Astor, Astore, Ector, Estor, Hestor, Hestore, Jastor
Lancelot’s half-brother. The bastard son of King Ban of Benoic, Hector was conceived when Merlin caused Ban to fall in love with the daughter of Lord Agravadain of the Castle of the Fens. Agravadain raised Hector until he was old enough to take service with Arthur. Hector became a Knight of the Round Table, and his adventures occupy a large part of the Vulgate Lancelot and the Post-Vulgate Cycle. (In Girart d’Amiens’s Escanor, he is called the son of Ares, but there is probably some confusion with Tor.)
Ector’s deeds included saving Elaine the Peerless from her irrational husband, helping Arthur repel a Saxon invasion of Scotland, and saving his own amie, Perse, from a forced marriage to Lord Zelotés. After Lancelot’s period of insanity, Hector and Perceval found Lancelot at Bliant’s Castle and brought him back to Camelot.
Hector was originally a friend of Gawain, but he later declared hatred of Gawain for the death of Sir Erec. Meraugis and Arthur the Less became his frequent companions. During the Grail Quest, Hector joined company with Galahad to destroy the Castle of Treachery. He fought Perceval, and both were mortally wounded, but the appearance of the Grail cured them. Nascien the Hermit, a former Knight of the Round Table, told him that he would be unsuccessful in the quest because of his sins, and, indeed, he was later denied entry to Corbenic (Carbonek), the Grail Castle.
When Lancelot broke with Arthur over Guenevere, Hector joined his brother and fought Arthur at the battles of Joyous Guard and Benoic (Benwick). In return for his support, Lancelot made him king of Benoic and Guienne.
In the Vulgate and Post-Vulgagte Mort Artus, Hector, following Arthur’s death at the battle of Salisbury, joined Lancelot, Bleoberis, and the Archbishop of Canterbury in a hermitage, where he died after four years. Malory says that after he stabilized his own lands, he, Bleoberis, Blamor, and Bors traveled to Jerusalem, where they died fighting the Turks.
Sources
Lancelot do Lac | 1215-1220
Vulgate Lancelot | 1215-1230
Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal | 1215-1230
Vulgate Mort Artu | 1215-1230
Vulgate Merlin | 1220-1235
Third Continuation of Chrétien’s Perceval | Manessier, c. 1230
Prose Tristan | 1230-1240
Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin | 1230-1240
Post-Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal | 1230-1240
Post-Vulgate Mort Artu | 1230-1240
The Stanzaic Le Morte Arthur | 14th century
Le Morte Darthur | Sir Thomas Malory, 1469-1470