Sweet Sir Galahad

"Sweet Sir Galahad" is a song written by Joan Baez that she famously performed at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, after having debuted it during an appearance in a Season Three episode of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour earlier that year. A recording of the song, first released as a single in late 1969, would lead off Baez's 1970 album One Day at a Time.

History

The song tells the story of Baez's younger sister Mimi Fariña and her marriage (her second) to music producer Milan Melvin. (Mimi's first husband Richard Fariña had died in a motorcycle accident two years previously.) Mimi and Milan were married at the 1968 Big Sur Folk Festival. Baez was inspired to write the song after hearing of Melvin's courtship of Fariña, during which he came into her bedroom at night through a window.

The song became one of Baez's best-known compositions. In her 1987 memoir And a Voice to Sing With, Baez described "Sweet Sir Galahad" as the first song she ever wrote (although she is credited as a co-writer on two tracks on her 1967 album Joan).

Galahad

Sir Galahad (/ˈɡæləhæd/; sometime referred to as Galeas /ɡəˈliːəs/ or Galath /ˈɡæləθ/), in Arthurian legend, is a knight of King Arthur's Round Table and one of the three achievers of the Holy Grail. He is the illegitimate son of Sir Lancelot and Elaine of Corbenic, and is renowned for his gallantry and purity. Emerging quite late in the medieval Arthurian tradition, Sir Galahad first appears in the Lancelot–Grail cycle, and his story is taken up in later works such as the Post-Vulgate Cycle and Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.

Life

Conception and birth

The circumstances surrounding the conception of the boy Galahad are explained by Sir Thomas Malory and derive from the Lancelot-Grail cycle. Lancelot mistakes Elaine for his mistress Guinevere. According to Malory, King Pelles has already received magical foreknowledge that Lancelot will give his daughter a child and that this little boy will grow to become the greatest knight in the world, the knight chosen by God to achieve the Holy Grail. King Pelles also knows that Lancelot will only lie with his one true love, Queen Guinevere. Destiny will have to be helped along a little, therefore; a conclusion which prompts Pelles to seek out "one of the greatest enchantresses of the time", Dame Brusen, who gives King Pelles a magic ring that will make Elaine take on the appearance of Queen Guinevere.

Sir Galahad (poem)

Sir Galahad is a poem written by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, and published in his 1842 collection of poetry. It is one of his many poems that deal with the legend of King Arthur, and describes Galahad experiencing a vision of the Holy Grail. The subject of the poem was later included in "The Holy Grail" section of Tennyson's Idylls of the King, but the latter version depicts Galahad as a pious individual who is grimly determined to fulfill his destiny. Sir Galahad, in contrast, depicts Galahad as prideful, and has almost cheerful undertones.

Background

In 1833, Tennyson's close friend Arthur Hallam died. The death greatly affected both Tennyson and his sister Emily, and he withdrew from society as he slowly dealt with the pain. By mid-summer 1834, they slowly began to participate together in social events once again. On one occasion, Tennyson, Emily, and his other sister Mary were invited to visit friends in Dorking, and then travel onwards to see the Hallam family. Tennyson, however, set out on his own, and spent time alone at Leith Hill, Dorking. It was during this time that he began working on a version of Sir Galahad, along with an early version of The Blackbird and a version of "The Sleeping Beauty".