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Lionel is a character in Arthurian legend. He is the younger son of King Bors of Gaunnes (or Gaul) and Evaine and brother of Bors the Younger. First recorded in the Lancelot-Grail cycle, he is a double cousin of Lancelot and cousin of Lancelot's younger half-brother Hector de Maris (not to be confused with the older Sir Ector, who was King Arthur's foster-father). He is also the subject of a traditional ballad.

Arthurian legend

When their father dies in battle against King Claudas, Lionel and Bors are rescued by the Lady of the Lake and raised in her otherworldly kingdom alongside her foster-son Lancelot. Like Bors and Lancelot, Lionel becomes a Knight of the Round Table upon reaching the age and then proving himself in heroic deeds.

One day, while travelling with Lancelot as a young man, Lionel is captured by the rogue knight Turquine, who whips him with briars and throws him in the dungeon. The scenario repeats itself later while he is on the Quest for the Holy Grail, where he proves very unworthy of the blessed object by trying to kill his brother for not rescuing him. Bors had seen Lionel getting beaten and led away, but had to make a decision to save either him or a young girl being dragged in the opposite direction. He saves the girl, and fears Lionel dead. But Lionel escapes, and attacks Bors the next time they meet. Bors proves himself worthy of the Grail when he refuses to fight back, and Lionel kills a hermit and Calogrenant, a fellow Knight of the Round Table, when they try to protect Bors from his wrath. Before Lionel can strike his brother, however, God intervenes and immobilises him.

Lionel and the rest of his family follow Lancelot into exile when the affair with Queen Guinevere is exposed. Lionel participates in the battles against King Arthur and becomes King of Gaunnes. After the Battle of Camlann (Salisbury), Lancelot's family returns to Britain to defeat the remainder of Mordred's forces. Lionel is slain by Mordred's young son Melehan; Bors avenges his death.

His symbolic^[1] namesake, Lyonnel, appears in the quasi-prequel Perceforest. There, he is an ancestor of both Lancelot and Guinevere as well as Tristan, who had lived in the time of King Alexander (Alexander the Great).^[2]

Edward III of England

The 14th-century King of England, Edward III, strongly identified with Sir Lionel since his youth. King Edward role-played as Lionel at the Round Table tournaments that he organized, and even named his second son, Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, after the Arthurian romance character.^[3]

Folk ballad

Sir Lionel is the subject of the late-medieval folk ballad "Sir Lionel", recorded as Child Ballad 18 and Roud No. 29, in which he slays a giant wild boar.^[4] This song has much in common with a medieval tale about a knight who slays a terrifyingly fiendish boar in Sidon, in the fourteenth century romance of Sir Eglamour of Artois.^[5] The terrible swine is a frequent foe in romantic tales, for instance the beast Twrch Trwyth in Culhwch and Olwen.^[6]

The song has been recorded several times in the twentieth century, exclusively in the United States. The influential Appalachian folk singer Jean Ritchie recorded a version passed down through her family entitled "Old Bangum" on the album Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition (1961), with an Appalachian dulcimer accompaniment.^[7]^[8] John and Alan Lomax recorded two versions in the 1930s in Harlan, Kentucky^[9] and Austin, Texas.^[10] Several Ozark versions were also collected, and can be heard online courtesy of the University of Arkansas and Missouri State University.^[11]^[12]^[13]

Modern works

In the musical Camelot, Lionel is the knight brought back to life by Lancelot after he accidentally kills him in a joust (though the film switches him with Dinadan). The two do not seem to be related.
Lionel appears in the 1998 animated film Quest for Camelot as the father of the protagonist, Kayley, who wished to follow her father's footsteps. During the beginning of the film, Lionel is killed by the main antagonist, Lord Ruber, who intends to claim the throne of Camelot for himself, while trying to kill King Arthur, whom Lionel defended before he died.

References

^ Tether, Leah; Busby, Keith (5 July 2021). Rewriting Medieval French Literature: Studies in Honour of Jane H. M. Taylor. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-11-063862-2.
^ Huot, Sylvia (2 June 2024). Postcolonial Fictions in the Roman de Perceforest: Cultural Identities and Hybridities. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84384-104-3.
^ "In Search of the Once and Future King: The Soul of Chivalry". 5 November 2020.
^ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "Sir Lionel"
^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 209, Dover Publications, New York 1965.
^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 209-10, Dover Publications, New York 1965.
^ "Jean Ritchie: Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
^ "Old Bangum (bangum Rid By the Riverside) (Roud Folksong Index S413149)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
^ "Bangum and the Boar (Roud Folksong Index S257893)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
^ "Wild Hog in the Woods (Roud Folksong Index S265758)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
^ "Song Information". maxhunter.missouristate.edu. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
^ "CONTENTdm". digitalcollections.uark.edu. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
^ "CONTENTdm". digitalcollections.uark.edu. Retrieved 20 November 2020.