Bors - Blog Posts

Arthurian characters I interpret as acespec:

Galahad, the Grail Heroine, and Bors: They generally have no apparent trouble or qualms with the eternal chastity thing (except Bors when he gets cursed, but he gets cursed).

Brangaine: In La Tavola Ritonda, she tells Gouvernail that she never wants to have sexual relationships, and in a text I haven't yet read or been able to identify, she apparently stops Kahedin from sleeping with her by using a magic pillow to make him fall asleep, a role which is Camille's in Kaherdin and Camille.

Dinadan: In LTR, they call him the Wise Man Who Does Not Love, and while he has a romantic interest in LTR, their relationship isn't sexual. To the best of my knowledge, he has no other romantic interest and no sexual relationship in all of medlit and pretty much always scorns both concepts. Usually aro, demiromantic in one text, and always ace.

Lucan: It's not anything he says or does, but unless you count the actions of Lucano the evil half-giant half-lion in LTR, he doesn't have any romantic and/or sexual relationships in any medlit I know of. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but in my mind, he's on the aro and ace spectrums.

Happy Ace Week to all who celebrate!

Edit: I had somehow left out Dinadan, who I originally meant to include a picture of. I guess you could say he's implicit. Truly one of the aroace icons of all time. He ran so Jughead could also run.

Veronica Whall’s depiction of Galahad ascending, from King Arthur’s Great Halls at Tintagel

The Grail Heroine leading Galahad to the ship, where Percival and Bors wait

Stained glass by Veronica Whall for King Arthur’s Great Halls at Tintagel

Really sad Arthurian headcanon No. 1: The Grail Heroine’s namelessness

Bors is supposedly the person who comes back and tells the story of the successful Grail questing party, so all that’s known of it is what he’s willing to say, and he makes at least one omission: the name of the Grail Heroine, Percival’s sister. After she sacrifices herself for the group, Galahad, Percival, and Bors feel immense guilt. In particular, Percival and Galahad realize that as maiden knights, they too could have given blood, and if all three chipped in, they would have had enough blood to cure the lady without anyone dying. They all miss her terribly and decide never to say her name because it’s too painful a reminder.

Since Bors won’t say her name, she previously lived in a cloister (where she might have used another name), and her parents and siblings are already dead or will die young, her name ends up being forgotten.