Bors

Bors (/ˈbɔːrz/; French: Bohort) is the name of two knights in Arthurian legend, an elder and a younger. The two first appear in the 13th-century Lancelot-Grail romance prose cycle. Bors the Elder is the King of Gaunnes (Gannes/Gaunes/Ganis) during the early period of King Arthur's reign, and is the brother of King Ban of Benoic and the father of Bors the Younger and Lionel. His son Bors the Younger later becomes one of the best Knights of the Round Table and participates in the achievement of the Holy Grail.

For other uses, see Bors (disambiguation).

King Bors the Elder[edit]

Bors the Elder is the brother of King Ban and the uncle of Hector de Maris and Lancelot. He marries Evaine, the sister of Ban's wife Elaine. He has two sons: Bors the Younger and Lionel.

Ban and Bors become King Arthur's early allies in his fight against eleven rebel kings in Britain, including Lot, Urien, and Caradoc, Arthur vows in return to help them against their Frankish enemy, King Claudas, who has been threatening their lands back in the continent. Arthur is late on his promise, though, and Claudas succeeds in his invasion, resulting in both kings' deaths. Ban's son Lancelot is taken by the Lady of the Lake, but Bors' children are raised in captivity by Claudas' retainers.

In , a Columbia Pictures serial from 1949, Sir Bors is played by Charles King as a comedy relief sidekick for Galahad.

Adventures of Sir Galahad

In 's 1958 novel The Once and Future King, Bors is described as a "misogynist" and an "almost-virgin", and generally something of a curmudgeon.

T.H. White

In 1975's , Sir Bors (played by Terry Gilliam) is the first Knight of the Round Table to succumb to the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. Bors appears in the stage musical adaptation of the film, entitle Spamalot.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

In 2004's , British actor Ray Winstone plays a different interpretation of Bors. He is one of Arthur's Roman-Sarmatian soldiers, and is brash, bold and violent in a departure from the saintly earlier figure. He is brother to Dagonet; has a native lover Vanora, and more than ten illegitimate children. Vanora is believed to be an early identity of Guenevere; the Vanora of the film is also some-time mistress to fellow Sarmatian soldier Lancelot, who is strongly hinted to be the father of Bors' youngest child, and possibly others (for example Gilly, the eldest), as they have dark hair whereas neither of their parents do.

King Arthur

at The Camelot Project