Sir Gaheris

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Character
Name: Sir Gaheris
Occupation: Knight; Prince of Orkney
Relationships: One of The Orkneys; husband of Lynette
Fandom: Arthuriana, Arthurian legend
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Sir Gaheris, one of the Orkney brothers, is a character in Arthurian Legend. While less popular in the Arthuriana fandom than some of his brothers, he has been reevaluated by some fans. Gaheris' supporters tend to fall into two camps: one is that his actions in later medieval literature formed an interesting component of the Orkney-Pellinore feud; the other is that those portrayals did not do justice to the character, who had previously been seen as a noble knight but became almost solely known for committing matricide.

In Literature

Medieval

In the Vulgate cycle, Gaheris is sometimes indistinguishable from Gareth, since both are sometimes called Gahereit and sometimes called Guerrehet. He gets along very poorly with Agravaine, teasing him mercilessly. Agravaine, in return, sometimes wants to kill him. Gaheris is accidentally killed by Lancelot du Lac while Lancelot is saving Guinevere from being burned at the stake.

The Post-Vulgate adds an incident in which Gaheris finds his mother Morgause in bed with Lamorak and kills her in horror. Sir Thomas Malory included it in Le Morte D'Arthur, and, consequently, it has influenced many later adaptations.

Modern

In The Defense of Guenever and The Once and Future King, it is Agravaine, not Gaheris, who kills Morgause.

Gaheris is the main character in The Book of Gaheris by Keri Sperring.

In Fandom

For the most part, Gaheris has been less popular than Gawain and his other brothers. Some fans have embraced him, however, usually after first becoming interested in the other Orkneys and the Orkney dynamic as a whole.

Gaheris is shipped somewhat less than many other characters and is most likely to be shipped with Lynette, his wife from Le Morte D'Arthur. However, the most common ship tag for him is Gaheris/Kay. This is entirely the work of one author, Aramise, who had posted 45 works using this tag as of September 2024. The vast number of fics for this rare pair was a matter of perplexity and Tumblr debate until it was realized that they were all by the same person.

Fan Works

Writing

Art

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