Aroie, L’Arbroie(?), La Broce(?), La Broie(?)
A Scottish forest through which Perceval, in Fergus, pursued a white stag in a long hunt that finally ended in the forest of Ingegal (Ingagel). In the Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin, it is the location of the Forest of Adventures. This was where Gawaine, Ywaine, and Marhaus met with three maidens who led them on separate quests.
Sirs Marhaus, Gawaine, and Ywaine
came into a great forest, that was named the country and forest of Arroy, and the country of strange adventures,
and here they chose for their guides three damsels whom they met at a fountain. Aside from the intervention of the Damosel of the Lake in Gawaine’s adventure, there is not much of the supernatural in the succeeding episodes, as Malory records them.
Gawaine ended up in the middle of the Pelleas and Etnard (Ettard) affair, which may have been near the magical Lake, since Nimue loved Pelleas. Ettard’s land is known as Plain of Adventures or Arroy.
Marhaus came to the Duke of the South Marches, while Ywaine rode westward and arrived in Wales. During the adventuring, Marhaus came to Arroy where Lady de Vawse held a tournament, which Marhaus won.
After meeting each other again in Arroy at the close of these adventures, the trio took twelve days to reach Camelot, which may argue quite a distance, or bad roads, or a leisurely trip.
Phyllis Ann Karr wants to identify Arroy as Warwickshire, reasonably convenient to Wales, the South Marches, and to Malory’s Camelot. Scholars have suggested Ayrshire as a possible location.
See also
“Printemps, Été and Automne” | The Legend of King Arthur