.htm Camelot Project] Sixth stanza.</ref>}}