Pellinore is a major figure in the 13th-century Post-Vulgate prose cycle and the sections of Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur based on it. There, as son of King Pellam and brother of Kings Pelles (the Fisher King) and Alain, he is most famous for his endless hunt of the Questing Beast, which he is tracking when King Arthur first meets him. Though he claims his bloodline is destined perpetually to chase this bizarre monster, Palamedes the Saracen takes up the quest, and, according to one version, slays the beast. Pellinore beats King Arthur after three jousts and breaks the sword Arthur had withdrawn from the stone (in some versions this is Excalibur, though he gets another sword of that name from the Lady of the Lake soon after). Merlin throws a spell of enchantment on Pellinore to save Arthur’s life. Arthur praises Pellinore’s skill, and they soon become friends, with Arthur inviting him to join the Round Table. Pellinore then helps Arthur in his early wars against rebelling vassals, but when he kills King Lot of Orkney during the Battle of Tarabel (or Dimilioc), he sparks a blood feud between his and Lot’s family that results in his death by Gawain and his brothers and the deaths of many others…
Appearance List Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory — hunter of the Questing Beast, father of Percival and Lamorak, slayer of King Lot; Idylls of the King (1859-1885) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson; The Boy’s King Arthur (1880) by Sidney Lanier; King Arthur and His Knights (1903) by Maude L. Radford; The Sword in the Stone (1938) by T. H. White; The Ill-Made Knight (1940) by T. H. White; The Once and Future King (1958) by T. H. White. Play: Camelot (1956) by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe — Pellinore (“Pelly”) appears as Arthur’s elderly, affectionate companion. Film: The Sword in the Stone (1963, The Walt Disney Company); Camelot (1967) directed by Joshua Logan.
Sample Read The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903) by Howard Pyle [Internet Archive]
Description Pellinore is a major figure in the 13th-century Post-Vulgate prose cycle and the sections of Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur based on it. There, as son of King Pellam and brother of Kings Pelles (the Fisher King) and Alain, he is most famous for his endless hunt of the Questing Beast, which he is tracking when King Arthur first meets him. Though he claims his bloodline is destined perpetually to chase this bizarre monster, Palamedes the Saracen takes up the quest, and, according to one version, slays the beast. Pellinore beats King Arthur after three jousts and breaks the sword Arthur had withdrawn from the stone (in some versions this is Excalibur, though he gets another sword of that name from the Lady of the Lake soon after). Merlin throws a spell of enchantment on Pellinore to save Arthur’s life. Arthur praises Pellinore’s skill, and they soon become friends, with Arthur inviting him to join the Round Table. Pellinore then helps Arthur in his early wars against rebelling vassals, but when he kills King Lot of Orkney during the Battle of Tarabel (or Dimilioc), he sparks a blood feud between his and Lot’s family that results in his death by Gawain and his brothers and the deaths of many others…
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