Tirre
Sir Tirre is attested in *Le Morte d'Arthur* as the elder of two newly made knights, sons of the lord of Astolat.
Sir Tirre is attested in Le Morte d'Arthur as the elder of two newly made knights, sons of the lord of Astolat. He was "hurt that same day he was made knight, that he may not ride," and consequently his shield, being unknown outside Astolat, is lent to Sir Launcelot for the tournament (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Chapter IX). This loan becomes a plot device: when Sir Gawaine lodges at Astolat, the maid tells him how "her father lent him her brother's, Sir Tirre's, shield," and shows Launcelot's own shield left behind in exchange (Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XVIII, Chapter XIV). It is through this shield exchange that Gawaine identifies the mysterious knight who bore the red sleeve as Launcelot.
Both attestations serve the narrative machinery of Launcelot's disguise at the tournament. Tirre's injury on his knighting day provides the pretext for an unknown shield being available, and the shield's obscurity outside Astolat is explicitly noted as the reason it makes an effective disguise. Tirre himself does not act in the narrative; his function is entirely as the owner of the borrowed shield.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Le Morte d'Arthur, British Tradition