Sir Gaheris - Knight of the Round Table

I have always been rather intrigued by Sir Gaheris. He was the brother of Sir Gawain and was one of the unfortunate souls who lost his life when Lancelot saved Guinevere from the burning pyre.

Apart from his unfortunate end, what do we know about him?

Firstly, he is the nephew of King Arthur. His mother was Arthur's half-sister, Morgause, and his father was King Lot. Lot was the king of Orkney and Lothian. The family boasted of five boys altogether -- Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, Gareth and there was a half-brother called Mordred...you may have heard of him??!

In Prose Lancelot he is described as;
Handsome,
Agile,
Valiant,
Shy - not one for making speeches,
Had a temper (although not as bad as Gawain's),
His right arm was longer than the left.
 
He isn't portrayed in the best of lights in the work of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur -- there is that terrible incident where he was involved in the revenge killing of King Pellinore (Pellinore murdered Gaheris's father).  He beheads his own mother when he discovers her in a very comprimising postion with Pellinore's son, Sir Lamorak. To make matters worse, Gaheris blames his mother murder on Lamorak who is then hunted down and killed, by Gaheris's brothers.
 
This 'act of revenge' goes against the knightly code and when it is discovered that Gaheris murdered his mother, he is banished from court.


For some reason he reappears later on in Malory's story. Guinevere is to be executed for her affair with Lancelot. Arthur expects that Lancelot will try and rescue her. He asks Gaheris, Garath and Gawain to protect the pyre. Guinevere must died. Gaheris and Garath reluctantly agree to, but Gawain refuses.

As expected Lancelot attempts a rescue and is sucessful, but because Gaheris and Garath are not wearing their armour, Lancelot does not recognise them and cuts them down.

When Gawain learns of his brothers death, his grief and rage are great.

The death of Gaheris and his brother marks the begging of the end of Cameot and her knights and the rest, as they say, is history or legend, or whatever else you want to call it...!

 

The gallant Sir Tristan - Knight of the Round Table

"...If our two loves be one, or thou and I 
Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die..."

The Good-Morrow John Donne

Tristan and Iseult Edmund Blair Leighton (1853–1922)

Lancelot, Gawain and Tristan are my all time three favorite knights. I have already talked about Lancelot and Gawain and now it is Sir Tristan's turn.

Tristan is much like Lancelot in that he stands for everything that is noble. He is chivalrous and kind. He is loyal and brave. You would want him on your side if you were going into battle. He would protect his fellow knights and countryman until the last drop of blood fell from his body.

His tale is also one of the oldest romantic stories ever told. But it traveled a great distance before becoming the story we now know...

I need to whisk you back to the Highlands of Scotland and to the home of the Picts, where a tale emerged of a young noble prince called Drust, who saved a beautiful princess from some terrible pirates.

The story then traveled to Wales where it became fictionalized (?)- Drust became Drystan and this Drystan became the nephew of a powerful King March. King March married the said princess, but the princess was in love with Drystan and he with her. The ultimate love triangle.

The story then weaved its way to the south of Britain and settled in Cornwall. Drystan became Tristan and Marsh became Mark. The tale traveled on to Brittany, before settling in France, where the finishing touches were put on to it.  The tale has being mesmerizing English and French audiences ever since.

Bards once traveled from place to place weaving their magic with words, but there was no point in write such things down -- not many people could read after all, and listening to stories was the Dark Age equivalent to watching the television. The original Celtic tale of Drust and the pirates has long since been lost.

The story of Tristan and Iseult, that we now know, is the creation of one of those glorious French poets of the 12th Century.  Béroul was the first to write down the tale of Tristan, but his version was hardly courtly and not at all fitting with the Arthurian theme to which the story is now associated with.

Thomas of Britain took up the story and he wrote the courtly version that became the forefather of the story we know today. Unfortunately, there are only fragments of the original manuscripts now left in existence.

The German poets then took up the challenge. Prose Tristan introduced the Arthurian legend to the tale and by 1469, Le Morte d'Arthur written by Sir Thomas Malory, an English author, cemented the tale firmly in the minds of the people.

The Tale of Tristan and Iseult.

Tristan is a Cornish knight and the nephew to the great King Mark.  The tale is set during a trouble period of Cornish history. Mark was having to defend his kingdom against those troublesome barbarians from Eire, who kept on invading. He had offered them tributes to stay away. The Irish took the money, but they still kept coming and the war continued.

During one such nasty raid, Tristan fights Morholt, a vicious Irish warrior, and kills him, but not before Morholt leaves Tristan with a deep wound that will not heal, no matter what his kinsmen try.

There was a whispered rumor that there was a very skilled healer in Ireland that could possibly heal Tristan's wounds. Leaving his homeland in disguise, Tristan braves the rough Irish Sea and seeks out this woman who has the power to heal him. He knows only that her name is Iseult.

He finds Iseult. He is expecting to see an old hag, but Iseult is young and beautiful, and she is, without a doubt, the most compassionate person he has ever met. She heals him and sends him back to Cornwall. He praised her skills and her beauty to Mark, who is so taken with what he hears that he orders Tristan to return to Ireland and bring Iseult back to Cornwall so that he can marry her himself.

Tristan, ever loyal to his uncle the king, does as he is bid. But something strange happens on the way home. He and Iseult are drugged by a powerful love potion and they fall instantly in love with each other.

Although Iseult loves Tristan, she has no choice but to marry Mark. However, the love potion is so strong that she can not keep away from Tristan and the the two of them become lovers.

King Mark finds out about his wife and his nephew. They have committed treason and there can be only one outcome. Death. Tristan escapes on the way to the gallows and he rescues Iseult from being burnt at the stake.

Does this tale sound familiar to you??!

It sounds remarkable similar to the love triangle between Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot.
 Don't you think?

On with the story...

Tristan and Iseult hide out in the forest of Morrois -- in later texts it is said that Lancelot helped to conceal the lovers for a time -- but Tristan is noble and he can not live with what he has done.

Despite everything that has happened, Mark loves his wife and he loves Tristan - as if he were his own son.

Tristan returns Iseult to her husband and he banishes himself to Brittany where he meets Iseult of the White Hand, daughter of Hoel. He marries her, despite still being in love with Iseult, the Queen of Cornwall.

The years go by and out heroes age...

 Tristan is injured while trying to rescues a young woman from six villainous knights. The wound is fatal unless he is treated by the Queen of Cornwall. He sends for Iseult. He asks that if she comes, then the ship must sail back with six white flags. If she refuses to come, then the ship must sail with black flags instead of white. The ship comes and Tristan, who is too weak to rise from his bed, asks his wife what colour the sails are. In a fit of jealous rage, she tells him they are black. Tristan dies thinking his first love has forgotten all about him. Iseult arrives to save her former lover, but she is too late - he is already dead. She dies of grief that same day.

The dead lovers are taken back to Cornwall and buried. From their graves spouted a hazel tree and a honeysuckle, and as they grew they intertwined around each other. Mark had the branches cut back three times, but each time they would regrow and wrapped themselves around each other. And Mark released that their love was indeed a very great thing. After that he left the trees alone.

And so ends the tale.

It is the greatest and saddest of love stories.

The Tristan stone.

The Tristan stone is a long, 2.7 m, tall granite pillar near Fowey in Cornwall. It dates around AD 600 and is inspired with these words:

DRVSTANVS HIC IACIT CVNOWORI FILIVS CVM DOMINA OUSILLA

Drustan lies here, the son of Cunomorus, with the lady Ousilla

Drustan translate to Tristan and Ousilla, Iseult.

I could talk more of Tristan and Iseult, but I think I will leave it there today. But if you fancy watching a movie tonight, then why not check out this one. It is rather good.

Lancelot du Lac

Okay, you got me. I write about Lancelot ( well, his sons...Lancelot does get a mention now and then) in my forthcoming book The Du Lac Chronicles, out early 2016. I am very excited. But you are not here to hear me waffle on about my book...if you are...please correct me...I can blog about it all day, if you like! You are here to read my take on Lancelot, so let's begin.

Now, what do we know of Lancelot?

He was Arthur's best friend.
He was chivalrous.
Pretty good at the joust.
Even better at the sword.
Went on a quest to find the Holy Grail.
Bit of a ladies man.
Had an affair with Guinevere.
Fell out with Arthur...Unsurprisingly.
Caused a Civil War.
And was responsible for the downfall of Arthur, the knights, Camelot, and consequently the whole of Britain.

He had a really busy life!

Santiago Cabrera -played Lancelot in the BBC drama Merlin 

But surprisingly, until the 12th Century, Lancelot was virtually unknown. Chrétien de Troyes immortalised him in  Le Chevalier de la Charette. Here he is portrayed as Arthur's greatest knight, the most saintly of men, who so happens to have had an affair with the Queen.

I wonder if de Troyes had any idea how influential his work would become when he wrote it?

Lancelot tries so hard to be a good knight, but his world comes crashing down around him simply because he cannot help himself when it comes to love. 

But that doesn't seem to stop us all from loving him. I think if he had not had that affair he would probably make us all feel slightly queasy. You can't be that good - all of the time.

Now it is often said that there are no new stories -- all the stories have already been written...what do they know? It has been suggested that the love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere is a poor mans tale of Tristan and Isolde, and I think they are probably right, but that doesn't matter and I don't think we should become too hung up about it.

I cannot not (sorry for the double negative) talk about the Grail when it comes to Lancelot. We need to look at a 13th Century French text called Prose Lancelot which began this whole idea of an Arthurian quest for the Holy Grail and it expands on the love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere as well. Lancelot eventually finds the Grail, but he cannot look on it for very long, for he has sinned.

I am always intrigued by the fact that although we all love Arthur -- who is noble, worthy and everything a King should be -- we can't seem to help ourselves when it comes to Lancelot. He is just so likeable.

So let me give you a brief rundown of Lancelot's life.

He was the son of King Ban of Benwick. He end up in the care of the Lady of the Lake...hence his name du Lac..of the lake... The Lady of the Lake then sends him to Arthur's court where he becomes a knight, meets the Queen and falls in love. He battles twenty knights successfully -- is meant to battle the Copper Knight, but the Copper Knight flees from his home, Dolorous Guard. Lancelot takes the castle and renames it Joyous Guard.  Elaine of Corbenic pretends she is Guinevere, tricks Lancelot and he begets a child with her... they name the child Galahad. Guinevere banished Lancelot from court because she is so enraged by his betrayal?! Lancelot looses his mind for a bit, is eventually summoned back to court by Guinevere. Goes on the hunt for the Holy Grail, finds it. Arthur dies, the Queen wants nothing more to do with him. He becomes a hermit and finally becomes a priest.

Of course there are various different version of his tale. I very much doubt there is little truth in any of them...but like the stories of Arthur, there is something about the man that captures our attention and we cannot help ourselves. I know I will always have a kind of love affair with Lancelot. If it wasn't for him and his stories, I wouldn't be writing this.

See you soon

Mary xx

Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

Before you read on any farther I want you to have a quick go at naming as many of King Arthur's knights as you can......

First Knight, 1995

How many did you name?

If you reached ten or more then I would be impressed. The number of Knights Arthur had depends on what you read. But there is roughly 150. No small number...he must have had a really big table.

Right, lets think about the ones that roll off the tongue, so to speak. Lancelot being the most obvious I guess. Then we have the likes of Galahad and Gawain (my youngest should be very thankful, he almost got called Gawain...he is one of my favourite knights), Tristan, Bors, Percival, Kay, Bedivere the list goes on, but these are the ones that seem to be remembered.

What did you have to do to become a knight?

I have no idea. But, in the Middle Ages that question needed a definite answer. Let me introduce you to Sir Thomas Malory an English writer. Malory wrote Le Morte d'Arthur and in this book he introduced Malory the code of chivalry. 

This is what he said.

To be a knight one must -

1. Never do outrage nor murder.

That is pretty self explanatory. I don't think I need to explain that.

2. Always to flee treason.

Do not commit treason.

3.To by no means be cruel but to give mercy unto him who asks for mercy.

Always be merciful and to grant mercy to those who ask for it. No mindless killing on the battlefield if the enemy is surrendering

4. To always do ladies, gentlewomen and widows succor.

In other words a knight must help a high born woman if they need it - I hope that applies to women born in the peasantry as well.

5. To never force ladies, gentlewomen or widows.

I am getting really concerned about lowly birthed women now.

6. Not to take up battles in wrongful quarrels for love or worldly goods.

Unless it is for God or for your King, forget it, you are not fighting.

God Speed, Edmund Leighton 1900

That all sounds rather chivalrous but remember, this code was written in the Middle Ages. I like to think that the knights had a code, but whether they did or not, I guess we will never know. The logical thing to do next would be to look at some of these knights in more detail. I shall pick a handful and talk about them over the next few blogs.

See you soon.

Mary xx