Palamedes (Arthurian legend)
Encyclopedia
Round Table (Camelot)
The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of...
in the Arthurian legend. He is a Saracen
Saracen
Saracen was a term used by the ancient Romans to refer to a people who lived in desert areas in and around the Roman province of Arabia, and who were distinguished from Arabs. In Europe during the Middle Ages the term was expanded to include Arabs, and then all who professed the religion of Islam...
pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
who converts to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
later in his life, and his unrequited love for Iseult
Iseult
Iseult is the name of several characters in the Arthurian story of Tristan and Iseult. The most prominent is Iseult of Ireland, wife of Mark of Cornwall and adulterous lover of Sir Tristan. Her mother, the Queen of Ireland, is also named Iseult...
brings him into frequent conflict with Tristan
Tristan
Tristan is one of the main characters of the Tristan and Iseult story, a Cornish hero and one of the Knights of the Round Table featuring in the Matter of Britain...
. Palamedes' father is King Esclabor
Esclabor
Esclabor is a lord of Babylon and father of Palamedes, Safir, and Segwarides in Arthurian Legend. While visiting Rome, he saves the life of its emperor and then goes to Logres where he saves the life of King Pellinore. He eventually retires to Camelot....
; his brothers Safir and Segwarides
Segwarides
Segwarides is a Knight of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend. In the Prose Tristan and Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, Segwarides is a liegeman of King Mark who is cuckholded by Tristan. Malory also lists an individual of this name as a son of the Saracen king Esclabor; his brothers are...
also join the Round Table.
Palamedes first appears in the Prose Tristan
Prose Tristan
The Prose Tristan is an adaptation of the Tristan and Iseult story into a long prose romance, and the first to tie the subject entirely into the arc of the Arthurian legend...
, an early 13th-century prose expansion of the Tristan and Iseult
Tristan and Iseult
The legend of Tristan and Iseult is an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with as many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Iseult...
legend. He is introduced as a knight fighting for Iseult's hand at a tournament in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
; he ultimately loses to Tristan, to the delight of the princess. Tristan spares him but forbids him to bear arms for a year or to pursue Iseult's love ever again. After Iseult's wedding to King Mark, Palamedes rescues Iseult's servant Brangaine
Brangaine
Brangaine is the handmaid and confidante of Iseult of Ireland in the story of Tristan and Iseult...
, joins the Round Table and engages in a number of duels with Tristan that are usually postponed or end without a clear winner. They eventually reconcile, but share a love-hate relationship through the rest of the narrative.
Palamedes also appears in the Post-Vulgate Cycle
Post-Vulgate Cycle
The Post-Vulgate Cycle is one of the major Old French prose cycles of Arthurian literature. It is essentially a rehandling of the earlier Vulgate Cycle , with much left out and much added, including characters and scenes from the Prose Tristan.The Post-Vulgate, written probably between 1230 and...
, Thomas Malory
Thomas Malory
Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author or compiler of Le Morte d'Arthur. The antiquary John Leland as well as John Bale believed him to be Welsh, but most modern scholars, beginning with G. L...
's Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur is a compilation by Sir Thomas Malory of Romance tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table...
, and even gave his name to his own romance, the Palamedes
Palamedes (romance)
Palamedes is a 13th-century French Arthurian prose romance. Named for King Arthur's Saracen knight Palamedes, it is set in the time before the rise of Arthur, and relates the exploits of the parents of various Arthurian heroes...
. The Palamedes exists in fragments and as part of the vast Compilation of Rusticiano da Pisa, and details the adventures of two generations of Arthurian heroes. Some stories reveal Palamedes' background: his father was a king of Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
who is sent to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
where he saves the life of the Emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
; he then travels to Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
where he rescues and befriends King Pellinore. Many tales also have Palamedes as the hunter of the Questing Beast
Questing Beast
The Questing Beast, or the Beast Glatisant , is a monster from Arthurian legend. It is the subject of quests undertaken by famous knights such as King Pellinore, Sir Palamedes, and Sir Percival....
, an abomination only the chosen can kill. The hunt is as frustrating and fruitless as the pursuit of Iseult, and in most versions remains uncompleted. However, in the Post-Vulgate Palamedes' conversion to Christianity during the Grail Quest allows him release from his worldly entanglements, and Percival
Percival
Percival or Perceval is one of King Arthur's legendary Knights of the Round Table. In Welsh literature his story is allotted to the historical Peredur...
and Galahad
Galahad
Sir Galahad |Round Table]] and one of the three achievers of the Holy Grail in Arthurian legend. He is the illegitimate son of Lancelot and Elaine of Corbenic, and is renowned for his gallantry and purity. Emerging quite late in the medieval Arthurian tradition, he is perhaps the knightly...
help him trap the beast in a lake, where he finally slays it. Malory has Palamedes and Safir joining Lancelot
Lancelot
Sir Lancelot du Lac is one of the Knights of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend. He is the most trusted of King Arthur's knights and plays a part in many of Arthur's victories...
after the great knight's affair with Queen Guinevere is exposed; the brothers eventually accompany Lancelot to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where Palamedes is made Duke of Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
. According to the Post-Vulgate, Sir Gawain killed Palamedes during the Grail Quest, while the latter was already wounded.
Pop culture
Palamedes is featured in the series The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel from book three, "The Sorceress
The Sorceress
The Sorceress might refer to:* The Sorceress, a novel written by Michael Scott* Sorceress of Castle Grayskull, a fictional character from the Masters of the Universe...
"
In the trading card game, Cardfight! Vanguard, two cards from the Royal Paladin clan are named for Palamedes, Swordsman of Flames, Palamedes, and the more powerful Swordsman of Explosive Flames, Palamedes.