Gringolet

In Arthurian legend, Gringolet is Sir Gawain's powerful war horse.

Israel Gollancz in the early 20th century suggested that Gringolet was derived from the giant Wade's magic boat, Guingelot or *Wingolet – one form of magical transport (horse) being substituted for an earlier one (boat).

[1] More generally accepted is the suggestion by the prominent Arthurian scholar Roger Sherman Loomis that the French name Gringalet derived from either the Welsh guin-calet ("white and hardy"), or keincaled ("handsome and hardy")[2] – linked to a wider Celtic tradition of heroic white horses with red ears.

In the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, Gawain wins Gringolet from the Saxon king Clarion;[4] a different story of the acquisition is given in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, where the horse bears the mark of, and comes from the stable of, the Grail castle – part of the gradual displacement of Gawain by Percival and the story of the grail.

[7] When (in The Awntyrs off Arthure) Gringolet (here called "Grissell") is killed beneath him in combat, Gawain is seized with battle fury, and runs mad, his strength amplified, until nightfall.