page_title: Agravain
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Agravain / Arthurian legend / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: talesofroundtabl00langrich (find matches) Title: Tales of the Round table; based on the tales in the Book of romance Year: 1908 (1900s) Authors: Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912 Subjects: Arthur, King Publisher: London, New York (etc.) Longmans, Green and co. Contributing Library: University of California Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: MSN View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: ucha buffet that he fell dead. He then hastily with-drew into the chamber and barred the door. He quickly divested the dead Knight of hisarmour, and the Queen and her ladies helpedhim to buckle it on himself, the Knights withoutstill calling, ^ Traitor Knight, come out! As soon as he was armed, Sir Lancelot flungopen the chamber door and strode out brandish-ing his sword. He killed Sir Agrawaine withhis first blow, and in a few minutes twelve deadbodies lay around him. He wounded SirMordred, who ran away before he could cometo further harm. When all his assailants hadfled Sir Lancelot returned to the Queen and said,Alas, dear Madam, the Knights who haveescaped will make King Arthur my foe, andyour foe also, but if you will^ come with me tomy castle, I will there defend you against theworld. I will not go with you now, said the Queen, but if as a punishment they decide to burn me,you may deliver me as you think best. LANCELOT AND GUENEVEBE, 141 While I live I will deliver you, said Sir Text Appearing After Image: LANCLLOT COhES OVT Of GVEMEIVERES ROOK Lancelot, and he left the Queen to return to hisown lodgings. 142 LANCELOT AND GUENEVEBE. He met on the way Sir Bors and many of hisfriends fully armed and on their way to hisassistance. So he told them what had happened,and exhorted them to be of good courage and inreadiness, for the need of their services wouldarise before many hours were past. And they all answered that they had hithertowon nothing but fame with him, and they werenow ready to stand by him in ill fortune, if illfortune there should be. Sir Lancelot thanked them for their encourage-ment, and bade Sir Bors discover who werefriends and who were foes. By seven o*clock many noble Knights hadgathered round Sir Lancelot, and were sworninto his cause. My lords, said he, while I was waitingyesterday on our lady, the Queen, certain Knightscollected round the door and cried Treason/and much ado I had to escape with my life. In consequence of the tales these Knightswill carry to King Arthu Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: Sir Agravain is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend, whose first known appearance is in the works of Chrétien de Troyes. He is the second eldest son of King Lot of Orkney with one of Arthur's sisters known as Anna or Morgause, thus nephew of King Arthur, and brother to Sir Gawain, Gaheris, and Gareth, as well as half-brother to Mordred. Agravain secretly makes attempts on the life of his hated brother Gaheris since the Vulgate Cycle, participates in the slayings of Lamorak and Palamedes in the Post-Vulgate Cycle, and murders Dinadan in the Prose Tristan. In the French prose cycle tradition included in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, together with Mordred, he then plays a leading role by exposing his aunt Guinevere's affair with Lancelot, which leads to his death at the hands of Lancelot.
context_section_description: In the Vulgate Cycle and in works based on it, Agravain is one of the knights who realises that Lancelot and Queen Guinevere are secret lovers (in the Vulgate, he and his brothers are told of that by their aunt, Morgan). His envy and hatred of Lancelot lead him to believe that they should tell King Arthur about this. When Arthur happens to wander into the argument, he demands to know what it is that he should not be told about. Agravain tells Arthur about Lancelot and Guenevere, and a plot is hatched according to which Arthur will go hunting all night without taking Lancelot, while Agravain with Mordred and a group of knights will keep watch on the king's wife in order to entrap Lancelot when he comes to her and so prove the accusation. In the Middle English Stanzaic Morte Arthur and in Le Morte d'Arthur, the trapped Lancelot attacks the knights who have lain in wait and kills almost all of them, including Agravain. 
  In the Vulgate Mort Artu, however, Lancelot only kills one knight (Tanaguins) and the rest, in fear, refuse to attack Lancelot. Agravain is then among the nobles who sentence Guinevere to be burned at the stake, and Arthur tells Agravain to pick knights to serve as a guard during the burning. Agravain agrees, but insists that Arthur order Gaheris to accompany him as one of the party. When Lancelot and his party attack, Lancelot, riding ahead of the others, charges deliberately at Agravain, whom he recognises, and strikes him though his body with his lance. When King Arthur finds Agravain dead, he falls to the ground in a faint, and says (in Norris J. Lacy's modern English version of the Lancelot-Grail): "Oh, fair nephew, how he hated you who stuck you so! Everyone must know that he who deprived my kinsmen of such a knight as you are has inflicted terrible grief on me." Agravain's body is then buried in a very rich tomb in the church at Camelot.
caption: "He killed Sir Agrawaine with his first blow, and in a few minutes twelve dead bodies lay around him." Andrew Lang's Tales of the Round Table (1908)
exif: {}