A To Z Blogging Challenge 2020: S Is For Sagramore, Safir and Segwarides

I think I first encountered Sir Sagramore Le Desirous in Mark Twain’s Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court, which I read  when I was in primary school. In that novel, the Yankee, Hank Morgan, offends him unintentionally during a tournament. Hank has just had to listen to Sir Dinadan’s dreadful jokes; when the Humorist has left, he says something rude about him aloud, which Sagramore assumes is about him, and challenges him to a duel to the death. This keeps getting put off until, finally, Hank shoots him dead with a gun, a la Indiana Jones. The bullet hole is still in the armour centuries later, when it’s on display in a museum, and the assumption is that the bullet was fired by one of Cromwell’s soldiers. 

The Sagramore of mediaeval romance was definitely not shot by a time travelling American. 

In Malory and other mediaeval tales, he is a good knight, though the Malory version of him is mainly there to be knocked off his horse by other knights. He is bad tempered. 

In Tennyson’s  Idylls Of The King, he wanders into the wrong bedroom in the dark, when exhausted, lies down in the wrong bed and wakes up next to a girl he doesn’t know and has to marry her, this being Victorian literature. Apparently, they have a happy marriage anyway. 

There are different versions of his background. In one version, he is Hungarian! He comes to Britain in his teens, to join Arthur’s court. In another, he is a foster brother of Mordred, when his family rescues the child, who has been put aboard a ship along with a lot of other children born on Mayday(one of Arthur’s less heroic deeds), when the ship founders. 

In the musical Camelot, Sagramore is one of three knights Guinevere sets on Lancelot at the tournament, while singing about it (“Then You May Take Me To The Fair”). Here is Julie Andrews singing it on Broadway, along with Sir Lionel, Sir Dinadan and, of course, Sir Sagramore...

Let’s move on to Sir Safire/Safir/Safere and Sir Segwarides. These two are of interest as the brothers of Sir Palomides. Both of them become Christians before he does. They all end up on Lancelot’s side when he has been caught with the Queen, and go with him to France, where he makes them Dukes. 

In Malory, Safir is one of those knights of the Round Table who ride around the countryside challenging each other. His first appearance in Malory is when Palomides has just been swapping sad stories with a wounded knight called Sir Epinogris. Palomides tells Epinogris that he has lost the friendship of Tristram and will never see Iseult again! Epinogris says, firstly, that Palomides was never going to get Iseult, because everybody knows she is with Tristram! (Does everyone know about that but Mark?) Then he tells Palomides  he has lost his lady to another knight, in a fight, hence his wound.

 “I’ll get her back for you!” cries Palomides and, after  helping the man to a nearby hermitage, goes charging off to find the lady. He finds her being led on a palfrey by Helior, the knight who took her, and another knight fights him for her. (I wonder if this post should have included S is for Sex Object?) Palomides tries to sneak her away to her lover, but finds himself challenged by the winning knight, whom he fights until...they discover they are brothers! This happens a lot in Malory.  Characters meet, fight, nearly kill each other, then discover they are brothers. It must be those 15th century helmets hiding their faces. In fact, once they have identified themselves, they take off their helmets and hug each other, and the sex object - er, lady - is handed back to the man she loves...who, incidentally, has killed her father and one of his knights to get her. Sigh!

The two brothers ride off on some further adventures together. 

Tristram and Segwarides. Public Domain 

Segwarides is involved quite a lot in the Tristram story, as the husband of a woman with whom Tristram has been having an affair. In fact, Tristram and his uncle Mark have been quarrelling over her! Naturally, Segwarides is not happy, and he and Tristram nearly kill each other. 

This goes on for some time. However, eventually, after a lot of fighting over the wife, they meet again and Segwarides says he forgives Tristram, because what the hell, he is a noble knight and she is just a slut(“light lady”), not worth fighting over.  

Oh, dear. The Round Table really is a boys’ club, isn’t it? 

Tomorrow, we will hear more about Tristram. See you then!