Quotes from work
The Grail Quest

Bernard Cornwell

The Grail Quest is a historical fiction novel series written by Bernard Cornwell dealing with a 14th-century search for the Holy Grail, around the time of the Hundred Years' War. The stories follow the adventures of the fictional Thomas of Hookton as he leaves Dorset after the murder of his father and joins the English Army under Edward III as an archer. In Harlequin he is involved in battle in Brittany and subsequently at the Battle of Crécy. The archers are the first soldiers to be deployed along the crest of the hill at Crécy, providing cover before the battle starts for the knights building a system of ditches, pits and caltrops below to maim and bring down the enemy cavalry. The battle is a decisive victory for the English, even though they were outnumbered.

“An archer does not aim, he kills.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Thomas of Hookton, p. 18
The Grail Quest, The Archer's Tale/Harlequin (2000)

“A charge of knights was supposed to be thundering death on hooves, a flail of metal driven by the ponderous weight of men, horses and armor, and properly done, it was a mass maker of widows.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Narrator, p. 338
The Grail Quest, The Archer's Tale/Harlequin (2000)

“Let me tell you about the English War Bow, Joscelyn. It is a simple thing, med of yew, a peasant's tool, really. My huntsman can use one, but he is the only man in Berat who has ever mastered the weapon. Why do you think that is? I'll tell you anyway. It takes years, Joscelyn, many years to master the yew bow. Ten years? Probably that long, and after ten years a man can send an arrow clean through armor at two hundred paces. Splat! A thousand ecus of man, armor, and weaponry fallen to a peasant's bow. And it isn't luck, Joscelyn. My huntsman can put an arrow through a bracelet at a hundred paces. He can pierce mail coat at two hundred. I've seen him put an arrow through an oak door at a hundred and fifty, and the door was three inches thick!”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

The Count of Berat, p. 111
The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)

“Your friend Will is a good man, too, but I fear he's no longer an archer." "It would have been better, I sometimes think-" "If he had died? Wish death on no man, Thomas, it comes soon enough without a wish."”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Mordecai and Thomas of Hookton, p. 352
The Grail Quest, Vagabond (2002)

“They thought war was a game and every defeat only made them more eager to play.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Philip of Valois, King of France, regarding his more reckless nobles, p. 4
The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)

“"The rules of chivalry, my lord, ensure my protection." "Chivalry? Chivalry? I have heard it mentioned in songs, madame, but this is war. Our task is to punish the followers of Charles of Blois for rebelling against their lawful lord. Punishment and chivalry do not mix."”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Jeanette, the Countess of Armorica and Sir Simon Jekyll, p. 64
The Grail Quest, The Archer's Tale/Harlequin (2000)

“"Your nephew plays." "My nephew and his friends practice." "He would do better to look to his soul." "He has no soul, he's a soldier."”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Father Roubert and the Count of Berat, p. 33
The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)

“They haven't made an armor strong enought to resist an English arrow.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Thomas of Hookton, p. 89
The Grail Quest, The Archer's Tale/Harlequin (2000)

“You want a blessing, my son? Then God give strength to your bow and add bite to your arrows! May your arm never tire and your eye never dim. God and the saints bless you while you kill!”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

English Prior, p. 54
The Grail Quest, Vagabond (2002)

“I do not approve of you, Thomas, and I do not approve of your woman, but nor can I approve of a Church that uses pain to bring the love of God to a sinful world. Evil begets evil, it spreads like a weed, but good works are tender shoots that need husbandry.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Abbott Planchard, p. 212
The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)

“I think the Holy Grail is a dream that men have, a dream that the world can be made perfect. And if it existed, then we'd all know the dream can't come true.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Thomas of Hookton, p. 192
The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)

“The Grail is like God. It is everywhere, all around us, obvious, but we refuse to see it. Men think they can only see God when they build a great church and fill it with gold and silver statues, but all they need do is look. The Grail exists, Thomas, you just need to open your eyes.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Genevieve, p. 103
The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)

“I've killed priests before, and another priest sold me an indulgence for the killings, so don't think I fear you or your Church. There's no sin that can't be bought off, no pardon that can't be purchased.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Sir William Douglas, to Bernard de Taillebourg of the Inquisition, p. 17
The Grail Quest, Vagabond (2002)

“You may call me doctor. You won't, of course. You'll call me damned Jew, a Christ murderer, a secret worshipper of pigs and a kidnapper of Christian children. How absurd! Who would want to kidnap children, Christian or otherwise? Vile things. The only mercy of children is that they grow up, as my son has but then, tragically, they beget more children. We do not learn lifes lessons.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Doctor Mordecai
The Grail Quest, The Archer's Tale/Harlequin (2000)

“"Nondum amabam, et amare amabam. I did not love, but yearned to love." "A very elaborate way of saying you're lonely."”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Thomas of Hookton and Eleanor, p. 235
The Grail Quest, The Archer's Tale/Harlequin (2000)

“But the implication of the psalm, is it not, is that we are sheep and that God is our shepherd? Why else would He put us in a pasture and protect us with a staff? But what I have never fully understood is why the shepherd blames the sheep when they become ill.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Abbott Planchard, p. 212
The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)

“What did he want? A tournament? Who does he think we are? The knights of the round bloody table? I don't know what happens to some folk. They put a sir in front of their names and their brains get addled. Fighting fair! Whoever heard of anything so daft? Fight fair and you lose.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Will Skeat, p. 94
The Grail Quest, The Archer's Tale/Harlequin (2000)

“"Don't waste your life, Tom." "I think I already have, father." "You're just young. It seems like that when you're young. Life's nothing but joy or misery when you're young."”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Thomas of Hookton and Father Hobbe, p. 140
The Grail Quest, The Archer's Tale/Harlequin (2000)

“The rules of chivalry, my lord, ensure my protection.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

<br/k> "Chivalry? Chivalry? I have heard it mentioned in songs, madame, but this is war. Our task is to punish the followers of Charles of Blois for rebelling against their lawful lord. Punishment and chivalry do not mix."
Jeanette, the Countess of Armorica and Sir Simon Jekyll, p. 64
The Grail Quest, The Archer's Tale/Harlequin (2000)

“It was just a bowl of peasant's clay, red brown in color, thickly made and rough to the touch, not perfectly round, with a small indentation on one side where the potter had damaged the unfired clay. It was worth pennies, perhaps nothing. Yet it was the greatest treasure of Christendom. And he kissed it once, and then he drew back his strong archer's right arm, ran down to the sucking sea's edge, and threw it as far and as hard as he could. He hurled it away and it span for an instant above the gray waves, seemed to fly a heartbeat longer as if it were reluctant to let go of mankind, and then the bowl was gone.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

The Grail Quest, Heretic (2003)

Similar authors

Bernard Cornwell photo

Bernard Cornwell175

British writer 1944

A.A. Milne photo

A.A. Milne169

British author None

Doris Lessing photo

Doris Lessing94

British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer … None

V.S. Naipaul photo

V.S. Naipaul34

Trinidadian-British writer of Indo-Nepalese ancestry None

Arthur C. Clarke photo

Arthur C. Clarke207

British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, u… None

W. Somerset Maugham photo

W. Somerset Maugham158

British playwright, novelist, short story writer None

Elias Canetti photo

Elias Canetti43

Bulgarian-born Swiss and British jewish modernist novelist,… None

William Golding photo

William Golding79

British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Lite… None

Kazuo Ishiguro photo

Kazuo Ishiguro76

Japanese-born British author None

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien photo

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien78

British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy … None

Similar authors

Bernard Cornwell photo

Bernard Cornwell175

British writer 1944

A.A. Milne photo

A.A. Milne169

British author None

Doris Lessing photo

Doris Lessing94

British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer … None

V.S. Naipaul photo

V.S. Naipaul34

Trinidadian-British writer of Indo-Nepalese ancestry None

Arthur C. Clarke photo

Arthur C. Clarke207

British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, u… None