Sir Bors The Younger And His Role In Finding The Holy Grail
Public DomainSir Bors de Ganis, one of the three successful Grail knights to return to Camelot.
There were two men named Bors featured prominently in Arthurian legend: King Bors, the brother of King Ban and Lancelot’s uncle, and Sir Bors the Younger, the king’s son and the Knight of the Round Table. Bors the Younger was regularly portrayed as one of Arthur’s finest knights, and he was the only knight other than Galahad and Percival to succeed in the Grail quest.
Bors, in contrast to some of the other Knights of the Round Table, was almost always portrayed as morally pure. In one story, for instance, a woman threatened suicide if he refused to sleep with her — but he upheld his vow of celibacy, and the woman was revealed to be a demon temptress in disguise.
Another story saw Bors faced with the dilemma of saving his brother, Lionel, or rescuing an innocent woman who had been captured by a rogue knight. Bors chose to save the woman, praying still for his brother’s safety. Lionel managed to escape, but his anger at his brother caused him to challenge Bors to a duel. Bors did not raise his weapon.
Public DomainGuinevere pleading with Sir Bors to be her champion in a trial by combat.
At that moment, Calogrenant arrived with a hermit to convince Lionel to lay down his weapon. Instead, Lionel killed both men and prepared to attack Bors as well — but in an act of divine intervention, God struck him down in a column of fire. Bors then went on to find the Holy Grail.
In Le Morte d’Arthur, Sir Bors also became one of Lancelot’s most loyal aides in the civil war. This version of the tale ultimately ended with Arthur dying and Bors sending his army home, living out the rest of his days as a priest.
In the post-Vulgate Mort d’Artu, however, the events played out differently. After Arthur was betrayed by Mordred, the knights Lancelot, Lionel (still alive in this version of the tale), and Sir Bors gathered their men to fight against the forces of Mordred’s sons, who had taken over the kingdom after their father’s death.
They were ultimately successful, restoring some sense of peace to the kingdom.
