Sources – Medieval paintings and miniatures

Gawain riding to a hermitage on a hill

Some of the Arthurian romances written during the medieval period were lavishly illustrated. These pictures provide another earlier source for Arthurian heraldry. Again many of these manuscripts have been digitally copied so that they can be viewed online. The British Library for example has several including a beautiful version of the Lancelot-Grail (The Prose Vulgate Cycle).

Lancelot kills one of the four Knights of the Pavilions

A fantastic resource for finding these illustrations is the manuscript miniatures database and image collection. This is a searchable database showing medieval miniatures depicting armoured figures. Miniatures are sourced from manuscripts created before 1450 in countries across Europe. A useful adjunct to this are David Nicolle’s books on “Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era1050-1350”, which contains line drawings of the miniatures, but also includes much more information in the accompanying text.

Over time the attributed arms for many of the major knights from the Arthurian cycle became more or less established. As many of the miniatures were painted before the armorials containing Arthurian heraldry were published, the arms for some, but not all of the knights are different from those presented in the armorials.

This early Arthurian heraldry from manuscript and artistic references is discussed in more detail by Michel Pastoureau in “Armorial des chevaliers dela Table ronde - étude sur l'héraldique imaginaire à la fin du Moyen âge”, but probably the best book on this subject is Gerard J. Brault’s  “Early Blazon:Heraldic Terminlogy in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries with SpecialReference to Arthurian Heraldry”

For some knights, such as Sir Lancelot, the arms are similar in the armorial, literary and miniature traditions.

 

For others, such as Sir Gawain and his brothers, the early and late versions of the arms are very different.

Heraldry for the Orkney clan, from illustrations on medieval manuscripts

Heraldry for the Orkney clan, from the Armorial in the Morgan Library

The imaginary arms of Arthurian heraldry as codified in various armorials are thought to have been compiled ca. 1440-50 for, and possibly even by Jacques d'Armagnac, duc de Nemours (Sandoz, Edouard. "Tourneys in the Arthurian Tradition." Speculum 19 (1944)). A possible reason for the radical change in the arms of the Orkney clan could be that the compiler of the "Armagnac" armorial might have been offended by the fact that in the older tradition the arms of the "bad guy" Agravaine were a variation of: Argent, a lion gules. Thus they happened to be similar to the family arms of Armagnac (Nickel, Helmut "Notes on Arthurian Heraldry: The retroactive system in the "Armagnac" Armorial" Quondam et Futurus, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Fall 1993)).

Sources - The Arthurian Companion

I first became aware that there were armorials containing arms for the Arthurian knights when reading The Arthurian Companion by Phyllis Ann Karr. This was written to provide source material for the Pendragon roll playing game. It is a really useful and accessible compendium to the Arthurian legends.

The companion does contain some heraldic information for the major knights from the romances. Unfortunately I discovered far too late that this is not the books strong point. Many of the arms presented do originate from the medieval armorials, but others others appear to have been added to complete the set.

As an example the arms for Sir Pelleas are shown as a silver swan on a black background.

I have not seen this device in any armorial, but it does bear a striking resembliace to the illustration of Sir Pelleas by Howard Pyle

The device attributed to Duke Gorlois is particularly troubling as, with a red device on a black background, it does not appear to follow the conventional rules for heraldry, though in fairness there are many real arms which break these rules too.

There are also some unfortunate errors, which probably occurred when compiling the information. The arms for Sir Dinadan are shown as a white lion on a black background,

whereas in all the Armorials that I have looked at, Dinadan's arms are shown as a black lion on a white background.

Sources - Armorial's with attributed arms for the Arthurian knights

Probably the best book on Arthurian Heraldry is: Armorial des chevaliers de la Table Ronde : Etude sur l'héraldique imaginaire à la fin du Moyen Age by Michel Pastoureau.

Many Armorials containing Arthurian Heraldry, including most of those referenced by Michel Pastoureau can be found online. Here are some examples:

Noms, armes et blasons des chevaliers de la Table Ronde, The Morgan Library & Museum, MS M 16, published ca. 1500

Works on knighthood and tournaments, Harvard  Library, MS Typ 131, published ca. 1470

Armorial manuscrit des chevaliers de la Table Ronde, Bibliothèque Municipale de Lille, MS 329, published 1401-1500? 

Blasons de la Table ronde, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS 1435, published 1501-1600

Armoriaux de la table ronde, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS 1436, published 1525-1545

Armorial des chevaliers de la Table ronde, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS 1437, published 1485-1495

Le Blason des Armoiries de Jérôme de Bara, Bibliothèque nationale de France, V-4345, published 1628

Armorial de la Table ronde, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS 4976, published 1490-1500

Ce sunt les noms, armes et blasons des chevaliers companions de la Table ronde au tamps du roy Artus et insi qu'ils estoyent assis, au comencemant de la grant queste du saint Greal, a la dite Table ronde, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS 5024, published 1401-1500

La devise des armes des chevaliers de la Table-Ronde, Bibliothèque nationale de France, RES-Y2-1298

Les noms, armes et blasons des chevaliers et compaignons de la Table ronde, au temps que ils jurèrent la Queste du Sainct Graal, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS 12597, published 1401-1500

Traité de blason, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS 14357, published 1401-1500 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trait%C3%A9_du_blason_MS14357_BnF.djvu?uselang=fr

La devise des armes des chevaliers de la Table ronde, Bibliothèque de Rennes, L-2012-0017890, published 1525



The illustrations in the Armorial's from the Morgan, MS 1437 and MS 4976 are, I think, particularly good.

Many more armorial's containing attributed arms for the Arthurian knights, from the late medieval period, are in museums and private collections around the world. If anyone comes accross additional on line Armorial's, please send me a link

Occasionally armorial's come up for auction, such as this one from Christies in 2010. The photographs to illustrate the auction can also be useful.



The tradition of publishing Armorial's containing the arms for King Arthurs knights continues to this day.

In Les Armoiries des Chevaliers de la Table Ronde Freddy Sibileau has combined information from Michel Pastoureau's work with a more detailed study of the medieval Arthurian romances. I am not sure that I agree with all his conjectures (more on this later), but it is a very comprehensive and useful study.

Building on this, in the blog Los Caballeros de la Tabla Redonda the author has taken Michel Pastoureau's and Freddy Sibileau's work and illustrated the arms for each knight.

Knights of the Oval Dining Table

Since childhood I have had a fascination for heraldry and for the tales of King Arthur and the knights of the round table. Some fifteen years ago I discovered that medieval heralds had attributed arms to many of King Arthurs knights. A new project was born; I acquired some of Tom Meier’s superb Arthurian knights and started to paint knights for a new Arthurian army. Since then I have become hooked, delving ever deeper into obscure areas of Arthurian heraldry, myth and legend.

I have, for some time now, intended to publish my work on this project. Now with covid19 stalking the land, I have the time and oppotunity to do this.