Sir Balin stabbing the Fisher King in Lancelot Speed's illustration for James Knowles' The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights (1912)
The Dolorous Stroke is a trope in Arthurian legend and some other stories of Celtic origin. In its fullest form, it concerns the Fisher King (King Pellehan or Anfortas), the guardian of the Holy Grail, who falls into sin and consequently suffers a wound from a mystical weapon (often the Spear of Destiny from Christian eschatology). He becomes the Maimed King, and his kingdom suffers similarly, becoming the Wasteland: neither will be healed until the successful completion of the Grail Quest.
The stroke is usually described as being to the king's thighs: this has been taken as a euphemism for the genitals, which are explicitly stated to be the location of Anfortas's wound in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. In the Post-Vulgate Cycle, Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and later works based on them, the stroke is delivered by Sir Balin. He ignores an "unearthly voice" warning him off, strikes the king when he is deprived of his weapon, and thinks that the stroke is justified.
The DolorousStroke is a trope in Arthurian legend and some other stories of Celtic origin. In its fullest form, it concerns the Fisher King (King Pellehan...
d'Arthur, the Fisher King's wound was given to him by Sir Balin in the "DolorousStroke", when Balin grabs a spear and stabs Pellam in self-defense. However...
Prior to his tragic end, this ill-fated knight contrives to inflict a "DolorousStroke" with the Holy Lance, the spear that pierced Christ upon the Cross...
kingdom of Pellam, the Maimed King. In the story of Sir Balin, the DolorousStroke turns Listeneise into the Wasteland. Some writers (notably Phyllis...
Bibliography List of works comics Topics Battle of Badon Battle of Camlann DolorousStroke Loathly lady Historicity of King Arthur King Arthur's messianic return...
with the castle inadvertently levelled by Balin when he delivers the DolorousStroke upon King Pellam in the Post-Vulgate Merlin (Morte, Caxton II); if...
D'Arthur Brother to Balan, kills the Lady of the Lake and strikes the DolorousStroke Bedivere† (Welsh: Bedwyr), (French: Bédoier), Bedevere Pa Gur yv y...
and wins for himself a castle in Britain, known as Joyous Gard (a former Dolorous Gard), where he learns his real name and heritage, taking the name of his...
Bibliography List of works comics Topics Battle of Badon Battle of Camlann DolorousStroke Loathly lady Historicity of King Arthur King Arthur's messianic return...
Retrieved 9 January 2018. Harris, David (3 November 2017). "Ben Crompton (Dolorous Edd) teases a "brilliant" Game of Thrones Season 8". Winter is Coming....
Bibliography List of works comics Topics Battle of Badon Battle of Camlann DolorousStroke Loathly lady Historicity of King Arthur King Arthur's messianic return...
Origins of Arthurian Romance., 1903. Brown, A. C. L: "Balin and the DolorousStroke." Modern Philology 7.2 (1909): 203-6. Brown, Arthur C. L. ---. "Welsh...
and several of his followers stab Jon. Eddison Tollett, also known as "Dolorous Edd" for his melancholy temperament, sarcastic wit and pessimistic dry...
Plymouth Colony, became "sick of the stone" and died after suffering much "dolorous pain". Sir Robert Walpole, generally regarded as the first Prime Minister...
strengthened Hitler so enormously that in the perspective of history that dolorous episode may well come to be known as the starting point of the Nazi mastery...
in bridging the great gap between the ha-ha of TV entertainment and the dolorous solemnity of public affairs programs". The first story on the first show...
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