Arthurian Scholar Watches 'Monty Python'

Okay, the title is a bit of a lie. It should really be called “a Monty Pythonand the Holy Grail fan gets a PhD in Arthurian literature” but that seemed a bit too long. Regardless, I am a PhD student studying Arthurian literature and I am a huge fan. Python fans have been told for decades this is a really smart movie, but I wanted to share exactly how it feels, as a fan of the movie, to find out how smart it actually is.

Note: some of what I’m about to say comes verbatim from my actual PhD notes.

Let’s start with the big ones: apart from “brave Sir Robin,” every knight given even a passing mention in the film is real, including Sir Bors, who gets killed by the deadly bunny rabbit, the Black Knight, who goes down much more easily in the legend, and the Green Knight, who isn’t actually killed by the Black Knight but is his brother and definitely survives. Joseph of Arimathea, who dies in the rabbit’s cave and leads them posthumously to Castle Aaargh, plays a huge role in the Grail mythos. The latter was so exciting, and it took me probably too long to figure out where I recognised the name, but that doesn’t even come close to the minute details that get a mention in the film.

First, consisting of my actual reaction in my actual notes, “CASTLE ANTHRAX IS REAL??” Yeah. It is. The castle full of beautiful women is, in fact, based in some way in the legends. It’s not called Castle Anthrax, and most of the beautiful women are raped and murdered (pleasant) but in the story of the Holy Grail, Galahad really does come across a castle known as the Castle of Maidens, where Monty Python clearly got their idea for the scene from. I literally called my dad and told him about this—it was a really exciting day in the Boone household.

Second: while the Knights Who Say Ni have yet, unfortunately, to make an actual appearance, giants play a really big part in the legends. They just kind of casually show up and fight people and even though everyone’s terrified of them, they’re always defeated really easily, just like the Knights, who can’t even hear a basic foundational word of the English language. It’s honestly hilarious, although no herrings have been found. Yet. I’m holding out hope.

Lancelot murdering a bunch of people at a wedding? Yep. That happened. Not at a wedding but an execution, Lancelot definitely comes into court and just casually murders everyone there, including two unarmed men, who just so happen to be his BFF’s brothers. This wasn’t a random court in the legends, either, it was Arthur’s court. So he just starts randomly chopping down his own friends and their families with no regard for anyone else. Sound familiar? It’s a lot less hilarious later on in the story where just as nobody blames Lancelot in the film, the friend whose brothers he killed ends up blaming himself for everything Lancelot caused because he wouldn’t forgive him. No, Gawain. That’s not a thing. And sorry, Lancelot. You murdered a lot of people. You can’t keep doing that. You’re the worst (spoiler: I hate Lancelot—fight me.)

Lancelot related side note: no word yet on Lancelot’s sexuality, referenced in passing in the film: “Well, you’re just gay,” and confirmed through song in the musical, Spamalot. That being said, there is some intense bromance between Lancelot and Tristan that gets just a bit too defensive, so make of that what you will.

At one point Galahad and Lancelot were described as being in “horrible peril.” If you don’t remember why that’s so funny, go watch the film again. I don’t even know if the Pythons meant to throw that in, but those two words made me laugh so hard upon reading this book. Again, I don’t even know if they meant to do it. But I will say that I will never look at the word “peril” the same way again. Never.

I did this backward, I am aware of that. But there’s something fun about reading something hundreds of years old and coming across things that people have used for comedy within the last fifty years. I’m not about to say Malory is a fun read. It is not. If you can help it, do not read this book. But when you kind of have to, finding little things like this make the entire arduous experience so much easier and definitely more fun.