Tandareis


Hero of Der Pleier’s Tandareis and Flordibel. The son of King Dulcemar and Queen Antikonie of Tandernas.

Tandareis went to Arthur’s court as a youth and served as a page. Arthur assigned him to Flordibel, one of Guinevere’s maidservants, and over the course of ten years, Tandareis and Flordibel fell deeply in love. Arthur had sworn to kill any man who won Flordibel’s love, so the two lovers fled to Tandernas, which Arthur subsequently besieged. After several battles in which Tandareis proved his knightly skill, Dulcemar and Gawain managed to convince Arthur to declare peace.

Still angry at Tandareis’s offense, Arthur banished him from his court into foreign lands so that Tandareis could establish honor through adventure. Tandareis embarked on a series of quests, during which he liberated the lands of Malmontan and Mermin from the evil giant Karedoz, saved a queen named Albiun from a knight named Kurion, rescued the maiden Claudin from Count Kalubin, and was imprisoned by a malevolent knight named Kandalion.

During his imprisonment, he was kept alive by Antonie, Kandalion’s sister, who let him out three times so that he could attend tournaments at Arthur’s court. Kandalion released him when he learned that Arthur - who had heard of Tandareis’s adventures and wanted him back - was offering a substantial reward for news of Tandareis. Tandareis returned to Arthur’s court in glory and, after some complications in which Claudin and Antonie both claimed the right to wed him, Tandareis and Flordibel were married.

Tandareis graciously bestowed Malmontan and Mermin on his parents, but stayed to rule them as steward and heir.