Gringamore
Sir Gringamore is the brother of Dame Lionesse and serves as a facilitator and protector throughout the Gareth cycle of Le Morte d'Arthur.
Sir Gringamore is the brother of Dame Lionesse and serves as a facilitator and protector throughout the Gareth cycle of Le Morte d'Arthur. His arms "were all black" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VII, Chapter XIX), and he dwelt on the Isle of Avilion (Book VII, Chapter XXVI). The narrative casts him primarily as an intermediary between Sir Gareth (Beaumains) and his sister Lionesse, orchestrating their meeting, sheltering their courtship, and providing material support for Gareth's tournament appearances.
Gringamore first acts at his sister's bidding, riding after Beaumains to abduct his dwarf so that Lionesse might learn the knight's identity (Book VII, Chapter XIX). When Gareth pursued him, Gringamore initially defied the knight -- "for all thy great words thou gettest him not" (Book VII, Chapter XX) -- but yielded once he understood Gareth's quality, took "him by the hand and led him into the hall where his own wife was" (Book VII, Chapter XX).
He facilitated the romance between Gareth and Lionesse with open encouragement, telling Gareth "this lady, my sister, is yours at all times, her worship saved, for wit ye well she loveth you as well as ye do her, and better if better may be" (Book VII, Chapter XXI). When a mysterious armed knight twice attacked Gareth by night, Gringamore protested his innocence -- "it was never done by me, nor by my assent" (Book VII, Chapter XXII) -- and helped staunch Gareth's wounds. For the tournament, "Sir Gringamore gave Sir Gareth a bay courser that was a passing good horse; also he gave him good armour and sure, and a noble sword that sometime Sir Gringamore's father won upon an heathen tyrant" (Book VII, Chapter XXVII). He accompanied Dame Lionesse with forty knights to the resolution of the Gareth-Gawaine combat (Book VII, Chapter XXXIII), and had "the conduct of these ladies" at the wedding feast (Book VII, Chapter XXXV).
All 25 citations derive from Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VII, spanning Chapters XIX through XXXV. Gringamore's role is consistently that of the noble kinsman: protective, hospitable, and subordinate to the central romance. He never fights Gareth directly but twice confronts him verbally before yielding gracefully. The pattern of resistance followed by alliance runs through every encounter -- he defies Gareth over the dwarf, then welcomes him; he is alarmed by the night attacks, then tends the wounds.
His material generosity is notable. The horse, armour, and ancestral sword he provides for the tournament are described with specific provenance, lending Gringamore a family history that extends beyond the immediate narrative. His residence on the Isle of Avilion places him at a location laden with Arthurian significance, though the text does not develop this connection.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition