Knights of the Round Table

The Knights are a chivalric order dedicated to ensuring the peace of Arthur's kingdom following an early warring period, entrusted in later years to undergo a mystical quest for the Holy Grail.

Several of the most notable Knights of the Round Table, among them Bedivere, Gawain and Kay, are based on older characters from a host of great warriors associated with Arthur in the early Welsh tales.

By the end of Arthurian prose cycles (including the seminal Le Morte d'Arthur), the Round Table splits up into groups of warring factions following the revelation of Lancelot's adultery with King Arthur's wife, Queen Guinevere.

According to the Post Vulgate Cycle, and Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, Aglovale is the one who brings his long lost brother Percival to Camelot to be knighted after meeting him by chance in Perceval's woods.

Loyal to King Arthur (who is eventually informed about his son's identity by Morgan), he fights in the late wars against domestic and foreign enemies, and is one of Galahad's companions during the Grail Quest.

He has since appeared by a large number of variations of his name and character in many subsequent works, including as split between Barant le Apres (Berrant) and Bleoberys (Bleoberis, Bleoboris, Bleoheris) in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur; as Bleobleheris (Bliobliheri) and Bleheris in respectively the First and the Second Continuation of Perceval; as two different characters named Bleheris and Blidoblidas in Mériadeuc [fr]; as split between Bleherris and Bleoberiis in Of Arthour and of Merlin; as Bleoris in Henry Lovelich's Merlin; as Bleos von Bliriers in Diu Crône; as Bleriz in Povest' o Tryshchane [be]; as Bliobleherin in the German Erec; as Bliobleeris in La Vengeance Raguidel; as Bliobleris de Gannes (Biblioberis, Bla[h]aris, Bleob[l]eris, Bleobleheris, Bleosblieris, Bliaires, Blihoble[h]eris, Bliobeheri, Blioberis, Blyob[l]eris; -de Ga[u]n[n]es) in the 13th-century French prose cycles; as Blioblieris in both Le Bel Inconnu and Wigalois; as Bréri in Tristan by Thomas of Britain; as Briobris in La Tavola Ritonda; as Pleherin in Tristrant; and as Plihopliherî (Plihophiheri, Plihopliheri) in Parzival.

His name may have been derived from the 12th-century Welsh storyteller known in French as Bledhericus, Bleheris or Blihis (Blihos) Bliheris (possibly Bledri ap Cydifor[22]),[23] who is mentioned in several texts, including being credited by both Thomas of Britain and Wauchier de Denain as the original source of their early Arthurian poems.

In Perlesvaus, Brandalus (Brun[s] Brandelis) de Gales (of Wales) is one of Perceval's uncles along with King Alain, whose name (and title) is shared with the father of Floree, mother of Gawain's son Guinglain in the Vulgate Cycle.

The Vulgate Lancelot story of Gaheriet's rescue of Brandeliz and his lady might have been rewritten by Malory as an early episode of his "Tale of Sir Gareth", the fourth book of Le Morte d'Arthur.

The Vulgate Cycle also features a different Knight of the Round Table other than Sir Brandeliz, a minor character of Duke Brandelis de Taningues (Brandeban, Brandeharz, Brandelz, -de Tranurgor).

Calogrenant, sometimes known in English as Colgrevance and in German (Diu Crône) as Kalogrenant, among many other variants (including Calogrenan[s/z], Calogrevant, Calogrinant, Colgrevaunce, Galogrinans, Kalebrant, Kalocreant, Qualogrenans), is a Knight of the Round Table and cousin to Yvain.

[33] However, the only possible trace of such motif can be found in the German Lanzelet, in which Dodines lives a double life: as an enchanter owning a magic horse and dwelling near the dangerous Shrieking Marsh (Schreiende Moos) in the summer, and as a knight in Arthur's lands in the winter.

Dodinel is prominent in Claris et Laris, portrayed there as a comical side story character, a Dinadan-like humorously anti-chivalric knight, one who avoids dangerous combat in his wanderings and once escapes from a captivity by posing as a minstrel.

Elyan the White or Helyan le Blanc (also Elain, Elayn, Helain, Hellaine, Helin; -le Blank, -the Pale) is son of Bors the Younger in the prose romance tradition of Lancelot-Grail (Vulgate Cycle).

Elyan should not be confused with Elians (Eliant, Elianz), a Knight of the Round Table from Ireland who occupied Lancelot's vacant seat in both the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate versions of the Mort Artu.

In the Post-Vulgate Quest of the Holy Grail, Erec unwillingly murders his sister[38] and is later slain by Gawain in revenge for the death of Yvain of the White Hands, and does not regain his father's kingdom; his seat at the Round Table is taken by his friend Meraugis, who had buried him.

Shortly after finally agreeing to convert to Christianity, an act necessary for the full admission into the brotherhood of Round Table,[40] and which also allows his participation in the Grail Quest, Esclabor commits suicide from grief upon learning of his favorite son Palamedes' death at the hands of Gawain.

[47] About the same age as Arthur, he distinguishes himself in the Battle of Bedegraine against the rebels and joins the Round Table after personally slaying one of the Saxon kings when he helps Kay and Gawain rescue Guinevere in the Prose Merlin.

Later, however, his role becomes largely limited to him notoriously often falling into captivity for the other knights to rescue in the course of their own adventures, even leading Gawain to comment in the Prose Lancelot that "there never was a man so frequently taken prisoner as Girflet has been.

Hector accompanies Lancelot in France when they are expelled from Arthur's kingdom, before later returning to Britain to help defeat the Saxon army aided by Mordred's sons after the Battle of Camlann (Salisbury).

His first known appearance is possibly in Lanzelet as Ritschart, a count opposing King Lot who is mentioned as having a hundred knights and is later aided by Lancelot, followed by that of Margon in the Third Continuation of Perceval, the Story of the Grail.

Lohot or Loholt (Hoot, Loholz, Lohoot, Lohoth, Lohoz) is a character loosely based on the mysterious figure of Llacheu, one of the sons of King Arthur in the original Welsh tradition.

Besides the Vulgate Mort Artu and the English works based on it, Mador also appears or is referenced in several other works, including in the Prose Lancelot, in the "Tournament of Sorelois" episode found in some versions of the Prose Tristan and the Prophecies de Mérlin (as well as in Le Morte d'Arthur), in the Post-Vulgate Cycle, in the Guiron le Courtois part of Palemedes, in Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight, in the Sicilian romance Floriant et Florette, and in the Compilation of Rustichello da Pisa.

The prose romances add many further details to Morholt's career; the Post-Vulgate and Malory record his adventures with the young Gawain, Gaheris and Yvain early in King Arthur's reign.

In a later, non-Chrétien verse romance Les Merveilles de Rigomer, one Garradains is named as the knight of Arthur traveling with Gawain on a quest to conquer the enchanted castle of the Irish queen Dionise.

The Gosezein version of Garravain's character[70] re-appears as Gosangos de Tarmadoise, Guinevere's early romantic lover and Gawain's valiant enemy in the French prose romance Livre d'Artus.

Like Gawain's, his character is considered to be derived from the prototype of the warrior by the name Gwrvan and its variants,[71] found in the early Welsh Arthurian tales Culhwch ac Olwen, Peredur fab Efrawg, Preiddeu Annwn, and Trioedd Ynys Prydein.

Others include the young Sagramore when he mortally wounds the Knight of the Round Table named Agravadain (unrelated to Agravain), grandfather of Hector de Maris, in defense of his comrades.

In the Middle English compilation Le Morte d'Arthur, the simple "Queen's Knights" form is used by the author Thomas Malory who also describes them as "a grete felyshyp of men of arms".

[84] In Malory's version, Lancelot later rescues a new generation of them when they are captured together with Guinevere by the villain Maleagant (himself sometimes depicted as a rogue member of the Round Table), after the Queen ordered her knightly companions to surrender as to not forfeit their lives.