Dinadan
Witty knight of the Round Table, companion and foil to Sir Tristram, attested across 191 citations in Le Morte d'Arthur.
Dinadan is a knight of the Round Table whose 191 citations across Le Morte d'Arthur make him one of the most extensively documented figures in Malory's Tristram books. He serves primarily as companion and foil to Sir Tristram, though his adventures also intertwine with Sir Palomides, Sir Launcelot, and the treacherous King Mark. Dinadan's distinctive quality is his wit: he is described as "the maddest talker" and "the merriest knight that ever ye spake withal" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LVI), and his sharp tongue serves as both comic relief and moral commentary throughout the narrative.
The text characterizes Dinadan with unusual directness: "he loved all good knights that were valiant, and he hated all those that were destroyers of good knights. And there were none that hated Dinadan but those that ever were called murderers" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XXV). This editorial pronouncement, rare in Malory, sets Dinadan apart as a figure whose judgments carry narrative authority. His death during the Grail quest at the hands of cowards is recorded as "great damage, for he was a great bourder and a passing good knight" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XXV).
Dinadan's characterization operates through a sustained tension between his competence as a fighter and his vocal reluctance to fight. When Tristram proposes battle against thirty knights, Dinadan protests: "I promise you to look upon and to do what I may to save myself, but I would I had not met with you" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XXII). Yet he then enters the fight and performs well -- "he did passing well, and so of the thirty knights there went but ten away" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XXII). This pattern recurs throughout: Dinadan complains bitterly about the risks of combat, then acquits himself with distinction.
His relationship with Tristram is the narrative's central comedy. Dinadan curses their fellowship repeatedly -- "In the devil's name came I into your company" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XXIII) -- and calls Tristram's love-driven recklessness madness: "ye fare as a madman and as a man that is out of his mind that would cast himself away" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XXIII). He warns Tristram's companions: "Beware, sir knight, for an ye follow him ye shall repent it" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XXIV). When confronted with Tristram lying lovesick by a well, Dinadan cannot contain his contempt: "That is the same doted knight that I saw lie by the well, neither sleeping nor waking" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LV). He demands: "art thou a knight and durst not tell thy name to me?" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LV). Yet Dinadan repeatedly risks his life for Tristram -- offering to fight Palomides when Tristram is wounded, saying "if I be slain ye may pray for my soul" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XXXIII). When Palomides boasts of what he will do to Tristram, Dinadan cuts him down: "I marvel that ye boast behind Sir Tristram, for it is but late that he was in your hands, and ye in his hands; why would ye not hold him when ye had him?" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XXXV).
The episodes with King Mark reveal Dinadan's sharpest edge. Forced to accompany the treacherous king, Dinadan openly denounces him: "It is shame to you that ye govern you so shamefully; for I see by you ye are full of cowardice, and ye are a murderer, and that is the greatest shame that a knight may have" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XI). When Mark mocks him for losing a joust, Dinadan demands Mark prove himself -- knowing the king will refuse. Riding with Mark, Dinadan must repeatedly defend the king from his own enemies: "Sir Dinadan rescued him of his life, for King Mark was but a murderer" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter X). He counsels Mark to be wary of road-knights: "yonder hoveth a knight that will joust, for there shall none pass this bridge but he must joust with that knight" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter X). After losing that joust himself, Dinadan is "passing wroth that he might not be revenged of that knight" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter X). He later identifies the unknown bridge-knight: "was that Sir Tor?" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XI). His most famous act of revenge is composing a satirical lay against King Mark. When asked about it at court, Dinadan's authorship is confirmed: "Sir Dinadan, a knight of the Table Round, made this song" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XXXI), a humiliation that works precisely because Dinadan wields words as effectively as his sword. When Mark departed the court for fear of exposure, it was "for dread of Sir Dinadan, that he would tell Sir Tristram and Sir Palomides what he was" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XIV).
Dinadan's encounters at tournaments provide some of the text's most distinctive comic scenes. At the Lonazep tournament, Launcelot disguises himself as a damsel and unhorses Dinadan, reducing Queen Guenever to helpless laughter: "she laughed that she fell down, and so did all that there were" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XLIX). Earlier, Dinadan serves the haut prince a fish with a great head between two dishes (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XLVIII), and when the prince challenges him, Dinadan talks his way out with "fair words" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XLII). Even Launcelot concedes Dinadan's jousting ability in jest: "I ensure thee I shall no more meet with thee nor with thy great spear, for I may not sit in my saddle when that spear hitteth me" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XLVIII).
Elsewhere, Dinadan encounters various adventures on the road. Meeting Agravaine and Mordred, he overcomes a pursuing knight: "Sir Dinadan and he encountered together, that with pure strength Sir Dinadan smote him over his horse's tail" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XXV). He then rides to "a castle that hight Beale-Valet" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XXV). At court, Dinadan reports adventures freely: "Sir Dinadan rode unto the court of King Arthur" and told the king of Sir Lamorak's prowess (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XX). When asked about knights he has met, he replies: "I have no will to joust" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XX). Travelling with Palomides, Dinadan pledges his support: "I shall not fail you, upon my life" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XVII), and praises Lamorak: "he is as good as ever was Sir Launcelot or Sir Tristram, what knight somever he be" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XVII).
His tactical intelligence emerges most clearly in the Lonazep tournament, where Dinadan deliberately provokes Tristram by praising Launcelot and denigrating Tristram's efforts. When Tristram sleeps through the fighting, Dinadan inspects his battered equipment: "In good time was I thus asleep, for had I been with you I must needs for shame there have followed you" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LXXV). The narrator explains his provocations openly: "all this language Sir Dinadan said because he would anger Sir Tristram, for to cause him to awake his spirits and to be wroth; for well knew Sir Dinadan that an Sir Tristram were thoroughly wroth Sir Palomides should not get the prize upon the morn" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LXXII). He also acts decisively in battle, smiting Launcelot from his horse with a spear to rescue Tristram (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LXXVI) and delivering Tristram's mount back to him: "My lord Sir Tristram, take your horse" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LXXVI). Later he privately identifies the visitors to their pavilion: "that is Sir Launcelot du Lake that spake unto you first, and the other is my lord King Arthur" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LXXVIII).
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition