Sagramore

<h2 id="medieval-and-renaissance-literature">Medieval and Renaissance literature</h2>
The earliest appearances of Sagramore, as Sagremor le Desreé (the Impetous), can be found in the 12th century stories by <a href="/facts/Chr%25C3%25A9tien_de_Troyes/vTbmHVgA">Chrétien de Troyes</a>, where he is one of <a href="/facts/King_Arthur/JDyRQ8gx">King Arthur</a>'s greatest knights and a companion of <a href="/facts/Sir_Erec/KW6L1QIE">Erec</a>. In the later <a href="/facts/Prose_Tristan/IjvHDe62">Prose Tristan</a>, Sagramore is portrayed as a close friend to the protagonist <a href="/facts/Tristan/48hpnl52">Tristan</a> and the one who alerts the rest of the <a href="/facts/Round_Table/5JuCHaFU">Round Table</a> to his death. In the <a href="/facts/Post-Vulgate_Cycle/23aN7EYx">Post-Vulgate Cycle</a>, the young Sagramore becomes the foster-brother of the child <a href="/facts/Mordred/PgWsReUh">Mordred</a> whose real identity is unknown at the time; he also appears as a brother of Mordred named Segures in <a href="/facts/Renaud_de_Beaujeu/xAhcLxmr">Renaud de Beaujeu</a>'s version of the story of <a href="/facts/Le_Bel_Inconnu/KrS22nMK">Le Bel Inconnu</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a> In <a href="/facts/Le_Morte_d%2527Arthur/VawGAIJ1">Le Morte d'Arthur</a>, the prowess of Sagramore le Desirous (Sagramoure le Desyrous) varies from situation to situation; he usually serves to lose jousts to better knights, but at times he is a valiant fighter.
Sagramore is also the subject of a fragmentary German romance, Segremors, the surviving portions of which describe his journey to an island ruled by a <a href="/facts/Fairy/P5ca3mNx">fay</a> and his undesired combat with his friend <a href="/facts/Gawain/4ArcUgUE">Gawain</a>. In Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcelos' 16th-century Portuguese romance Triunfos de Sagramor [pt] (Triumphs of Sagramore) or Memorial das Proezas da Segunda Távola Redonda (Memorial of the Deeds of the Second Round Table), Sagramore and legendary British king <a href="/facts/Constantine_(Briton)/29rNL70I">Constantine III</a> are fused into a single person, Sagramor Constantino, portrayed as the heir to Arthur who forms a new Round Table to fight the <a href="/facts/Saxons/mqm06m4r">Saxons</a> and keep the glory of Arthurian Britain.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a> It tells of the eponymous new generation of knights led by King Sagramor, Arthur's immediate successor as the ruler of "England and France".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a> He marries Arthur's daughter, Seleucia.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a>

<h3>Vulgate Cycle</h3>
According to the <a href="/facts/Lancelot-Grail/WoH5C1rS">Lancelot-Grail</a> (Vulgate) cycle, the father of Sagremor the Unruly was the <a href="/facts/King_of_Hungary/224SmG9R">King of Hungary</a> named Vlask (renamed as Nabur the Unruly in the Post-Vulgate Suite du Merlin) and his mother was a daughter of an <a href="/facts/Eastern_Roman_Empire/njEELXWF">Eastern Roman</a> ("Greek") Emperor Hadrian. Sagramore was actually an heir to the throne of <a href="/facts/Constantinople/fLcY371n">Constantinople</a>, but his father died while he was still young, and his mother accepted the proposal of King Brandegoris of Estangore in Britain. When he was fifteen, Sagramore traveled to Britain to join them and help Arthur fight the Saxon invaders. Upon arrival in Britain, Sagramore immediately engages the enemy forces in a battle at <a href="/facts/Camelot/MXekLfP7">Camelot</a> with aid from Arthur's nephew Gawain and his brothers: they are all subsequently knighted by Arthur. After the Saxons are defeated, and having personally slain some of their kings, he later participates in Arthur's other early wars such as these against <a href="/facts/Claudas/660P3Aj5">Claudas</a> and <a href="/facts/Galahaut/yN1kfbx6">Galahaut</a>.
The Lancelot-Grail describes him as a good knight, but quick to anger. When fighting, he would go into a frenzy not unlike the Irish hero <a href="/facts/C%25C3%25BAchulainn/tyqQkm4f">Cúchulainn</a>'s warp-spasm; when he came down, he would feel ill and hungry. He gains a number of nicknames, including "the Hothead" (li Desreez) and "the Desired" (le Désiré). <a href="/facts/Sir_Kay/K5s4I3oW">Kay</a> gave him another nickname, "Dead Youth" (Morte Jeune), due to how he would sometimes go into epilepsy-like fits.
The cycle recounts a number of his adventures, often centered around rescuing damsels, and mentions that he had a daughter by one of his paramours who was raised at Arthur's court by <a href="/facts/Guinevere/4fC6k9JC">Guinevere</a>. In the Livre d'Artus version he also becomes a champion of the pagan queen <a href="/facts/Sebile/bRFg6jTk">Sebile</a>, whom he marries after she converts to Christianity for his sake. His half-sister, Brandegoris' beautiful daughter Claire, falls in love with <a href="/facts/Sir_Bors/PPqmwGwe">Bors</a> and sleeps with him; their child is <a href="/facts/Elyan_the_White/KW6L1QIE">Elyan the White</a>, who too joins the Round Table before returning to take the throne of Constantinople. Eventually, Sagramore dies by Mordred's hand as one of Arthur's last remaining men in <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Camlann/CvIJqh8H">their final battle</a>.

<h2 id="modern-fiction">Modern fiction</h2>
Sagramore appears with some regularity in modern Arthurian literature and other fiction. 

<ul><li>In <a href="/facts/Alfred%2c_Lord_Tennyson/jeaFd1DD">Alfred, Lord Tennyson</a>'s "Merlin and Vivien", one of the <a href="/facts/Idylls_of_the_King/re2XBbQL">Idylls of the King</a>, he stumbles into bed with a maiden, thinking he is in his own room; to save their reputation the two strangers wed, but their purity and goodness make their marriage a happy one.</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Mark_Twain/W0Pezv3l">Mark Twain</a> characterised Sagramore (as "Sir Sagramor le Desirous") as an angry, backwards knight in <a href="/facts/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_Arthur%2527s_Court/mFzg1krc">A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court</a> (portrayed by <a href="/facts/William_Bendix/xnEA2opE">William Bendix</a> in the <a href="/facts/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_Arthur%2527s_Court_(1949_film)/0nw0uMaS">1949 film version</a>), who challenges the Yankee to a duel to the death and is defeated by the Yankee's modern weaponry; his armour, later displayed in a museum featuring a gunshot hole inflicted by the Yankee, serves as a setpiece to the start of the story.</li>
<li>The knight appears in the musical <a href="/facts/Camelot_(musical)/QdlluzaR">Camelot</a> and was played by <a href="/facts/Peter_Bromilow/L6KXXKDx">Peter Bromilow</a> in the <a href="/facts/Camelot_(film)/ksN95DTq">film version</a>.</li>
<li>In <a href="/facts/Bernard_Cornwell/FTAKLxfb">Bernard Cornwell</a>'s <a href="/facts/The_Warlord_Chronicles/cNj3jLCN">The Warlord Chronicles</a>, "Sagramor" is a fierce <a href="/facts/Numidia/ErVpEwob">Numidian</a> veteran of the old Roman army who serves as Arthur's trusted chief cavalry officer, having traveled to Britain after the collapse of the <a href="/facts/Western_Roman_Empire/PkeT92o9">Western Roman Empire</a>. His uniqueness in the setting as a black person makes him particularly feared by Arthur's enemies, the invading Saxons.</li></ul>
<h2 id="sagremor-de-pommiers">Sagremor de Pommiers</h2>
Sagremor de Pommiers was a friend of <a href="/facts/Petrarch/sbLMjk0u">Petrarch</a>'s; in his letters, Petrarch calls him sacer amor, or "sacred love". He served for a while as a messenger of the <a href="/facts/Emperor/qhML5ftb">Emperor</a>, sometimes traveling with the poet; after a while, he became a monk and retired in a monastery. Petrarch dedicated his Psalmi Poenitentiales to him.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a>

<h2 id="sources">Sources</h2>
<ul><li>Norris J. Lacy et al. The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1991.</li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">"Stanford University Publications: University series. Language and literature". Stanford University. 19 January 1952 – via Google Books. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=B-UERDABGBAC" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=B-UERDABGBAC</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">"Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication". Carnegie Institution of Washington. 19 January 1916 – via Google Books. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4ftZAAAAYAAJ" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=4ftZAAAAYAAJ</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">Sommer, Heinrich Oskar (19 January 1916). "The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances: Index". Carnegie Institution – via Google Books. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YGZDAAAAYAAJ" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=YGZDAAAAYAAJ</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Bruce, Christopher W. (1999). The Arthurian Name Dictionary. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-8153-2865-0. <a href="978-0-8153-2865-0" target="_blank">978-0-8153-2865-0</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Os livros de cavalarias renascentistas nas histórias da literatura portuguesa, Aurelio Vargas Díaz-Toledo. <a href="http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/3762.pdf" target="_blank">http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/3762.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">A novelística portuguesa do século XVI Archived 10 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Ettore Finazzi-Agró, Lisbon, Instituto de Cultura Portuguesa, 1978. <a href="http://cvc.instituto-camoes.pt/conhecer/biblioteca-digital-camoes/estudos-literarios-critica-literaria/30-30/file.html" target="_blank">http://cvc.instituto-camoes.pt/conhecer/biblioteca-digital-camoes/estudos-literarios-critica-literaria/30-30/file.html</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Lacy, Norris J.; Ashe, Geoffrey; Ihle, Sandra Ness; Kalinke, Marianne E.; Thompson, Raymond H. (5 September 2013). The New Arthurian Encyclopedia: New edition. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-60632-8. <a href="978-1-136-60632-8" target="_blank">978-1-136-60632-8</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Hook, David (15 June 2015). The Arthur of the Iberians: The Arthurian Legends in the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-1-78316-243-7. <a href="978-1-78316-243-7" target="_blank">978-1-78316-243-7</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">Varnhagen, Francisco Adolfo de (1872). O Memorial das proezas da segunda tavola redonda e a edicao triunfos de Sagramor ... (in Brazilian Portuguese). Gerold. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=XnPlGpPqqhQC&pg=PA12" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=XnPlGpPqqhQC&pg=PA12</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Charron, Sophie Elise (2023). "The empress and the humanist: Profit and politics in the correspondence of Anne of Świdnica and Petrarch". Journal of Medieval History. 49: 72–92. doi:10.1080/03044181.2022.2153267. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080%2F03044181.2022.2153267" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1080%2F03044181.2022.2153267</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">Petrarca, Francesco (2009). Familiaria: Bücher der Vertraulichkeiten. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-019159-2. <a href="978-3-11-019159-2" target="_blank">978-3-11-019159-2</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Sagramore open-in-new

Sagramore