This chapter explores the changes Malory registers in his characterization of Lancelot in his version of the Grail story, as compared to his French source, La Queste del Saint Graal. Lancelot's worldly ‘trappings’ become a source of anxiety and questioning, while his personal spiritual understanding of religion is shaped through tests.

The character of Lancelot in Le Morte Darthur is made up of different pieces of a puzzle, corresponding to the various sources Thomas Malory worked from. Malory's Lancelot becomes the greatest knight at King Arthur's court – a significant change in the English tradition of Arthurian romance, in which Gawain is prominent. It is also in the Morte that Lancelot's failure in the Grail quest is counterbalanced by his success in the episode of ‘The Healing of Sir Urry’, a development clearly designed to redeem Malory's favourite knight from the stain of adulterous sin and disloyalty to his king, and to restore his position as best knight. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate Malory's shift of focus from the doctrinal aspect of religion present in his French source for the Holy Grail quest to a pragmatic understanding of religious experience, exemplified through Lancelot's performances in the quest and in the Urry episode.

The ‘Tale of the Sankgreal’ (Tale VI) comes after the tales of Lancelot, Tristram and Gareth, and before the destruction of the Arthurian court. The ‘sankgreal’ is at once a story in its own right and a cornerstone for the understanding of the Arthurian cycle as a whole.