Griflet

Giflet throwing Excalibur into the lake in a 1470 illustration for the 13th-century French chivalric romance La Mort du roi Arthur

Sir Griflet /ˈɡrɪflɪt/, also called Giflet, Girflet or Jaufre, is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He is called the son of Do or Don, and he is cousin to Sir Lucan and Sir Bedivere.[1][2] Like many another character in Arthurian Romance, his origins lie in Welsh mythology - in this instance in the minor deity Gilfaethwy fab Dôn, who features in Math fab Mathonwy, fourth of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi.[3]

Coat of arms attributed to Girflet

Griflet first appears as a squire and one of King Arthur's earliest allies. When he is knighted he becomes one of the first Knights of the Round Table.[4] He is one of Arthur's chief advisors throughout his career, and according to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, he was one of the Battle of Camlann's few survivors, and is the knight Arthur asked to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. (In Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, however, Griflet is one of the knights killed defending Guinevere's execution when the queen is rescued by Lancelot; Malory follows the Stanzaic Morte Arthure, making Bedivere the knight who casts Excalibur into the lake.) Griflet is the hero of his own romance, Jaufré, the only surviving Arthurian romance written in Provençal.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Monaghan, Patricia (2014). The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. Infobase Publishing. p. 230. ISBN 9781438110370. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 Bruce, Christopher W. (2013). The Arthurian Name Dictionary. Routledge. pp. 220–221. ISBN 9781136755385. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  3. ↑ Gantz, Jeffrey; trans. (1976) The Mabinogion. London and New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-044322-3.
  4. ↑ The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. C. Scribner's Sons. 1909. pp. 45–48. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
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