‘One of the nobelyst knyghtes of the worlde, and most perfitist man’: the role of Bors in Malory’s Morte Darthur.

The subject of this work is the role of the figure of Bors in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur. It is concerned chiefly with the question of whether Bors is motivated mainly by his faith in God or by his loyalty to Lancelot, Malory’s pre-eminent knight and the focus of his text. Bors is a minor character in the Morte until the later part of ‘The Book of Sir Tristram de Lyonesse’ where his role as support to Lancelot becomes prominent and where his spirituality and faith are first tested. During the quest for the Holy Grail, Bors is one of just three knights who succeed in the quest and travel to the Holy Land, and the only one of the three to return to England to give an account of these events. It would would appear that the significance of the figure of Bors has been under-rated by critics and I think that his roles both as a successful Grail knight and as Lancelot’s closest companion are important for the development of Malory’s text. Part of the appeal of Bors is that he is less obvious than many other characters – he does not have the charisma of Lancelot – and one has to look a little harder to gain insight into his function within the text. None of Malory’s knights are huge conversationalists, but Bors does make some important speeches and observations, and his dialogues with Guinevere and Lancelot in particular do enable a deeper understanding of these key characters. Hopefully, this essay will persuade students of Malory that Bors is a remarkable character and worthwhile investigating both as a knight of the Round Table and as a Grail knight with a unique role in the Morte