Alike Palamedes and Lamorak, Dinadan was an invention of the Prose Tristan, and appeared in later retellings including the Post-Vulgate Cycle and Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. He is the son of Brunor senior, a brother of his fellow Knights of the Round Table, Breunor le Noir and Daniel. Unlike most other knights in Arthurian romance, the practically-minded Dinadan prefers to avoid fights and considers courtly love a waste of time, though he is a brave fighter when he needs to be. 's illustration for The Romance of King Arthur, abridged from Le Morte d'Arthur by Alfred W. Pollard Dinadan is well known for his cynical humor and joking nature, and for his mockery of chivalry. In Le Morte d'Arthur, he is visiting the court of Cornwall seeking his friend, the young hero Tristram, and has supper with Queen La Beale Isoud where he reveals that he has, by his own desire, no lady-love or paramour in whose name to do great deeds. Dinadan is also often portrayed as the wittiest of all of Arthur's knights, and a source and target of practical jokes. In Le Morte d'Arthur, he is one of the few knights to be able to recognise his fellows from their faces in addition to their shields; in one instance Tristan does not recognise his own King until Dinadan tells him who it is. In one notable exploit, he writes an insulting ballad about King Mark and sends a troubador to play it at Mark's court. In another episode, he loses a joust when Lancelot catches him off guard by wearing a dress over his armour; Lancelot then puts the dress on his unconscious opponent. As summarized by to Joyce Coleman, "Margaret Schlauch hails the 'courtly realism' of Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur and, in particular, 'the comically realistic Sir Dinadan', whose jokes about his fear of jousting have his listeners laughing so hard they can barely keep their seats. 'Sir Dinadan, the realist', the 'rational moralist' ruled by a 'pragmatic creed', remains a standard figure of Malorian analysis." In Le Morte d'Arthur, following the Prose Tristan narrative, Dinadan dies when he returns from Cornwall, hoping to persuade King Arthur to reverse his ruling which had again set Mark on the throne. However Dinadan, still wounded from his fight with Brehu the Merciless, is treacherously ambushed and murdered by two other Round Table knights, the brothers Mordred and Agravain, who hated him due to his closeness to their enemy Lamorak from the rival clan of King Pellinore. Hector finds Dinadan mortally wounded and takes him to Camelot, where he dies in Lancelot's arms. In the Italian Tavola Ritonda, Dinadan himself attempts to murder the captured Marco in revenge for the death of Tristano, and Breus sanz Pietà is actually his cousin. This version of Dinadan is characterized differently, as a violent misogynist who hates Tristano's beloved Isotta as "a whore". Dinadan also appears in some other romances, such as in Escanor, where his strong distrust of women is a theme of comedy, and in some variants of the Prophecies de Merlin.
