Arthur and Accolon

The relationship between Arthur and Accolon is forged in a combat neither understands in the same way: Accolon believes he is fulfilling a private promise to Morgan le Fay, while Arthur faces an opponent armed with his own stolen Excalibur. The duel nearly ends Arthur’s life, exposes Morgan’s plan to replace him with Accolon, and tests the king’s capacity to distinguish deliberate treason from a crime committed without knowledge of the victim’s identity. Arthur’s victory restores the sword but cannot save Accolon, who dies after the encounter.

The plot that sets them against each other

Morgan le Fay arranges the contest by giving Accolon Excalibur and its scabbard, which she has obtained through treachery. A dwarf sent by her tells Accolon that he is to fight a knight the next morning and urges him to show no mercy, recalling Accolon’s private promise to her. Accolon accepts the charge and says he will do what he promised, even at the cost of his life. The weapon and the commission make him the instrument of a plan whose true target is Arthur.

The contest is also entangled with a separate dispute. Sir Damas needs a champion to fight his brother, Sir Ontzlake, who has been wounded in both thighs. When Accolon hears of the need, he offers to fight for Ontzlake, in part because Morgan’s gift has prepared him for a battle. Arthur, meanwhile, comes to the field as Damas’s champion. Before the fight, Morgan sends Arthur what she presents as his sword and scabbard; both are counterfeit. Accolon enters the lists with the genuine Excalibur, while Arthur believes he has received his own weapon.

The duel and the discovery

The two knights charge on horseback, strike one another’s shields, and fall. Once they rise and draw their swords, the difference between their weapons governs the fight: Accolon’s blade wounds Arthur repeatedly, while Arthur’s sword fails to cut as it once did. As Arthur sees his blood falling and recognizes the unusual strength of the weapon in Accolon’s hand, he suspects treason. Even weakened, he continues to resist rather than submit.

At a later stroke, Arthur’s sword breaks. He presses forward with his shield and strikes Accolon with its pommel; then the Lady of the Lake’s enchantment causes Excalibur to fall from Accolon’s grasp. Arthur seizes it, recognizes his own sword, and throws away the scabbard. He gains the advantage and brings Accolon down. Only after the fight does Arthur learn his opponent’s name and allegiance: Accolon is a knight of Arthur’s court, and he has fought the king without recognizing him.

Confession, kinship, and intended treason

Accolon explains that Excalibur had been in his keeping for much of a year and that Morgan sent it to him the day before the duel with the purpose of killing Arthur. He says that he and Morgan love one another, and describes her larger design: if Arthur were killed, she intended Accolon to become king and herself to rule as his queen. The contest thus reveals that the apparent challenge between two knights was part of a planned assault on the crown.

Arthur identifies himself and calls Accolon to account for agreeing to his death. He nevertheless distinguishes Accolon’s intention from his knowledge of the man he was fighting: Accolon did not know that his opponent was Arthur. Arthur says that this ignorance earns him mercy, though it does not erase his participation in the treasonous plan. The distinction makes their relationship more than a simple victor-and-defeated-opponent encounter: Accolon is both an accomplice in Morgan’s conspiracy and a knight who has unknowingly fought his own lord.

Judgment and aftermath

After the fight, Arthur addresses the gathered people and emphasizes that errant knights may find themselves fighting someone of their own allegiance without knowing it. He then settles the dispute between Damas and Ontzlake. Damas must give his brother the manor, restore the twenty knights he has imprisoned with their equipment, and cease distressing knights who travel on adventure. Ontzlake, praised for his prowess and conduct, is invited to join Arthur’s court. The judgment places Arthur’s own ordeal within a wider act of royal arbitration: he uses victory not only to punish but to correct abuses and reward better service.

Arthur and Accolon are taken to an abbey, three miles away, where leeches attend to their wounds. Arthur recovers; Accolon dies within four days, having lost too much blood. Arthur sends Accolon’s body to Camelot on a horse-bier carried by six knights, with instructions that it be delivered to Morgan as a present and that she be told he has recovered Excalibur and its scabbard. Accolon’s death closes their immediate relationship, while the returned sword and the message carry the consequences of the failed plot back to Morgan.