Brandegoris


  1. Brandegoris
    Brandagoras, Brandegore, Brandegorre, Brangoe, Brangoi, Brangoir, Brangoire, Brangoirie, Brangoiries, Brangoires, Brangor, Brangore, Brangorre, Brangos

    The King of Estranggorre (Estrangore). He married a daughter of Adrian of Constantinople and thus became the brother-in-law of Adrian's other daughter, the mother of Saigremor le Desree (Sagramore).

    Brandegoris joined the rebellious kings in their campaign against King Arthur. He pledged to bring 5,000 mounted men to the battle of Bedegraine. In that battle Brandegoris, King Idres, and King Agwisance (Anguish) unhorsed Sirs Griflet and Lucas. He was defeated by Arthur, Ban and Bors.

    Surviving the battle, Brandegoris seems not to have joined the second coalition of rebel kings, for he is almost certainly to be identified with King Brandegore, on whose daughter Sir Bors begat a son, Helin le Blank. Bors revisited Brandegoris when Helin was fifteen years old and, with Brandegoris' consent, brought the boy to Arthur's court.

    King Brandegoris himself, however, seems never to have officially joined Arthur's court, though he allied with him in order to expel the Saxons from Britain, and also joined him in the war against Claudas. He married the daughter of Constantinople, and had a beautiful daughter, upon whom Sir Bors fathered Helain the White. He also fathered a son named Evadeam, known as the Dwarf Knight. His wife had a son from a previous marriage named Sagremor (Sagramore) - later a Knight of the Round Table.

    It has been argued that his original name means 'Bran of Gore' and that he was originally identical with the god Bran. It seems to be a reference to the Welsh Bran and the land of Gorre (Gore) invented by Chrétien de Troyes.

    See also
    Brandegorre | The Legend of King Arthur


  2. Brandegoris' Daughter

    She was to be the prize of a tournament at the Castel de la Marche, held for the purpose of getting her a good husband. Sir Bors won the tournament, but, having sworn to remain chaste all his life, cried off by pleading that he was not ready to take a wife until his current quest, to avenge King Agrippe's daughter, was done. Brandegoris' daughter fancied Bors. With the connivance of her old nurse, who gave Bors a ring to make him love the princess, the damsel spent that night with Bors, and Sir Helin le Blank was the result. The spell was broken in the morning when the ring fell off.

    The twelve best knights of this tournament, after Bors, gave the princess "gifts" of varying silliness of bloodthirstiness. One, for instance, promised to cut off the heads of all the knights he conquered and send them to the princess.

    The details given above come from Vulgate IV, but the princess is mentioned three or four times by Malory, once as the daughter of King Bradegore and always as the mother of Helin le Blank.