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GARETH AND LYNETTE

Gareth is the youngest brother of Sir Gawain and the son of Lot and Morgause of Orkney. He plays a significant role in Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Malory's "Tale of Sir Gareth" was apparently created by Malory. It presents Gareth as an exemplar of chivalry who is knighted by and devoted to Sir Lancelot and who acts chivalrously towards Lynette despite her abuse of him. This picture of Gareth, who avoids even his own brothers when they act less than chivalrously, is one of the elements that comes together in the final scenes of the Morte to produce the tragic ending. Lancelot blindly slays Gareth in his rescue of Guinevere from the stake. When Gawain hears of this, he turns against Lancelot and demands that Arthur pursue him to punish him, thus setting the stage for Mordred's takeover. In Tennyson's Idyll of Gareth and Lynette, although Gareth, like almost everyone in Camelot, is not what he seems, he proves himself better than he seems to the sharp-tongued Lynette and the misjudging Sir Kay: he defeats a series of knightly opponents and rescues Lyonors. Gareth also figures in modern works like T. H. White's The Once and Future King and E. M. R. Ditmas's Gareth of Orkney (1956).

TEXTS:

Fowler Wright, S[ydney] (1874-1965), The Song of Arthur (Part 3: Gareth and Lionore) (from the S. Fowler Wright Website)
Rhys, Ernest (1859-1946), "The Ring of True Love" (1905)
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord (1809-1892), "Gareth and Lynette" from The Idylls of the King
Yeames, James (1843-1931), The Young Knight or How Gareth Won His Spurs

IMAGES:

Cameron, Julia Margaret (1815-1879), "Gareth and Lynette" (1875)
Dixon, Arthur (fl. 1893-1920), "He Was Mocked and Jeered at by All" (1921)
Dixon, Arthur (fl. 1893-1920), "Linet Caught Him By the Arm and Implored Him to Wait" (1921)
Dixon, Arthur (fl. 1893-1920), "One of the Two Knights Rushed to Encounter Him" (1921)
Dixon, Arthur (fl. 1893-1920), "Turn and Flee While There Is Yet Time" (1921)
Flint, William Russell, Sir (1880-1969), "There He Blew Three Deadly Motes, and There Came Two Damosels and Armed Him Lightly" (1927)
Ford, H. J. (1860-1941), Gareth and Linet" (1902)
Ford, H. J. (1860-1941), The Lady of Lyonesse Sees Sir Gareth" (1902)
Ford, H. J. (1860-1941), Linet and the Black Knight" (1902)
Garrett, Edmund H. (1853-1929), "Lynette and Arthur" (1901)
Garrett, Edmund H. (1853-1929), "Gareth Pitches Hesperus over the Bridge" (1901)
Kappes, Alfred (1850-1894), "The Knight of the Black Lawns" (1880)
Kirk, M[aria]. L[ouise]. (1860-193x), "'Thou Art Not Knight but Knave'" (1912)
Mackenzie, T[homas] (1887-1944), "At Last Gareth Overcame the Red Knight" (n.d.; 1920?)
Rackham, Arthur (1867-1939), "How Beaumains defeated the Red Knight, and always the damosel spake many foul words unto him" (1917)
Rackham, Arthur (1867-1939), "How Dame Lionesse came forth arrayed like a princess (1917)
Rackham, Arthur (1867-1939), "Sir Beaumains espied upon great trees how there hung full goodly armed knights by the neck" (1917)
Smith, John Moyr, "Gareth" (c. 1875)
Smith, John Moyr, "Lynette" (c. 1875)
Speed, Lancelot, "'Lady,' replied Sir Beaumains, 'a knight is little worth who may not bear with a damsel'" (1912)
Speed, Lancelot, "So he rode into the hall and alighted" (1912)