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Ironside
Sir Ironside. The Red Knight of the Red Lands, “He had the strength of seven men, and every day his strength went on increasing till noon.”
This knight kept the Lady Lionês captive in Castle Perilous.
In the allegory of Sir Gareth, Sir Ironside represents death, and the captive lady “the Bride,” or Church triumphant. Sir Gareth combats with Night, Morn, Noon, and Evening, or fights the fight of faith, and then overcomes the last enemy, which is death, when he marries the lady, or is received into the Church, which is “the Lamb’s Bride.”
Tennyson, in his Gareth and Lynette, makes the combat with the Red Knight (“Mors,” or “Death”) to be a single stroke; but the History says it is endured from morn to noon, and from noon to night—in fact, that man’s whole life is a contest with moral and physical death. Le Morte d'Arthur By Sir Thomas Malory; Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (“Gareth and Lynette”).
"Then the king went out of Carlion, for there was the feast, and there came to him this lord, and saluted the king in a goodly manner. What will ye, said King Arthur, and what is your errand? Sir, he said, my name is the Red Knight of the Red Launds, but my name is Sir Ironside; and sir, wit ye well, here I am sent to you of a knight that is called Beaumains, for he won me in plain battle hand for hand, and so did never no knight but he, that ever had the better of me this thirty winter; the which commanded to yield me to you at your will." Le Morte d'Arthur By Sir Thomas Malory. Book VII
