Sir Kay showeth the mystic sword unto Sir Ector, byHoward Pyle fromThe Story of King Arthur and His Knights. (1903)
Ector/ˈɛktɔːr,-ər/, sometimesHector,Antor, orEctorius, is the father ofKay and the adoptive father ofKing Arthur in theMatter of Britain. Sometimes portrayed as a king instead of merely a lord, he has an estate in the country as well as properties in London.
Ector appears in the works ofRobert de Boron and theLancelot-Grail, as well as later adaptations such as thePost-Vulgate Cycle andThomas Malory'sLe Morte d'Arthur.[1][2] In these versions,Merlin takes Arthur from his biological parents KingUther Pendragon andIgraine, and brings him to Ector's estate. Merlin does not reveal the boy's true identity, and Ector takes him on and raises him with Kay as his own son. When Kay is old enough to be knighted, Ector's young ward serves as his squire. In Malory'sLe Morte d'Arthur, Ector also appears in the concluding book to recite athrenody lamenting Sir Lancelot's eventual death; however, the sole surviving manuscript of Mallory's work is missing the pages that would include this material, and at least one scholar has suggested that the speech may have been an addition by the text's printer,William Caxton.[3]
Mary Stewart'sArthurian Saga places Ector's estate inGalava, a fruitful land inRheged inside the Wild Forest, south ofLuguvalium and east ofGlannoventa. Galava lies on a large lake with a central craggy island known as Caer Bannog,[a] where 14-year-old Arthur finds and takes the sword which he namesCaliburn. Stewart writes that the island is haunted (or guarded) by Bilis, a dwarf deity of theOtherworld and of underground spaces, rather than by theLady of the Lake.
T. H. White's Sir Ector, inThe Sword in the Stone (1938), the first volume of his seriesThe Once and Future King, is portrayed as a "bumpkin aristocrat"[6] who pronounces "education" aseddication, although he knows Arthur must be given training "appropriate to a young squire and civilized gentleman."[7] He is "just another knight of adequate wealth and land."[8]
Mary Stewart'sThe Hollow Hills (1973), the second volume in herMerlin Trilogy, is told from the point of view of Merlin as he watches Arthur's childhood and teen years until he takes his place as High King. Here, "solid, dependable Ector" is a "brisk, friendly, matter-of-fact" warrior who styles himselfCount ofGalava. He is devoted to his wife Drusilla ofYork, a devout Christian like himself, and their affectionate sonKei is three years older than Arthur. Count Ector is a friend and ally of Merlin's father,Aurelianus Ambrosius and ofUther Pendragon. Geographically, he is a neighbor toKing Coel of Rheged andCaw of Strathclyde, but also to Arthur's enemies:King Lot ofLothian andKing Urien of Gore. There is nothing clownish about him in Stewart's hands; Merlin describes him as "a cold-brained and calculating officer" in the wars against thePicts andSaxons.[9]
In the 1963Walt Disney Studios animated musical-fantasy-comedy movieThe Sword in the Stone, Sir Ector is voiced by actorSebastian Cabot. He does not believe in magic untilMerlin casts a blizzard before him, thus allowing the wizard to educate Arthur in the castle, even though Ector has forbidden it. He is extremely distrustful of magic and Merlin, whom he mistakenly refers to as Marvin. When he first allows Merlin to educate Arthur, Ector forces Merlin to reside in an old, dilapidated tower near the castle, in hopes of making Merlin want to leave. Ector often treats Arthur harshly and possesses a clear authority over him, treating him more as a servant, while doting on his birth son, Kay. However, he does care for Arthur, as shown in his first scene, where he scolds Kay for allowing Arthur to go into the forest alone and worried that he might be dead. He also appoints him as Kay'ssquire, and clearly has affection for Arthur, and does not always want to treat him poorly, but rather feels responsible for his welfare. After Arthur is revealed as the rightful King of England by pulling the sword from the stone, he immediately apologizes to Arthur for how he has treated him up to that point and bows in submission while sternly ordering Kay to also bow down to Arthur.
