Griflet

Griflet
Matter of Britain character
Griflet's attributed arms
First appearance
Erec and Enide
In-universe information
TitleSir
OccupationKnight of the Round Table
FamilyBedivere, Lucan

Griflet (/ˈɡrɪflɪt/) the son of Do is a ubiquitous character in the Arthurian legend, where he is one of both the first and the last Knights of the Round Table. He is notably the eponymous hero of his own, early chivalric romance, the Occitan-language Jaufre.

Legend

He is first found in Chrétien de Troyes' Erec et Enide, named there as Gilflez (Gifflez) li filz Do. Like many other Arthurian romance characters, his origins may lie in Welsh mythology; in his instance, with the minor deity Gilfaethwy fab Dôn.

He also appears under various otherr names, including as Gefflet (Gifflet, Gyfflet) in the English Prose Merlin, as Gerflet in Béroul's Tristan and in the Norse Möttuls saga and Parcevals saga; as Gerflet li fius Do in Mériadeuc; as Gifflet in Escanor and in Froissart's Chroniques; as Girfles le fils Do (Gifflet fils de Do, Giflez li filz Doon de Carduel, Girfles li fieus Do, Girflet, Girflez li filz Dué, Gyrfles, Gyfflet, Gyfles, Gyflet, Gyrflet) in the Vulgate Cycle; as Giflez in the Livre d'Artus; as Giflés li fius Do in Li Biaus Descouneüs; as Giflet le fils de Do in Le Bel Inconnu; as Giflet fis Do in Sir Gawain and the Lady of Lys; as Girflez le fils Do (Girflet li flex Do, Gyrflet) in the Prose Tristan; as Girflés (Giflés li fix Do, Gvrflés li fil Do, Giflex le Filz, Gilflex, Gilflez, Gisflet le fil Doon, Girflet le fils Do, Girflez li filz Do, Gyrflés li fil Do) in the First, Second (not all variants) and Fourth Continuations of Perceval ou le Conte du Graal; as Girflet (Gifflès li Fieus Do[u]) in the Post-Vulgate Cycle; as Giflez li filz Doe in Lancelot, le Chevalier de la Charrette; as Girflez in La Mule sans Frein; as Gofrei in Diu Crône, as Griflet (originally Gryflet; Griflet le Fise de Dieu, Gryflet le Fyse de Dieu, Gryfflet) in Le Morte d'Arthur; as Grifles (Gifflet, Gifles, Gilles) in Of Arthour and of Merlin; as Grimfles in Merlin, as Gryflette in Merlÿn; as Gyffroun in Ywain and Gawain; as Gyrfles (Girfles, Girflet, Girflez, Girfleez, Gyrflees, Gyrflet, Gyrflez) in Henry Lovelich's Merlin, as Gyflet in Parzival; as Jaufré (Jaufry) in Jaufre; as Jofreit fiz Ydoel (Iofreit) in Parzival; and as Jeffron de Freudous (Geffron le Frediens, Gyffron le Fludous) in Libeaus Desconus. Further texts featuring him include Hunbaut and La Vengeance Raguidel.

In French chivalric romance prose cycles, he is a cousin to Lucan and Bedivere who first appears as a loyal and valiant young squire at the beginning of King Arthur's rule. About the same age as Arthur, he distinguishes himself in the Battle of Bedegraine against the rebels and joins the Round Table after personally slaying one of the Saxon kings when he helps Kay and Gawain rescue Guinevere in the Prose Merlin. Later, however, his role becomes largely limited to him notoriously often falling into captivity for the other knights to rescue in the course of their own adventures, even leading Gawain to comment in the Prose Lancelot that "there never was a man so frequently taken prisoner as Girflet has been."

"Groflet" steeling himself to cast Excalibur away in a 1470 illustration for La Mort du roi Arthur

According to the French Mort Artu, having been earlier in the romance seriously injured by Emperor Lucius just before Arthur killed Lucius, he was one of the few survivors of Arthur's final battle and was asked by the dying king to return his sword Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. Afterwards, he becomes a monk at the black chapel of Arthur's tomb. In Le Morte d'Arthur, however, Sir Griflet is one of the knights killed by Lancelot's rescue party at the execution of Guinevere, making Griflet's cousin Bedivere the knight who casts away Excalibur, the role that has been given to Bedivere also in the earlier English adaptations of the Mort Artu.

Modern culture

References

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  3. ↑ Duggan, Joseph J. (2008-10-01). The Romances of Chretien de Troyes. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-13370-7.
  4. ↑ Troyes), Chrétien (de (1890). Erec und Enide (in French). M. Niemeyer.
  5. ↑ Darrah, John (1997). Paganism in Arthurian Romance. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9780859914260 – via Google Books.
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  9. 1 2 Wheatley, Henry Benjamin (1865). Merlin: Or, The Early History of King Arthur: a Prose Romance (about 1450-1460 A.D.). Early English Text Society.
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  13. ↑ Schofield, William Henry (1895). Studies on the Libeaus Desconus. Pub. under the direction of the Modern Language Departments of Harvard University by Ginn.
  14. ↑ Girart (d'Amiens). Der Roman von Escanor (in French). Litterarischer Verein. ISBN 978-1-391-45671-3.
  15. ↑ The Arthur of the French: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval French and Occitan Literature. University of Wales Press. 2020-10-15. ISBN 978-1-78683-743-1.
  16. 1 2 Sommer, Heinrich Oskar (1913). The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances: Les aventures ou la queste del Saint Graal. La mort le roi Artus. 1913 (in French). Carnegie Institution.
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  21. ↑ Bruce, James Douglas (1974). Mort Artu: an Old French prose romance of the XIIIth century, being the last division of "Lancelot du Lac" (in French). AMS Press. ISBN 978-0-404-56649-4.
  22. ↑ Sommer, Heinrich Oskar (1913). The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances (in French). Carnegie Institution of Washington.
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  25. 1 2 Salisbury, Eve; Weldon, James (2014-01-01). Lybeaus Desconus. Medieval Institute Publications. ISBN 978-1-58044-459-0.
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  27. ↑ Weston, Jessie L. (2022-09-15). Sir Gawain and the Lady of Lys: Enriched edition. DigiCat.
  28. ↑ Löseth, Eilert (1891). Le roman en prose de Tristan (in French). E. Bouillon.
  29. ↑ Baumgartner, Emmanuelle (1993). Le Roman de Tristan En Prose. T. VI, Du Sejour Des Amants a la Joyeuse Garde Jusquaux Premieres Aventures de La "Queste Du Graal" (in French). Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-02701-4.
  30. ↑ Delcourt, Thierry; Lalande, Denis (1992). Le roman de Tristan en prose: Tome 5, De l'arrivée des amants à la Joyeuse Garde jusqu'à la fin du tournoi de Louveserp (in French). Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-02681-9.
  31. ↑ Villemarqué, Théodore Hersart Vicomte de La; Villemarqué, Théodore Hersard de La (1860). Les romans de la Table Ronde et les contes des anciens Bretons (in French). Didier.
  32. 1 2 Corley, Corin F. V. (1987). The Second Continuation of the Old French Perceval: A Critical and Lexicographical Study. MHRA. ISBN 978-0-947623-11-1.
  33. ↑ Roach, William (1952). The Continuations of the Old French Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes (in French). University of Pennsylvania Press.
  34. ↑ Merlin: Roman en prose du XIIIe siècle. Publié avec la mise en prose du poème de Merlin de Robert de Boron. D'après le manuscrit appartenant à M. Alfred H. Huth (in French). Firmin Didot. 1886.
  35. ↑ Sommer, Oskar H. (1891). Le Morte Darthur: Studies on the sources, with an introductory essay by Andrew Lang. D. Nutt.
  36. ↑ De Troyes, Chrétien (1850). Le roman de la charrette (in French). Belinfante Frères.
  37. ↑ Kibler, William W.; Palmer, R. Barton (2014-08-21). Medieval Arthurian Epic and Romance: Eight New Translations. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-1466-3.
  38. ↑ Felder, Gudrun (2012-02-14). Kommentar zur ›Crône‹ Heinrichs von dem Türlin (in German). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-092634-7.
  39. ↑ Norris, Ralph C. (2008). Malory's Library: The Sources of the Morte Darthur. DS Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84384-154-8.
  40. ↑ Malory, Sir Thomas; Caxton, William (1900). Le Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of His Noble Knights of the Round Table. Macmillan.
  41. 1 2 3 Stanford University Publications: University series. Language and literature. Stanford University. 1952.
  42. ↑ Sommer, Heinrich Oskar (1891). Le Morte Darthur: Studies on the sources, with an introductory essay by Andrew Lang. D. Nutt.
  43. ↑ Turnbull, William Barclay (1838). Arthour and Merlin: A Metrical Romance. Abbotsford Club.
  44. ↑ Maerlant, Jacob van (1880). Jacob van Maerlants Merlÿn (in Dutch). E. J. Brill.
  45. ↑ Owens, Roger John (1977). Ywain and Gawain: Style in the Middle English Romance. University of California, San Diego.
  46. ↑ Lovelich, Henry (1904). Merlin: A Middle-English Metrical Version of a French Romance. Early English Text Society.
  47. ↑ Wisse, Claus; Colin (1888). Parzifal, 1331-1336: eine Ergänzung der Dichtung Wolframs von Eschenbach (in German). Verlag nicht ermittelbar.
  48. ↑ Lupack, Barbara Tepa; Lupack, Alan (2008). Illustrating Camelot. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84384-183-8.
  49. ↑ Eschenbach, Wolfram von (1894). Parzival: A Knightly Epic. D. Nutt.
  50. ↑ Eschenbach, Wolfram von (2006-09-14). Parzival and Titurel. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-160482-9.
  51. ↑ Barron, W. R. J. (2020-11-15). The Arthur of the English: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval English Life and Literature. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-1-78683-741-7.
  52. ↑ Lacy, Norris J.; Ashe, Geoffrey; Ihle, Sandra Ness; Kalinke, Marianne E.; Thompson, Raymond H. (2013). The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 409. ISBN 9781136606328 – via Google Books.
  53. ↑ Lacy, Norris J. (2010). Lancelot-Grail: Lancelot, pt. I – Norris J. Lacy. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781843842262. Retrieved 2022-09-14 – via Google Books.
  54. ↑ Armstrong, D. (2025). ‘Both /And’: Engaging the Alliterative Morte Arthure. In D. Armstrong & K. S. Whetter (Eds.), Studies in Arthurian and Chronicle Traditions in Memory of Fiona Tolhurst: Quondam et Futurus (pp. 111–133). Boydell & Brewer.
  55. ↑ Moll, R. J. (2003). Making History: John Hardyng’s Metrical Chronicle. In Before Malory: Reading Arthur in Later Medieval England (pp. 157–197). University of Toronto Press.
  56. ↑ Thompson, R. H., Lacy, N. J., Archibald, E., & Johnson, D. F. (Eds.). (2009). THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND IN LITERATURE, POPULAR CULTURE AND THE PERFORMING ARTS, 2004–2008. In Arthurian Literature XXVI (NED-New edition, pp. 171–214). Boydell & Brewer.