With Merlin gone the whole of the hall erupts into chatter.  Everyone is amazed at the crazy events of the last entry!  It gets pretty loud.  All the knights are standing around Galahad, marveling at how amazing he is to sit in the Siege Perilous (even though Percivale already did) and agreeing that surely Galahad will be he by whom the Sangreal shall be enchieved, for there sat never none but he, but he were mischieved.  Which is, like, almost a pun, and also almost coherent, so I guess Malory gets partial credit and a C+ there.

Launcelot goes on about how great Galahad is, and reminds everyone that he’s Galahad’s father, and then Bors reminisces about meeting Baby Galahad back in Book XI, and how he always knew that upon pain of [Bors’s] life this young knight shall come unto great worship.  And on and on!

So no wonder Guenever comes in to tell everyone to quiet down, and to see what all this fuss is about, and then she sees that there’s a knight sitting in the Siege Perilous, which has never happened before (except that time when it did) and she’s as dumbstruck as everyone else.

“Who is that boy?  Doesn’t he look like Launcelot?  He does!  I bet he’s the son of Launcelot by that trollop whose name I don’t say, the one who used enchantments to rape him!  That boy, what’s his name?  Galahad!”  Guenever answers her own question, yes.  “I want to meet this boy, because as I’m sure everyone here knows, he’s surely a very fine boy.  His father is a very fine man, after all.”

“Absolutely,” says Arthur, even though Guenever was more speaking to herself than to him.  “Check this out, in fact!”  Arthur gets Galahad to stand up from the Siege Perilous. He then pulls off the slipcover that Kay had put in to cover Merlin’s golden writing.  “See?  It’s got his name on it!”

“Yeah, awesome,” says Gawaine, who is secretly filled with thoughts about how he, Gawaine, should be the one to “enchieve the Sangreal.”

“Everything’s looking up for King Arthur and his merry knights at Camelot,” continues Arthur.  “We’ve got Galahad, the prophecied best knight, and we’ve got his father Launcelot, who uttered the prophecies; it’s all very wondrous and mystical and clearly we are blessed.  “Galahad, my boy, welcome to Camelot, where we’re going to do great things together.”

“Thank you, sir.”  Galahad is nothing if not polite.

“Now c’mon, I have this levitating stone with a sword stuck in it that I want to show you.”  Arthur grabs Galahad by the wrist and tugs him off towards the riverbank.