Priamus
Sir Priamus is a Saracen knight attested in Le Morte d'Arthur, where he appears across three chapters of Book V during King Arthur's Roman campaign.
Sir Priamus is a Saracen knight attested in Le Morte d'Arthur, where he appears across three chapters of Book V during King Arthur's Roman campaign. His arc moves from formidable adversary to Christian convert and Round Table knight, tracing a pattern of martial encounter, healing, and integration that Malory uses to expand Arthur's continental ambitions.
Priamus first appears as a proud warrior of royal lineage who encounters Sir Gawaine in single combat. He identifies himself as a prince whose father "hath been rebel unto Rome" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book V, Chapter X), establishing him as a figure of contested loyalties even before his conversion. The fight itself ends in mutual wounding, after which Priamus produces "a vial full of the four waters that came out of Paradise" to heal both combatants (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book V, Chapter X). This miraculous healing balm, drawn from a distinctly non-Christian source, sits in tension with his subsequent baptism.
After the healing, Priamus assumes an advisory role, warning Gawaine's forces about the enemies gathered in the woods and counselling withdrawal: "I warn you ye shall find in yonder woods many perilous knights" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book V, Chapter X). In the ensuing battle, Priamus fights alongside the Round Table knights and slays the Marquis of Moises' land (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book V, Chapter XI). His conversion follows swiftly: "the king let him anon be christened, and did do call him his first name Priamus, and made him a duke and knight of the Table Round" (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book V, Chapter XII). Arthur then grants him the duchy of Lorraine as reward for his service (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book V, Chapter XII).
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition