Lamorak de Galis
Full name of Sir Lamorak, son and heir of King Pellinore.
Lamorak de Galis is attested across Le Morte d'Arthur as the full name of Sir Lamorak, son of King Pellinore. He identified himself openly: "as for my name I will not hide it from no knight that beareth a shield, and my name is Sir Lamorak de Galis" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter VIII). He is also identified as the son and heir of King Pellinore, with Sir Tor as his half-brother (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XIX).
His reputation rests on extraordinary feats of arms. On the first day of jousting at a great feast, Sir Lamorak de Galis "overthrew thirty knights, and did passing marvellously deeds of arms" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VII, Chapter XXXV). Sir Dinadan recognized him by reputation alone: "I dare lay my head it is Sir Lamorak de Galis" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XIV). Arthur himself confirmed the identification with some awe: "now wot I well it is Sir Lamorak de Galis" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XLVI).
Palomides delivered what amounts to an epitaph: "there was the third, a good knight as any of them, and of his age he was the best that ever I found; for an he might have lived till he had been an hardier man there liveth no knight now such, and his name was Sir Lamorak de Galis" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LIV). This eulogy, spoken in the past tense, confirms that Lamorak de Galis was cut down before reaching his full potential.
The eleven citations consistently present Lamorak de Galis as a figure whose identity is bound to his lineage and his name. The repeated self-identification -- "my name is Sir Lamorak de Galis" appears in at least three separate encounters (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XL; Book IX, Chapter XI; Book X, Chapter VIII) -- functions as a ritual assertion of noble identity in a world where names carry weight. His connection to King Pellinore is not merely genealogical but political, placing him within the feud between Pellinore's house and the Orkney brothers that drives much of the Tristram section (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter XIX).
Palomides's assessment is distinctive because it mourns not just Lamorak's death but his unrealized capacity. The conditional -- "an he might have lived" -- suggests that the record preserves a sense of Lamorak de Galis as a knight who died incomplete, his age-based excellence cut short before it could mature into something harder (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LIV).
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition