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Gareth was the youngest brother of Sir Gawain and the son of Lot and
Morgause of Orkney. He played a significant role in Malory's Le
Morte d'Arthur. Malory's "Tale of Sir
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| Sir Gareth and Lynette |
Gareth" was apparently created by Malory. It
presents Gareth as an exemplar of chivalry who is knighted by and
devoted to Sir Lancelot and who acts chivalrously towards Lynette
despite her abuse of him.
This picture of Gareth, who avoided even his own brothers when they
acted less than chivalrously, is one of the elements that comes
together in the final scenes of the Morte to produce the tragic ending.
Lancelot blindly slayed Gareth in his rescue of Guinevere from the
stake. When Gawain heared of this, he turned against Lancelot and
demanded that Arthur pursue him to punish him, thus setting the stage
for Mordred's takeover.
In Tennyson's Idyll of Gareth and Lynette, although Gareth,
like almost everyone in Camelot, is not what he seems, he proves himself
better than he seems to the sharp-tongued Lynette and the misjudging
Sir Kay: he defeated a series of knightly opponents and rescued Lyonors.
Gareth also figures in modern works like T. H. White's The Once
and Future King and E. M. R. Ditmas's Gareth of Orkney
(1956).
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