The Tournament at the Castle of Maidens is a three-day martial gathering where Sir Tristram competes under an unmarked black shield, wins the first day’s prize, and continues a rivalry with Sir Palamides amid the assembled kings and knights. The action turns on more than victories: Tristram’s concealment makes his deeds visible before his identity is known, while his decision to oppose whichever side Palamides joins repeatedly reshapes the field.

Background and Approach

The tournament is announced as a great contest between King Carados of Scotland and the King of Northgalis. Pursuivants travel through the country seeking notable knights, particularly Sir Launcelot for Carados and Sir Tristram for Northgalis. Tristram intends to attend, but first meets Sir Kay and Sir Sagramor le Desirous. He initially refuses Kay’s challenge because he wants to avoid injury before the larger contest; when Kay presses him, Tristram unhorses him, then does the same to Sagramor, and rides on.

The tournament also draws Tristram into contact with Palamides, whose presence gives the contest a personal charge. After Tristram’s companion Sir Persides is unhorsed by Palamides, Tristram tries to avenge him. Palamides takes advantage of Tristram’s unprepared state and unhorses him in turn. Tristram is angered and ashamed, but Palamides declines a further contest that evening, preferring to keep himself fresh for the tournament. Their unfinished encounter carries into the competition itself.

First Day: The Knight with the Black Shield

Before riding to the field, Tristram orders his servant Gouvernail to prepare a black shield bearing no identifying device. He and Persides leave their host, Sir Pellounes, and ride to the tournament, where the sides of Carados and Northgalis are already engaged. Tristram first helps force the Northgalis party back. When Persides is overwhelmed by Sir Bleoberis de Ganis and Sir Gaheris, Tristram intervenes, unhorses Gaheris, and then defeats Bleoberis as well.

Sir Dinadan rides against Tristram and receives a blow that leaves him faint in the saddle. He then recognizes Tristram and promises not to come against him again, saying that Tristram’s sword will never strike his helmet. Tristram continues against Bleoberis, striking him down and pulling him beneath his horse. The fighting ends when King Arthur calls the combatants to withdraw. At the close of the first day, Arthur and the other judges award the prize to the unidentified knight with the black shield. Some spectators recognize Tristram but keep silent; the honor is thus publicly conferred on his deeds before his name is publicly established.

The Sides and the Rivalry

On the following day Palamides joins Arthur’s side. Tristram responds by choosing the opposing side of Northgalis, explaining that he will ride against whichever party Palamides supports. The choice gives their rivalry a clear structure: the tournament’s factions become, for Tristram, a means of seeking another encounter with his adversary.

During the second day, Tristram sees two hundred knights attacking a group of only twenty. He objects that the greater force gains no honor by defeating so few, and offers to help the twenty. The King with the Hundred Knights stops his men at Tristram’s request, recognizing the courtesy behind the intervention. This episode sets a measure of knightly conduct beside the contest for victory: Tristram’s reputation rests not only on force, but also on his willingness to restrain an unfair advantage.

Tristram and his companions later leave the field without others seeing where they have gone. Arthur awards the day’s prize to the King of Northgalis because Tristram has fought on that side. Launcelot, who has been watching for Tristram in hopes of becoming his companion, searches for him in vain. The crowd’s acclamation that the black-shielded knight has won the field contrasts with the uncertainty surrounding his whereabouts and identity.

The Third Day and the Contest with Arthur

At the opening of the third day, the King with the Hundred Knights and the King of Northgalis encounter King Carados and the King of Ireland. Arthur enters the fighting and drives the opposing kings back. Tristram then rides in under the black shield and unhorses Palamides. Arthur challenges him, and Tristram unhorses the king as well. The sequence abruptly reverses when Arthur’s knights help their king back onto his horse and Arthur unhorses Tristram.

Palamides then rides against Tristram while he is on foot. Tristram avoids being ridden down, pulls Palamides from his horse, and fights him with swords before the watching kings, queens, and lords. Tristram strikes Palamides three times on the helmet, naming Sir Tristram with each blow. The repeated name makes the contest a belated declaration of identity as well as a personal reckoning. The account ends during this confrontation, after Tristram has brought Palamides to the ground; it does not establish the final outcome of the tournament or of their rivalry.

Significance

The tournament repeatedly separates achievement from recognition. Tristram’s unmarked shield conceals his identity while his victories earn him the first day’s prize, and his name becomes explicit only when he invokes it against Palamides. The difference between what the spectators see and what some of them know gives the contest a sustained tension: fame accumulates in public even as the knight remains partly unknown.

The competition also places personal rivalry beside the responsibilities of fellowship. Tristram seeks Palamides across the opposing sides, yet intervenes when a crowd of knights threatens a much smaller group. His conduct joins ambition to restraint: he pursues honor through combat, but challenges a victory that would be won by overwhelming numbers. The event therefore presents reputation not simply as the result of unhorsing opponents, but as something shaped by allegiance, recognition, and a knight’s treatment of others.