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Accolon
On one occasion, Morgan la Fée stole her brother’s sword “Excalibur,” with its scabbard, and sent them to sir Accolon of Gaul, her paramour, that he might kill her brother Arthur in mortal combat. If this villainy had succeeded, Morgan intended to murder her husband, marry sir Accolon, and “devise to make him king of Britain;” but sir Accolon, during the combat, dropped the sword, and Arthur, snatching it up, would have slain him had he not craved mercy and confessed the treasonable design. After this, Morgan stole the scabbard, and threw it into the lake.
Lastly, she tried to murder her brother by means of a poisoned
robe; but Arthur told the messenger to try it on, that he might
see it, and when he did so he dropped down dead, “being
burnt to a coal”
Le
Morte d'Arthur By Sir Thomas Malory
Sir, said Merlin, look ye keep well the scabbard of Excalibur,
for ye shall lose no blood while ye have the scabbard upon you,
though ye have as many wounds upon you as ye may have. So after,
for great trust, Arthur betook the scabbard to Morgan le Fay his
sister, and she loved another knight better than her husband King
Uriens or King Arthur, and she would have had Arthur her brother
slain, and therefore she let make another scabbard like it by
enchantment, and gave the scabbard Excalibur to her love; and the
knight’s name was called Accolon, that after had near slain
King Arthur. After this Merlin told unto King Arthur of the
prophecy that there should be a great battle beside Salisbury,
and Mordred his own son should be against him. Also he told him
that Bagdemegus was his cousin, and germain unto King Uriens.
Le
Morte d'Arthur By Sir Thomas Malory. Book
II
In the meanwhile there had happened to Sir Accolon of Gaul a
strange adventure; for when he awoke from his deep sleep upon the
silken barge, he found himself upon the edge of a deep well, and
in instant peril of falling thereinto. Whereat, leaping up in
great affright, he crossed himself and cried aloud, “May
God preserve my lord King Arthur and King Urience, for those
damsels in the ship have betrayed us, and were doubtless devils
and no women; and if I may escape this misadventure, I will
certainly destroy them wheresoever I may find them.”
“Well,” said Sir Accolon, “tell you my lady
Queen Morgan, that I shall hold to that I promised her, now that
I have this sword—and,” said he, “I suppose it
was to bring about this battle that she made all these
enchantments by her craft.” “You have guessed
rightly,” said the dwarf, and therewithal he left him.
King Arthur and Sir Accolon of Gaul By Sir James Knowles
"First let us find some rock or mossed retreat
Where we may sit at ease.--Why dost thou look
So serious? Nay! learn lightness from this brook,
And gladness from these flowers, my Accolon.
See the wild vista there! where purpling run
Long woodland shadows from the sinking sun;
Deeper the wood seems there, secluded as
The tame wild-deer that, in the moss and grass
Accolon
of Gaul by Madison Cawein
