Gareth

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the first name see Gareth (first name) .

Arthur Hughes
"Overthrowing of the Rusty Knight"
"Overpowering the Red Knight" , 1908

Sir Gareth [ ˈɡærəθ ] was a knight of the round table in the Arthurian legend . He was the youngest son of King Lot of Orkney and his wife Morgause , the half-sister or aunt of King Arthur . Thus, depending on the reading, he was his nephew and half-brother of Mordred . He and his brothers Gawain , Gaheris and Agravain were called the "Orkney Brothers" because of their paternal descent. Gareth defeated the "Red Knight" and freed Lady Lyoness, whom he later took as his wife. He plays a role in the 7th book (“The love story between Lanzelot andGuinevere ") of the story" Le Morte Darthur "by Sir Thomas Malory , where his career from inexperienced youth to knight is reported.

Le Morte Darthur

Gareth, like his older brothers, wants to become a knight. Unrecognized and disguised as a kitchen boy, he goes to Camelot to the court of King Arthur. Because of his dexterity in the kitchen and his large hands, Gareth is often called "Beaumains" ("The Handsome One") by Sir Kay .

One day, Lady Lyonet comes to Camelot and asks King Arthur to send a knight to rescue her sister Lady Lyoness, who is being held captive by Ironside, the Red Knight from the Red Land. Beaumains offers the king to take over this task and, to the dismay of Lady Lyonet, he agrees. Gareth defeated many knights on his way, among them a black, a green and a red knight. He eventually saves Lyoness, but she rejects his love until he has proven that he is one of the most worthy knights in the world. Gareth then denies a tournament at the court of King Arthur, where he wears a ring of Lyoness, which means that he is neither recognized nor injured. This enables him to win the tournament. After defeating his brother Gawaine himself, Gareth is knighted by Sir Lancelot and Lyoness ultimately marries her savior.

Gareth's heroism is clouded, however, because he and his brothers lead an unknightly fight against Sir Lamorak, who is killed in the process ( "They fought with him on foot more than three hours, both before him and behind him." ). This act indirectly leads to charges against Guinevere for attempted poisoning of Gawain, whereupon she is sentenced to death by fire. Only Lancelot, who accepts a divine judgment for the queen, can save her.

However, Gareth and his brother Gaheris are slain by Lancelot when he saves the convicted Guinevere from being burned at the stake. When Sir Gawaine learns of this, he says: “I cannot believe that he could kill my brother Sir Gareth; For I dare say that my brother Gareth loved him far more than me and all his brothers, and the king loved them both. I also believe that Sir Lancelot would have liked my brother Sir Gareth to be at his side, that he would go with him against the King and also against all of us, and therefore I can never believe that it was Sir Lancelot who killed my brother. "

Other works by the Matière de Bretagne

In the Matière de Bretagne , the Arthurian Romanticism of the Middle Ages , which still has an impact today , Gareth is more of a minor character. Geoffrey of Monmouth does not mention him by name in his Historia Regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of England", around 1135). Geoffrey describes the details about Lot and his children as follows: "Loth had married Arthur's sister who bore him Gawain and Mordred," therefore it can be assumed that Gareth is a later added character.

Terence Hanbury White portrays Gareth as a barbarian from the northern islands ( Orkney ) in his trilogy of novels The once and future King ("The King on Camelot", 1958) . As in Malory's Le Morte Darthur, he and his brothers are the unrest-causing element on Royal court.

The round table

King Arthur 's Round Table
in the Great Hall of
Winchester Castle

In the labeling of in Winchester Castle preserved "Roundtable of legendary King Arthur" (made in 1275 of oak with 6 m diameter) are also Gareth ( garethe ) and his brother Gawain ( districts ) to read. Loomis names the order, written in old French spelling, clockwise:

arthur, galahallt , launcelot deu lac, gauen, percivale , lyonell, trystram de lyens , garethe, bedwere , bloberrys, la cote maletayle, lucane, plomydes , lamorak, born de ganys, safer, pelleus , kay, ector de marys, dagonet , degore, brumear, lybyus dysconyus, alynore, murder speech .

literature

• Helmut Birkhan : Post-ancient Celtic reception. Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-7069-0541-1 .

Web links

Commons : Gareth Beaumains  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Gareth in the Camelot Project at the University of Rochester (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 238 ff.
2. ↑ haverford.edu ( Memento of the original dated November 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (for the whole chapter Le Morte Darthur )  
3. ↑ haverford.edu ( Memento of the original dated November 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 290 ff.
5. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Nachantike Keltenrezeption. P. 181.
6. ↑ RS Loomis, LH Loomis: Arthurian Legends in Medieval Art. New York 1938, new edition Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1975, ISBN 978-0-527-58300-2 , p. 40 f, fig. 18.