Joseph's White Shield

Joseph's White Shield is both a Christian relic and a test of knightly worth: its red cross recalls Joseph of Arimathea, its history reaches back to King Evelake, and its prophecy reserves it for Galahad. When King Bagdemagus tries to carry it, an unnamed white knight defeats him and sends the shield on to Galahad, whose bearing of it fulfills the long-declared purpose of Joseph’s blood-marked gift.

Appearance and Ordeal

The shield hangs behind an altar in a white abbey, white as snow with a red cross at its center. A monk warns that it belongs only to the world’s worthiest knight. King Bagdemagus acknowledges that he is not the greatest knight alive, yet chooses to test the adventure; Galahad, who has ridden without a shield, agrees to take it if Bagdemagus cannot succeed.

Bagdemagus carries the shield out of the monastery and rides away with a squire. In a valley near an hermitage, a knight in white armor charges him. Bagdemagus’s spear breaks against the knight, who overcomes him and takes the shield. The white knight declares that it should be carried only by one who has no living peer, then directs the squire to bring it to Galahad. Bagdemagus is badly wounded and barely survives, demonstrating that the shield’s restriction is enforced through a real physical ordeal, not simply asserted as an honorific.

Joseph and Evelake: The Shield’s Earlier History

The white knight explains that the shield’s story began after the Passion of Jesus Christ. Joseph of Arimathea and his followers traveled to Sarras, where King Evelake was at war with the Saracen king Tolleme. Joseph’s son warned Evelake that he would be defeated unless he left the old law and believed in the new one. Evelake accepted the teaching of the Holy Trinity, and the shield was made for him in the name of the one who died on the cross.

The shield’s cross serves as a visible sign in battle. When Evelake was in greatest danger, the covering was removed, and his enemies saw the figure of a man on the cross; they were then discomfited. The account also associates the cross with healing: after one of Evelake’s men lost a hand, Joseph told him to touch it, and the hand was restored. The cross later vanished, and Evelake and most of his people were baptized.

Evelake then accompanied Joseph to Britain. There Joseph was imprisoned by a pagan ruler, until Mondrames gathered his people, overcame that ruler, and freed him; the account says that afterward the people turned to the Christian faith. The shield’s journey thus joins Evelake’s conversion and battles abroad to the Christian history that unfolds in Britain.

Joseph’s Blood and the Prophecy

When Joseph lay dying, Evelake asked for a token by which to remember him, explaining that he had left his own country for Joseph’s sake. Joseph called for the shield he had given Evelake. Bleeding from the nose and unable to staunch the flow, he used his blood to make a cross upon it. He told Evelake that the shield would remain as fresh as it was then and would recall Joseph to him whenever he saw it.

Joseph also declared that no one could carry the shield until Galahad did, and that the last of Joseph’s lineage would bear it and accomplish many marvelous deeds. He instructed Evelake to leave it where the hermit Nacien would be buried, because Galahad would come there on the fifteenth day after receiving knighthood. The account identifies the abbey where Galahad finds the shield as the place associated with Nacien’s tomb. The object is therefore not merely a relic passed from one owner to another: its destination, timing, and rightful bearer have already been specified.

Galahad Takes the Shield

After the white knight has sent the shield to him, Galahad mounts his horse and hangs it around his neck. Uwaine offers to accompany him, but Galahad says that he must go alone, except for the squire who will bear him company. That solitary departure contrasts with Bagdemagus’s failed attempt and establishes that the shield belongs to a knight whose adventure is not shared in the ordinary way.

The squire asks to travel with Galahad and requests that Galahad make him a knight; Galahad agrees, and they return to the abbey. There, after Galahad dismounts, a monk leads him to a tomb in the churchyard, where an alarming noise is heard. The episode moves directly from the shield’s transfer into a further religious mystery, while the shield’s role is already clear: it has passed from the relic’s custodians to the knight named in its prophecy.

Relic, Legitimacy, and Sacred History

The shield’s narrative combines several kinds of authority. Its red cross marks Christian faith; the account of Evelake gives it a history of conversion, battle, and healing; Joseph’s blood makes it a personal memorial; and the prophecy identifies the knight entitled to bear it. Bagdemagus’s defeat makes that distinction visible, while Galahad’s acceptance fulfills the shield’s appointed purpose.

Its lineage and destination also matter. Joseph names the last of his line as the future bearer, and Evelake preserves the shield for that fulfillment rather than treating it as a prize for whoever can claim it. The object binds an earlier Christian past to Galahad’s present quest: what begins with Joseph’s departure from Jerusalem and Evelake’s conversion reaches its designated bearer in the abbey, where Galahad takes up the shield and rides onward.