The Questing Beast and the Quest are two very different sides to the same idea. The Questing Beast is a physical representation of the Quest, but illustrates the absurdity of knightly questing where King Pellinore's search for the Questing Beast is simply a game that has no ultimate goal to it. The Quest—the journey the Knights undergo to find the Holy Grail—is instead a series of tests where the ultimate goal is not to find the Holy Grail (as it seems to entail) but to endure spiritual tests and perfect the soul. The Quest requires a degree of discipline that many of the knights are unable to exercise. Ultimately, however, the Quest symbolizes a process—just as the Questing Beast was a type of process for King Pellinore that culminates in him falling in love with the Queen of Flanders' daughter—to enlighten the self and ultimately reform the realm itself.
The Questing Beast and Quests Quotes in The Once and Future King
The The Once and Future King quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Questing Beast and Quests. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 2, Chapter 14
Quotes
Although nine tenths of the story seems to be about knights jousting and quests for the holy grail and things of that sort, the narrative is a whole, and it deals with the reasons why the young man came to grief at the end. It is the tragedy, the Aristotelian and comprehensive tragedy, of sin coming home to roost.
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Book 3, Chapter 36
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Half the knights had been killed—the best half. What Arthur had feared from the start of the Grail Quest had come to pass. If you achieve perfection, you die. There had been nothing left for Galahad to ask of God, except death. The best knights had gone to perfection, leaving the worst to hold their sieges.
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The Questing Beast and Quests Symbol Timeline in The Once and Future King
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Questing Beast and Quests appears in The Once and Future King. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Chapter 1
...Knight—the two men decide that the boys need a tutor and agree that they must quest for a new one.
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Book 1, Chapter 2
...is lost. He says that his name is King Pellinore and he's been chasing the Questing Beast for seventeen years.
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The Questing Beast, according to King Pellinore, has the head of a serpent, the body of a...
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Suddenly, they hear a loud noise. Sure it's the Questing Beast, Pellinore grabs his lance and gallops after it. He quickly gets tangled in a...
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Book 1, Chapter 3
...is going to be Wart's tutor. "My," Wart exclaims, "I must have been on a quest!"
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Book 1, Chapter 4
Wart declares that he has been successful on the quest for a tutor—he has found Merlyn, the great magician. Merlyn shows Sir Ector his references...
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Sir Ector declares how amazing it was for Wart to accomplish a quest all on his own. Kay, fired by jealousy, dismisses the quest. To which Merlyn responds...
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Book 1, Chapter 16
...off after him and comes across King Pellinore crying and clutching the head of the questing beast in his lap.
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Book 2, Chapter 9
...across the counterfeit beast arguing with its stomach. At the base of the cliff, the Questing Beast herself waits in the moonlight.
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Book 2, Chapter 11
...be the Queen of Flander's daughter who had found them with the help of the Questing Beast. The castle lowers the drawbridge for Pellinore who tries to hold the Questing Beast...
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Book 3, Chapter 32
He had started his Quest by travelling to King Peles' castle, but was waylaid on the journey when he was...
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