Hector de Maris

Sir Hector de Maris is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He is the half-brother of Lancelot and the natural son of King Ban of Benwick and the Lady de Maris. Sir Bors and Sir Lionel are his cousins.

Hector participates in the Grail Quest, but he is one of the many knights who prove unworthy of achieving the object. In the "Quest du Saint Graal" of the Vulgate Cycle, Hector de Maris and Gawain are travelling together when they come to a ruined chapel where they pass the night. Each has a marvelous dream. The next morning, as they are telling each other their respective visions, they see, "a Hand, showing unto the elbow, and was covered with red samite, and upon that hung a bridle, not rich, and held within the fist a great candle that burnt right clear, and so passed afore them, and entered into the Chapel, and then vanished away, and they wist not where." Jessie Weston found this an "unintelligent" variation on the theme of the perilous Black Hand in other romances in the Grail Cycle.

When Lancelot is caught in his affair with Guinevere, Hector stands by his brother and leaves court with him. He becomes one of Lancelot's top generals, participating in the battle to rescue the queen at her execution, and the defense of Joyous Guard. Like all his family, he joins Lancelot in France when they are expelled from Arthur's kingdom, and he helps defeat the army led by Mordred's sons after the Battle of Camlann.

There is another Hector in Arthurian legend, Sir Ector, the father of Sir Kay and foster father of King Arthur.

References

*Weston, Jessie L. "From Ritual to Romance" 1920 [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/frr/frr16.htm#fn_263 Chapter XIII The Perilous Chapel]