King Pellinore (alternatively Pellinor, Pellynore and other variants) is the king of Listenoise (possibly the Lake District) or of "the Isles" (possibly Anglesey, or perhaps the medieval kingdom of the same name) in Arthurian legend. In the tradition from the Old French prose, he is associated with the Questing Beast and is the slayer of King Lot. His many children include the sons Aglovale, Lamorak, and Percival, and the daughter Dindrane.
Pellinore is a major figure in the 13th-century Post-Vulgate prose cycle and the sections of Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur based on it. There, as son of King Pellam and brother of Kings Pelles (the Fisher King) and Alain, he is most famous for his endless hunt of the Questing Beast, which he is tracking when King Arthur first meets him. Though he claims his bloodline is destined perpetually to chase this bizarre monster, Sir Palamedes the Saracen takes up the quest, and, according to one version, slays the beast.
Pellinore beats King Arthur after three jousts and breaks the sword Arthur had withdrawn from the stone (in some versions this is Excalibur, though he gets another sword of that name from the Lady of the Lake soon after). Merlin throws a spell of enchantment on Pellinore to save Arthur's life. Arthur praises Pellinore's skill, and they soon become friends, with Arthur inviting him to join the Round Table. Pellinore then helps Arthur in his early wars against rebelling vassals, but when he kills King Lot of Orkney during the Battle of Tarabel (or Dimilioc), he sparks a blood feud between his and Lot's family that results in his death by Gawain and his brothers and the deaths of many others.
Pellinore was said to have been of the royal line of Joseph of Arimathea, whose dynasty guards the Holy Grail, according to Arthurian lore. In the Livre d'Artus, Pellinore is called the "Maimed King" after being wounded by a holy spear, having doubted the powers of the Grail.
Pellinore has many legitimate and illegitimate children. His sons Tor, Aglovale, Lamorak, Dornar, and Percival all eventually join the Round Table as well. It is Percival, who was one of the first Grail seekers, and his grand nephew, Galahad, who finally succeeds in the quest. His daughter, Percival's sister, sometimes known as Dindrane, becomes a servant of the Grail and helps them achieve the mystical objective as the "Grail heroine". Another of his daughters, Alyne, dies early when he, not knowing it is her, ignores her pleas for help while hurrying to retrieve Nimue from her abductor at the behest of Arthur.[1]