Balan
Arthurian knight in Le Morte d'Arthur, brother of Balin, who fought and killed his brother without recognizing him.
Balan is a knight in the British Arthurian tradition, attested through nine passages in Le Morte d'Arthur. He is the brother of Balin le Savage, and their story culminates in one of Malory's most tragic episodes: the two brothers, failing to recognize each other, fight to the death. The tale's fatalism is established early when Balan accepts the adventure ahead: "ye must take the adventure that God will ordain" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Chapter VI). He pledges fraternal loyalty: "that we do, and we will help each other as brethren ought to do" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Chapter VI).
Balan identifies his brother by his signature weapon, noting "ye may see he beareth two swords, thereby ye may call him the Knight with the Two Swords" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Chapter VIII). Yet when they meet in combat on the island, Balan does not recognize Balin because he carries a different shield. After the fight, "Balan yede on all four feet and hands, and put off the helm off his brother, and might not know him by the visage it was so ful hewn and bled" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Chapter XVIII). Only then does recognition come, and Balan's lament is characteristically direct: "that ever I saw this day, that through mishap I might not know you, for I espied well your two swords, but by cause ye had another shield I deemed ye had been another knight" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Chapter XVIII).
Balan explains that he had been trapped on the island after slaying its guardian: "I had never grace to depart from them since that I came hither" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Chapter XVIII). He dies first, and the lady of the castle buries them together, making "a mention of Balan how he was there slain by his brother's hands, but she knew not Balin's name" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Chapter XVIII).
All nine attestations come from Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, tracing the arc of the brothers' shared fate. The narrative builds through ironic foreshadowing: Balan knows his brother by the two swords but is deceived by the exchanged shield. Malory uses the recognition scene to compress the tragedy into physical detail -- Balan crawling to his brother's side, unable to identify the mutilated face. The island functions as a closed narrative space where the custom of combat forces the brothers into conflict without possibility of escape.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition