Bedivere

Bedivere is a knight of King Arthur’s fellowship whose closing role joins the collapse of the Round Table to a quieter life of religious devotion. He recognizes Sir Launcelot at a remote chapel, witnesses his penance, and ultimately remains a hermit after the other knights disperse.

Identity and Place in the Fellowship

Bedivere is named among the knights who survive the final upheavals of the fellowship. At the close of the book, he is present at the hermitage with the Bishop of Canterbury and Sir Launcelot, and is the one who tells Launcelot the full account that brings him to renewed grief and prayer. His appearance in the narrative’s final scenes makes him a link between the fellowship’s worldly history and its religious aftermath.

The Hermitage and Launcelot’s Penance

After Launcelot and Queen Guenever part, Launcelot rides through a forest, grieving, until he reaches a hermitage and chapel between two cliffs. He hears a bell calling the faithful to mass, dismounts, and attends the service. The celebrant is the Bishop of Canterbury; both the bishop and Bedivere recognize Launcelot. Bedivere then tells Launcelot his story in full. In response, Launcelot laments the instability of worldly life, kneels, and asks the bishop to hear his confession and absolve him. He also asks to become the bishop’s brother. The bishop receives him into the religious life, and Launcelot serves God with prayer and fasting.

The chapel scene gives Bedivere a decisive, though restrained, action: his account helps bring Launcelot from grief into a formal life of penance. The narrative does not detail the contents of the tale Bedivere tells, but makes its effect clear in Launcelot’s response and subsequent commitment.

The Fellowship After Launcelot

When Sir Bors de Ganis eventually finds the hermitage, he sees Launcelot in religious clothing and asks to join him; the bishop gives Bors the same habit. The surviving knights then remain together with the bishop for more than a month after Launcelot’s death. Once Constantine, son of Sir Cador, is chosen king of England, the bishop is restored to his bishopric and leaves the hermitage.

Bedivere alone is said to stay there for the rest of his life. Sir Bors, Sir Ector de Maris, Sir Blamor, Sir Bleoberis, and the other surviving knights return to their countries, where they live as holy men. The account notes a divergence among tellings: some English books say these knights never left England, while the French book says that four of them went to the Holy Land, as Launcelot had instructed, and died there on Good Friday. Bedivere’s final withdrawal, by contrast, is stated without qualification.

Narrative Role and Ending

Bedivere’s ending is defined less by another knightly exploit than by remaining faithful to the hermitage after the fellowship has dispersed. His life there sets a final image of continuity against the scattering of the Round Table: the kingdom passes to Constantine, the bishop returns to his office, and the surviving knights go their separate ways, but Bedivere stays in prayerful retreat until his death.