Sir Bors and Sir Lionel

Sir Bors and Sir Lionel are brothers, sons of King Bors de Ganis, and their relationship is tested during the Grail quest by a choice between family loyalty and a damsel’s appeal for protection. Sir Bors rescues the damsel rather than his brother; when Sir Lionel later holds him responsible for the danger he suffered, their reunion turns into a mortal quarrel. The conflict is halted by divine intervention, and the brothers part reconciled, though Sir Bors is directed onward to join Sir Percivale.

Kinship and the Test of Loyalty

The episode begins after Sir Bors has restored a young lady to her lands through his prowess. Once her country is at peace, he refuses the riches she offers and rides on. At the meeting of two ways in a forest, he sees two knights leading Sir Lionel away, while a third knight is taking a gentlewoman into the forest, where she fears she will be dishonoured. She appeals to Sir Bors as a knight of the Round Table, invoking his faith and the order of knighthood as reasons to help her.

The competing claims are immediate: Sir Lionel is his brother and appears to be in danger, while the woman’s appeal presents a different obligation that cannot be postponed without consequence. Sir Bors recognizes that the woman’s honour may be lost if he refuses to help. He prays that Christ will preserve Sir Lionel and chooses to succour the damsel. The decision is not a denial of their kinship; rather, he tries to entrust his brother’s safety to God while acting on the plea before him.

Resentment at the Reunion

Sir Bors and Sir Lionel meet again at a hermitage beside the entrance to a chapel, where Sir Lionel is waiting for a tournament. Sir Bors is glad to find him alive, but Sir Lionel greets the reunion as a reckoning. He accuses his brother of abandoning him when he was being led away and beaten, and insists that this failure deserves death. Sir Bors kneels and asks forgiveness, but Sir Lionel refuses to grant it.

Sir Lionel arms himself and challenges Sir Bors to defend himself, calling him untrue to their father’s worthy house. Sir Bors does not answer anger with anger. He recalls that Lionel is his elder brother and kneels again, asking him to remember the love that ought to exist between them. When Sir Lionel remains set on killing him, Sir Bors is caught between the immediate threat to his life and his reluctance to fight his own brother.

The Conflict Turns on a Third Party

Sir Lionel attacks Sir Bors, who is left unable to stand. As Sir Lionel prepares to kill him, an aged hermit intervenes and pleads for the brothers’ lives. The hermit argues that Sir Bors is one of the world’s worthiest knights and offers to die in his place. Sir Lionel kills the hermit, but still turns back toward his brother.

Sir Colgrevance, another Knight of the Round Table, arrives and tries to stop Sir Lionel. He asks whether Sir Lionel truly means to kill his own brother, but Sir Lionel confirms his intention and fights him instead. Sir Bors watches helplessly: if Sir Colgrevance kills Sir Lionel, Sir Bors believes he will never have joy; if Sir Lionel kills their companion, the shame will be his. The conflict that began as a dispute between brothers now draws in a hermit and a fellow knight, with Sir Bors unable to prevent further harm.

Sir Colgrevance is overcome. Sir Bors then tells Sir Lionel that he has done wrong by killing both the holy priest and their fellow knight, neither of whom had trespassed against him. Though he says he is not greatly afraid of Sir Lionel, he fears God’s wrath and calls the battle between brothers unnatural. He draws his sword only when he believes he must defend his own life, and asks God to show a miracle between them.

Divine Intervention and Reconciliation

As Sir Bors raises his hand to strike, a voice commands him to flee and not touch his brother, warning that otherwise he will kill him. A cloud like fire comes between the two brothers, and both shields burn. They fall to the ground in a swoon. When Sir Bors recovers, he finds Sir Lionel unharmed and fears that God has taken vengeance upon him. The voice then directs him to leave his brother’s company and go to the sea, where Sir Percivale awaits.

Before departing, Sir Bors asks Sir Lionel to forgive him. Sir Lionel agrees, asking God to forgive him as well. Their reconciliation comes after the crisis has exposed the consequences of treating resentment as a license for violence; it does not erase what happened to the hermit and Sir Colgrevance. The command to separate ends the immediate danger while sending Sir Bors onward on his quest.

Narrative Significance

The brothers’ conflict is structured around the limits of family duty. Sir Bors’s first choice is made when another person asks for help and he cannot rescue both claimants at once; his later refusal to fight Sir Lionel follows the same restraint, even under attack. The contrast is sharp: Sir Lionel treats the earlier choice as a personal betrayal, while Sir Bors understands his obligations through both kinship and his vows as a knight.

The episode also makes Sir Bors’s progress through the Grail quest depend on a choice he cannot settle by force. The supernatural voice and the cloud interrupt the violence, preserve Sir Lionel, and direct Sir Bors toward Sir Percivale and the sea. Brotherhood is restored through forgiveness, but not by the brothers’ strength alone: the final resolution is granted from beyond the quarrel that threatened to destroy them.