Dagonet (also known as Daguenet, Daguenes, Daguenez, Danguenes, and other spellings) is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend, introduced in Lancelot-Grail Cycle. His depictions and characterisations variously portray a foolish and cowardly knight, a violently deranged madman, and ultimately (since the Prose Tristan) the now-iconic image of King Arthur's court jester.
His first appearance is in the early 13th-century Vulgate Cycle. Known there as Daguenet the Fool (or the Coward) in the Vulgate Lancelot or Danguenes the Craven of Carlion (Caerleon) in the Vulgate Merlin, he is a hapless, dimwitted knight mocked by others. In one episode, he notably "captures" and actually rescues (inadvertently) the hero Lancelot by finding a horse carrying the unconscious knight, and triumphantly leading them to Queen Guinevere. His epiteth "the fool" (le fou) is not used to indicate his profession.
His portrayal as a feared and unpredictable madman, known as Daguenet the Fool, in a series of short episodes within the Guiron le Courtois section of Palamedes offers a much darker and more serious tone. His tragic backstory is revealed as formerly one of the best knights of Arthur who went insane when his new bride was abducted by Helior of the Thorn, Dagonet's own former friend whom he then tracked down and killed.
During the False Guinevere's reign in another work, Les Prophéties de Merlin, Dagonet takes on the administration of the royal court and then bankrupts the household, even killing the treasurer Fole for reproving him. Nevertheless, and despite being called "the fool", he ultimately proves to be competent enough to finance the mercenaries who help Galeholt repel a Saxon invasion, while successfully avoiding the vengeance of Fole's kinsmen. As in Guiron le Courtois, he is highly loyal to Arthur.
One of his two appearances in the different versions of the Prose Tristan is the first in which he is depicted as Arthur's official fool. It characterised him as a hateful and mad commoner who was given knightly status as a joke. He challenges the young Cote Mal Taillee (i.e. Brunor) to a joust and quickly loses. In the second version, Tristan humiliates Sir Daguenet the Fool publicly by dunking him into a well, and then uses Dagonet's own sword to protect a group of shepherds who laughed at the scene from Dagonet's angry squires, maiming one of them.
In a markedly more positive (and best known today) characterization by Thomas Malory in his seminal Le Morte d'Arthur, adapting him from the Prose Tristan while adding new Dagonet material, eis King Arthur's court fool who has been knighted as an award for his loyalty and comedic talents. The Knights of the Round Table use him to play practical jokes on their rivals or their enemies, at the same time protecting him from harm. In a rewrite of a scene from the Prose Tristan, Kay arranges for Brunor to joust with Dagonet at his first tournament in order to deprive him of the honour of defeating a true knight. On another occasion, Arthur's men point out Dagonet, dressed in Mordred's armor, to King Mark and tell him he is Lancelot; the cowardly monarch then flees screaming into the forest, chased by Dagonet.
In a summary by Scott O'Neil,
According to O'Neil, "While Dagonet appeared in various works, [...] most of his appearances centered on one of four key themes: his connection with Merlin, his fate after the fall of Camelot, the role of the fool, and his status as a knight." Dagonet is subject of a number of poems, notably including Oscar Fay Adams' 1886 "The Return from the Quest" and 1906 "The Pleading of Dagonet", F.B. Money-Coutts' 1897 "Sir DagonetâÂÂs Quest", Muriel St. Clare Byrne's 1917 "Dagonet, Arthur's Fool", and Ernest Rhys' "The Song of Dagonet", "The Two Fools (Dagonet's Song)" (both 1905), and "Dagonet's Love Son" and "La Mort Sans Pitie" (both collected in 1918 The Leaf Burners and Other Poems), among others. Other works in which Dagonet has major roles include Edwin Arlington Robinson's Merlin: A Poem (1917) and John Masefield's The Box of Delights; or, When the Wolves Were Running (1935).