Corsabrin
Corsabrin is a knight in Le Morte d'Arthur who fights against Palomides for the love of a damosel.
Corsabrin is a knight in Le Morte d'Arthur who fights against Palomides for the love of a damosel. A lady sent Palomides "a pensel, and prayed him to fight with Sir Corsabrin for her love, and he should have her and her lands of her father's that should fall to her" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XLVII). Palomides slew Corsabrin, and the aftermath was marked by a notable event: the "haut prince" remarked that those present had "seen this day a great miracle by Corsabrin, what savour there was when the soul departed from the body" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XLVII), implying that Corsabrin's death produced an evil stench -- a sign of spiritual corruption.
Corsabrin's two citations both derive from the same chapter, but they capture different narrative registers. The first is a conventional romance setup: a lady offers herself and her inheritance as prize for a champion who will defeat her tormentor. The second introduces a supernatural element -- the "great miracle" of the foul savour at death, which in medieval romance convention signals damnation or paganism. Malory's text uses this detail to mark Corsabrin as morally or spiritually other, in contrast to the ultimately baptised Palomides.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition