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The Squire's Tales #8
The Quest of the Fair Unknown
On her deathbed, Beaufils’s mother leaves him with a quest and a find your father, a knight of King Arthur’s court. So Beaufils leaves the isolated forest of his youth and quickly discovers that he has much to learn about the world beyond his experience. Beaufils’s innocence never fails to make his companions grin, but his fresh outlook on the world’s peculiarities turns out to be more of a gift than a curse as they encounter unexpected friends and foes.
With his constant stream of wise fools and foolish wise men, holy hermits and others of rather less holiness, plotting magicians and conniving Ladies, Gerald Morris infuses these medieval stories with a riotous humor all his own.
With his constant stream of wise fools and foolish wise men, holy hermits and others of rather less holiness, plotting magicians and conniving Ladies, Gerald Morris infuses these medieval stories with a riotous humor all his own.
272 pages, Paperback
First published October 30, 2006
21 people are currently reading
1008 people want to read
About the author
Gerald Morris
25 books495 followersGerald Morris is an award-winning author, best known for his retellings of Arthurian legends for preteen and teen readers.
His first series, The Squire's Tales, focuses primarily on a squire named Terence, alongside his knight, Sir Gawain. The ten-book series began with The Squire's Tale, first published in 1998.
His second series, The Knights' Tales, is for younger readers and began with The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great, published in 2008, followed by The Adventures of Sir Givret the Short in the same year.
Morris was born in Riverside, California in 1963, the son of Russell A. Morris. He was educated at the Oklahoma Baptist University and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He married Rebecca Hughes, has 3 children, and now lives in Wausau, Wisconsin. He also lived for a short time in Oklahoma. Apart from writing, Morris teaches theology and serves as a pastor for church.
His first series, The Squire's Tales, focuses primarily on a squire named Terence, alongside his knight, Sir Gawain. The ten-book series began with The Squire's Tale, first published in 1998.
His second series, The Knights' Tales, is for younger readers and began with The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great, published in 2008, followed by The Adventures of Sir Givret the Short in the same year.
Morris was born in Riverside, California in 1963, the son of Russell A. Morris. He was educated at the Oklahoma Baptist University and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He married Rebecca Hughes, has 3 children, and now lives in Wausau, Wisconsin. He also lived for a short time in Oklahoma. Apart from writing, Morris teaches theology and serves as a pastor for church.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
March 3, 2013
I do like it when Gerald Morris shows off his affection for Gawain and uses less-known stories too. I loved what he did with Lybeau Desconus -- and was that a sneaky reference to Geoffrey of Monmouth, with the clerk at the beginning? Also interesting attempt to blend together different strands of the Arthurian mythos that seem incompatible.
Light and easy to read as usual -- obviously, since I've now read two of these in one day. I know I'm a fast reader, but these are so easy to read. Which is no bad thing, in some respects.
Light and easy to read as usual -- obviously, since I've now read two of these in one day. I know I'm a fast reader, but these are so easy to read. Which is no bad thing, in some respects.
June 12, 2012
by far the least of my favourites, of his series. it's still a great series, but this is the first one that actually completely infuriated me as i was reading it. i had such a low tolerance for certain overzealous religious characters that it was difficult for me to continue; however, i deeply enjoyed the main character, and that's what pushed me to the end. i connected to beaufils, i was charmed by his innocence and the way he viewed the world, and i was fairly satisfied by the ending. i wasn't as happy with this ending as i usually am with these books, but i can't decide if that's because i had such terrible hatred for a good portion of the events in the book, or because the ending was extremely open-ended. i'm inclined to believe it's the former.
it's not that religion turns me off when it figures prominently in a book, because i've seen gerald morris write a fair few religious characters who were characters and not just caricatures. my personal viewpoint on medieval religious practices aside, every single abrasively aggressively religious character in here seemed designed to irritate me, because their opinions and the highhanded manner in which they interacted with everyone around them in the book were just so ignorant and intolerant. i mean, i knew what was going to happen to galahad, and yet i found myself rooting for his ignoble and untimely death so hard. sexism? check. intolerance? check. arrogance? check. condescension? check. elitism? check check check check check.
i'm glad that as the series has progressed, the author has started fleshing out his characters with more definitive personalities. they were admittedly clumsy way back in the first book, when gawain and tor were chopping their way through the heads of silly lovestruck couples, but they've grown to be solidly defined now. i appreciated ellyn's burgeoning self-identity as a woman through her own right, rather than not-a-man, even though she did lay it on thick with the frequent man-hating declarations; i appreciated beaufils as he learned about the world and maintained a sunny eagerness to learn about his new surroundings and draw conclusions based on his uncoloured and unfiltered observations. however, i did NOT appreciate the heavy hand gerald morris used in portraying galahad, even though i'd had no great love for him based on the original tale either. in fact, i'm rather happy to harbour a dislike for him. i just don't think it's healthy for my blood pressure, is all.
it's not that religion turns me off when it figures prominently in a book, because i've seen gerald morris write a fair few religious characters who were characters and not just caricatures. my personal viewpoint on medieval religious practices aside, every single abrasively aggressively religious character in here seemed designed to irritate me, because their opinions and the highhanded manner in which they interacted with everyone around them in the book were just so ignorant and intolerant. i mean, i knew what was going to happen to galahad, and yet i found myself rooting for his ignoble and untimely death so hard. sexism? check. intolerance? check. arrogance? check. condescension? check. elitism? check check check check check.
i'm glad that as the series has progressed, the author has started fleshing out his characters with more definitive personalities. they were admittedly clumsy way back in the first book, when gawain and tor were chopping their way through the heads of silly lovestruck couples, but they've grown to be solidly defined now. i appreciated ellyn's burgeoning self-identity as a woman through her own right, rather than not-a-man, even though she did lay it on thick with the frequent man-hating declarations; i appreciated beaufils as he learned about the world and maintained a sunny eagerness to learn about his new surroundings and draw conclusions based on his uncoloured and unfiltered observations. however, i did NOT appreciate the heavy hand gerald morris used in portraying galahad, even though i'd had no great love for him based on the original tale either. in fact, i'm rather happy to harbour a dislike for him. i just don't think it's healthy for my blood pressure, is all.
January 5, 2016
Another really fun entry in the series, this one apparently pulled from the original story of Galahad with a couple other stories mixed in. Apparently the original story was mostly a forum for preaching, and had the knights encountering hermits left and right, each one giving a sermon. Morris makes fun of it in here and does a good job :) This is a series of books where I often chuckle or laugh out loud while I'm reading, which is very unusual. But Beaufils' second encounter with the Necromancer WAS hilarious, no matter how much people on the train think I am weird. I may have gotten lucky on this one, actually; the guy sitting next to me holding a book open but snoring even with his eyes still open probably made me seem normal.
The main character, Beaufils, was raised by his mother in the middle of a forest and knows absolutely nothing about the outside world, or even his own name. Or his mother's. Yet somehow he has amazing reflexes and can fight better than almost anyone. You just have to accept it, and fortunately it's not over the top. Beaufils' perspective on all the new things he encounters is even half believable, so I think Morris pulled it off. I think the comments that Beaufils' father, one of the knights of Camelot 17 years prior, could have been almost anyone may have been a commentary on the number of "courtly love" stories written about the knights that Morris doesn't approve of, but I'm a little surprised no one tried to guess his parentage based on which of the knights he looked more like. I thought in those days people could recognize a face and match it to parents a lot better than now.
I'm also happy to see Mordred, even if he's a bad seed (my favorite protrayal of him was in The Wicked Day, where he was misunderstood, used, and tragic). And the Quest for the Holy Grail finally comes around!
The main character, Beaufils, was raised by his mother in the middle of a forest and knows absolutely nothing about the outside world, or even his own name. Or his mother's. Yet somehow he has amazing reflexes and can fight better than almost anyone. You just have to accept it, and fortunately it's not over the top. Beaufils' perspective on all the new things he encounters is even half believable, so I think Morris pulled it off. I think the comments that Beaufils' father, one of the knights of Camelot 17 years prior, could have been almost anyone may have been a commentary on the number of "courtly love" stories written about the knights that Morris doesn't approve of, but I'm a little surprised no one tried to guess his parentage based on which of the knights he looked more like. I thought in those days people could recognize a face and match it to parents a lot better than now.
I'm also happy to see Mordred, even if he's a bad seed (my favorite protrayal of him was in The Wicked Day, where he was misunderstood, used, and tragic). And the Quest for the Holy Grail finally comes around!
May 5, 2014
No matter how many times I reread this book, I am always struck by its spiritual insight and depth.
I am a HUGE fan of the Squire's Tales series, I think I will be re-reading it until I die. At the end of each book I tell myself it was my favorite, but I think this is ACTUALLY my favorite. Here's why: Morris is, by trade, a minister. Throughout his series morals and ideals shine brightly, but never are they explored so thoroughly, and in such a nuanced way, as in this book which takes religion as its main theme. Morris is really in his element here, and it's clear in his uncanny and accurate caricatures of extreme religious fanatics, including Sir Galahad among them; his exploration of the rightful place of the feminine in the divine; and his subtle understanding of the role of innocence in true spirituality that Morris understands every reader's religious quest and speaks to it appropriately. This allegory is well crafted and is a book I would offer to any who feel lost: although it reads like a funny story, the parable runs much deeper.
I am a HUGE fan of the Squire's Tales series, I think I will be re-reading it until I die. At the end of each book I tell myself it was my favorite, but I think this is ACTUALLY my favorite. Here's why: Morris is, by trade, a minister. Throughout his series morals and ideals shine brightly, but never are they explored so thoroughly, and in such a nuanced way, as in this book which takes religion as its main theme. Morris is really in his element here, and it's clear in his uncanny and accurate caricatures of extreme religious fanatics, including Sir Galahad among them; his exploration of the rightful place of the feminine in the divine; and his subtle understanding of the role of innocence in true spirituality that Morris understands every reader's religious quest and speaks to it appropriately. This allegory is well crafted and is a book I would offer to any who feel lost: although it reads like a funny story, the parable runs much deeper.
November 25, 2019
It's a good book I liked how it ended. Predictably ending because of the consistent foreshadowing. I am a little confused at the end of beu family heritage, but I bet the next book will explain more.
February 15, 2024
Gerald Morris baffles me. He's written fourteen books about Arthurian legend, and in his day job is apparently a minister. And yet I come away from this book with the perception that the only thing he hates more than religion is Arthurian legend.
*sigh*
This book retells the Post-Vulgate version of the Quest for the Holy Grail. I want to note that this series already tackled the older, Perceval-derived version of this story in book #4. Surprisingly, this works. The older version is focused on healing the Fisher King, with the Grail itself as a footnote, while the later take makes the Grail central and doesn't really know what to do with the Fisher King, meaning that Morris can just cut him out. Honestly, a great idea on Morris' part.
Since this series has already wrapped up Percival/Parsifal's arc, he's replaced with the Fair Unknown, here called "Beaufils." This is a character with a similar background and who, being , is closely tied to the series' central cast. Putting him in the Grail Quest is an unconventional but potentially interesting idea...if Morris was interested in actually doing that.
In his Author's Notes, Morris notes that the "canon" version of the Grail Quest is kind of a slog, and its main-est character, Galahad, is boring, with no real characterization but "holy." These are perfectly valid criticisms. Unfortunately, instead of fixing these problems, Morris falls into his usual strategy of "make the story worse so that I can spend the book complaining about how bad it is." It's just that now he's bitching about religion instead of courtly love or tournaments.
Part of the problem is that I liked this version of Galahad, at first. A super anxious religious guy suffering from scrupulosity? HECK do I find that relatable! And it's a great way to add some conflict to his established character traits. But uh-oh—Galahad is a.) the protagonist of the original tale, and b.) not Gawain. That means he must be infected with Morris Caricature Syndrome (MCS) and be Flanderized into complete unlikability. So let's see, he canonically receives signs of his divine mission? Obviously he should be an idiot who just THINKS that everything is a sign of his divine mission. Pious? That means "preachy" and "gullible." Celibate? Sounds like a fancy word for "hates women." Et cetera ad infinitem.
The same is true of every religious character, basically—a fact that I know won't bother everyone, but sure as heck bothers me! It's actually something that's been simmering under the surface in previous volumes. Heck, even with Sarah's Jewish guardian in book #6, there's this weird tension where he's a loving father figure tragically murdered by a pogrom, but also kind of a jerk for actually believing what Judaism teaches about magic and stuff.
Some would object that no, in the sea of hermits that we meet (another problem Morris chooses to exacerbate rather than repair), there were like, two they were portrayed positively! To which I say: One had no purpose except to give them a message from a fairy, and the other...had no purpose at all, actually. We're told that they're religious, but I feel like they're only allowed to be likeable because they're not too religious—you know, in the sense of caring about theology or personal behavior or stupid things like that. It's telling that neither gives the heroes spiritual advice, just point out off into the distance and not actually tell them where they need to go.
Which ties into Beaufils' whole arc. In his Author's Note, Morris says that he set out to write a story about a religious main character, since religion was so important to the Middle Ages. I'm honestly flabbergasted that he thinks he achieved this. Beaufils is "religious" in the sense that he sort of enjoyed a mass when Galahad brought him to one, once, and at the end, decides he'll just trick people into thinking that he cares about religion when he really doesn't.
Bors (one of the other canonical Grail Knights, though demoted here) is a lot like Galahad, though more about chivalry than piety. Both are characters who hold themselves to very high moral standards and strive for self-improvement. And in both of their arcs, the message is that they are stupid to do so, actually, and that it makes them gullible morons. The main difference is that Bors overcomes the obvious character flaw of "wanting to be a good person," while it's taken for granted that Galahad never could. Beaufils thinks to himself that he could never convince Galahad that he's wrong about something, but since he hasn't tried, it feels rather unfair.
And you know...this book is supposed to be about the Holy Grail. Which one is supposed to achieve through holiness. Except it's basically stated that the Grail isn't "holy" anyway, and only those stupid religious characters would assume it is. And this story isn't even about the Grail anyway! Beaufils goes along with Galahad to find it at the beginning, but he doesn't really care about it and abandons the search when the pair separate. He also forgets his original reason for coming to Camelot, which was to find his father.
I should mention that I liked Beaufils early on. His naivete, while occasionally inconsistent, is understandable and endearing. But he grates on me more as the story goes on, if only because he's emblematic of what I don't like about this series' characterization. He really has no arc. The book insists that he does, and I get what it was probably supposed to be: he starts off innocent, sees the darkness of the world, but manages to remain optimistic in spite of it. But it never feels like a struggle. It's more like he starts off innocent, sees the darkness of the world, and then goes "...huh" before moving on. He's cheery and optimistic because he just is, which in Morris' mind makes a much better protagonist than one who struggles with self-improvement.
And the funny thing is: as a result of all this, Morris essentially recreates the problems of the Grail Quest. Instead of knights like Lancelot and Gawain being presented as irredeemable failures for past sins, Galahad is an irredeemable failure for trying to be sinless. Instead of Galahad being presented as a paragon who never has to struggle because he's Just That Holy, Beaufils is presented as a paragon who never has to struggle because he's Just That Winsome. Instead of a series of vignettes that are supposed to be spiritual lessons, we get a series of vignettes which mock the idea of spiritual lessons. It's the same flaws, but with the point violently removed.
So what IS the book about, if it's not the Holy Grail, Beaufils' parentage or his non-existant character development? Well, around the same time that they ditch Galahad, Beaufils meets a girl named Ellyn. And that one hermit whom we're not supposed to hate tells them that a fairy said that Ellyn has a quest to accomplish. He does not say what this quest is or how to find it. Ellyn is literally told to just stumble around in any random direction, and that eventually she'll find...something.
This is not how plots work, Morris.
By the way, the fairy who says this, and who keeps popping in to give Beaufils advice? It's Terence's father Ganscotter. This is treated as a twist, but it doesn't count because who cares? All the "fairy helpers" are pretty much interchangeable, with no distinct personalities. Though I think it's kind of funny that Terence's deadbeat dad is so desperate to avoid him that he picks a different orphan teenager to hang around instead.
Anyway, we stumble around into various episodic shenanigans, occasionally running into Galahad at the same time. The Bors plot involves a woman pretending like she needs his help to fight someone, but actually she's evil. Then they run into another woman who says that she needs Ellyn's help to break a curse, but actually she's evil. So, let's see: personal improvement is dumb, and anyone who asks for your help is bad. Some great moral lessons we're getting in this book, right?
I want to talk about that latter story. In the Grail Quest, there's a leprous woman who can only be healed by a maiden's blood. The Grail Maiden, whom Ellyn is standing in for here, knows that this could kill her, but agrees and dies in the process. Which, yeah—kind of messed up. But also a story about self-sacrifice and Christian charity. Here, Ellyn is outraged by the request, even though she's led to believe that she won't die from it, and the protagonists seem to think that the disabled and bedridden woman having people waiting on her proves that she must be bad. I doubt it was Morris' intention, but it really feels like a weird "people who ask for help are just selfish" moral. Like, seriously, you could have just told the normal story but switched the blood out for something else, or had Ellyn survive the ordeal.
Ellyn herself is pretty generic for half the book, until she's also revealed to be a misandrist jerk, so...yeah. Didn't like her much. And at this point, it occurs to me that Morris' heroines are kind of samey. I like some of them, but they're all some version of Not Like Other Girls, because the girls who are like other girls are ditzes and/or villains. It's telling that as soon as the ill woman was described as having a "girlish" voice, I immediately thought "Oh, she's gonna be evil."
Anyway, our last-ish subplot manages to subvert Morris' unintentional Objectivism. In a legend taken from the actual Fair Unknown story, they stumble across a lady changed into a dragon. Ellyn's quest was to help her, apparently, which gives her the only character development in this whole story. This all happens off-screen, mind you, so it kind of loses its impact.
I do think the little twist Morris gives to the story is kinda good—that the curse can be broken by "the son of Arthur's greatest knight," which they think means Galahad, but actually is Beaufils. But as a side note, Galahad might as well not be Lancelot's son in this version. Lancelot actually went on the Grail Quest in "canon," giving them time to interact together. Here, their whole relationship is basically:
Galahad: I'm your son.
Lancelot: Oh. Wow. ... Anyway. Bye forever, I guess.
Galahad: Oh. Bye.
Then again, that's basically what we get from Gawain and Beaufils, too. Because BTW, Gawain is Beaufils' father. Beaufils has already decided that he doesn't care, just to cement how pointless everything in this book is. Heck, the fact that he finds out right after even makes his indifference pointless!
They do also find the Grail. It's the shortest chapter in the book, which I think is saying something. And while I can appreciate the moral that living in the world is better than leaving it to become a blissful hermit...well, I'd appreciate it more if it didn't seem like such a strawman argument.
So, um, yeah. This book was very bad. Which sucks even more because it had all the ingredients to be great, if Morris had actually tried using them.
*sigh*
This book retells the Post-Vulgate version of the Quest for the Holy Grail. I want to note that this series already tackled the older, Perceval-derived version of this story in book #4. Surprisingly, this works. The older version is focused on healing the Fisher King, with the Grail itself as a footnote, while the later take makes the Grail central and doesn't really know what to do with the Fisher King, meaning that Morris can just cut him out. Honestly, a great idea on Morris' part.
Since this series has already wrapped up Percival/Parsifal's arc, he's replaced with the Fair Unknown, here called "Beaufils." This is a character with a similar background and who, being , is closely tied to the series' central cast. Putting him in the Grail Quest is an unconventional but potentially interesting idea...if Morris was interested in actually doing that.
In his Author's Notes, Morris notes that the "canon" version of the Grail Quest is kind of a slog, and its main-est character, Galahad, is boring, with no real characterization but "holy." These are perfectly valid criticisms. Unfortunately, instead of fixing these problems, Morris falls into his usual strategy of "make the story worse so that I can spend the book complaining about how bad it is." It's just that now he's bitching about religion instead of courtly love or tournaments.
Part of the problem is that I liked this version of Galahad, at first. A super anxious religious guy suffering from scrupulosity? HECK do I find that relatable! And it's a great way to add some conflict to his established character traits. But uh-oh—Galahad is a.) the protagonist of the original tale, and b.) not Gawain. That means he must be infected with Morris Caricature Syndrome (MCS) and be Flanderized into complete unlikability. So let's see, he canonically receives signs of his divine mission? Obviously he should be an idiot who just THINKS that everything is a sign of his divine mission. Pious? That means "preachy" and "gullible." Celibate? Sounds like a fancy word for "hates women." Et cetera ad infinitem.
The same is true of every religious character, basically—a fact that I know won't bother everyone, but sure as heck bothers me! It's actually something that's been simmering under the surface in previous volumes. Heck, even with Sarah's Jewish guardian in book #6, there's this weird tension where he's a loving father figure tragically murdered by a pogrom, but also kind of a jerk for actually believing what Judaism teaches about magic and stuff.
Some would object that no, in the sea of hermits that we meet (another problem Morris chooses to exacerbate rather than repair), there were like, two they were portrayed positively! To which I say: One had no purpose except to give them a message from a fairy, and the other...had no purpose at all, actually. We're told that they're religious, but I feel like they're only allowed to be likeable because they're not too religious—you know, in the sense of caring about theology or personal behavior or stupid things like that. It's telling that neither gives the heroes spiritual advice, just point out off into the distance and not actually tell them where they need to go.
Which ties into Beaufils' whole arc. In his Author's Note, Morris says that he set out to write a story about a religious main character, since religion was so important to the Middle Ages. I'm honestly flabbergasted that he thinks he achieved this. Beaufils is "religious" in the sense that he sort of enjoyed a mass when Galahad brought him to one, once, and at the end, decides he'll just trick people into thinking that he cares about religion when he really doesn't.
Bors (one of the other canonical Grail Knights, though demoted here) is a lot like Galahad, though more about chivalry than piety. Both are characters who hold themselves to very high moral standards and strive for self-improvement. And in both of their arcs, the message is that they are stupid to do so, actually, and that it makes them gullible morons. The main difference is that Bors overcomes the obvious character flaw of "wanting to be a good person," while it's taken for granted that Galahad never could. Beaufils thinks to himself that he could never convince Galahad that he's wrong about something, but since he hasn't tried, it feels rather unfair.
And you know...this book is supposed to be about the Holy Grail. Which one is supposed to achieve through holiness. Except it's basically stated that the Grail isn't "holy" anyway, and only those stupid religious characters would assume it is. And this story isn't even about the Grail anyway! Beaufils goes along with Galahad to find it at the beginning, but he doesn't really care about it and abandons the search when the pair separate. He also forgets his original reason for coming to Camelot, which was to find his father.
I should mention that I liked Beaufils early on. His naivete, while occasionally inconsistent, is understandable and endearing. But he grates on me more as the story goes on, if only because he's emblematic of what I don't like about this series' characterization. He really has no arc. The book insists that he does, and I get what it was probably supposed to be: he starts off innocent, sees the darkness of the world, but manages to remain optimistic in spite of it. But it never feels like a struggle. It's more like he starts off innocent, sees the darkness of the world, and then goes "...huh" before moving on. He's cheery and optimistic because he just is, which in Morris' mind makes a much better protagonist than one who struggles with self-improvement.
And the funny thing is: as a result of all this, Morris essentially recreates the problems of the Grail Quest. Instead of knights like Lancelot and Gawain being presented as irredeemable failures for past sins, Galahad is an irredeemable failure for trying to be sinless. Instead of Galahad being presented as a paragon who never has to struggle because he's Just That Holy, Beaufils is presented as a paragon who never has to struggle because he's Just That Winsome. Instead of a series of vignettes that are supposed to be spiritual lessons, we get a series of vignettes which mock the idea of spiritual lessons. It's the same flaws, but with the point violently removed.
So what IS the book about, if it's not the Holy Grail, Beaufils' parentage or his non-existant character development? Well, around the same time that they ditch Galahad, Beaufils meets a girl named Ellyn. And that one hermit whom we're not supposed to hate tells them that a fairy said that Ellyn has a quest to accomplish. He does not say what this quest is or how to find it. Ellyn is literally told to just stumble around in any random direction, and that eventually she'll find...something.
This is not how plots work, Morris.
By the way, the fairy who says this, and who keeps popping in to give Beaufils advice? It's Terence's father Ganscotter. This is treated as a twist, but it doesn't count because who cares? All the "fairy helpers" are pretty much interchangeable, with no distinct personalities. Though I think it's kind of funny that Terence's deadbeat dad is so desperate to avoid him that he picks a different orphan teenager to hang around instead.
Anyway, we stumble around into various episodic shenanigans, occasionally running into Galahad at the same time. The Bors plot involves a woman pretending like she needs his help to fight someone, but actually she's evil. Then they run into another woman who says that she needs Ellyn's help to break a curse, but actually she's evil. So, let's see: personal improvement is dumb, and anyone who asks for your help is bad. Some great moral lessons we're getting in this book, right?
I want to talk about that latter story. In the Grail Quest, there's a leprous woman who can only be healed by a maiden's blood. The Grail Maiden, whom Ellyn is standing in for here, knows that this could kill her, but agrees and dies in the process. Which, yeah—kind of messed up. But also a story about self-sacrifice and Christian charity. Here, Ellyn is outraged by the request, even though she's led to believe that she won't die from it, and the protagonists seem to think that the disabled and bedridden woman having people waiting on her proves that she must be bad. I doubt it was Morris' intention, but it really feels like a weird "people who ask for help are just selfish" moral. Like, seriously, you could have just told the normal story but switched the blood out for something else, or had Ellyn survive the ordeal.
Ellyn herself is pretty generic for half the book, until she's also revealed to be a misandrist jerk, so...yeah. Didn't like her much. And at this point, it occurs to me that Morris' heroines are kind of samey. I like some of them, but they're all some version of Not Like Other Girls, because the girls who are like other girls are ditzes and/or villains. It's telling that as soon as the ill woman was described as having a "girlish" voice, I immediately thought "Oh, she's gonna be evil."
Anyway, our last-ish subplot manages to subvert Morris' unintentional Objectivism. In a legend taken from the actual Fair Unknown story, they stumble across a lady changed into a dragon. Ellyn's quest was to help her, apparently, which gives her the only character development in this whole story. This all happens off-screen, mind you, so it kind of loses its impact.
I do think the little twist Morris gives to the story is kinda good—that the curse can be broken by "the son of Arthur's greatest knight," which they think means Galahad, but actually is Beaufils. But as a side note, Galahad might as well not be Lancelot's son in this version. Lancelot actually went on the Grail Quest in "canon," giving them time to interact together. Here, their whole relationship is basically:
Galahad: I'm your son.
Lancelot: Oh. Wow. ... Anyway. Bye forever, I guess.
Galahad: Oh. Bye.
Then again, that's basically what we get from Gawain and Beaufils, too. Because BTW, Gawain is Beaufils' father. Beaufils has already decided that he doesn't care, just to cement how pointless everything in this book is. Heck, the fact that he finds out right after even makes his indifference pointless!
They do also find the Grail. It's the shortest chapter in the book, which I think is saying something. And while I can appreciate the moral that living in the world is better than leaving it to become a blissful hermit...well, I'd appreciate it more if it didn't seem like such a strawman argument.
So, um, yeah. This book was very bad. Which sucks even more because it had all the ingredients to be great, if Morris had actually tried using them.
July 20, 2014
One of the best in the series. Though this one takes lots of easy potshots at misguided "holy" men, it does offer a string of varied enchantments to overcome and provocative examples of people manipulating others for good or ill while following the sanctimonious Galahad and the innocent but not stupid Beaufils on the Grail quest. The ending is particularly wonderful.
Notable line: "In this world, you always find what you really seek. Maybe in every world."
Notable line: "In this world, you always find what you really seek. Maybe in every world."
March 19, 2024
Book 8 of the Squire's Tales is a mashup of two Arthurian romances - my beloved Quest of the Holy Grail, which is my favourite Arthurian romance of all, and the tale of Le Bel Inconnu, the only one of Morris' source materials so far which I haven't actually read. (But obviously I'll have to). For me, the Grail Quest is the heart and soul of the great Matter of Britain, so when I realised early in this book that Morris was not going to take it seriously, I wondered if I would like the book at all. The fact that I had a blast is really saying something.
But Morris is definitely using his wit affectionately in this instalment, and even though Sir Galahad doesn't come off looking very admirable, he and our hero Beaufils make a screamingly funny pair of himbos to follow through the story. Then, even though the Grail in this book is not-quite-so-holy, the characters' belief that it is gives Morris the opportunity to focus the whole story pretty closely on matters of faith, religion, and conscience. Since Morris is a believer himself, this works pretty well, but he isn't afraid to get satirical, either. (There's a sequence, which must be read to be believed, in which our heroes in quick succession run into a Calvinist hermit, a Pentecostal hermit, and a dispensationalist hermit, and I was SHRIEKING with laughter).
I really can't imagine how a secular audience must have responded to a children's fantasy adventure book containing this sheer volume of unhinged church nerdery. All I know is that I thought it was a scream and a hoot, and you honestly couldn't possibly adapt the QUEST for a 21st century audience without it. It's not how I would have adapted the story - indeed I didn't; I took the whole Grail Quest far more seriously when I did my own Arthurian retelling - but it was a joy from beginning to end, and I'm kind of amazed it worked this well for me.
But Morris is definitely using his wit affectionately in this instalment, and even though Sir Galahad doesn't come off looking very admirable, he and our hero Beaufils make a screamingly funny pair of himbos to follow through the story. Then, even though the Grail in this book is not-quite-so-holy, the characters' belief that it is gives Morris the opportunity to focus the whole story pretty closely on matters of faith, religion, and conscience. Since Morris is a believer himself, this works pretty well, but he isn't afraid to get satirical, either. (There's a sequence, which must be read to be believed, in which our heroes in quick succession run into a Calvinist hermit, a Pentecostal hermit, and a dispensationalist hermit, and I was SHRIEKING with laughter).
I really can't imagine how a secular audience must have responded to a children's fantasy adventure book containing this sheer volume of unhinged church nerdery. All I know is that I thought it was a scream and a hoot, and you honestly couldn't possibly adapt the QUEST for a 21st century audience without it. It's not how I would have adapted the story - indeed I didn't; I took the whole Grail Quest far more seriously when I did my own Arthurian retelling - but it was a joy from beginning to end, and I'm kind of amazed it worked this well for me.
March 11, 2019
For a boy who grew up in the forest, knowing literally only his mother, Beaufils sure adapts to a world full of people remarkably well. It's a fish-out-of-water story done poorly. As with the carbon-copy characters in "The Lioness and Her Knight", Beaufils feels like a carbon-copy of Parsifal. Ellyn feels like a really pale imitation of Lady Eileen (what's with all these E names??). Galahad feels like the wacky Christian version of Beaumains/Gareth. There wasn't even good banter in this book. Sir Bors and Sir Lionel are embarrassingly stupid and boorish, the continual meeting of various hermits gets really old really fast.
I hate Galahad's fanatical portrayal. I hate that Galahad's conception is absolutely rape and there's literally one sentence devoted to it, and no one feels particularly strongly about it. As soon as Galahad's father is revealed, you *know* who Beaufils' father is. Listen, I don't like Christians myself, but this was so heavily-handedly portrayed, I can't believe it wasn't from a Disney channel cartoon.
If Ganscotter is so interested in Beaufils, why didn't he help Beaufils' mother while she was still alive? If Beaufils' birth happened before the events of considering This book just felt like a moneymaker, or a pit stop before Morris gets to the Mordred story line.
I hate Galahad's fanatical portrayal. I hate that Galahad's conception is absolutely rape and there's literally one sentence devoted to it, and no one feels particularly strongly about it. As soon as Galahad's father is revealed, you *know* who Beaufils' father is. Listen, I don't like Christians myself, but this was so heavily-handedly portrayed, I can't believe it wasn't from a Disney channel cartoon.
If Ganscotter is so interested in Beaufils, why didn't he help Beaufils' mother while she was still alive? If Beaufils' birth happened before the events of considering This book just felt like a moneymaker, or a pit stop before Morris gets to the Mordred story line.
July 28, 2019
3.5 stars.
I hate to criticize a book in this series, since I respect and appreciate what Gerald Morris is trying to do and the humorous way he subverts traditional Arthurian narratives. I’m sure most of my disappointment in this eighth installment comes from having very high expectations, since my last read was The Princess, the Crone, and the Dung-Cart Knight, which was 5-stars, excellent, and wonderful.
There is also a personal element: out of the whole tome that is Morte D’Arthur, the grail quest is one of my favorite sequences. Yes, it’s often over the top; yes the moralizing of Galahad and his grail-seeking friends can be grating. But writing a whole novel making fun of it comes close to leaving the realm of satire and descending into outright cynicism.
It’s not hard to make fun of an earnest knight like Galahad. What’s hard is to make such a character grow and change, to help the audience understand what motivates him as his goals and desires shift. Morris was able to do so brilliantly with Sir Lancelot in Book 6, but here he takes an easier, more well-tread path.
Beaufils is a fine main character, and the supporting cast is the usual fun and quirky group (minus Galahad). But ultimately this book left me feeling rather empty, similar to my reaction reading The Ballad of Sir Dinadan. There’s nothing wrong with The Quest of the Fair Unknown, but it doesn’t reach as high as it could and its satire follows a familiar, well-worn route. I just can't help but feel that there could have been a better story.
That being said, I look forward to reading the rest of the series with pleasure.
I hate to criticize a book in this series, since I respect and appreciate what Gerald Morris is trying to do and the humorous way he subverts traditional Arthurian narratives. I’m sure most of my disappointment in this eighth installment comes from having very high expectations, since my last read was The Princess, the Crone, and the Dung-Cart Knight, which was 5-stars, excellent, and wonderful.
There is also a personal element: out of the whole tome that is Morte D’Arthur, the grail quest is one of my favorite sequences. Yes, it’s often over the top; yes the moralizing of Galahad and his grail-seeking friends can be grating. But writing a whole novel making fun of it comes close to leaving the realm of satire and descending into outright cynicism.
It’s not hard to make fun of an earnest knight like Galahad. What’s hard is to make such a character grow and change, to help the audience understand what motivates him as his goals and desires shift. Morris was able to do so brilliantly with Sir Lancelot in Book 6, but here he takes an easier, more well-tread path.
Beaufils is a fine main character, and the supporting cast is the usual fun and quirky group (minus Galahad). But ultimately this book left me feeling rather empty, similar to my reaction reading The Ballad of Sir Dinadan. There’s nothing wrong with The Quest of the Fair Unknown, but it doesn’t reach as high as it could and its satire follows a familiar, well-worn route. I just can't help but feel that there could have been a better story.
That being said, I look forward to reading the rest of the series with pleasure.
June 4, 2023
Two young friends, sheltered Beaufils and pious Galahad, are off to Camelot. They have a lot in common: both have been raised by a single mother, both have been told that his father is a knight of Camelot, and now both are off to find their fathers and their place in the world. On their quest, they are challenged by the true meaning of holiness-- they come into contact with a wide variety of lifestyles, ranging from gentle to humorous to alarming, all claiming to be the true path to God. Unbeknownst to them, each boy is on his own quest, to discover the truth about himself and what is most important to him.
Although Gerald Morris's writing style continues to strike the charming balance between lighthearted and deep, this story never really found its stride. I know he's a pastor and I know the story of the Holy Grail is a religious one, but the philosophizing was a little heavy-handed. The goal of the book was to expose all of the ways that people have twisted the gospel, from hyper Calvinism to hyper spiritualism to oppression of women, and it was thought-provoking but did detract from the plot. Also, this was my least favorite cast of characters in any of the Squire's Tales so far. Beaufils was lovable but way too similar to Parsifal. Galahad had no growth or change. And I felt like I barely knew Ellyn, to the point where I didn't really care when she got her happy ending. The most important part of this book was the introduction of Mordred, setting the stage for the climax that I assume will begin to play out in the last two books.
Although Gerald Morris's writing style continues to strike the charming balance between lighthearted and deep, this story never really found its stride. I know he's a pastor and I know the story of the Holy Grail is a religious one, but the philosophizing was a little heavy-handed. The goal of the book was to expose all of the ways that people have twisted the gospel, from hyper Calvinism to hyper spiritualism to oppression of women, and it was thought-provoking but did detract from the plot. Also, this was my least favorite cast of characters in any of the Squire's Tales so far. Beaufils was lovable but way too similar to Parsifal. Galahad had no growth or change. And I felt like I barely knew Ellyn, to the point where I didn't really care when she got her happy ending. The most important part of this book was the introduction of Mordred, setting the stage for the climax that I assume will begin to play out in the last two books.
June 21, 2018
Saw this at the library and grabbed it on a whim -- I've read the beginning and end of this series but not the middle. I actually really enjoyed this installment! I'm not particularly familiar with either of the narratives Morris was drawing from, but Beaufils is a very sweet protagonist and there are enough cameos from beloved characters (Ganscotter, Gawain and Terence all make appearances, although I missed Eileen; Lorie also shows up very briefly) to make it feel part of the series even though Beaufils himself is basically on a side quest the entire time and only intersects with the main arc occasionally. I was pleasantly surprised that Ellyn, the lady companion du jour, actually got to have her own story that resolved independently of Beaufils. Even though it's a later book, this feels like a throwback to the earlier books in the series when it was just about having fun with the characters instead of getting bogged down with Mordred and the end of Arthur's reign. I don't remember if the earlier books had this much religion in them but it was actually a very nice thread throughout the book affirming the value of a loving spirituality while pointing out the hypocrisy of people who use religion for self-aggrandizement.
October 18, 2024
Beaufils was a dreambroat. I loved him from beginning to end, through every step of his realizing what it means to participate in the world. Since I'm part of a ministry family, I howled over all the wonky theology in the not so sacred 'Sacred Forest'. I love how Morris unabashedly spewed out all of his research on the Arthurian grail quest through the character of Geoffrey of Monmouth, making a joke of the whole thing. But I can't give this 5 stars, even if I'd like to. I needed a bit of a bigger deal to be made over the identity of Le Beau's father. I only had 3 paragraphs there at the end to be over the moon about it. Not to mention, Ellyn's story arc was pretty dissatisfying. I won't say it's because she's a woman, as Morris has done justice to a lot of female characters throughout this series. All that being said, I'll be rereading this series until I die.
April 25, 2018
I really love this series so much, and on the whole it's a 4* series for me at least, but that said this is my least favorite of the bunch. The story is kind of disjointed and not very interesting, and it's almost completely devoid of the humor that makes this series so enjoyable. Most of the time is spent running into "religious" people who are invariably dreadful (although they ARE a wide selection of dreadful - boring, stupid, hypocritical, bullheaded, cruel, argumentative, condescending, criminal, etc.) I honestly felt like I was going to give this book 2* the entire time I was reading, except I really do like the way that it ends, so I bumped it up a level. This isn't a terrible book, but if it was the first one in the series, I wouldn't have bothered to read the rest.
December 26, 2025
Continuing my reread of this favorite childhood series – it's so good when you can go back to something and say oh yes, this is why I loved this and remembered it so fondly, and maybe even find pieces that you carried forward from it. Anyways, so far as this specific book, it's a shorter one set around the sincere and naive Beaufils, a great character. Morris explains in the author's note that he set out to fill a gap so far as protagonists in the series – a godly one – and while the result is one of my lesser favorite entries, it's also impressively palatable, all things considered (such as my distaste for religion). Just two books now to finish out, which is a bit bittersweet, especially since from here we get back to the main plot and the inevitability of the end of Arthur's reign.
November 2, 2022
This one gets five stars. It is hilarious. Almost all of The Squire's Tales are good but this one got the extra star because of the sacred forest scenes with the different hermits. I have read that Gerald Morris is a Baptist Pastor so I find it hilarious when he skewers both the cage stage Calvinist type in Father Rolbert and the charismatic Pentecostal type in Brother Denys. I grew up in the experienced based Pentecostal church and a few years ago started attending a reformed church so I went through my own cage stage and so I understand what Gerald Morris is getting at here.
May 27, 2020
Galahad was more than a little irritating, and I wish he’d gotten knocked down a peg and learned a lesson about being so blindly pious. I wasn’t fond of Ellyn’s story either, because i felt it took a sudden turn from “I want to adventure!” To “I hate men!” and then she apparently falls in love with a woman that had been turned into a dragon...? I didn’t understand why Synadona wanted everyone to fear her in the first place. Nor what the story about the crazy lady that needed maiden blood was about. But Ellyn never returns home, and her parents are just forgotten.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2024
The hermits and their mini denominational satires were a lot of fun, and this captured some of the “spiritual” weight of The Squire The Knight and his Lady. Also, while it was a little disappointing that the romance itself happened offscreen and only one of the partners was a significant character, did Gerald Morris finally give us some lesbians who are going to live happily ever after together? I think he did, and in 2006, too!
October 10, 2021
This is the book that started it all. I found and read this book with no clue as to what it was about or that it was 8th in a series. Yet I fell in love with the characters and writing style. Here I am now, currently obsessed with this series and honestly telling you I will read these books when I'm old and gray.
March 4, 2017
What a GoodRead! Captivating and Poignant...a re-telling of King Arthur's Court. A great introduction for the next generation to the Mythology of the Knights of the Round Table....You won't be able to put it down!
May 14, 2017
This started off slow and I wasn't really that into it but by the end it was a pretty cute little story. It had a lot of good things to say about friendship and had an interesting take on what exactly everyone's personal "quest" is.
July 25, 2019
Gerald Morris does the Vulgate Grail far better than the Wolfram/Chretien version. It is very funny in places, while retaining a sense of adventure. And the Fair Unknown himself is one of the best characters of the series
June 15, 2021
This book follows the Grail Quest as Beaufils joins Sir Gareth, Sir Gawain, and other knights on the great quest. Along the way there's plenty of hermits, humor, and examining what you think you know.
September 20, 2022
It was pretty good, it has a likeable main character.
It actually got darker than I thought it would (pretty dark compared to the previous volume) I didn't really care for the ending that much though, & didn't really care for the way they dropped off other characters.
It actually got darker than I thought it would (pretty dark compared to the previous volume) I didn't really care for the ending that much though, & didn't really care for the way they dropped off other characters.
November 1, 2024
A fantastic take on some of the religious quests depicted in Arthurian legends. Respectful while calling out some of the problematic aspects. These have been my favorite retellings, and each one is delightful.
March 14, 2019
Another great retelling of Arthurian and various other old stories!
February 8, 2020
I always knew he was the greatest knight!
August 25, 2020
Not my favorite in the series.
October 6, 2022
In this eighth novel of my new favorite series, Morris explores themes of innocence, religious fervor, and identity. It was another enjoyable, thought-provoking trek through Arthur's Britain.
December 15, 2022
A retelling of the Grail quest, told with a great deal of humor from the viewpoint of a complete innocent, the "Fair Unknown" of the title.
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