King Pellinor (Pellinore)

According to the Vulgate Merlin, Pellinor of the High Wild Forest was brother of King Pelles of Listenois and King Alan of Listenois. Pellinor had thirteen sons.

Both Pellinor and his brother Alan were suffering from an illness and wouldn't be healed until the Grail was achieved. But in the Suite du Merlin (Post-Vulgate, c. 1240) and Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur (1469), the Maimed King was Parlan or Parlam, not Pellinor.

According to the Suite du Merlin and Morte d'Arthur, it was a different story and Pellinor was a different person. Pellinor was the Hunter of the Questing Beast (Bizzare Beast). Pellinor (Pellinore or Pellehen) was the father of Lamorak (Lamerocke), Agloval and Perceval. In the Suite du Merlin (Post-Vulgate), it mentioned that Melodiam was the eldest son. Melodiam could be Lamorak. He was also the father of Tor, who was his illegitimate son. Pellinor had seduced the wife of Aries the cowherd. In Chretien's story of the grail, none of Perceval's relatives were given any names, including his father and mother and brothers.

Malory called him Pellinore of Listinoise. Pellinor was known as the "Knight of the Strange Beast" (or Questing Beast). The knight who hunted the Questing Beast. At his death, the Saracen knight named Palemedes (Palomides) would take over his role as the Knight of the Questing Beast.

According to the La Suite du Merlin and Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, Pellinor hunted the Questing Beast before meeting Arthur. Arthur and Pellinor fought in single combat, and Pellinor broke Arthur's sword; the sword of the stone that won Arthur his kingdom. Pellinor would have killed Arthur, had Merlin not saved Arthur's life by putting Pellinor to sleep with his spell. Merlin brought Arthur to the Lady of the Lake who gave Arthur a new sword, Excalibur. (See The Life of King Arthur, the Legend of Excalibur)

Later, Pellinor would kill King Lot of Orkney, when King Rience and elven other kings warred against Arthur.

Pellinor became one of the knights of the Round Table during the marriage of Arthur and Guinevere. Merlin sent Pellinor to join Gawain and Tor in the quest of the White Hart, brachet (bitch-hound) and the lady. Pellinor was given the responsibility to rescue the lady.

On his quest to find the lady, Pellinor failed to help a damsel in distress, over a wounded knight. When he succeeded in his quest, he quickly returned to where he had found the damsel with the wounded knight. The wounded knight had died and the grief-stricken damsel cursed him before taking her own life. Pellinor was distressed that he could not help the damsel. When he returned to Camelot, Merlin told them that the damsel who had died was his own daughter Elaine, whose mother was the Lady of the Rule.

The lady Pellinor brought back on his quest was named Niniane, the Lady of the Lake.

Ten years later, when Gawain received knighthood, he killed Pellinor.