Sebastian Mallory

**Sebastian Mallory** is a major character in the world of The Order: 1886, and one of Sir Galahads knights. His knighted name is ***Sir Perceval***. He is voiced by Graham McTavish.

## Biography

Sebastian Mallory joined The Order before Sir Galahad, rising through the ranks and ultimately becoming mentor to Galahad and, by extension, Lady Igraine. Though he has served for many years, he is still incredibly powerful, agile, and strong, and has the most experience out of all the Knights.

## Personality

Mallory is extremely knowledgeable concerning the war against the lycanthropes, but despite this, he still carries an air of a learner and friend. He is quiet but courageous, and commands respect without demanding it.

## Official Biography

Sir Perceval is a member and long-time friend to Galahad, and one of the few Knights who can match Galahad's strength and ability. One of the eldest Knights in The Order, he commands everyone's respect and is ready to work outside the bounds of the law when a situation calls for it.

## Legend

Like the boy Perceval in Chrétien de Troyes' romance Perceval, le Conte du Graal,[] the hero of Sir Perceval of Galles is brought up alone in the forest by his mother. He is the son of Sir Perceval and King Arthur's sister Acheflour (probably a corruption of Blancheflour[]). Sir Perceval the father was a valiant knight who was killed in combat by a dastardly Red Knight and in grief at her husband’s death, and in distress at the thought that her baby might grow up to share this same fate, Acheflour retires into the forest to bring up her young son in seclusion, away from all the temptations of arms.

Wielding of arms is in the boy’s blood, however. His mother gives him, when he is old enough, a small hunting spear, the only weapon that she had brought into the forest with her. Soon the young boy Perceval is filling his mother’s table with all the game of the forest. No animal is safe from him, we are told. Then one day, in a way which shows that perhaps Sir Perceval of Galles is itself a parody,[] and in line with the pieces of good advice given to the young Perceval in Chretien’s tale which all lead him into error,[] Perceval’s mother tells him to honour the ‘great God’. Soon afterwards, Perceval encounters Sir Gawain, Sir Yvain and Sir Kay riding through the forest and asks them if any of them is the Great God whom his mother has told him about, who created the world in six days. Sir Kay, characteristically, is rude to the boy, but Sir Gawain engages him politely and tells him that they are called knights. Perceval immediately wishes to become a knight himself.

The first part of this Middle English tale follows Chretien de Troyes’ story quite accurately, although in abridged form and laced with comic touches at the boy’s expense. Perceval goes home to his mother with the intention of riding to King Arthur’s court to be made a knight. On the way he sees a clearing full of horses so, knowing now that knights ride horses, he captures one of them and rides it home. Perceval’s mother looks in horror and asks him why he is riding a mare. Perceval now imagines that all horses are called mares; a joke that will run throughout the story. The next morning Perceval rides his mare into King Arthur’s court, where he positions the animal so closely to the king that it nuzzles against King Arthur’s face as he eats. A red knight enters the court, insults the king and takes a goblet. Perceval rides out and kills this knight with his hunting spear, intending to be knighted by King Arthur for doing so. Before arriving at King Arthur’s court, Perceval has already taken a ring from the finger of a sleeping maiden, exchanging it with his own, believing himself to be acting in accordance with the advice that his mother gave to him on his departure.

This ring will prove to be very important. From now on, however, the Middle English tale departs wildly from Chretien’s story. The Red Knight has arrived during Perceval's visit to the king, not before it, as in Chrétien's tale. Quickly following his defeat of the Red Knight, and having thus unknowingly exacted revenge for his father’s death, Perceval tries to remove the dead knight’s armour. Unable to do so through ignorance of the way that it is fastened, he prepares a fire in order to try to burn it off. Sir Gawain arrives and, seeing the boy’s difficulty, helps him to disarm the corpse. Perceval dresses himself in the armour, throws the body into the flames that are already burning, and, in a last parallel with Chrétien's tale, rides off without returning to King Arthur. Soon he encounters a witch. She is the Red Knight’s mother and, at first thinking that it is her son riding towards her, she reminds him that, if the rumours had been true and that he had been killed, she would have been able to bring him back to life again. Perceval thanks her for this warning, skewers her on his lance, rides back to the fire and throws her in with her son.

Perceval now rides off and soon encounters some relatives of his, a knight and his sons, who flee in terror; thinking, of course, that the Red Knight is pursuing them, for he is their enemy. After some comic exchanges, mistakes are rectified and they all ride back to the old knight’s castle. A messenger soon arrives, bound for King Arthur, seeking help for a lady who is besieged by a sultan:

```
"Mete and drynke was ther dighte,
And men to serve tham full ryghte;
The childe that come with the knyghte,
Enoghe ther he fand.
At the mete as thay beste satte,
Come the portere fro the gate,
Saide a man was theratte
Of the Maydenlande;
Saide, 'Sir, he prayes the
Off mete and drynke, for charyté;
For a messagere es he
And may nott lange stande.'"[]

```

Food and drink was provided, men to serve everybody and Perceval found everything he needed. As they sat eating, the porter entered with news of a man at the gate who was from the Land of Maidens: 'Sir, he asks you for food and drink, for charity, for he is a messenger and cannot stay long,' the porter tells his lord. Perceval rides off to the Land of Maidens in pursuit of this quest himself: "Als he ware sprongen of a stane, thare no man hym kende," – as though he had sprung from a stone, and nobody knew him. Soon he arrives at the lady’s castle and singlehandedly kills all the soldiers besieging the castle gate. Not one of them is left alive. Their head bones ‘hop like hail’ on the grass.[] The next morning, exhausted by his efforts, a sleeping Perceval is spotted resting against the outer wall and brought into the castle by its occupants to meet a delighted Lady Amour, who feeds him and offers him her body – provided, of course, that he can complete the destruction of her enemies. Very quickly, another Saracen force gathers and Perceval rides out to meet them. This force, too, is quickly routed by Perceval. Their blows bounce off him as though they are striking at a stone.[]

As Perceval surveys the carnage around him, however, four more knights appear. He rides to meet them and one approaches to engage him in combat. It is Sir Gawain. King Arthur has arrived, having heard from the messenger that a knight had already ridden off in pursuit of the quest and, guessing from his description and from Sir Gawain's account that it is the young Perceval, had ridden fiercely in pursuit. Sir Gawain and Perceval strike one another once, Perceval expresses his astonishment at the blow, Sir Gawain recognizes once again the armour he helped to dress Perceval in and they all retire into the castle where King Arthur knights the young Perceval and Lady Amour bemoans his lack of manners. Soon, the sultan arrives outside the castle. Sir Perceval rides out to meet him. The sultan is, of course, vanquished. Sir Perceval marries Lady Amour.

Only a few days after his marriage to Lady Amour, however, Sir Perceval rides off to find his mother. Soon, he encounters the woman whose ring he exchanged for his own. The explanation for his superhuman prowess is now explained. The ring is a magic ring. Whoever wears it cannot be killed.

Perceval offers to exchange this ring once again for his own and returns the magic ring to the lady. But he is told that a giant now possesses the ring that his mother had given to him, so Perceval rides off to seek this giant, finds him and defeats him by cutting off his head. Then he goes to the giant's castle to look for the ring. But the giant’s servant tells Perceval that when the giant went wooing Perceval’s mother, wearing the ring that she had given to her son, she recognized it and, thinking that her son must therefore be dead, went mad and ran into the forest to live, like a wild beast. Perceval immediately goes into the forest to search for his mother, finds her at a spring and carries her, on his back, to the castle, where she is given an infusion that restores her to her senses. Perceval then brings his mother to his wife’s castle to live and Perceval dies in the Holy Land, fighting for Christendom, we are told, as the story reaches its conclusion.