Sir Degaré is a Middle English romance of around 1,100 verse lines, probably composed early in the fourteenth century.
Degaré's mother explains the circumstances of his birth, and when he expresses a wish to find his father she hands over the broken-tipped sword.
He falls in love with the mistress of the castle, who explains that a knight is seeking to abduct her, and asks for Degaré's help in defeating this unwanted suitor, which he duly does.
Everyone travels to the strange castle, where Degaré marries the lady he had previously defended.
No direct source for Sir Degaré is known, though it might translate a lost Old French predecessor work.
[6] The plot might have its ultimate origins in folktale, for it combines three skeleton plots known in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index of folktale types: 706, "The Maiden Without Hands" (making Degaré distantly related to Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale); 873, "The King Discovers his Unknown Son"; and 931, the Oedipus-type.
[7] Sir Degaré has received limited critical attention, but scholars have interpreted the tale as an identity quest,[8] a story that channels and discusses incestuous sexuality,[9] and as a tale which seeks to explore the problem of an absent, unchivalrous father.