Bleeding Lance
A blood-dripping spear which appears in the Grail Procession. Feared as a weapon of destruction yet revered as a holy relic.
Alternative Names
Avenging Lance, Holy Lance (Longinus’ Spear)
Introduction#
The Bleeding Lance, sometimes called the Avenging Lance, is one of the most enigmatic and enduring symbols in Arthurian legend. Always described as a lance that drips with fresh blood, it appears in some of the earliest Grail stories and continues to fascinate across later romances. Sometimes seen as a relic of destruction, sometimes as an object of divine mystery, it bridges pagan echoes of magical weapons and Christian symbolism tied to the Passion of Christ.
Background and Origins#
Even before Robert de Boron transformed the Grail into the cup of the Last Supper, the Bleeding Lance was equated with the spear of Longinus, the Roman soldier said in the Apocrypha to have pierced Christ’s side. In Christian Grail romances, the blood was explicitly Christ’s blood, uniting the weapon to themes of sacrifice and redemption.
The lance first emerges in Chrétien de Troyes’ Perceval (c. 1180), where it is borne in solemn procession through the Grail Castle. Its exact meaning is left unexplained, leaving later authors to expand and reshape its role. In the Second Continuation, Robert de Boron’s Joseph d’Arimathie, and the Vulgate Cycle, the weapon takes on new forms, sometimes as the Spear of Longinus that pierced Christ’s side, other times as a cursed object that causes the Wasteland to suffer until healed by the Grail hero. Its ambiguity – both sacred and perilous – made it one of the central marvels of the Grail tradition.
According to the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate Cycles, Joseph of Arimathea brought the lance to Britain, where it was kept at Corbenic alongside the Grail. In these tales it was the weapon of the Dolorous Stroke: Balin the Savage used it to wound King Pellehan, turning Listenois into the Waste Land. In Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival and Malory’s Morte Darthur, this destructive lance is also the Bleeding Lance of the Grail Castle. Later, Galahad used the blood flowing from its tip to heal Pellehan, the Maimed King. At the conclusion of the Grail Quest, both lance and Grail were carried to Sarras and drawn up into heaven, never to reappear.
The Adventure of the Lance#
The lance first enters the legend in Chrétien de Troyes’ unfinished Perceval. The lance most often appears during the Grail Procession, when it is carried through the great hall of the Grail Castle, bleeding continuously into a silver or golden vessel. Perceval sees this vision but fail to ask its meaning, a silence that condemns him to wander until he redeems himself, and dooms the kingdom to continued sufferin.
Later continuations explain more: the bleeding comes from the wound of a mysterious king, tied mystically to the weapon, or from the very Passion of Christ himself. It was also said to be a prophetic weapon destined to devastate Logres. The mystery of the lance thus became a central question of the Grail Quest.
This mysterious episode captured the imagination of later writers. The Welsh tale Peredur describes a “spear of incalculable size with three streams of blood running from the sockets to the floor.” In some romances, the lance is more than a vision. Knights are tasked with seeking it out, as with Gawain in the Vulgate Cycle, or confronting its terrible power, which can devastate entire lands.
The Welsh Peredur describes it as pure white, the lance continually dripped blood from its tip. The romance likewise described a
“… spear of incalculable size with three streams of blood running from the sockets to the floor.”
At the end of the Grail Quest, Galahad carries the lance to Sarras, where it vanishes into heaven alongside the Grail, never to be seen again.
Role in Arthurian Legend#
The Bleeding Lance occupied several roles within the romances. It could devastate a kingdom, as in the Dolorous Stroke, or restore life and health, as when Galahad used its blood to heal a wounded king. Through Robert de Boron and the Vulgate Cycle, it became closely identified with Christ’s blood, flowing eternally from the wound of the Crucifixion.
In some tales, knights such as Gawain are sent to recover the lance as a quest-object separate from the Grail itself. The people of Escavalon regarded it strictly as a prophesied weapon of destruction, apart from any Grail context. Finally, its heavenly translation at the end of the Grail Quest, when it was taken up into heaven alongside the Grail, completed its cycle as both relic and mystery.
Variations and Alternative Lances#
Other accounts multiply the mystery. In the Estoire del Saint Graal, a second bleeding lance wounds Josephus, son of Joseph of Arimathea, only for him to be healed by its own dripping blood. Scholars have also drawn connections to Celtic myth, especially the Luin of Celtchar, an Irish spear said to burn with deadly heat and to thirst for blood until quenched. These echoes suggest that the Bleeding Lance is both a Christian relic and a reimagining of older, magical weapons from myth.
Sources#
Y Gododdin | Aneirin, c. 600
Annales Cambriae | c. 960-980
Historia Regum Britanniae | Geoffrey of Monmouth, c. 1138
Vita Merlini | Geoffrey of Monmouth, c. 1150
Triads of the Island of Britain (Welsh ”Triads”) | 11th century to 14th century
Peredur | 13th century
Geraint and Enid | 13th century
