Grail Knight

"He chose... poorly."

- Grail Knight

The Grail Knight or Guardian of the Holy Grail was last man of three brothers who guarded the Holy Grail for many years. Like his siblings, he was a Knight of the First Crusade and continued to watch over the cup that once held the blood of Jesus Christ long after his brothers departed for France some 150 years after finding the Grail.

Chosen because he was the bravest and most worthy, the Knight would watch until another came to vanquish him in single combat. Though drinking from the Grail had extended his life beyond normal mortals, the centuries that passed before Indiana Jones came across him in 1938 had sapped his strength and the Knight was unable to put up proper resistance with the archaeologist.

Gracious in defeat, the Knight tried to pass on his sword to Jones but was interrupted by the arrival of Walter Donovan and Elsa Schneider. Donovan demanded that the Knight reveal which was the true Holy Grail, but the Knight refused to do so. Schneider subsequently chose a false one, which resulted in Donovan aging into dust when he drank from it. Jones subsequently found the correct one.

The Knight was last seen awaiting the collapse of the Temple of the Sun after Schneider crossed the Great Seal with the Grail. It is presumed that, with the loss of the Grail, the Knight died soon afterward.

Behind the scenes
The Grail Knight was played by Robert Eddison.

In LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, the Grail Knight battles Indy in the Grail chamber. In the film, he does not do so.

It would be unlikely for an eleventh century figure to be able to communicate in 20th-century English, as depicted in the film, even if the French knight knew the English language of his day. The First Crusade lasted from 1096-1099, which in linguistic history marks the very end of the Old English period and the beginning of Middle English, either of which would be quite unintelligible to a speaker from the 20th century. In fact, even the French of that time period (the knight's presumed native tongue) would sound strange to a modern speaker of French.

Appearances

 * Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
 * Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade novel
 * Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade comic
 * Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny
 * Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures
 * Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead
 * LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures