Misplaced Pages

Dinadan
Matter of Britain character
Sir Dinadan in a 1894 issue of The Catholic World
First appearance	Prose Tristan
In-universe information
Title	Sir
Occupation	Knight of the Round Table
Family	Bruenor, Daniel
Nationality	Cornish

Dinadan is a Cornish Knight of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend's chivalric romance tradition. In the Prose Tristan and its adaptations, Dinadan is a close friend of the protagonist Tristan. Known for his cynical humor and pragmatism, and also for his severe anti-chivalric attitudes in the original French texts, he serves as a foil to Tristan in his softened portrayal in the English compilation Le Morte d'Arthur. In both Malory and his French sources, Dinadan appears in several often comedic episodes until his murder by Mordred and Agravain. Despite his relatively minor role, he has become a major subject of especially Malorian scholarship.

Medieval Arthuriana

Like Palamedes and Lamorak, Dinadan was introduced in the 13th-century Prose Tristan, a French late variation of the Tristan and Iseult legend. Here, Dinadan is a knight from Cornwall and the son of Bruenor senior, also known as the Good Knight Without Fear. His brothers include fellow Round Table knights, Breunor le Noir and Daniel. Unlike many other knights in Arthurian romance, the pragmatic Dinadan tends to avoid fights and views courtly love as a futile pursuit, though he displays bravery in battle when necessary. As described by Norris J. Lacy, who called him "one of his most delightful creations" of the Prose Tristan,

Dinadan, a pragmatist and a jovial cynic, consistently questions the conventions of chivalry and condemns, for example, the folly of doing battle for no purpose other than to demonstrate valor. He is equally cynical about love, mocking lovers who are tormented by their emotion; he wants no part of a love that brings not joy but suffering. Dinadan serves as the voice of skeptical reason and practicality.

Early parts of the Prose Tristan initially feature Dinadan as a more of a typical knight errant character of Arthurian romance, less sensible and with limited sarcasm as compared to his characterization in other French tellings, such as the Post-Vulgate Cycle—but not to the one in Thomas Malory's iconic English Arthurian compilation Le Morte d'Arthur, where his character is both already fully established and markedly toned down compared to the corresponding episodes from Malory's French text sources. Dinadan also appears in some lesser-known romances, such as variants of Les Prophéties de Merlin, and Escanor, where his deep skepticism towards women serves as a comedic theme.

Le Morte d'Arthur

Based on the Prose Tristan in a highly abridged form, Malory's portrayal of Dinadan (Dynadan) remains a comedic character as he retains some of the French version's cynical humor and inclination towards mocking chivalry, albeit without much of his original ironic commentaries. Dinadan is often depicted as the most witty among Arthur's knights, both the source and target of practical jokes. He is one of the only few able to recognize his fellow knights even when they are wearing full helmets and do not have marked shields, which Helen Cooper interpreted as a female characteristic.

During his visit to the court of Cornwall in search of his friend, the young hero Tristan (Tristram), Dinadan shares supper with Queen Iseult (La Beale Isoud), revealing his deliberate choice to have no lady-love or paramour to inspire his noble deeds. In one escapade, he is caught off guard and defeated in a joust by Lancelot, who cleverly wears a dress over his armor and later dresses his unconscious opponent in it, a cross-dressing episode corresponding go the one in the Version IV of the Prose Tristan (and the Prophecies de Merlin) in which men sent by Lancelot and Galehaut forcibly dress Dinadan in a lady's gown as a joke for Queen Guinevere. Albeit reluctantly, Dinadan is also still capable of heroic deeds on an occasion, such as when he helps Tristan to fight off 30 knights of Queen Morgan all at once.

In Le Morte d'Arthur, as in the Prose Tristan, Dinadan tragically meets his end after returning from Cornwall, hoping to persuade King Arthur to reverse his ruling that had reinstated the villainous King Mark on the throne. However, while wounded from his encounter with the evil knight Brehu the Merciless, Dinadan is ambushed and murdered by two other Knights of the Round Table, the treacherous half-brothers Mordred and Agravain, who hate him for his association with their enemy Lamorak from the rival clan of King Pellinore. Lancelot's half-brother Hector de Maris discovers Dinadan mortally wounded and brings him to Camelot, where he dies in Lancelot's arms.

According to Joyce Coleman, "Margaret Schlauch praises the 'courtly realism' depicted in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, especially highlighting 'the comically realistic Sir Dinadan', whose humorous remarks about his fear of jousting leave his audience laughing so hard they can barely stay seated. 'Sir Dinadan, the realist' , described as the 'rational moralist' governed by a 'pragmatic creed' , remains a central figure in Malorian analysis." Conversely, other scholars such as Eugène Vinaver and Harold Livermore view the humor of Malory's Dinadan as inferior to that found in his French source material, where Dinadan's jokes are seen as more offensive and subversive, even addressing taboo subjects like religion.

Tavola Ritonda

In La Tavola Ritonda, a late medieval Italian rewrite of the Prose Tristan, the Merciless (Breus sanz Pietà) is uniquely turned into his cousin. Late in the book, Dinadan (Dinadano) attempts to murder the captured King Mark (Marco) in revenge for the death of his dear friend Tristan (Tristano).

Unlike other portrayals, this version of Dinadan is depicted as a violent misogynist who harbors deep animosity towards women, including Tristan's beloved Iseult (Isotta), whom he openly insults as a "whore". Tristan, unsuccessfully, tries to trick him into loving a woman twice. The only time Dinadan falls in love with a woman is during his brief affair with the evil Losanna of the Ancient Tower (Losanna della Torre Antica) in an episode based on the Short Version of the Prose Tristan. This affair causes him to turn against Tristan, who fights to save Losanna's rival Tessina (whom Dinadan also disparagingly calls a "whore"). His typically-hostile attitude towards women earns him friendly mockery from Tristan, including a comical episode where Tristan, after Dinadan refuses to marry a daughter of Espinogres (here portrayed as a king; in Malory's version he is a knight companion of Tristan and Dinadan), enters Dinadan's room at night pretending to be the daughter, madly in love with him.

Modern Arthuriana

Dinadan has appeared in a number of modern works, including the musical Camelot in which he was portrayed by John Cullum in the original 1960 Broadway production while Anthony Rogers played the role in the 1967 film version. He is the main character in Gerald Morris' 2003 novel The Ballad of Sir Dinadan, and is featured in the chapter "Sir Dinadan the Humorist" in Mark Twain's 1890 novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In Lev Grossman's 2024 novel The Bright Sword, Dinadan is portrayed as a transgender who uses knight armor to hide own breasts and female genitals, acclaimed by The New York Times reviewer (and fellow modern Arthurian author) Kiersten White as "one of the best knights to come out of modern Arthurian tales".

See also

• Cross-dressing in literature
• Dagonet, the court jester of King Arthur
• Sancho Panza

Notes

1. Alternative forms of his name in various texts and manuscripts include Dinadam, Dinadano, Dinaden, Dinadem, Dinadeira, Divdan, Dynadan and Dynadam.

References

1. Elmes, Melissa Ridley; Meyer, Evelyn (2023). Ethics in the Arthurian Legend. Boydell & Brewer. p. 225. ISBN 978-1-84384-687-1.
2. ^ Arthurian Literature XXIII. Vol. 23. Boydell & Brewer. 2006. ISBN 9781843840978. JSTOR 10.7722/j.ctt820cc.
3. Krueger, Roberta L. (22 June 2000). The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-82549-8.
4. Besamusca, Bart; Brandsma, Frank; Busby, Keith (2007). Arthurian Literature. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84384-116-6.
5. Leitch, Megan G.; Whetter, Kevin S. (2022). Arthurian Literature XXXVII: Malory at 550: Old and New. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84384-635-2.
6. ^ Brook, Leslie. "Demons and Angels: Female Portrayal in Escanor" (PDF). www.reading.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
7. Kibler, William W. (22 July 2010). The Lancelot-Grail Cycle: Text and Transformations. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-78640-0.
8. ^ Besamusca, Bart; Brandsma, Frank; Busby, Keith (2007). Arthurian Literature. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84384-116-6.
9. Archibald, Elizabeth (1996). A Companion to Malory. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85991-443-7.
10. https://books.google.com/books?id=_9I0DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA181
11. Montesano, Marina (7 November 2024). Cross-dressing in the Middle Ages. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-040-15324-6.
12. https://books.google.com/books?id=1n9ACwAAQBAJ&pg=PA52
13. https://books.google.com/books?id=jWi5EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA184
14. https://books.google.com/books?id=jWi5EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA173
15. Glowka, Arthur Wayne (1986). "Malory's Sense of Humor". Arthurian Interpretations. 1 (1): 39–46. JSTOR 27868608.
16. Arthurian Literature XIX. Vol. 19. Boydell & Brewer. 2003. ISBN 9780859917452. JSTOR 10.7722/j.ctt81fpd.
17. Larrington, Carolyne (1 February 2004). "04.02.30, Busby, Dalrymple, eds., Arthurian Literature XIX". The Medieval Review. ISSN 1096-746X. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
18. Morris, Gerald (2008). The Ballad of Sir Dinadan. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780547349848.
19. "Chapter 4: "Sir Dinadan the Humorist" | A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court | Mark Twain". etc.usf.edu. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
20. White, Kiersten (16 July 2024). "King Arthur is Dead. Long Live King Arthur!". The New York Times.

External links

• Dinadan at The Camelot Project
• Dinadan Archived 28 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine at Nighbringer.se

• Fictional characters introduced in the 13th century
• Fictional pranksters
• Knights of the Round Table