Mador de la Porte is a minor Knight of the Round Table in the late Arthurian prose romances. His epithet “of the Gate” (de la Porte) suggests he might have been Arthur’s porter; if so, Mador might be equated with Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr (“Mightygrasp”) who is Arthur’s porter in medieval Welsh tales. Mador’s best known role is in an episode of the Vulgate Mort Artu (and consequently in the Stanzaic Morte Arthur and Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur) that tells the story of his trial by combat against the incognito Lancelot, Queen Guinevere’s champion for her innocence following the poisoning of Mador’s brother Gaheris de Karahau. Mador loses the duel to Lancelot (without losing his life in the process), saving Guinevere from the accusation that almost led her being burnt at the stake…
Appearance List Annales Cambriae (10th century); Historia Regum Britanniae (1136); Merlin by Robert de Boron (late 12th–early 13th c.); The Vulgate Lancelot (13th c.); Le Morte d’Arthur (1485) by Thomas Malory; Ballads of Bravery (1877); The Boy’s King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory’s History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Sidney Lanier (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1880); The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903) by Howard Pyle [Internet Archive]; The Story of the Champions of the Round Table (1905, 1911) by Howard Pyle [Internet Archive]; The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions (1907) by Howard Pyle [Internet Archive]; The Story of the Grail and the Passing of King Arthur (1910) by Howard Pyle [Internet Archive]; Tales of the Round Table (1908) by Andrew Lang [Internet Archive]; Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race (1910) by T. W. Rolleston [Internet Archive]; The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights (1912) [Internet Archive]; Idylls of the King (1859) by Alfred Lord Tennyson – 1913 illustrated edition: [Internet Archive]; Legends and Romances of Brittany (1917) by Lewis Spence. Film: Knights of the Round Table (1926) by Rex Ingram (silent, partially lost); Knights of the Round Table (1953) by Richard Thorpe; Lancelot and Guinevere (1963) by Cornel Wilde; The Sword in the Stone (1963) by Walt Disney Productions; Camelot (1967) by Joshua Logan; Excalibur (1981).
Description Mador de la Porte is a minor Knight of the Round Table in the late Arthurian prose romances. His epithet “of the Gate” (de la Porte) suggests he might have been Arthur’s porter; if so, Mador might be equated with Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr (“Mightygrasp”) who is Arthur’s porter in medieval Welsh tales. Mador’s best known role is in an episode of the Vulgate Mort Artu (and consequently in the Stanzaic Morte Arthur and Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur) that tells the story of his trial by combat against the incognito Lancelot, Queen Guinevere’s champion for her innocence following the poisoning of Mador’s brother Gaheris de Karahau. Mador loses the duel to Lancelot (without losing his life in the process), saving Guinevere from the accusation that almost led her being burnt at the stake…
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