The Mammoth Book of King Arthur (90 page)

In the Vulgate Cycle, the Grail family was considerably enlarged, though there were still not sufficient generations. Here the title of Fisher King passed to Alain’s nephew Aminadep (son
of Joshua), and then passed through each generation to Catheloys, Manaal, Lambor and Pellehan to Pelles, whose daughter (called Elaine in later versions) bore Galahad to Lancelot. Pellehan
(Malory’s Pellam) is wounded in the thigh and is thus known as the Maimed King, but in other versions the Maimed King and the Fisher King are not necessarily the same. Most of
the names are derived from Bible patriarchs (
but see the separate entry on
Pelles).

In Wolfram’s
Parzifal
the names change again. The title Grail King is preferred to Fisher King, and the first of these is Titurel. His descent is not explained, but in terms of
generations he equates to Lambor. Titurel passes the role on to his son Frimutel, but although Frimutel is killed Titurel lives on, sustained by the Grail. Frimutel is succeeded by Anfortas whose
sister Herzeloyde is Parzifal’s mother. In this version Anfortas is the Maimed King (
see
Chapter 16 for the Grail story).

Frimutel,
see
Fisher King.

Gaheris or Gaheriet.
The youngest son (variously third or fourth) of Lot and Morgause and brother of Gawain, Agravain and Gareth. The spelling of his name varies hugely
and in some versions, such as Garriés, is sufficiently close to his brother Gareth (Gerrehés) to cause confusion and to suggest that the two were originally one. Loomis shows how all
the names (including Gawain, Agravaine and even Bors) are derivations of Gwri (
see
Chapter 14). Gaheris serves as Gawain’s squire until he is knighted. After Gawain he is
Arthur’s favourite nephew, suggesting that Arthur is oblivious to Gaheris’s vicious streak. In fact, Gaheris is clearly troubled. He kills Pellinore in revenge for his father’s
death, and years later kills his own mother because she has taken Pellinore’s son Lamorak as a lover. Gawain despatches Lamorak. At one stage Arthur even offers him Lot’s kingdom of
Orkney but Gaheris refuses until the Grail Quest is over. He is killed by Lancelot during his rescue of Guenevere, and it is this act that incurs Gawain’s enmity and leads to the war with
Lancelot.

There is another Gaheris of Karaheu who, in the Vulgate Cycle, eats the poisoned apple intended for Gawain, which leads to Guenevere being accused of murder. His brother is Mador. In Malory his
name is changed to Patrise. Nevertheless, the similarity of the name, and that of his brother Mador to Gaheris’s half-brother Mordred, suggests that at some stage there was a version in which
it was Gawain’s brother who died from poison.

Galahad
or
Galaad.
The son of Lancelot and Elaine and the purest knight in the world, the only one able to achieve the Grail Quest
(
see
Chapter 16). Lancelot’s baptismal name was also Galaad, as was the name given to the younger son of Joseph of Arimathea. The name is derived from the Biblical Gilead.

Galehaut.
Known as the High Prince, he was Lord of the Remote Isles and Surluse or Soreloise. He is ambitious and invades Arthur’s lands, but is so overcome by
Lancelot’s prowess that he submits. Thereafter he and Lancelot are devoted friends, to the extent that when he believes Lancelot is dead he refrains from eating and dies. His story is told in
Chapter 16. In some texts both his name and Galahad’s are spelt Galahalt or Galeholt, showing that the names derive from the same source. So too may part of the character, since Galehaut
becomes like another half of Lancelot, whose name was also originally Galahad. Bearing in mind that Galehaut had originally invaded Britain, it is possible that the basic character related to a
real person, but not necessarily of Arthur’s period. A likely candidate is the Dane, Thorkell the Tall. Galehaut is also tall. Thorkell’s army invaded and decimated England in 1009, one
of many Viking incursions at this time. But Thorkell did have some principles. When the Archbishop of Canterbury was murdered, Thorkell apologised and offered his army (for a fee) to Athelred to
help protect England. He later became earl of East Anglia (under Canute).

Galeron
or
Galleron.
A Scottish knight who is deprived unjustly of his lands and who challenges Gawain. For details
see
discussion of
The Awyntrs off
Arthure
in Chapter 14.

Gareth
or
Gueheret.
Son of Lot and Morgause and brother of Gawain, Agravaine and Gaheris. He is often confused with Gaheris in the French romances because of the
similarity in names. In fact, in the French romances he and Gaheris could be interchangeable except that Gareth is perhaps more kindly and less impetuous. Gareth’s name may have been derived
from Guerec which would make him the same as Erec. Malory makes him into an entirely different personality and gives him the “Fair
Unknown” treatment. He comes to
Arthur’s court in disguise and works for a year in the kitchens. Kay nicknames him Beaumains. At the end of the year he seeks Arthur’s boon and undertakes a quest for the scolding
Lynette, an adventure told elsewhere as
The Lady of the Fountain
, and as part of Chrétien’s
Yvain.
In Malory’s version it is Gareth who kills the Brown Knight
Without Pity (
see
Brunor). Gareth is killed with Gaheris when Lancelot rescues Guenevere.

Gawain
or
Gauvain.
One of the earliest of Arthur’s companions and amongst the greatest of all of his knights. He is discussed in detail in Chapter 14. It is
worth adding here that Gawain and his three direct brothers run the whole spectrum of character types. Gawain is bold, brave and chivalrous (no matter how badly later story-tellers tried to blacken
his name). Agravaine is the treacherous one, but with some semblance of valour. Gaheris is the bully with few, if any, scruples. Gareth, when not hiding behind the shadow of Gaheris, is the decent,
quiet one who tries to do the right thing. The reason these four represent such extreme character traits is because they are all aspects of one original character, Gwri.

Geraint
or
Gereint.
The hero of the Welsh stories called variously
Geraint son of Erbin
or
Geraint and Enid.
That story is discussed in Chapter 18.
Geraint was an historical character; in fact, there were probably two of that name, and they are discussed in Chapter 8. He is ignored by the other romances but Malory gives him a token reference
as Garaunt of Cameliard in Book X.

Gingalin,
see
Guinglain.

Girflet,
see
Griflet.

Gornemant of Gohort.
In
Erec et Enide,
Chrétien calls Gornemant the fourth best knight yet, compared to the first three, Gawain, Erec and Lancelot, but we
learn nothing more of him in that story. However, he reappears in Chrétien’s Grail story, where we learn that he is the uncle of Blancheflor. He becomes Perceval’s instructor in
knightly techniques and codes of con
duct. Unfortunately, one of his instructions, which Perceval follows to the letter, leads to all the aggravation of the Grail Quest, because
he tells Perceval not to ask too many questions. As a consequence, when Perceval visits the Grail Castle he fails to ask the question that could heal the Maimed King and thereby cure the Waste
Land. Gornemant desires that Perceval should stay a year and learn all the knightly arts but, because Perceval is anxious to leave, Gornemant gives him such instruction as he can and then knights
him.

The fact that Chrétien rates this knight so highly and mentions him in his first story suggests that the name must have been known and circulating in other stories. Loomis says that
Chrétien did not borrow the name from Geoffrey’s
History,
but I suspect he did. Amongst the many people Geoffrey names as attending Arthur’s coronation, which are really
lists of names drawn from the pedigrees, is Coel’s son Germanianus, but listed as Gorbonion map Goit, which could easily mutate into Gornemant de Gohort. Geoffrey had called Gorbonion earlier
in his
History
as one of the pre-Arthurian British kings (without realizing who he really was), and had nothing but praise for him, saying, “there was no man alive who was more just
than he or a greater lover of equity.” Likewise Gornemant, whom Chrétien frequently calls a “worthy gentleman”, has similar traits. In Wolfram’s
Parzifal
he
becomes Gurnemanz of Graharz, with the added complication that he has three sons and a daughter, Liaze, whom he hopes Parzifal will marry.

Griflet, Girflet
or
Gifflet.
One of Arthur’s most faithful knights and amongst the most valiant, listed by Chrétien in
Erec et Enide,
but
falling outside the top ten. Griflet’s one of those knights who’s always there but is seldom the centre of attention, though he may be the same as the hero of the Provençal story
Jaufré.
Malory has him gallantly saving Guenevere during the war with the rebel kings, and from that he earns his knighthood. Otherwise Malory kills him off during Lancelot’s
rescue of Guenevere, but the Vulgate has Griflet, not Bedivere, as the knight who casts Excalibur back into the lake, and is the last to see Arthur alive. Griflet retires to a hermitage but soon
after dies of grief. Often referred to as the “son of Do”, Griflet is also called
“le Fise de Dieu”, or the son of God, suggesting he must once have
been a holy man. He almost certainly equates with Cynwyl or Cynfelyn in
Culhwch and Olwen,
who was known as “the Saint”. He was one of Arthur’s twenty-four knights and one
of the three survivors of Camlann, being the last to leave Arthur.

Guenevere
or
Guinevere
or
Genievre
or
Gwenhwyfar.
The wife of Arthur and lover of Lancelot. She is discussed in detail in Chapter 16 and other
episodes in her life appear in Chapter 18. The Triads note that Arthur had three wives, all called Gwenhwyfar though of different parentage, none of whom is the daughter of Leodegrance, her father
in the romances. The Triad is really portraying three different images of Gwenhwyfar. In Celtic beliefs the figure three was of supreme importance, representing totality, just as the Church
continues to represent God in triple form as Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The same tripleism was applied to Morgan (
see entry below
). The Vulgate did suggest the idea of a False Guenevere,
purportedly a half-sister who claimed she was Arthur’s original wife but had been abducted on their wedding night. Also, rather curiously, the Welsh form of her name, Gwenhwyfar, bears some
comparison with Gwyn Hyfar, or “the Irascible”, who is described in
Culhwch and Olwen
as the overseer of Cornwall and Devon and one of the nine who plotted the battle of Camlan.
Possibly in the generations of storytelling, Guenevere took on a further, more scheming identity, a depiction which emerges strongly in some of the later romances.

The idea has been put forward, championed mostly by Norma Lorre Goodrich, that Guinevere was a Pictish princess and, in accordance with Pictish law, it was through the female bloodline that
princes inherited the right to rule. There is a belief that Mordred was also a Pict and that Guenevere lived with Mordred as his mistress and is buried in Scotland at Meigle. The Alliterative
Morte Arthure
even goes so far as to make Guenevere the mother of Mordred’s two sons, though tradition usually makes her sister Gwenhwyfach Mordred’s wife. The fact that Arthur
and Guenevere have no children is one of the factors that contribute to the unfaithfulness of both parties. One of the few consistent legends attached to Guenevere is that of her
abduction, the earliest recorded being that by Melwas (
see
Chapter 11). This translated into the abduction by Meleagaunt in Chrétien’s
Knight of the Cart,
and there are other abductions by Lancelot and Mordred. This would all support the argument that Guenevere was desired not for her beauty but because of her bloodline. It is all the more
surprising, therefore, that neither the legend nor the romances say much about her ancestry or offer much clarity about her parentage. In Welsh tradition Gwenhwyfar’s father was Ogrfan or
Gogfran Gawr, and she was born at what is now Knucklas in Powys. In the Vulgate version it is Guenevere’s father (Leodegran) who received the Round Table from Uther and passed it on to Arthur
as part of the wedding dowry. Since the Round Table is linked to the Grail family, this would give Guenevere an even greater status. Whether descended from Roman nobility, the Grail family or
Pictish stock, Guenevere was clearly a woman of importance.

Guinglain, Gingalin
or
Gligan.
The son of Gawain and Dame Ragnell who is the archetypal “fair unknown” and hero of Renaud’s
Le Bel
Inconnu
(
see
Chapter 14).

Guiomar
or
Guingamor.
He is first identified in
Erec et Enide,
where he is a guest at the wedding, as the Lord of the Isle of Avalon and Morgan le
Fay’s lover. The Vulgate version develops this by having Guenevere being annoyed at the relationship and banishing Guiomar from the court. This turns Morgan against Guenevere, and she seeks
Merlin’s help to learn witchcraft. His name is probably drawn from Gwyn ap Nudd, who features in the Celtic tales of Arthur, and is described as King of Avalon and Lord of the Fairies. His
lover was Creiddylad (
see
Morgan
for more detail
).

Gwalchmai,
see
Gawain.

Gwenwynwyn.
Called Arthur’s First Fighter in
Culhwch and Olwen.
(
See
Chapter 8.)

Gwydre.
Identified in
Culhwch and Olwen
as a son of Arthur who was killed in the Preseli Mountains during the hunt for the
Boar Trwyth. This
is the only reference to Gwydre. It may be a confusion with Gwydre ap Llwydeu. Gwydre was stabbed by his uncle Huail (Gildas’s brother), which resulted in a quarrel between Arthur and Huail,
leading eventually to Huail’s death. It may be that Arthur had adopted Gwydre, hence the reference to a son. Also, Gwydre is buried near the peak Cwm Cerwyn in the Preseli Mountains,
suggesting that this may all refer to Artúir of Dyfed.