Marhaus
Renowned Irish knight of the Round Table, slain by Tristram over Cornwall tribute.
Sir Marhaus, the king's son of Ireland and brother to the queen of Ireland (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter IV), is one of the most formidable knights in Le Morte d'Arthur, "called one of the famousest and renowned knights of the world" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter IV). His story unfolds across two major narrative arcs: his early adventures alongside Sir Gawaine and Sir Uwaine in Book IV, and his fatal encounter with Sir Tristram over the tribute of Cornwall in Book VIII.
Marhaus first appears terrorizing twelve damsels who flee into a turret at the sight of him (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter XVII). When challenged by the knights of the tower, he dispatches them with devastating efficiency -- breaking one knight's neck along with his horse's back, and smiting the other "horse and man, stark dead" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter XVII). Yet in his combat with Sir Gawaine, Marhaus shows a more measured character. Observing Gawaine's waning strength, he offers magnanimous terms: "Sir knight, I have well felt that ye are a passing good knight and a marvellous man of might as ever I felt any, while it lasteth, and our quarrels are not great, and therefore it were pity to do you hurt" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter XVIII).
The eighty-four citations present Marhaus in two distinct phases of his career, and the contrast between them is striking. In Book IV, Marhaus is the experienced knight-errant: he defeats the Duke of the South Marches and his six sons, requiring them to yield and swear allegiance to King Arthur (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter XXV). He fights a giant, smiting off "his right arm above the elbow," then delivers "twenty-four ladies and twelve knights out of the giant's prison" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter XXV). At a tournament he wins the circlet of gold, having "sometime down forty knights" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter XXV). He is a knight of the Round Table, generous in victory, who invites his former opponents to lodge with him and reveals himself falsely named by the damsels of the turret (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book IV, Chapter XVIII).
The Irish tribute sequence in Book VIII transforms Marhaus from protagonist to obstacle. Sent by the king of Ireland to demand Cornwall's unpaid tribute of seven years (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter IV), Marhaus arrives at Tintagil where King Mark makes "great sorrow when he understood that the good and noble knight Sir Marhaus was come" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter IV). No knight of Cornwall dares face him, and it falls to the young Tristram to take the challenge. The exchange before their combat reveals Marhaus's self-awareness: "Fair knight, sithen it is so that thou castest to win worship of me, I let thee wit worship may thou none lose by me if thou mayest stand me three strokes" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter VII).
The fight ends badly for Marhaus. After wounding Tristram with his spear, they fight on foot until Marhaus "rose grovelling, and threw his sword and his shield from him, and so ran to his ships and fled his way" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter VII). He answers no word but goes "his way sore groaning" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter VII). Departing for Ireland, Marhaus dies of the stroke Tristram gave him, with a piece of Tristram's sword lodged in his brain (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter VIII). This fragment becomes the mechanism of later recognition: the queen finds "the piece of the sword that was pulled out of Sir Marhaus' head after that he was dead" and matches it to Tristram's blade (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XI).
Marhaus's death casts a long shadow through the text. Knights "of the queen's blood, and of Sir Marhaus' blood" appear at Tristram's confrontation but "would not meddle with him" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XII). Even in Book X, the King of Ireland -- identified as Marhalt, "father to the good knight Sir Marhaus that Sir Tristram slew" -- speaks in council where Tristram might hear (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Chapter LXVI).
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition