by Jay Ruud
Isolde: La Belle Isolde is the daughter of the king and queen of Ireland, and was queen of Cornwall, married to King Mark. A famous healer and herbalist, she once saved the life of Sir Tristram with her potions. She was also Tristram’s secret lover, and died upon seeing his dead body.
Isolde of the White Hands: Isolde of the White Hands is Sir Tristram’s wife in Brittany. He married her essentially because she had the same name as his beloved, but he never consummated the marriage. As the daughter of Duke Hoel, she is half-sister to Gildas’s love, the Lady Rosemounde, and full sister to Kaherdin.
Jacques: Captain Jacques is commander of Kaherdin’s Breton guard. He is an honest knight, solid in a fight, loyal to Kaherdin and Duke Hoel, and a lively companion. He does enjoy frequenting the taverns of Saint-Malo, telling stories, and traveling with a tall, boisterous Borzoi hound.
Kaherdin: Lord of the fortress city of Saint-Malo in Brittany and the natural son of Duke Hoel, Kaherdin commands the troops of this port city and reports to his father as his liege lord. An arrogant and Spartan warrior, Kaherdin was also a close friend of Sir Tristram, and convinced Tristram to marry his sister, Isolde of the White Hands.
Kay: Sir Kay is King Arthur’s seneschal, which means he is in charge of the king’s household He was Arthur’s foster-brother when they were boys, and Arthur promised Kay’s father Sir Ector that there would always be a place for Kay in his court.
Lady of the Lake: Queen of Faerie, a being of great mystical power. She is responsible for giving the sword Excalibur to King Arthur. She lives in an enchanted palace north of Camelot on a lake named for her.
Lamorak de Galis: Sir Lamorak is one of the three great knights of Arthur’s table. He was the son of King Pelinore, who killed King Lot and thus began a feud with the house of Orkney. Sir Gaheris caught Sir Lamorak in bed with his mother Margause and let him escape, but Gawain, Gaheris, and Agravain killed Sir Lamorak later in ambush.
Lancelot: Sir Lancelot is the greatest knight of Arthur’s table, and is the secret lover of Queen Guinevere. He is the son of King Ban of Benwick, and his close kinsmen—Sir Bors, Sir Hector, and Sir Lionel—form a powerful bloc of Round Table knights. He himself knighted Sir Perceval, and he is therefore Perceval’s mentor and champion at Arthur’s court.
Lot: King Lot of Orkney was an enemy of Arthur’s who would not accept the fifteen-year old boy as king of Logres. With an alliance of other kings, he made war on Arthur to get him off the throne, but was ultimately defeated and killed. He was married to Arthur’s half-sister Margause, and was the father of Gawain, Gaheris, Agravain, and Gareth.
Lovel of Orkney: Sir Gawain’s second son, and his new squire, replacing Sir Florent.
Margause: Mother of Gawain and his brothers, Margause was the wife of King Lot of Orkney and was one of Arthur’s half-sisters, daughter of his mother Ygraine and Duke Gorlois of Cornwall. Not known for her high moral standards, Margause was killed by her own son Sir Gaheris when he caught her in bed with Sir Lamorak.
Mark: Mark is King of Cornwall, and was married to La Belle Isolde. He was also the uncle of Sir Tristram, who was his wife’s lover. King Mark gained the Cornish throne as the result of heroic action in Arthur’s war with Ireland, but has been known to seek vengeance on Sir Tristram before. He is also Gildas’s own lord and king, and vassal to King Arthur.
Meg: Serving-wench at the Cock and Bull Inn, with a great affection for Captain Jacques.
Melias: Melias is son of the Count of Poutou and squire to Sir Kaherdin. He is one of Kaherdin’s close advisors, and greatly admires Kaherdin, for whom he also performs clerkly duties as a kind of secretary.
Merlin: Arthur’s chief adviser in his early days, Merlin helped Arthur solidify his realm, win the war against King Lot and his allies and the war with Ireland. Rumored to have magical powers and to be able to see the future, Merlin is essentially just a more logical and scientific thinker than most of his contemporaries. His hopeless love for Nimue, the damsel of the lake, regularly sends him into fits of depression, particularly now that she has embraced Sir Florent as her lover.
Mordred: Mordred is the youngest brother of Sir Gawain and Sir Gareth, the youngest child of Arthur’s half-sister Margause. He becomes Sir Mordred in this book. But his parentage is doubtful: he does not resemble any of his brothers, and his birth and early childhood are shrouded in secrecy.
Morgan le Fay: Queen of Gore, wife of King Uriens and mother of Sir Ywain, Morgan is King Arthur’s half-sister, the daughter of his mother Ygraine and Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall.
Neville of Acre: Sir Neville is one of the Lord Kaherdin’s knights at Saint-Malo. The mysterious and unorthodox Sir Neville had been a crusading knight prior to taking service with Kaherdin, and so is worldly with a great deal of experience in matters of war.
Nimue: Lady-in-waiting to the Lady of the Lake, Nimue lives in the Lady’s mystical palace and never ages. Her beauty enchanted Merlin, who remains in love with her though she has definitively rejected him.
Oswald: Brother Oswald (or “Master” Oswald) is a monk attached to the Cathedral of Saint Vincent of Saragossa in Saint-Malo. He was the attending physician at the deaths of Sir Tristram and of Queen Isolde, and can therefore give the most accurate accounting of the death scene.
Palomides: Sir Palomides is a Moorish knight who has joined the Round Table and become a Christian. He was Sir Tristram’s great rival for the love of Isolde, and is known as a composer of love poems. He is also fascinated by cooking with the spices of his native lands.
Perceval de Galis: A new knight recently arrived at Camelot, Perceval is the brother of Sir Lamorak and so the son of King Pelinore, who killed King Lot and thus began a feud with the house of Orkney. Perceval has renounced any such feuds, and, championed by Sir Lancelot, is devoted to chivalry and ready to become a knight of the Round Table.
Robin Kempe: Captain of the King’s Guard and of the Royal Archers, Robin spends a good deal of time on guard in the barbican of Camelot, when he isn’t training his archers. One of Robin’s favorite pastimes is goading Gildas of Cornwall, for whom he has a good deal of affection.
Roger: Roger is the chief cook of Camelot.
Rosemounde of Brittany: Lady Rosemounde is the seventeen-year-old lady-in-waiting to Queen Guinevere who is the object of Gildas’s deepest affections. She is daughter of Duke Hoel of Britany, and therefore is obligated to make a politically advantageous marriage. Her half-sister is Isolde of the White Hands, whose reputation she is concerned with protecting.
Safer: Sir Safer, a Moorish knight, is brother to Sir Palomides and his closest companion and confidante.
Sagramore: Sir Sagramore, now deceased, was nephew to the Emperor of Constantinople. Formerly a companion of Sir Tristram’s, he was implicated in King Mark’s plot to destroy Tristram in the previous novel.
Thomas: Young sandy-haired squire to Sir Ywain, Thomas is one of Gildas of Cornwall’s closer friends.
Tristram: Sir Tristram was nephew to King Mark of Cornwall, and in love with his uncle’s queen, La Belle Isolde. He was married to Isolde of the White Hands, a noblewoman of Brittany—daughter of Duke Hoel, sister of the lord Kaherdin, and half-sister to Rosemounde of Brittany. He was well-known as one of the three greatest knights of the Round Table.
Urban: Abbot of the Marmoutier monastery of Saint Vincent in Saint-Malo, which protects the Lady Brangwen after her mistress’s death, and houses Brother Oswald, physician who attended on the dying Sir Tristram.
Vivien: Lady Vivien is one of Queen Guinevere’s ladies-in-waiting. She is French by birth, has green eyes, and enjoys romances, poetry, and gossip.
William of Caen: Sir William of Caen is a knight in the service of Lord Kaherdin. He is a strait-laced, chivalrous knight, who believes in following all the rules of courtesy and keeping himself sober and uncorrupted.
Ywain: Sir Ywain, known as the “Knight of the Lion” because
he often goes on adventures with his pet lion, is another nephew of King Arthur, the son of King Uriens and Morgan la Fay, Arthur’s half-sister through his mother Ygraine. Sir Ywain is devoted to his cousins Sir Gawain and Sir Gareth.
About the Author
Jay Ruud is a retired professor of medieval literature at the University of Central Arkansas. In addition to Fatal Feast and The Knight’s Riddle, the first two books in this series of Merlin mysteries, he is the author of “Many a Song and Many a Leccherous Lay”: Tradition and Individuality in Chaucer’s Lyric Poetry (1992), the Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature (2006), A Critical Companion to Dante (2008), and A Critical Companion to Tolkien (2011). He taught taught at UCA for fourteen years, prior to which he was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northern State University in South Dakota. He has a Ph.D. in Medieval Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.