Percivale de Galis
Full title by which Sir Percivale identifies himself at key moments in Le Morte d'Arthur.
Percivale de Galis is the full title by which Sir Percivale identifies himself in Le Morte d'Arthur, attested across six chapters. When asked his name, he declares: "I am a knight of King Arthur's court, and my name is Sir Percivale de Galis" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIV, Ch. I). The surname "de Galis" links him to Wales, and the text uses this full form at key moments of identification and narrative transition.
The full title appears at significant junctures. It first surfaces when Percivale arrives in Cornwall: "in the meanwhile there came into the country Sir Percivale de Galis to seek Sir Tristram" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X, Ch. LI). The name marks formal introductions, as when he declares to a recluse: "I am a knight of King Arthur's court, and my name is Sir Percivale de Galis" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIV, Ch. I). He repeats this identification later: "my name is Sir Percivale de Galis" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIV, Ch. IV). The title also signals narrative transitions, as when the text announces "here followeth of Sir Percivale de Galis, which is the fourteenth book" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XIII, Ch. XX). When Percivale and Ector seek Launcelot at the Joyous Isle, they arrive as "Sir Percivale de Galis and Sir Ector de Maris" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XII, Ch. VII) and later tell "the whole adventures" of Launcelot's madness, recounting "that Sir Launcelot had been out of his mind the time of his absence" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XII, Ch. X).
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition