Sir Aglovale

Sir Aglovale is a knight of the Round Table and a son of King Pellinore. His appearances connect the fellowship’s search for Sir Launcelot with a family marked by bereavement and a chivalric code tested by violence: when a squire is killed for serving him, Aglovale and his brother Sir Percivale pursue vengeance, and Percivale subsequently parts from him to continue his own quest.

Identity and Family

The narrative presents Aglovale as one of four sons left by King Pellinore. When he and Sir Percivale visit their mother during the search for Sir Launcelot, she recalls that two of their brothers are already dead and grieves especially for Sir Lamorak, whose loss, she says, will never cease to trouble her. She also recounts the death of their father, King Pellinore, at the hands of Sir Gawaine and Sir Gaheris, whom she accuses of having killed him treacherously rather than openly.

Their mother begs Aglovale and Percivale to remain at home. Percivale answers on their behalf that their royal descent on both sides commits them to arms and noble deeds. The parting makes the cost of that commitment explicit: their mother weeps, and when her sons leave, she faints in the court. A squire follows them with provisions, sent by their mother, but they send him back to comfort her and ask for her blessing.

Service and the Search for Sir Launcelot

Aglovale and Percivale ride together through many countries seeking Sir Launcelot, but cannot discover where he is. Their search reflects the larger undertaking at court: after hearing Sir Bors’s account of Launcelot, King Arthur and Queen Guenever urge a party of knights to look for him throughout England, Wales, and Scotland. The search puts Aglovale and Percivale on the road, but it does not keep the brothers together. Their encounters repeatedly redirect the journey from the original objective toward immediate obligations to other knights and dependants.

At Cardican, Percivale secretly leaves Aglovale. He explains that he will not return to court until he finds Launcelot and asks Sir Persides to tell Aglovale not to seek him. Percivale also sends a message to Sir Kay and Sir Mordred, recalling the mockery and scorn he received when he was knighted and declaring that he intends to establish a reputation greater than theirs. Aglovale calls his departure unkind, but Persides predicts that Percivale will prove a noble knight. King Arthur likewise argues that his father and brothers were noble knights, and therefore Percivale must become one too.

The Squire’s Death and Vengeance

Before their separation, Aglovale’s journey is interrupted by violence against the squire their mother sent after them. The squire, benighted on the road, finds lodging at a castle whose lord is Sir Goodewin. When Goodewin learns that the visitor serves Aglovale, he refuses him hospitality because Aglovale killed his brother, Sir Gawdelin. He orders the squire killed as payment for that earlier death.

The next morning, Aglovale and Percivale come upon people gathered in a churchyard around the squire’s body. A man explains that the squire was killed because he served Aglovale. Aglovale identifies himself and says the death will be avenged. The brothers go on foot into Goodewin’s castle and make their identities known. Goodewin acknowledges that he ordered the killing in retaliation for Aglovale’s slaying of Sir Gawdelin. Aglovale stands by that earlier act, describing Gawdelin as a false knight who betrayed ladies and good knights, and challenges Goodewin over the squire’s death.

The confrontation becomes a fight on two fronts: Aglovale faces Goodewin, while Percivale fights the others who resist them. Percivale overcomes those opponents, and Aglovale defeats Goodewin and kills him. The brothers then leave with their horses and arrange for the squire to be carried to a priory for burial. The episode turns a personal service relationship into a chain of retaliation: Goodewin answers Aglovale’s earlier killing by targeting his dependent, and Aglovale’s response extends the violence rather than ending the feud.

Percivale’s Departure and Aglovale’s Place in the Fellowship

After leaving Aglovale, Percivale meets Sir Persides chained to a stone pillar at a bridge. Persides explains that a lady had offered to make him her lover; when he refused, her men seized and bound him before he could reach his weapon. Percivale cuts the chain, then defeats a knight who rides from the castle against him. He also secures the release of Persides’s servants and reproves the lady for punishing knights who refuse her offer. This rescue shows the chivalric service that increasingly defines Percivale’s separate road, while Aglovale remains behind as the brother from whom he has chosen to part.

Aglovale’s later appearance with Sir Griflet comes after Sir Gawaine has been told to repent for his conduct and refuses the penance offered by a hermit. The narrative then leaves Gawaine and his companions; at an ensuing turn, Aglovale and Griflet meet him, and the two knights ride with him for four days without finding an adventure before they separate. Aglovale is thus part of the continuing, mobile fellowship of Round Table knights, even as the story gives more sustained attention to Percivale’s individual quest.

Chivalric Conduct and Narrative Role

Aglovale’s story places knightly loyalty beside the consequences of revenge. He and Percivale act for a slain dependent, and Aglovale makes the reason for his vengeance public: the squire was killed because of his service to him. Yet the narrative also makes clear that this act belongs to an existing cycle of retaliation, since Goodewin’s grievance began with Aglovale’s killing of his brother. The burial at the priory provides the squire a proper ending, but no reconciliation follows between the men or their households.

Aglovale’s identity is also shaped by kinship and fellowship. His mother’s grief recalls both his father’s and his brother’s deaths; her plea to keep her remaining sons at home meets the brothers’ conviction that their inheritance calls them to arms. Percivale’s departure then divides family duty from the pursuit of a fellow knight. Across these episodes, Aglovale is not simply a companion on a search: he is a son asked to remain with a bereaved mother, a knight whose dependent is killed in a feud, and a brother left behind as Percivale forges a separate reputation. The narrative leaves his ending unstated, placing him instead among the knights whose paths continue to intersect through chance encounters and service.