Sir Ironside

Also known as: Ironside / Red Knight of the Red Launds / the Knight of the Red Launds / the Red Knight / the Red Knight of the Red Launds · Family: Round Table · Role: knight · First appears: Book VII, Chapter XXIII

At the next feast of Pentecost in Book VII, Sir Ironside yielded himself and five hundred knights to King Arthur after Sir Gareth, then known as Sir Beaumains, defeated him in single combat. He promised Sir Beaumains to abandon the murderous customs he had practiced for a lady’s love, acknowledged that he had long been a foe to King Arthur and his court, and knelt before Sir Launcelot and Sir Gawaine to seek forgiveness for his former enmity: “for he won me in plain battle hand for hand”. Soon afterward, he joined Sir Persant and his brethren in opposing Sir Launcelot’s party, for the love of Dame Lionesse and Sir Gareth, and stood with Dame Lionesse and the many knights gathered at Castle Perilous.

During the later events of Book VII, Sir Ironside fought Sir Lamorak and rode with Sir Tristram and Sir Persant to aid Sir Gareth. At the feast, he brought three hundred knights, did homage and fealty to Sir Gareth, and asked to serve as his carver. On the second day, King Arthur made him a Knight of the Table Round for life and granted him great lands: “And there King Arthur made Ironside, that was the Red Knight of the Red Launds, a Knight of the Table Round to his life’s end”.

In Book XIX, Sir Ironside rode with Queen Guenever and Sir Kay, Sir Agravaine, Sir Brandiles, Sir Sagramore, Sir Dodinas, Sir Ozanna le Cure Hardy, Sir Ladinas of the Forest Savage, Sir Persant, and Sir Pelleas on the Maying journey. When Sir Meliagrance attacked them, Sir Ironside fought among the ten knights, was severely wounded, and helped kill forty of the attackers before the surviving knights were taken with Queen Guenever. Later, he is named in rivalry with Sir Gareth, as the Red Knight of the Red Launds whom Sir Gareth had won for the love of Dame Lionesse.