Pedivere
Arthurian knight who transforms from wife-slayer to holy hermit, attested in Le Morte d'Arthur.
Pedivere is a knight attested in Le Morte d'Arthur who appears in two distinct episodes, his trajectory tracing a path from violence to holiness. He first appears as a wife-slayer pursued by Launcelot, who overtakes him and demands he yield. Pedivere's defiant response -- "that will I never" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VI, Ch. XVII) -- marks him as a man of stubborn will. Yet his story does not end there: "after this Sir Pedivere fell to great goodness, and was an holy man and an hermit" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VI, Ch. XVII).
The record presents Pedivere across two separate books of Le Morte d'Arthur. In Book VI, he is identified simply as "my name is Pedivere" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book VI, Ch. XVII), while his later appearance in Book XI expands his title: "my name is Pedivere of the Straight Marches" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XI, Ch. V). In this second episode, Sir Bors defeats him, and the text records his departure: "So thus departed Sir Pedivere of the Straight Marches" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XI, Ch. V). The two appearances bookend a moral transformation -- from a knight who would murder his wife to a hermit devoted to goodness.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition