Sagramore
Encyclopedia
Sir Sagramore of Hungary (or Sagremor) is a Knight of the Round Table
in the Arthurian legend. His characterization varies from story to story, though he is surprisingly prolific; he appears in a number of early stories, such as Chrétien de Troyes
' works, and he turns up in all the cyclical versions. He gains a number of nicknames, including "The Impetuous" and "le Desirous."
Cycle, Sagramore is the son of the king of Hungary
and the daughter of the Eastern Roman Emperor; he is even an heir to the throne of Constantinople
. His father dies while he was still young, and his mother accepts the proposal of King Brandegoris of Estangore in Britain
. When he is fifteen, Sagramore travels to Britain to join them and to become one of King Arthur
's knights. Upon arrival in Britain Sagramore engages Arthur's Saxon
enemies, and receives aid from Arthur's nephew Gawain
and his brothers. The group are subsequently knighted by Arthur.
The Lancelot-Grail describes him as a good knight, but quick to anger. When fighting, he would go into a frenzy not unlike the Irish
hero Cúchulainn
's warp spasm; when he came down, he would feel ill and hungry. As he was wont to do, Sir Kay
gave him a nickname, "Morte Jeune" (dead youth), because he would sometimes go into epilepsy
-like fits. The Lancelot-Grail recounts a number of his adventures, often centered around rescuing damsels, and mentions that he had a daughter by one of his paramours who was raised at Arthur's court by Guinevere
. His half-sister, Brandegoris' beautiful daughter Claire, falls in love with Sir Bors
and sleeps with him; their child is Elyan the White
. He dies by Mordred
's hand at the Battle of Camlann
as one of Arthur's last remaining warriors.
contains a different backstory for Sagramore. His family rescues Mordred from the sea (afraid of Merlin
's prophecy that a child born on May Day
will destroy him, Arthur sends children born that day out on a leaky boat) and raises him for the next several years as Sagramore's stepbrother. In the Prose Tristan
, Sagramore is portrayed as a great friend to the Cornish
knight Tristan
, and even alerts the rest of the Round Table to his death. In Sir Thomas Malory
's Le Morte d'Arthur
, Sagramore's prowess varies from situation to situation; he usually serves to lose jousts to better knights, but at times he is a valiant fighter. He is also the subject of a fragmentary German
romance, Segremors, the surviving portions of which describe his journey to an island ruled by a fay
and his undesired combat with his friend Gawain.
Sagramore appears with some regularity in modern Arthurian literature. In Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Merlin and Vivien", one of the Idylls of the King
, he stumbles into bed with a maiden, thinking he is in his own room; to save their reputation the two strangers wed, but their purity and goodness make their marriage a happy one. The knight appears in the musical Camelot
and was played by Peter Bromilow
in the film version
. Sagramore was portrayed by William Bendix
in the 1949 film version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
. In Bernard Cornwell
's The Winter King
"Sagramor" is a fierce Numidia
n veteran of the old Roman army, and follows Arthur to Britain after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
Round Table (Camelot)
The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of...
in the Arthurian legend. His characterization varies from story to story, though he is surprisingly prolific; he appears in a number of early stories, such as Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. Perhaps he named himself Christian of Troyes in contrast to the illustrious Rashi, also of Troyes...
' works, and he turns up in all the cyclical versions. He gains a number of nicknames, including "The Impetuous" and "le Desirous."
Sagramore in the Lancelot-Grail
According to the Lancelot-GrailLancelot-Grail
The Lancelot–Grail, also known as the Prose Lancelot, the Vulgate Cycle, or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is a major source of Arthurian legend written in French. It is a series of five prose volumes that tell the story of the quest for the Holy Grail and the romance of Lancelot and Guinevere...
Cycle, Sagramore is the son of the king of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and the daughter of the Eastern Roman Emperor; he is even an heir to the throne of Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. His father dies while he was still young, and his mother accepts the proposal of King Brandegoris of Estangore in Britain
Sub-Roman Britain
Sub-Roman Britain is a term derived from an archaeological label for the material culture of Britain in Late Antiquity: the term "Sub-Roman" was invented to describe the potsherds in sites of the 5th century and the 6th century, initially with an implication of decay of locally-made wares from a...
. When he is fifteen, Sagramore travels to Britain to join them and to become one of King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
's knights. Upon arrival in Britain Sagramore engages Arthur's Saxon
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
enemies, and receives aid from Arthur's nephew Gawain
Gawain
Gawain is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...
and his brothers. The group are subsequently knighted by Arthur.
The Lancelot-Grail describes him as a good knight, but quick to anger. When fighting, he would go into a frenzy not unlike the Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
hero Cúchulainn
Cúchulainn
Cú Chulainn or Cúchulainn , and sometimes known in English as Cuhullin , is an Irish mythological hero who appears in the stories of the Ulster Cycle, as well as in Scottish and Manx folklore...
's warp spasm; when he came down, he would feel ill and hungry. As he was wont to do, Sir Kay
Sir Kay
In Arthurian legend, Sir Kay is Sir Ector's son and King Arthur's foster brother and later seneschal, as well as one of the first Knights of the Round Table. In later literature he is known for his acid tongue and bullying, boorish behavior, but in earlier accounts he was one of Arthur's premier...
gave him a nickname, "Morte Jeune" (dead youth), because he would sometimes go into epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
-like fits. The Lancelot-Grail recounts a number of his adventures, often centered around rescuing damsels, and mentions that he had a daughter by one of his paramours who was raised at Arthur's court by Guinevere
Guinevere
Guinevere was the legendary queen consort of King Arthur. In tales and folklore, she was said to have had a love affair with Arthur's chief knight Sir Lancelot...
. His half-sister, Brandegoris' beautiful daughter Claire, falls in love with Sir Bors
Bors
Bors circa 540s-580s, is the name of two knights in the Arthurian legend, one the father and one the son. Bors the Elder is the King of Gaunnes or Gaul during the early period of King Arthur's reign, and is the brother of King Ban of Benoic. Gaunnes is the Fredemundian dynastic kingdom of Neustria...
and sleeps with him; their child is Elyan the White
Elyan the White
Sir Elyan the White or Helyan le Blanc is the son of Sir Bors and is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. His mother is King Brandegoris' daughter Claire, who tricked Bors into sleeping with her using a magic ring; this is sometimes said to be the only time Bors broke his vow of chastity...
. He dies by Mordred
Mordred
Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his...
's hand at the Battle of Camlann
Battle of Camlann
The Battle of Camlann is best known as the final battle of King Arthur, where he either died in battle, or was fatally wounded fighting his enemy Mordred.-Historicity:...
as one of Arthur's last remaining warriors.
Other stories
The Post-Vulgate CyclePost-Vulgate Cycle
The Post-Vulgate Cycle is one of the major Old French prose cycles of Arthurian literature. It is essentially a rehandling of the earlier Vulgate Cycle , with much left out and much added, including characters and scenes from the Prose Tristan.The Post-Vulgate, written probably between 1230 and...
contains a different backstory for Sagramore. His family rescues Mordred from the sea (afraid of Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
's prophecy that a child born on May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
will destroy him, Arthur sends children born that day out on a leaky boat) and raises him for the next several years as Sagramore's stepbrother. In the Prose Tristan
Prose Tristan
The Prose Tristan is an adaptation of the Tristan and Iseult story into a long prose romance, and the first to tie the subject entirely into the arc of the Arthurian legend...
, Sagramore is portrayed as a great friend to the Cornish
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
knight Tristan
Tristan
Tristan is one of the main characters of the Tristan and Iseult story, a Cornish hero and one of the Knights of the Round Table featuring in the Matter of Britain...
, and even alerts the rest of the Round Table to his death. In Sir Thomas Malory
Thomas Malory
Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author or compiler of Le Morte d'Arthur. The antiquary John Leland as well as John Bale believed him to be Welsh, but most modern scholars, beginning with G. L...
's Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur is a compilation by Sir Thomas Malory of Romance tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table...
, Sagramore's prowess varies from situation to situation; he usually serves to lose jousts to better knights, but at times he is a valiant fighter. He is also the subject of a fragmentary German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
romance, Segremors, the surviving portions of which describe his journey to an island ruled by a fay
Fairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
and his undesired combat with his friend Gawain.
Sagramore appears with some regularity in modern Arthurian literature. In Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Merlin and Vivien", one of the Idylls of the King
Idylls of the King
Idylls of the King, published between 1856 and 1885, is a cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love for Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him, and the rise and fall of Arthur's kingdom...
, he stumbles into bed with a maiden, thinking he is in his own room; to save their reputation the two strangers wed, but their purity and goodness make their marriage a happy one. The knight appears in the musical Camelot
Camelot (musical)
Camelot is a musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe . It is based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from the T. H. White tetralogy novel The Once and Future King....
and was played by Peter Bromilow
Peter Bromilow
Peter Bromilow was a British-born actor.-Select Filmography:* Camelot * The Railway Children * Nasty Habits * Semi-Tough...
in the film version
Camelot (film)
Camelot is a 1967 film adaptation of the musical of the same name. Richard Harris stars as Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere, and Franco Nero as Lancelot. The film was directed by Joshua Logan.-Plot:...
. Sagramore was portrayed by William Bendix
William Bendix
William Bendix was an American film, radio, and television actor, best remembered in movies for the title role in the movie The Babe Ruth Story and for portraying clumsily earnest aircraft plant worker Chester A. Riley in radio and television's The Life of Riley...
in the 1949 film version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The book was originally titled A Yankee in King Arthur's Court...
. In Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell OBE is an English author of historical novels. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe which were adapted into a series of Sharpe television films.-Biography:...
's The Winter King
The Winter King (novel)
The Winter King is the first book in The Warlord Chronicles series by Bernard Cornwell. The trilogy tells the legend of Arthur seen through the eyes of his follower Derfel Cadarn.-Plot introduction:...
"Sagramor" is a fierce Numidia
Numidia
Numidia was an ancient Berber kingdom in part of present-day Eastern Algeria and Western Tunisia in North Africa. It is known today as the Chawi-land, the land of the Chawi people , the direct descendants of the historical Numidians or the Massyles The kingdom began as a sovereign state and later...
n veteran of the old Roman army, and follows Arthur to Britain after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.