grail quest
Preserved but no longer current.
He appears in the Welsh Triads and the Mabinogion as Gwalchmei, and in the Arthurian cycle is the centre of many episodes and poems. The Middle English poem (about 1360), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is a romance telling how Gawain beheads the Green Knight hi single combat.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “grail quest” mean?
He appears in the Welsh Triads and the Mabinogion as Gwalchmei, and in the Arthurian cycle is the centre of many episodes and poems. The Middle English poem (about 1360), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is a romance telling how Gawain beheads the Green Knight hi single combat.
Is “grail quest” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.