Sir Perimones

Sir Perimones, called the Red Knight of the Red Lawns and later identified as Sir Ironside, is a knight defeated by Gareth during the adventure in which Gareth travels under the name Beaumains. His significance lies in the reversal from threatening opponent to subordinate: after Gareth spares him, Perimones acknowledges the defeat, gives his allegiance, and presents himself and his followers to King Arthur.## Identity and IntroductionSir Perimones is the red-armored brother of Sir Percard, the Black Knight, and Sir Pertolepe, the Green Knight. He is introduced in the course of Gareth’s journey with a damsel and a dwarf. From his castle, Perimones sees the travelers and rides out to joust with the knight, believing at first that he may be his brother. The damsel corrects him: the opponent is Beaumains, whom she describes as a kitchen servant raised on alms at Arthur’s court. She adds that Beaumains has defeated both Perimones’s black and green brothers, turning the encounter into an immediate opportunity for revenge.## The Fight with BeaumainsPerimones meets Beaumains in combat, and the encounter proceeds from the charge on horseback to a prolonged fight on foot. Both horses fall, so the knights continue with shields and swords. The contest lasts two hours; Beaumains is badly hurt, but finally strikes Perimones down. When Perimones asks for mercy, he offers submission and the service of fifty knights under his command, and also says he forgives Beaumains for his brother’s death. Beaumains does not accept the appeal on those terms alone: he says the damsel must ask him to spare Perimones. She intervenes, calling Perimones a noble knight, and Beaumains lets him rise.## Submission and AllegiancePerimones then invites Beaumains to his castle for the night. Although the damsel continues to speak harshly to Beaumains, Perimones has sixty knights keep watch so that his guest will suffer no indignity. The next morning, after mass and dinner, Perimones appears with those knights and offers homage and fealty, pledging that he and his fellowship will serve Beaumains when called. Beaumains instead requires that Perimones and his followers come before Arthur and yield themselves to the king. Perimones agrees, and the demand converts a personal victory into an act of political submission.## The Red Knight’s Past and Change of ConductWhen Gareth later defeats Perimones again, the episode exposes the reason for his earlier hostility toward Arthur’s knights. Perimones explains that he had loved a lady whose brother was killed; she blamed either Sir Launcelot or Sir Gawaine and asked Perimones to pursue them in arms. By his knightly faith, he promised to fight until he met one of them and to impose a shameful death on any opponent he overcame. He says this promise led him to attack Arthur’s knights and put them to death. His account gives his violence a personal cause, but does not excuse its consequences: Gareth judges that the treatment of the knights makes it impossible to spare him merely because he now asks for mercy. Perimones offers to explain himself, and Gareth hears his account.## Submission to ArthurAt Arthur’s next Pentecost feast, the brothers Pertolepe and Perimones arrive with their respective companies and submit to the king; Persant of Inde, their blue-armored brother, also comes with a hundred knights. Later the same gathering receives the Red Knight of the Red Lawns, who names himself Sir Ironside and says Gareth defeated him in single combat, something no knight had achieved during the preceding thirty years. He brings six hundred knights and says that he and his company will serve Arthur. Arthur welcomes them, while making the condition of Perimones’s place in his service explicit: he must no longer be a murderer. Perimones says that he has already promised Gareth to abandon his former practices. He also kneels before Launcelot and Gawaine to seek their forgiveness for the hostility he had borne them, acknowledging that his attacks on Arthur’s knights had been undertaken for the lady he loved. Through defeat, pardon, and submission, Perimones’s story turns a feud-driven adversary into a knight pledged to the king’s service.