prose cycles. While Gawain and Gareth will have nothing to do with Agravain and Mordred's plot to entrap Lancelot and Guinevere (in the English verse translation Stanzaic Morte Arthur, Gaheris too sides with them), Arthur asks the all brothers of Mordred to help guard the queen's execution. Gaheris and Gareth reluctantly agree, though Gawain refuses. When Lancelot rushes to save the woman whom he loves, he cuts down the two Orkney princes. As told in the Vulgate Mort Artu, Gaheris manages to kill Meliadus the Black, but then his helmet is knocked off by Lancelot's half-brother Hector de Maris, after which his head is split by Lancelot himself. Their surviving brother Gawain's fury is terrible and the resulting new blood feud leads to the destruction of Arthur's kingdom. Different characters by this name In the Post-Vulgate version of the Mort Artu, a knight from North Wales also named Gaheris takes the vacant Round Table seat that had belonged to Gaheris of Orkney after the death of the latter. That "new" Gaheris (Gaheres de Norgales) participates in the resulting civil war, fighting on Arthur and Gawain's side against Lancelot's followers. To further confusion, there is also Gaheris of Karaheu, another Knight of the Round Table. Both of them are entirely distinct from Gaheris the brother of Gawain. Modern culture T. H. White's The Once and Future King attributes the act of matricide to Agravaine instead of Gaheris. White gives his own individual interpretation to the story, depicting Agravaine as having an unhealthy love/lust obsession for his own mother, and repeatedly describes Gaheris as "dull" or "dull-witted". In Gerald Morris' book series The Squire's Tales, Gaheris is one of the main heroes. He is portrayed as a witty, quietly brave man who prefers agriculture to sword fighting. In the 1995 film First Knight, Gaheris is portrayed by Alexis Denisof. He participates at the final battle for Camelot and survives against Malagant and his army. Notes References External links Gaheris at The Camelot Project Arthurian characters Fictional matricides Fictional princes King Arthur's family Knights of the Round Table