Aniause
King in Le Morte d'Arthur's Grail quest whose lands are disputed and who is allegorically identified with Christ.
King Aniause is a figure in the Grail quest section of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, attested with 3 citations in Book XVI. He appears in connection with a land dispute that Sir Bors fights to resolve, and is subsequently identified as a figure of allegorical significance within the text's own interpretive framework.
The three citations present Aniause at two levels of meaning. In the narrative layer, a dispossessed lady appeals for Bors's help against a rival: "Madam, ye have done me wrong to bereave me of my lands that King Aniause gave me" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVI, Chapter VIII). Aniause is the original grantor of lands now contested -- a king whose authority is invoked to establish legitimacy in a dispute between two women.
The allegorical layer arrives in Chapter XIII, where an abbot interprets the episode for Bors: "the lady for whom ye fought for, and King Aniause which was lord there-to-fore, betokeneth Jesu Christ which is the King of the world" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVI, Chapter XIII). This identification of a narrative king with Christ is characteristic of the Grail quest's method, where knightly adventures are systematically decoded as spiritual lessons. Aniause thus occupies a double position -- a minor feudal authority in the story, and a figure for divine kingship in the interpretation.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition