- Bedivere
In
Arthurian legend , Sir Bedivere (Welsh: Bedwyr; French: Bédoier, also spelt Bedevere) is theKnight of the Round Table who returnsExcalibur to theLady of the Lake . He serves asKing Arthur 'smarshal and is frequently associated withSir Kay .Sir Lucan is his brother,Sir Griflet is his cousin. The Welsh give him a son and daughter named Amren and Eneuawc. Bedivere, along with Kay andGawain , is one of the earliest characters associated withKing Arthur . His name in Welsh is Bedwyr Bedrydant ("Bedivere of the Perfect Sinews"). He is described as one-handed, yet still an excellent warrior.Medieval literature
He and Cai (Kay) are two of the six knights chosen to accompany
Culhwch on his quest in the "Mabinogion " romance "Culhwch and Olwen " and it was said "and although he was one-handed no three warriors drew blood in the same field faster than he". In the Life of St.Cadoc (c.1100) he was alongside Arthur and Cai in dealing with KingGwynllyw ofGwynllwg 's abduction of St.Gwladys from her father's court inBrycheiniog . Because Bedwyr appears in the oldest Arthurian material, some speculate he might have been a real person.He is one of Arthur's loyal allies in
Geoffrey of Monmouth 's "Historia Regum Britanniae ", and maintains this position in much later Arthurian literature. He helps Arthur and Kay fight the Giant ofMont St. Michel , and joins Arthur in his war againstEmperor Lucius ofRome . In several English versions of Arthur's death including Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur " and the "Alliterative Morte Arthure ", Bedivere and Arthur are among the few survivors of theBattle of Camlann . After the battle, at the request of the mortally wounded king, Bedivere throws Excalibur back to the Lady of the Lake. He then enters ahermit age where he spends the remainder of his life.Modern depictions
Bedivere remains a popular character in modern literature. Some modern authors such as
Rosemary Sutcliff ,Gillian Bradshaw ,John M. Ford andMary Stewart even give himLancelot 's traditional role asGuinevere 's lover, Lancelot having been added to the cycle too late to seem historical. InBernard Cornwell 's "The Warlord Chronicles ", many of the legendary deeds of Bedivere (such as throwing Excalibur into the Lake; or in Cornwell's story, the sea) are instead carried out byDerfel Cadarn .In the
Monty Python 1975 film, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail ", "Sir Bedevere the Wise" is played byTerry Jones , and in the Broadway musical "Spamalot ", he was originally played by Steve Rosen. He is portrayed as a master of the extremely odd logic of ancient times, claiming at one point "...and that is how we know the earth to be banana-shaped." While his logic is fairly bizarre (he condemns a woman to death for being a witch due to her weighing as much as a duck), he is extremely loyal to Arthur and is the only other main character to be with Arthur at the end of the film, in which he is arrested by the police along with hundreds of other knights. His "denouement" is somewhat more nebulous in the musical but does involve a tambourine and lots of rhinestones.ee also
References
* [http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/bedivere.html "EBK: Sir Bedivere alias Bedwyr Ap Pedrod"] by David Nash Ford, "Early British Kingdoms", 2005, retrieved September 18, 2006.
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