Palamides
Saracen knight in Le Morte d'Arthur, rival of Tristram and pursuer of the Questing Beast.
Sir Palamides is a knight in the British Arthurian tradition, attested in Le Morte d'Arthur across forty-two citations spanning Books I, VII, and VIII. Known as "the Saracen," he is a Moorish knight who pursues the Questing Beast, loves La Beale Isoud, and repeatedly clashes with Sir Tristram. His defining tension lies in his status as an unchristened knight of great prowess, a figure both admired and set apart within the chivalric order.
Le Morte d'Arthur introduces Palamides through the Questing Beast motif: after King Pellinore's death, "Sir Palamides followed it" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Chapter XIX). This quest marks him as inheritor of a mysterious, archaic pursuit that sets him apart from the tournament-focused knights of Arthur's court.
The heart of Palamides's narrative lies in his rivalry with Tristram over La Beale Isoud. In Ireland, "every day Sir Palamides drew unto La Beale Isoud and proffered her many gifts, for he loved her passingly well" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter IX). Tramtrist (Tristram in disguise) "full well knew he Sir Palamides for a noble knight and a mighty man," and "there was great envy betwixt Tramtrist and Sir Palamides" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter IX). At a tournament, Palamides arrives "with a black shield" and overthrows many knights until "all manner of knights were adread of Sir Palamides, and many called him the Knight with the Black Shield" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter IX). Yet Tristram defeats him on the second day, and Isoud commands Palamides to make him "bear no more harness in a year" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter X).
Palamides is also named among the kingdom's notable warriors: "There be many other knights, as Sir Palamides the Saracen and Sir Safere his brother" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VII, Chapter XIII). His tournament encounters are memorable: "And then came in Sir Palamides out of the castle, and there encountered with him Gawaine, and either of them smote other so hard that both the good knights and their horses fell to the earth" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VII, Chapter XXVII). His reputation extended widely: "Truly, said Bleoberis, I am right glad of you, for ye are he that slew Marhaus the knight, hand for hand in an island, for the truage of Cornwall; also ye overcame Sir Palamides the good knight" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XVII).
The tension between Palamides and Tristram extends beyond tournament rivalry. When Palamides rescues Dame Bragwaine and delivers her to Isoud, he presses his claim: he takes Isoud "by the hand and said: Madam, grudge not to go with me, for I desire nothing but your own promise" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXX). Lambegus pursues but "at the last Sir Palamides gave Sir Lambegus such a wound that he fell down like a dead knight to the earth" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXX). Isoud intervenes to stop the later combat, expressing pity for Palamides: "because he is not christened I would be loath that he should die a Saracen" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXXI). She banishes him from the country instead, and "Sir Palamides departed with great heaviness" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VIII, Chapter XXXII).
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition