Character Analysis
Balin and Balan: two peas in a pod. They're twin brothers who are totally devoted to one another. For instance, Balin beat up one of Arthur's servants just because he heard a rumor that the guy insulted him. Balin admits that, without the guiding hand of his brother, he "had often wrought some violence on myself." (60) So Balin is awfully lucky that when he is exiled from Camelot for this act, Balan decides to leave too so he can look out for his brother.
Before he leaves to find and kill the demon in King Pellam's woods, Balan, ever the protective brother, warns Balin not to let his mood swings and violent impulses get the better of him. But compared to the civilized manners of a knight like Lancelot, poor Balin feels like a bull in a china shop, and fears that "these be gifts, / born with the blood, not learnable, divine, / beyond my reach" (170-172). Even after he takes the queen's symbol as his crest as a reminder to be courteous, Balin constantly struggles to restrain his bestial urges.
It's a battle he finally loses when he hears rumors of the queen's infidelity. He screams like an animal, and Balan attacks him, thinking he is the demon of the woods. It's tragic, sure, but it's fitting that Balin and Balan die together, because they really represent two sides of the same man: the animalistic impulses in human nature and the guiding, civilizing conscience that tries to keep them under control. On a symbolic level, Balin really is the demon of the woods, whom Balan has spent his whole life trying to tame.