Sir Balin
A knight before the Round Table was formed, Sir Balin lives only for a few weeks following his release from King Arthur's prison and his subsequent slaying of a Lady of the Lake.
His adventures end when Balin and his brother Sir Balan kill each other in single combat, fulfilling an earlier prophecy about the destiny of the bearer of the damsel's sword; they are both unaware of the other's identity during they fight.
The story of Sir Balin (or Balyn[e]) the Savage and his brother Sir Balan is best known from the version found in Thomas Malory's English retelling of the Arthurian legend, Le Morte d'Arthur, in the long section titled the "Booke of Balyne le Saveage", a part of Malory's Book II.
[1] Malory based his tale on the continuation of the second book of the French Post-Vulgate cycle of Arthurian Grail legend, the Suite du Merlin, dating to the mid-13th century.
[6] Perhaps uniquely among the significant knights of King Arthur's court, Balin never joins the Round Table, dying before that institution is founded.
Despite Balin being proven, by his drawing of the sword, to be a "good man of his hands and of his deeds, and without villainy or trechery and without treason," his distinguishing characteristic, as portrayed by Malory, is impetuosity.
Having been imprisoned for "half a year"[7] for the death of a cousin of Arthur's, Balin is released at about the same time that a damsel sent from the lady Lile of Avalon comes to court with a sword that she reveals she is wearing when she lets her fur mantle fall to the floor.
Merlin arrives and explains that the damsel with the sword was actually a false traitor, who was angry with her own brother, a good knight who slew her lover.
With the help of the lady Lily of Avalon, this damsel had sought revenge for her lover's death through that sword, whose holder is destined to slay his own brother.
The brothers succeeded in ambushing Rience en route to sleep with the Lady de Vance and brought the king before Arthur.
Soon after the funeral of the rebel kings, Balin sets out to avenge a man slain by an invisible knight while travelling under his protection.
Balin rides through the Wasteland, receiving rebukes for causing such death and devastation; but as the days pass he finds himself in fairer countryside and at last arrives at a castle where he is compelled to fight with its resident defender.
This defender is his brother Balan, who has earned this role against his will by killing the previous occupier of the position, in a situation that is reminiscent of that at the Sacred Grove of Nemi, as described by Sir James Frazer in The Golden Bough.
"[11] Merlin secures this sword that Balin got from the damsel in a block of stone, from which it is drawn by Galahad at the start of the Grail Quest years later.
