Holy Spear

The Holy Spear links two very different crises in Malory’s narrative. In Balin’s hands it becomes the weapon of the Dolorous Stroke, bringing down King Pellam’s castle and laying waste to three countries; in the Grail story, it is identified as the spear that pierced Jesus Christ, and its blood becomes an instrument of healing. Its passage from a chamber in Pellam’s castle to the sacred rites of the Grail quest gives the object a double force: it marks the terrible consequences of a knight’s action, then serves as a sign of divine power and restoration.

The Spear in Pellam’s Castle

Balin encounters the spear while fleeing King Pellam. Pellam has challenged him after Balin killed his brother, and their combat leaves Balin’s sword broken. Unarmed, Balin runs from chamber to chamber with Pellam pursuing him, unable to find another weapon. He finally reaches a richly appointed chamber, where a person lies on a bed covered with cloth of gold and a table of pure gold stands on four silver pillars. The spear, made in a marvellous and unusual fashion, rests on that table. Balin takes it and strikes Pellam, who falls into a swoon; the castle’s roof and walls collapse, trapping both men beneath the ruins for three days.

The spear’s first appearance is therefore bound to a sudden reversal. It seems to offer Balin the weapon he needs to survive, but the blow it enables does not simply defeat his opponent: it breaks the castle itself and creates a disaster whose reach extends beyond the combatants. Merlin later tells Balin that the stroke has destroyed three countries. The weapon is not presented as an ordinary implement whose significance ends with the immediate fight; its use changes the condition of an entire region.

Identity and Sacred History

When Merlin finds Balin, he explains that Pellam remains grievously wounded and will not recover until Galahad heals him during the quest for the Sangreal. He identifies the spear as the one that Longius used to pierce Jesus Christ’s heart, and says that the blood of Christ was present at the place because Joseph of Arimathea brought it into the land. Pellam, Merlin adds, was kin to Joseph. These explanations make the object’s sacred history part of the meaning of Balin’s stroke: the weapon in the richly furnished chamber is not merely an extraordinary spear, but a relic joined to the Passion and to the lineage of the Grail tradition.

That identity also sharpens the contrast between the spear’s two effects. In Balin’s encounter, its force is destructive, and the countries that suffer from the blow bear consequences beyond the original quarrel. In the later sacred narrative, the same spear is associated with the blood that heals. The account does not erase the earlier devastation; instead, it places the weapon’s violence and its power to restore within one continuous history.

The Bleeding Spear in the Grail Narrative

At the Grail revelation, the spear appears as one of the sacred objects carried by angels. During the mass, angels enter bearing candles, a towel, and the spear, which bleeds so that three drops fall into a box held by the bishop. The objects are arranged around the vessel: the candles are set on the table, the towel is placed upon the vessel, and the spear is stood upright upon it. The spear’s presence is thus part of a ritual display, not an incidental detail; its blood accompanies the revelation of the sacred mysteries to the knights.

The bishop identifies the vessel as the holy dish in which Jesus Christ ate the lamb at the Last Supper. He tells Galahad that the knights are to take the spear’s blood and use it to anoint the maimed king’s legs and body. The command connects the Grail vision directly to Pellam’s old wound and gives the blood a specific healing purpose. The sacred object that once figured in the blow that brought down Pellam’s castle now supplies the remedy for the injury left by that event.

Healing and Departure

Galahad touches the spear’s blood with his fingers and anoints the maimed king’s legs. Pellam rises from his bed whole and gives thanks to God. His recovery is followed by a change in his life: he enters a religious house of white monks and becomes a holy man. The spear’s role therefore extends beyond the physical healing described in the episode; its use accompanies Pellam’s departure from the state in which the old wound had held him.

The Grail narrative then carries the spear toward its final mystery. On the ship, a bishop appears and identifies himself as Joseph of Arimathea. After Galahad receives communion, he kneels in prayer and dies; Percivale and Bors witness a hand descend from heaven, take the vessel and the spear, and bear them upward. The text adds that afterward no man dared claim to have seen the Sangreal. The spear’s story ends not with another earthly combat or a relic remaining in human custody, but with its removal from the visible world alongside the Grail. Its course—from the castle chamber, through the healing of Pellam, to its departure into heaven—binds the consequences of Balin’s violence to the Grail quest’s promise of restoration and its final withdrawal from the realm.