Bors
Also known as: Sir Bors · Family: Arthur's court · Role: knight · First appears: The Holy Grail 2
Life events
- Percivale, Galahad, Bors, Lancelot, Gawain, and others swear to pursue the Holy Grail for a year and a day.(The Holy Grail 2)
- With: Percivale Galahad Lancelot Gawain
- “I sware a vow before them all, that I, Because I had not seen the Grail, would ride A twelvemonth and a day in quest of it, Until I found and saw it, as the nun My sister saw it; and Galahad sware the vow, And good Sir Bors, our Lancelot’s cousin, sware, And Lancelot sware, and many among the knights, And Gawain sware, and louder than the rest.”
- Arthur permits the knights to pursue their sacred vows despite warning that many may never return.(The Holy Grail 2)
- With: Arthur Percivale Galahad Lancelot Gawain
- “Go, since your vows are sacred, being made: Yet—for ye know the cries of all my realm Pass through this hall—how often, O my knights, Your places being vacant at my side, This chance of noble deeds will come and go Unchallenged, while ye follow wandering fires Lost in the quagmire! Many of you, yea most, Return no more”
- The knights depart Camelot, leaving the court to pursue the Holy Grail.(The Holy Grail 2 · 📍 Camelot)
- Sir Bors discovers that Lancelot’s former madness has returned.(The Holy Grail 4)
- With: Lancelot
- “Because his former madness, once the talk And scandal of our table, had returned”
- A hostile people seize Sir Bors and imprison him in a stone cell.(The Holy Grail 4)
- “Seized him, and bound and plunged him into a cell Of great piled stones”
- A faithful maid secretly releases Sir Bors from imprisonment.(The Holy Grail 4)
- “Afterwards, a maid, Who kept our holy faith among her kin In secret, entering, loosed and let him go.”
- Sir Bors receives a vision of the Holy Grail while imprisoned.(The Holy Grail 4)
- “Across the seven clear stars—O grace to me— In colour like the fingers of a hand Before a burning taper, the sweet Grail Glided and past”
- Arthur recognizes Sir Bors as a Grail witness, and Bors confirms that he saw it.(The Holy Grail 4 · 📍 the hall)
- With: Arthur
- “‘Hail, Bors! if ever loyal man and true Could see it, thou hast seen the Grail;’ and Bors, ‘Ask me not, for I may not speak of it: I saw it;’”
- Arthur declares that Bors, Lancelot, and Percivale saw the Grail according to their spiritual capacities.(The Holy Grail 5)
The Holy Grail 2
- cousins with Lancelot “And good Sir Bors, our Lancelot’s cousin, sware,”
- sworn: Arthur “‘Woe is me, my knights,’ he cried,”
The Holy Grail 4
- friends with Percivale “And toward him spurred, and hailed him, and he me, And each made joy of either; then he asked,”
- friends with Lancelot “For Lancelot’s kith and kin so worship him That ill to him is ill to them; to Bors Beyond the rest:”
- sworn: Arthur “‘Hail, Bors! if ever loyal man and true Could see it, thou hast seen the Grail;’”
The Holy Grail 5
- sworn: Arthur (Arthur identifies the questing knights as his.) “‘And spake I not too truly, O my knights? Was I too dark a prophet when I said To those who went upon the Holy Quest, That most of them would follow wandering fires, Lost in the quagmire?—lost to me and gone, And left me gazing at a barren board, And a lean Order—scarce returned a tithe— And out of those to whom the vision came My greatest hardly will believe he saw; Another hath beheld it afar off, And leaving human wrongs to right themselves, Cares but to pass into the silent life. And one hath had the vision face to face, And now his chair desires him here in vain, However they may crown him otherwhere.”
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Extracted from the original text of Idylls of the King. Made with Rho MD.