Editing Gaheris (section)

==Medieval literature==
The names of Gaheris and Gareth (as used by [[Thomas Malory]]) have various similar forms in [[Old French]] works and the adventures ascribed to the brothers may be thus interchangeable and indistinguishable, as some writers even had them confused within the same manuscripts of a given text.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fCJMAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA252 | title=Bulletin bibliographique de la Société internationale arthurienne: Bibliographical bulletin of the International Arthurian Society | date=1984 }}</ref> Due their many and highly confusing French spellings, the International Arthurian Society described Malory's versions as "entirely different characters from Gaheriet and Guerrehes" of his sources, even as Malory might have not necessarily altered them himself.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fCJMAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA253 | title=Bulletin bibliographique de la Société internationale arthurienne: Bibliographical bulletin of the International Arthurian Society | date=1984 }}</ref>

===Early appearances in French and German poetry===
In continental literature, Gaheris' name is first found as Gaheriet (''Gaherïet'') on the list of [[King Arthur]]'s knights in the French poem ''[[Erec and Enide]]'', written in the late 12th century by [[Chrétien de Troyes]]. He again appears in Chrétien's later ''[[Perceval, the Story of the Grail]]'', which describes him as a son of [[King Lot]] and as one of Gawain's younger brothers.

In [[Wolfram von Eschenbach]]'s German poem ''[[Parzival]]'', the figure of Gaheriet is represented by Gawain's cousin named Gaherjet (''Gaherjêt''). [[Der Pleier]]'s ''Meleranz'' mentions Gaharet (also rendered ''Kaheret'' in his ''Tandareis and Flordibel''), described as a son of Arthur's sister Anthonje and the unnamed King of Gritenland,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T77xfEBX_aIC&pg=PA368|title=Meleranz von dem Pleier|author=Der Pleier|date=16 September 1861|publisher=Gedruckt auf Kosten des Litterarischen Vereins|via=Google Books}}</ref> as one of the cousins of Gawain (''Gawan''), along with the protagonist Meleranz.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uLyyeqGmE40C&pg=PA582|title=Lanzelet: Text - Übersetzung - Kommentar. Studienausgabe|first=Ulrich von|last=Zatzikhoven|date=26 February 2009|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=9783110215533|via=Google Books}}</ref> As Karjet (''Karyet''), he also appears in [[Ulrich von Zatzikhoven]]'s ''[[Lanzelet]]'', helping [[Lancelot]] rescue [[Guinevere]] from the abduction by King Valerin.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DojebX3x-i0C&pg=PA14|title=Lancelot in English Literature: His Rôle and Character|first=August Joseph|last=App|date=16 September 1929|publisher=Ardent Media|via=Google Books}}</ref>

===French cyclical prose and foreign adaptations===
The vast ''[[Lancelot-Grail]]'' (Vulgate Cycle) prose cycle of the early 13th century is the first known work to feature Gaheris as a major character. In the Prose ''Lancelot'', Gaheris is described as valiant, agile, and handsome (even as "his right arm was longer than the left"), but reticent in speech and prone to excess when angered. As such, he "was the least well-spoken of all his peers."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aQSkzRstpJYC&pg=PA393|title=Lancelot-Grail: Lancelot, pt. III|last=Lacy|first=Norris J.|date=2010|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=9781843842354|language=en}}</ref> Nevertheless, it tells how the nobles of the kingdom of [[Orkney]] (Orcanie), which his father King Lot had ruled when he was alive, attempt to have the kingdom given to Gaheris, whom they thought better fitted to be their king than any of his brothers (Gaheris, however, refuses to be crowned until at least after the end of the quest of the [[Holy Grail]]). The Prose ''Merlin'', too, describes him as the best warrior among Gawain's brothers, as well as at least equal to Gawain himself. 

The teenage Gaheris, together with Gawain and Agravain, defects from Lot and aids Arthur in the early wars against the rebel kings as well as the Saxons (substituted by the Saracens in some English versions such as ''[[Of Arthour and of Merlin|Arthour and Merlin]]''), especially distinguishing himself in fighting against the latter. Following their early battlefield feats, all three of them are knighted at once by Arthur in the Vulgate Cycle. However, Gaheris is the first of the Orkney clan to be knighted in the later rewrite known as the [[Post-Vulgate Cycle]]. In the Post-Vulgate ''Merlin'', when Gaheris is given flowers sent by the Queen of the Fairy Isle, it is prophesied that he would surpass in goodness and valor all the [[Knights of the Round Table]] save for two (presumably [[Galahad]] and Lancelot) were it not for the death of his mother, which Gaheris is destined to cause through his sin. The young knight then sets out in the quest to save Gawain and [[Morholt]], during which he is twice attacked by his envious brother [[Agravain]] but soundly defeats him on each occasion. He eventually rescues both Gawain and Morholt, later accompanying the latter to Ireland.

Through the prose cycles, Gaheris then fights in Arthur's further wars against various enemies. He also often participates in his elder brother Gawain's chivalric adventures, in addition to these of his own, such as his rescue of King [[Bagdemagus]]. Some of these episodes are retold in Malory's compilation ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'', where Gaheris (also written as ''Gaherys'' or ''Gaheryes'') is at first a [[squire]] to Gawain, whose fiery temper he helps moderate during their adventures, prior to being knighted himself. Gaheris later marries the haughty damsel [[Lynette and Lyonesse|Lynette]], a sister of his younger brother Gareth's wife Lyonors. The ''Lancelot'' and the ''Mort Artu'' (''Death of Arthur'') sections of the ''Lancelot-Grail'' cycle differ in their characterisation of Gaheris in relation to Gawain. In the ''Lancelot'', their youngest full brother Gareth is Gawain's most cherished sibling. In the ''Mort Artu'', it is instead Gaheris, and his death anguishes Gawain profoundly.<ref>Norris J. Lacy, ed., ''Lancelot-Grail: Lancelot Parts III and IV'', pp. 393–4.</ref>

[[File:Boys King Arthur - N. C. Wyeth - p162.jpg|thumb|"They fought with [[Lamorak|him]] on foot more than three hours." [[N. C. Wyeth]]'s ''The Slaying of Sir Lamorak'' in ''[[The Boy's King Arthur]]'' (1922)]]

In the Post-Vulgate tradition (including Malory's telling), Gaheris takes part in the revenge killing of [[Pellinore|King Pellinore]], the slayer of King Lot. More notorious is his beheading of his own mother, [[Morgause|Queen Morgause]], after catching her ''[[in flagrante delicto]]'' with [[Lamorak]], Pellinore's handsome son and one of the greatest knights of Arthur. Lamorak is allowed to escape but is later hunted down alone by Gaheris with three of the other Orkney brothers (except Gareth), who believe Lamorak was the one who killed their mother. They ambush and fight him together, the act that is deemed cowardly and a blot on their honour, until his young half-brother [[Mordred]] stabs him in the back. When Arthur discovers that Gaheris is Morgause's real murderer, he is banished from the high king's court. Gaheris is then about to be beheaded in revenge for their mother's death by Mordred and Agravain, but Gareth convinces Gawain to order them to stop. Following his exile, Gaheris reappears as a companion of [[Perceval]] on the Grail Quest, having been earlier rescued by [[Palamedes (Arthurian legend)|Palamedes]] from captivity.

In the [[Prose Tristan|Prose ''Tristan'']], Gaheris is a friend of the eponymous protagonist [[Tristan]], supporting him against the evil [[King Mark]] and forcing Mark to rescind Tristan's own banishment from Cornwall. The narrative of ''Tristan'' has Gaheris as a far better knight than Gawain, who here is villainized. Its Belarusian version ''{{ill|Povest' o Tryshchane|be|Аповесць пра Трышчана}}'' features him as Arthur's own son (rather than a nephew) by the name Garnot.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g3WhAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA131|title=The Romance of Arthur: An Anthology|first=James J.|last=Wilhelm|date=22 May 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317959854|via=Google Books}}</ref> In Malory's telling, however, Gaheris hates Tristan for being favoured by Arthur and is his sworn enemy. When Gaheris and Agravain meet and attack Tristan, the Cornish knight calls them and Gawain "the greatest destroyers and murderers of good knights" in the realm before fighting them off.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x9PGtkq5tJMC&pg=PT403|title=The Wicked Day|first=Mary|last=Stewart|date=2 February 2012|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|isbn=9781444737554|via=Google Books}}</ref>

His death during Lancelot's rescue of Queen Guinevere from being burned at the stake is related in the ''Mort Artu'', the final volume of the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate prose cycles.<ref>Norris J. Lacy, ed. and trans., ''Lancelot-Grail: The Death of Arthur'', Volume 7 of ''Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation'', Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2010, p. 69-70. {{ISBN|9780859917704}}.</ref> While Gawain and Gareth will have nothing to do with Agravain and Mordred's plot to entrap Lancelot and Guinevere (in the English verse translation [[Stanzaic Morte Arthur|Stanzaic ''Morte Arthur'']], Gaheris too sides with them), Arthur asks all the brothers of Mordred to help guard the queen's execution. Gaheris and Gareth reluctantly agree, though Gawain refuses. When Lancelot rushes to save the woman whom he loves, he cuts down the two Orkney princes. As told in the Vulgate ''Mort Artu'', Gaheris manages to kill Meliadus the Black, but then his helmet is knocked off by Lancelot's half-brother [[Hector de Maris]], after which his head is split by Lancelot himself. Their surviving brother Gawain's fury is terrible, and the resulting new blood feud leads to the destruction of Arthur's kingdom.