Gaheris (Old French: Gaheriet, Gaheriés, Guerrehes) is a knight of the Round Table in the chivalric romance tradition of Arthurian legend. A nephew of King Arthur, Gaheris is the third son of Arthur's sister or half-sister Morgause and her husband Lot, King of Orkney and Lothian. He is the younger brother of Gawain and Agravain, the older brother of Gareth, and half-brother of Mordred. Le Morte d'Arthur depicts Gaheris as little more than a supporting character to Gawain, with an odd exception of his murder of their mother. His role is greater in the French prose cycles, including as an object of murderous sibling rivalry by Agravain in the Vulgate Cycle. Inevitably, however, he is killed alongside Gareth during Lancelot's rescue of Guinevere, the event that will lead to the fall of Arthur. Origin Gaheris and his brother Gareth likely originated from the same character, due to the similarity of their names in Old French (the forms of their names include the almost entirely exact Guerrehes and Guerrehet, respectively). Furthermore, the adventures ascribed to the brothers are often interchangeable and indistinguishable. Only one brother is ever named for Gwalchmai ap Gwyar, the figure from Welsh mythology traditionally identified with Gawain. This character (a prince named Gwalchafed, Gwalhafed, or Gwalhauet [Gwalhavet], Old Welsh for "Hawk of Summer"), mentioned in Culhwch and Olwen, is a likely common source for both Gaheris and Gareth, if Gawain was indeed derived from Gwalchmai. The later, French-inspired Welsh romance Seint Greal calls Gwalchmei's brother Gaharyet. Medieval literature Early appearances in French and German poetry In continental literature, Gaheris' name is first found as Gaheriet on the list of King Arthur's knights in the French poem Erec and Enide, written in the late 12th century by Chrétien de Troyes. He again appears in Chrétien's later Perceval, the Story of the Grail, which describes him as a son of King Lot and one of younger brothers of Gawain. In the German poem Parzival, he is instead one of Gawain's cousins, named Gaherjet. Der Pleier's Meleranz mentions Gaharet (also rendered as Kaheret in his Tandareis and Flordibel), a son of Arthur's sister Anthonje and the unnamed King of Gritenland, as one of the cousins of Gawain (Gawan), along with the protagonist Meleranz. As Karjet (Karyet), he appears in Lanzelet, helping Lancelot rescue Guinevere from the abduction by King Valerin. French cyclical prose and foreign adaptations The Lancelot-Grail (Vulgate Cycle)