Sir Galahad is a knight of King Arthur's Round Table and one of the three achievers of the Holy Grail in Arthurian legend. He is the bastard son of Sir Lancelot and Elaine of Carbonek, and is renowned for his gallantry and purity. He is perhaps the knightly embodiment of Jesus in the Arthurian legends. He first appears in the Lancelot-Grail cycle, and his story is taken up in later works such as the Post-Vulgate Cycle and Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.
In 1949 Galahad was featured in his own Columbia serial, played by George Reeves, the future Superman. It was the first, and only, Arthurian film serial. However Galahad has fared less well in other cinematic retellings of the Matter of Britain. In Knights of the Round Table and Merlin he is only shown as a child, (though he is destined to find the Grail after the action of each film); and is left out of Excalibur and Camelot altogether. Galahad had a minor part in King Arthur, as an adult but not as the son of Lancelot.
Galahad appeared as a villain in the Grant Morrison work The Shining Knight in his Seven Soldiers series where he is called both Galahad the Giant Killer and Galahad the Perfect Knight. He was brought under the control of the series main antagonists, the Sheeda, and fought against Sir Justin the Shining Knight. Galahad was the subject of a song by Rick Wakeman and is used as a metaphor in a song by Joan Baez ("Sweet Sir Galahad"), and is mentioned in the song "Tin Man" by the band America. Galahad is also the name of a lager produced by well known German retailer Aldi. Galahad also is one of the Knights of the Round Table portrayed in the computer game Runescape. During the quest known as "The Holy Grail", he provides the player with a special item that allows a person to eventually find the grail. The Mega Drive/Genesis version of the computer game Leander is known as Legend of Galahad.