Edwinem—de Zwarte Ridder met het Rode Schild

The relation between Edwinem and the Black Knight with the Red Shield is a sustained enmity framed by the rules of chivalry, then darkened by a death those rules cannot explain away. Edwinem defeats his opponent in a duel but spares him; the Red Riders later attack Edwinem in numbers, and he dies. The rival acknowledges the defeat and professes admiration for Edwinem, yet denies responsibility for the killing, leaving the difference between a declared code of honor and the violence surrounding it unresolved.

Identity and Background

Edwinem is a knight of Unauwen, while the Black Knight with the Red Shield appears as his armed adversary. Their conflict is not presented as a single chance encounter: the red-shielded knight says Edwinem had defeated him before, and calls the latest defeat the second time. His reference to a hoped-for third contest makes the rivalry feel ongoing, although the account does not detail the earlier encounter or establish precisely when it occurred.

The rivalry takes place amid political unease. Edwinem’s companions follow the Red Riders north through the Kingdom of Dagonaut after learning that an unknown black-armored knight carrying a red shield has joined them. In a village by the Green River, reports describe two black knights fighting, one with a red shield and one with a white. Edwinem had removed the black from his shield; he defeated the red-shielded opponent but did not kill him. This distinction matters: their relationship is hostile, but the duel itself ends with the defeated knight alive.

The Duel and Its Reversal

Edwinem later tells Ristridin that the Black Knight with the Red Shield challenged him, but that the challenge was a trap. The Red Riders attacked in force, and Edwinem died. His death was therefore not the outcome of the formal contest between the two knights: the narrative contrasts his record of never having been defeated in a duel with his killing through a many-against-one assault. The honor attached to the challenge becomes a cover for a different kind of violence.

Bendoe’s subsequent search provides the rival’s version of the encounter. He finds the Black Knight with the Red Shield in the King’s Forest, south of the hunting lodge, accompanied by about six Red Riders. When Bendoe asks what happened to Edwinem, the knight recounts their duel and admits that Edwinem defeated him, describing it as the second such loss and promising himself a victory the next time. His admission confirms Edwinem’s success in the contest, even as his account avoids confirming how Edwinem died.

Accusation and Denial

Bendoe tells the knight that Edwinem has been murdered and asks what the Red Riders did that night. The knight says that he and the riders with him had remained together, and angrily challenges Bendoe to accuse either him or his followers of involvement. He insists that Edwinem was his enemy and that he would have killed him only in an honest fight. The account thus records a direct denial, not proof of innocence: the riders’ presence with him is offered as an alibi, while Bendoe’s suspicion remains focused on their possible role.

The knight also warns against treating the Red Riders as the only possible suspects. He says Edwinem knew too much and had many enemies, and suggests that danger could have come from unexpected quarters. This possibility broadens the uncertainty around the murder without identifying another culprit. His final claim—that he respected and admired the man he opposed—complicates the rivalry further. It does not undo his hostility, or settle the question of his responsibility; it presents enmity and respect as compatible in the rival’s own telling.

Meaning and Outcome

The relation ends not with reconciliation or a resolved contest, but with Edwinem dead and the circumstances of his death still contested. The evidence holds two forms of conflict apart: a duel in which Edwinem prevails, and an ambush in which the Red Riders overwhelm him. That separation gives the rivalry its bitter shape. The rival can concede defeat and invoke fair combat while denying involvement in the violence that killed his opponent; Bendoe can challenge that denial, but does not establish who gave the fatal order or struck the decisive blow.

Edwinem’s death also fulfills the foreboding attached to his journey. His companions had pursued the Red Riders and sought him after reports of the duel, but found no trace of him in the forest. They later learned that the Black Knight with the White Shield had been found murdered near the Inn at Yikarvara. The contrast between Edwinem’s survival of the duel and his death by treachery makes the rivalry a measure of the gap between knightly ideals and political violence: the defeated opponent lives, while the victorious knight is killed outside the terms of their contest.