top of page
Sir Geraint
This portal was curated by:
​

SIR GERAINT

The fictional character Sir Geraint is a knight of Arthurian legend. He figures in stories dealing with the conflict between marital and social responsibilities.

Geraint appears in Erec et Enide, the earliest known Arthurian romance by French poet Chrétien de Troyes, dating from about 1170. In this work he is known as Erec, one of the great knights of the Round Table. Geraint also appears in the Mabinogion, a somewhat later collection of medieval Welsh tales based on mythology, folklore, and heroic legends. The character is probably best known, however, as the hero of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem Geraint and Enid, found in his Idylls of the King (1859), a series of 12 connected poems broadly surveying Arthurian legend.
DATABASES
The fictional character Sir Geraint is a knight of Arthurian legend. He figures in stories dealing with the conflict between marital and social responsibilities. Geraint appears in Erec et Enide, the earliest known Arthurian romance by French poet Chrétien de Troyes, dating from about 1170. In this work he is known as Erec, one of the great knights of the Round Table. Geraint also appears in the Mabinogion, a somewhat later collection of medieval Welsh tales based on mythology, folklore, and heroic legends. The character is probably best known, however, as the hero of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem Geraint and Enid, found in his Idylls of the King (1859), a series of 12 connected poems broadly surveying Arthurian legend.
Geraint and Enid set out on their journey that very morning. All their troubles, the poet comments, are due to Geraint's susceptibility to the common, human failing of not being able to discern between truth and falsity. Geraint orders Enid to ride in front of him and not to speak, whatever the provocation. Perhaps, Tennyson hints, this command is because he still loves her and is afraid that in some outburst of his brooding jealousy he will harm her. Before they have ridden three paces, Geraint shouts: "Effeminate as I am, I will not fight my way with gilded arms, All shall be iron; . . ." He tosses away his purse and sends his squire home
He is possibly most famous as the protagonist in the Welsh tale Geraint and Enid, where he becomes the lover of Enid. Geraint and Enid is one of the three Welsh Romances associated with the Mabinogion. Its story closely parallels the French writer Chrétien de Troyes's Erec and Enide. Some scholars feel both works derived from a common lost source, but most believe the Welsh version derives directly or indirectly from Chrétien. In this case, the renowned figure of Geraint would have been added to the story to suit Welsh audiences unfamiliar with Chrétien's protagonist, Erec. Geraint and Enid was reworked by Alfred Tennyson into the poems The Marriage of Geraint and Geraint and Enid, part of his Idylls of the King.The Arthurian character in later works is often referred to as Sir Geraint.
Enid and Geraint are the principle figures in the Welsh tale of Geraint the Son of Erbin, to use Lady Charlotte Guest's title, or Geraint and Enid, one of three Welsh stories analogous to romances by Chrétien de Troyes (the others being Owain and Peredur). Chrétien's Erec et Enide, written c. 1170, is his earliest extant Arthurian romance. (Earlier he wrote a Tristan story, which does not survive.) The Welsh version dates from the thirteenth century and thus is later than Chrétien's. In both versions, the hero--called Erec by Chrétien--fights in and wins a tournament in which each knight fights to defend the assertion that his beloved is the most beautiful and in which the prize is a sparrowhawk. When Enid and Geraint (or Erec) marry, the hero, delighting in married bliss, forgets his knightly duties. In the Welsh tale, Enid laments that she is the cause of her husband's dishonor.
Geraint (/ˈɡɛraɪnt/) is a character from Welsh folklore and Arthurian legend. He was a king of Dumnonia and a valiant warrior. He may have lived during or shortly prior to the reign of the historical Arthur, although some scholars doubt he existed[citation needed]. The name Geraint is a Welsh form of the Latin Gerontius, meaning "old man".
Visit our special guest curator
"Open Database..."
Related Portals:
 
Related Portals:
 
bottom of page