Breunor
Sir Breunor appears in Le Morte d'Arthur as two distinct figures sharing a name, attested across four chapters with 10 citations.
Sir Breunor appears in Le Morte d'Arthur as two distinct figures sharing a name, attested across four chapters with 10 citations.
The first is the lord of a castle who enforces a brutal custom of beauty comparison. When a knight and his lady arrive, Breunor demands that the ladies be shown together, and the one judged less fair must have her head struck off: "the lord of that castle, with his lady in his hand, muffled, and asked Sir Tristram where was his lady" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXV). When confronted with La Beale Isoud, even Breunor must concede: "thy lady is fairer than mine, and that me sore repenteth" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXV). Tristram fights and kills this Breunor, who is described as "a proved knight, and had been or then the death of many good knights, that it was pity that he had so long endured" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXVI).
The second Breunor is the young knight known as Breunor le Noire, who arrives at Arthur's court declaring "my name is Breunor le Noire, and within short space ye shall know that I am of good kin" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter I). This is the figure whom Sir Kay mocks as La Cote Male Taile.
The name Breunor attaches to two very different characters in Malory's text. The castle lord is a villain whose custom of beauty comparison and beheading places him among the tyrannical knights whom Tristram is fated to overthrow. The fighting is fierce -- Breunor "rashed upon Sir Tristram and took him in his arms, for he trusted much in his strength" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXVI) -- but the outcome is never in doubt. The narrative acknowledges both his prowess ("a proved knight") and the justice of his death ("it was pity that he had so long endured").
Breunor le Noire, by contrast, enters the story as a figure of promise rather than menace, his good lineage yet to be proved. The shared name creates no confusion in the source, since the two figures occupy entirely separate narrative contexts and books.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition