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.