In the Post‑Vulgate/Suite du Merlin and later Maloryan retellings, Balin appears as a Northumbrian knight who, early in Arthur's reign, becomes involved with otherworldly agencies when a damsel sent from Lile (Lily) of Avalon brings a sheathed sword to Arthur's court. The damsel claims only a truly virtuous knight may draw it. Balin draws and claims the sword, despite the damsel later warning him that keeping it will bring ruin; Merlin later explains the sword bears a curse. Balin's subsequent actions — including beheading the Lady of the Lake in court and, ultimately, delivering the Dolorous Stroke with the Holy Lance — fulfill prophetic designs and lead to tragic outcomes, including his fatal combat with his brother Balan, in which they unknowingly slay one another.
The supplied sources provide no detailed physical description (height, hair, armor specifics). They portray Balin socially and nominally as a 'poor knight' from Northumberland and record epithets that indicate temperament and equipment: he is called 'Balin the Savage' and 'the Knight with the Two Swords.' The epithet suggests he bears distinctive weaponry (a sword taken from the damsel and later use of the Holy Lance), but the narratives do not supply a sustained corporeal portrait.
Primary attributions are exceptional martial skill and boldness: Balin successfully draws the damsel's sword in a trial that others fail (the damsel claimed only a truly virtuous knight could draw it), and contemporaneous commentators in the narratives (via Merlin) call him potentially the best and bravest knight had he lived. His defining behavioral trait is impetuosity: rash, swift action (for example, beheading the Lady of the Lake in Arthur's court and refusing the damsel's warning about the sword) which precipitates fateful consequences. There is no indication in the supplied sources that Balin possesses inherent supernatural powers; his force lies in martial prowess and decisive, often reckless, action.
Weaknesses
- conditionimpetuosity / inability to restrain violent impulses
- othersusceptibility to prophetic curse bound to an object (the damsel's sword)
Wards
- conditionmitigation: heeding the damsel's warning and returning the sword
Aglovale
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Bleoberis
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Calogrenant
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Dagonet
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Dinadan
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Elaine of Astolat
Elaine of Astolat is a mortal noblewoman from Arthurian romance who dies of unrequited love for Sir Lancelot; her body is set adrift in a small boat clutching a lily and a final letter and is discovered at Camelot. Her episode appears in multiple medieval variants and was later reworked in Victorian poetry and visual art.
Elaine of Corbenic
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Enide (Enid)
Enide (Welsh: Enid) is a human literary character from medieval Arthurian romance, depicted as the wife of the heroes Erec (in Chrétien de Troyes' Erec and Enide) and Geraint (in the Welsh romance Geraint and Enid). She functions as a courtly lady whose love, loyalty, and speech catalyze the hero's testing, restoration of honor, and reconciliation of domestic affection with knightly duty.
Fisher King
A figure in the Arthurian Grail cycle who serves as the hereditary guardian of the Holy Grail and whose bodily wound is symbolically linked to the barrenness of his realm. He is often depicted as incapacitated and 'fishing' while awaiting a questing hero whose question or deed will heal him and restore the land.
Gaheris
Gaheris is a literary figure of the Arthurian romance tradition: a Knight of the Round Table, son of King Lot and Queen Morgause, and a brother of Gawain. Presented in continental French poetry, the Vulgate/Lancelot-Grail cycle, and Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, his martial deeds, a notorious act of matricide in Malory, and his death during Lancelot's rescue of Guinevere are depicted as contributing to the political unraveling of Arthur's court.
Galehaut
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Gareth
Gareth is a literary knight of King Arthur's Round Table, traditionally presented as a younger son of King Lot and nephew of King Arthur. In medieval Arthurian romances (notably Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and continental Vulgate/Post-Vulgate material) he functions as an exemplar of chivalric virtues—humility, martial skill, generosity—and as a narrative figure whose death helps precipitate the collapse of Arthur's realm.
Community Record
- [1]Sir Balin — Wikipedia. Wikipedia contributors, 'Sir Balin', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopediawiki
- [2]Wikidata: Sir Balin. Wikidata entry Q2880904: Sir Balinother
- [3]The Death of Arthur / King Arthur & his Noble Knights of the Round Table (archive.org). Archive edition(s) and summaries of Malory and Arthurian materialliterary
- [4]The Knight of the Golden Falcon (archive.org). Archive holdings referencing Arthurian episodes and retellingsliterary