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ALGARSIF, ALGARSYF is Cambyuskan's elder son in The Squire's Tale.

The Squire promises to tell how Algarsyf won Theodora for his wife, SqT 663-664, but the tale remains unfinished. [Cambalo: Cambyuskan: Canacee2: Elpheta: Theodora]

Dorothee Metlitzki suggests that Algarsyf has been transposed from Arabic saif-al-jabbar, meaning "the sword of the powerful one," the Arabic name for one of the three stars forming Orion's sword. Algarsif occurs in final rhyming position, SqT 663; Algarsyf occurs also in final rhyming position, SqT 30. The forms are spelling variants.

H.S.V. Jones, S&A, 364-374; D. Metlitzki, The Matter of Araby in Medieval England, 78-80.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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