Monty Python and the Holy Grail/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Knights of the Round Table

King Arthur

Played by Graham Chapman

The main character. He is the king of the Britons. God sent him and his knights on a quest to find the Holy Grail. Acts very stoic considering the amount of strangeness happening around him.

Tropes associated with this version of King Arthur:

Sir Bedivere the Wise

Played by Terry Jones

The wisest of the knights. This does not mean anything, since he thinks the earth is banana-shaped and proclaims earthquakes can be stopped by sheep bladders.

Sir Lancelot the Brave

Played by John Cleese

An Ax Crazy knight. He always tries to solve his problems through violence. Is also very dramatic in his way of acting.

Sir Galahad the Pure/Chaste

Played by Michael Palin

This knight does not do much in the film. Like his title says, he is a chaste knight.

Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot

Played by Eric Idle

Sir Robin claims to be very brave. He also has a band of minstrels singing about his bravery... but he is an enormous coward.

Sir Not Appearing In This Film

This is not a real character, but more of a gag when the narrator introduces the Knights of the Round Table. When his picture is shown, he appears as a baby wearing a chainmail helmet that's far too large. This is actually Michael Palin's son, William Palin.

He is the Trope Namer to Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer and Lady Not-Appearing-In-This-Game.

The Villains

The Black Knight

Played by John Cleese

A black knight who won't let Arthur pass. He loses his limbs in the following battle and still wants to fight. Trope Namer for Just a Flesh Wound.


The French

Played by John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Neil Innes

A bunch of French soldiers who like to insult 'English types' with random insults. Reappear in the end where they claimed the Castle Aaargh as their own.

  • Abnormal Ammo: Subverted. The French try to scare the Knights of the Round Table away by throwing living animals at them. While the scene looks strange, the DVD commentary reveals it has really been done in history -- just not with the kinds of animals used in the movie.
    • Played straight when they fire a large wooden rabbit at the knights.
  • Blowing a Raspberry: The leader of the French soldiers does this every encounter.
  • Cool Helmet
  • Flowery Insults: It almost seems they live for this trope.
  • French Jerk
  • Jerkass
  • Troll
  • Trope Namer: I Shall Taunt You. They do not use this trope themselves ironically.
  • Verbal Tic: They cannot pronounce the word 'knights' correctly. Instead, it sounds like 'knnniggets'.

The Three-Headed Knight

Played by Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, and Michael Palin

A large three-headed knight who seems to be a formidable fighter, were it not that the heads first must agree before an action can be taken.

The Residents of Castle Anthrax

Played by Carol Cleveland (Zoot, Dingo), Avril Stewart (Dr. Piglet), Sally Kinghorn (Dr. Winston), and many others (many others)

160 blondes and brunettes, all between sixteen and nineteen and a half years old. They light a grail-shaped beacon to lure knights to them in order to tempt them.

  • The Vamp: Sort of. While not inherently evil, they do try to tempt the chaste sir Galahad into sexual activities.

The Knights Who Say Ni!

Played by Michael Palin (leader) and others (others)

An order of knights based on protecting the sacred words of Ni, Peng and Nee-wom.

Like it says on the tin, they frequently say 'NI!' as a Brown Note of sorts. Their leader is a very tall man who wears a large helmet with antlers. He is the one who speaks in behalf of the whole order. The rest of the knights only say 'NI!' and mostly repeat what the head knight is saying.

They live in a spooky forest and coerce every traveler into buying a shrubbery for them.

  • Badass Beard
  • Brown Note: It's what they are known for.
  • Cool Helmet: The Head Knight wears a bucket-shaped helmet with antlers on it and the other knights wear horned helmets that cover their faces.
  • Dark Is Evil: They are dressed in black/dark brown and their leader looks like a typical Evil Overlord.
  • Impossible Task: At one point they ordered Arthur to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring.
  • The Dreaded: The Knights who say Ni! appear to have a terrifying reputation, considering the fact they inspire fear within nearby villages, maybe even the whole country, cause the shrubbery-economy to collapse and make a fearful king Arthur do their bidding. Anyone who terrifies King Arthur like that is worthy of being called 'the Dreaded'.
  • Trope Namer: For With This Herring
  • With This Herring
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Despite being so powerful in that they can even force the great King Arthur to do as they command, the Knights of Ni can be defeated by saying the word 'it'.

The King of Swamp Castle

Played by Michael Palin

A corrupt king who tries to use an arranged marriage to gain more huge tracts of land. He hates it when his son attempts to sing and rudely interrupts him when he does.

  • Bald of Evil
  • The Determinator: He built a castle in a swamp just to show the other kings it's possible to do so. It sank into the swamp. The same happened to the second castle. Guess what? He built a third castle in the swamp...which burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth and current one stayed up.
  • Fantasy-Forbidding Father


The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog

A cute white rabbit who guards a cave. Trope Namer to Killer Rabbit... if it wasn't obvious already.

The Black Beast of Aaargh!

A cartoon monster that appears out of nowhere. It quickly devours Brother Maynard.

The Bridgekeeper

Played by Terry Gilliam

Also known as "The Old Man in Scene 24". He guards the Bridge of Death and asks each traveler three questions. If they answer correctly, they may pass. When answering a question wrong, an invisible force grabs the victim and throws him into the Gorge of Eternal Peril.

  • Hoist by His Own Petard: He is defeated when King Arthur answers his question with another question. The Bridgekeeper admits he does not know the answer and is catapulted into the Gorge himself.
  • These Questions Three: He is also the Trope Namer for this
  • What Could Have Been: In an earlier script, the bridgekeeper was slated to return as the boatkeeper, guarding the boat that sails to Castle Aaargh. He would greet any traveler with, "Who wants to cross the Sea of Fate must answer me questions twenty and eight." Arthur and Bedevere would have defeated him by simply throwing him into the lake.


Neutral Characters and other annoyances.

Guards of Swallow Castle

Played by Michael Palin and John Cleese

These guards refuse to believe Arthur is king and instead break the fourth wall, by lampshading his use of coconuts instead of a real horse. After that, they start a useless discussion if swallows are able to bring coconuts to England.

  • Chekhov's Gun: Their useless discussion does provide Arthur with a means to defeat the bridgekeeper when he starts asking a question about swallows.

Dennis

Played by Michael Palin

A 37-year-old peasant whose community is based on a political system that's too modern for the dark ages. It certainly has no place for a mythical king like Arthur, which Dennis openly shows. This starts another pointless discussion in which Dennis wants to prove that just wielding Excalibur is not a reason to boss people around. Dennis is the Trope Namer for Inherent in the System.

God

Voiced by Graham Chapman

God appears to the Knights of the Round Table and gives them the task to find the Holy Grail. He finds it annoying that people constantly consider themselves unworthy of His presence. His face is based on the cricket player W.G. Grace.

It's like those miserable psalms, they're so depressing


The Historian

Played by John Young

The Historian tells the audience about Arthur's defeat at the hands of the French. He also explains that the knights continued their search separately. He is killed by a knight riding on a real horse. His death sets up the film's ending.

Prince Herbert

Played by Terry Jones

The son of the king of Swamp Castle. He is very girly and does not like the fact he is being used in an arranged marriage. When he wants to express his feelings, he starts singing, complete with cheesy music, but this is always interrupted by his father, who hates singing. Being fed up with his life, he shoots a message out of the window which is found by Lancelot.[1] Lancelot thinks the message is from a princess and sets out to rescue Herbert.

Roger The Shrubber

Played by Eric Idle

Catches Arthur and Bedivere coercing an old woman by saying Ni to her. After expressing his disappointment in them, he reveals he is a shrubber. This gives Arthur an opportunity to bring a shrubbery to the Knights of Ni.

Tim the Enchanter

Played by John Cleese

A powerful and eccentric wizard who is first seen while Playing with Fire. He tells the knights about the cave of Caerbannog and the Killer Rabbit. Naturally, he is called a liar when the knights see the rabbit, but has the last laugh when some of the knights get killed by the rabbit. Trope Namer to Some Call Me... Tim, but is no user of the trope.

  • Badass Beard
  • Cassandra Truth: Tells the truth about the Killer Rabbit, in that it is a terribly dangerous creature, but gets ridiculed by the Knights of the Round Table. Guess what happens next...
  • Cloudcuckoolander
  • Dark Is Not Evil: He comes over as a very intimidating and evil-looking wizard, complete with a black robe and horns on his hat, but is does not appear to be malevolent. He honestly warns the knights about the rabbit and only laughs at them when they stop taking him seriously.
  • Large Ham: He even starts to spit drops of saliva when warning the knights about the Rabbit.
  • Nice Hat
  • Playing with Fire: Taken literally with the 'playing' part, since he does not anything useful with his gift. Like roasting a certain rabbit for instance.
  • Throw It In: Cleese forgot the name of the character while filming and used "Tim" after going blank for a moment. The short beat in the middle of his introduction plus the uncertain, questioning tone in which he said "Tim?" struck the other Pythons as much funnier than the original line and name, so they kept it.
  • Trrrilling Rrrs

Brother Maynard

Played by Eric Idle

A monk and scholar. He gives the Holy Hand Grenade to the Knights when they need a way to defeat the Killer Rabbit. He also translates the runes inside the Cave of Caerbannog, but is eaten by the black beast of Aaargh.

Back to Monty Python and the Holy Grail
  1. ↑ In the chest of his manservant Concorde.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grail/Characters?oldid=1838357"