Palamedes Avenues King Hermance is a revenge episode in which a dead ruler’s appeal draws Palamedes to the Red City to confront the two knights who murdered him. The combat tests not only Palamedes’s strength but his fidelity to a promise: he fights on Hermance’s behalf, secures the city’s release from the traitors, and refuses its offer of riches so he can return to the commitments he has already made.

The King’s Appeal and Palamedes’s Promise

King Hermance’s death is presented through the letter he ordered written before he died. He describes himself as slain by felony and treason at the hands of two knights he had raised and formed, and offers his lands and rents to any knight willing to meet them in single combat. His servant Ebel carries the letter, which was placed in Hermance’s hand after he received the sacrament; following the king’s instructions, the vessel bearing the appeal is sent down the Humber toward Logris, where noble knights are expected to gather.

The appeal gives the revenge a public and political purpose as well as a personal one. Ebel explains that the Red City and its people would accept as their lord the knight who kills the two betrayers. Palamedes says the account grieves him and recalls that he has already seen the letter: a knight he calls one of the best on earth read it to him and directed him to come. He has therefore undertaken the revenge before reaching the city, and says he will not be at ease until he has met the traitors. His promise, rather than the proposed reward, is what binds him to the cause.

Ebel directs Palamedes by ship to the Delectable Isle, close by the Red City. Palamedes tells the people guarding the castle to hold it securely even if he is killed; he expects that another great knight, either Sir Tristram or Sir Launcelot, would avenge his death. This instruction reveals how he treats the expedition as a risk to be borne, not a guaranteed victory, and places the castle and its people within the stakes of the undertaking.

The Challenge at the Red City

As Palamedes approaches the city, another armed knight comes out to meet him and claims the quest as his own. Palamedes acknowledges that the other may have had an earlier claim, but argues that when the letter was taken from the dead king’s hand no knight had yet undertaken the revenge; he had made his promise then. The two agree that the better knight will take up the battle. The episode thus makes competing claims to a righteous cause part of the approach to combat, but Palamedes’s prior commitment remains his reason for proceeding.

When Palamedes arrives, the people welcome and assess him as a capable knight. The account emphasizes that, though unchristened, he believes in God and is faithful, true, and well-conditioned. It also recalls his vows: he will not be christened until he has achieved the Questing Beast, and will not take full christendom until he has fought seven battles within the lists. These vows frame his identity as a Saracen knight whose fidelity and religious belief coexist with an unfinished commitment to baptism; the text does not say that Hermance’s revenge completes either vow.

On the appointed occasion, Helius and Helake come to the lists with forty knights, boasting of their power and their damage to the Red City. Palamedes directly asks whether they are the brothers who killed their king by treason. They admit that they are, and address him as a Saracen while threatening him. Palamedes answers that he is not afraid of them and trusts in God; he declares that one side will be left dead in the place. The confrontation turns Hermance’s written accusation into an explicit, acknowledged charge, with the alleged murderers themselves confirming their identity and deed.

The Long Fight and Its Reversal

The brothers ride against Palamedes together. He strikes Helake through shield and breast, knocking him to the ground. Helius holds back at first, but when he sees his brother down, attacks Palamedes, knocks him from his saddle, and rides over him two or three times. Palamedes pulls Helius’s horse by the bridle; horse and rider fall, but Helius rises quickly and strikes Palamedes on the helmet, bringing him to one knee.

The combat continues without rest for two hours. The account reverses their apparent fortunes: Palamedes grows faint and weary while Helius grows stronger and drives him across the field. The people of the city weep at the prospect that Palamedes will be killed for their king, while Helius’s party rejoices. Palamedes has endured a hundred strokes, but the turning point comes when he sees the common people grieving. Ashamed, he raises his shield, looks at Helius, and answers with a series of blows. He brings Helius to the ground, removes his helmet, and kills him. The scene makes the city’s concern part of the action: its grief prompts the renewed effort that turns a failing fight into victory.

With Helius dead and Helake already fallen, Palamedes has defeated both brothers. The Red City’s people rejoice and bring him to his lodging with ceremony; they all become his men. The reversal is complete: the knight who entered as a foreign champion for a dead king is received as the people’s victorious lord, and Hermance’s appeal has been answered through the defeat of the men who confessed to killing him.

Victory, Allegiance, and Departure

Palamedes’s victory does not end in his taking possession of the offered reward. He urges the people to protect King Hermance’s lordship and says he cannot remain, because he must return promptly to King Arthur at Lonazep, as he has promised. The citizens are saddened by his departure and offer him a third part of their goods if he will stay. He refuses, leaves, and returns to the castle where Ebel is lieutenant; there, the company rejoices when it learns how he has succeeded.

Palamedes then continues to Lonazep. Finding that Sir Tristram is not there, he crosses the Humber to Joyous Gard, where Tristram and La Beale Isoud are. Tristram has instructed the townspeople to inform him when an errant knight arrives. After hearing the visitor’s appearance described, Dinadan identifies him as Palamedes. Tristram sends Dinadan to him, and the two greet one another with joy; they spend the night together, and the next morning Tristram and Sir Gareth come to them before they rise, after which they break their fast. This reunion carries Palamedes out of the revenge episode and back into the company and obligations that shaped his decision to leave the Red City.

Revenge and the Measure of Honour

The episode builds revenge from a sequence of obligations: Hermance’s last appeal, Palamedes’s promise, the brothers’ admission, and the people’s expectation that their king’s death be avenged. It makes the result legible not through a formal ruling but through a fight in the lists, with the accused men’s confession and the combat’s outcome settling the immediate claim. The victory changes Palamedes’s standing in the Red City, whose people accept him as their lord, but he declines both its offer of wealth and the opportunity to remain.

That refusal is the episode’s decisive counterweight to triumph. Palamedes earns allegiance and could claim material reward, yet chooses the prior pledge to King Arthur over possession of Hermance’s lands. His courage appears in the reversal after two hours of combat; his honour is measured afterward, in what he does not take. The vengeance restores the city’s confidence in its lordship, while Palamedes’s departure keeps the episode connected to the wider fellowship and promises of the Arthurian court.