🧚 Opening, part 5

Sir Gawain makes a covenant with his host1

“Sir knight,” quoth the host, “we will make a covenant.2 Whatsoever I win in the wood shall be yours, and whatever may fall to your share, that shall ye exchange for it.3 Let us swear, friend, to make this exchange, however our hap may be, for worse or for better.”4

“I grant ye your will,” quoth Gawain the good; “if ye list so to do, it liketh me well.”5

“Bring hither the wine-cup, the bargain is made,” so said the lord of that castle.6 They laughed each one, and drank of the wine, and made merry, these lords and ladies, as it pleased them.7 Then with gay talk and merry jest they arose, and stood, and spoke softly, and kissed courteously, and took leave of each other.8 With burning torches, and many a serving man, was each led to his couch; yet ere they gat them to bed the old lord oft repeated their covenant, for he knew well how to make sport.9

III10

The first day’s hunting11

Full early, ere daylight, the folk rose up; the guests who would depart called their grooms, and they made them ready, and saddled the steeds, tightened up the girths, and trussed up their mails.12 The knights, all arrayed for riding, leapt up lightly, and took their bridles, and each rode his way as pleased him best.13

The lord of the land was not the last.14 Ready for the chase, with many of his men, he ate a sop hastily when he had heard Mass, and then with blast of the bugle fared forth to the field.15 [8] He and his nobles were to horse ere daylight glimmered upon the earth.16

Then the huntsmen coupled their hounds, unclosed the kennel door, and called them out.17 They blew three blasts gaily on the bugles, the hounds bayed fiercely, and they that would go a-hunting checked and chastised them.18 A hundred hunters there were of the best, so I have heard tell.19 Then the trackers gat them to the trysting-place and uncoupled the hounds, and the forest rang again with their gay blasts.20

At the first sound of the hunt the game quaked for fear, and fled, trembling, along the vale.21 They betook them to the heights, but the liers in wait turned them back with loud cries; the harts they let pass them, and the stags with their spreading antlers, for the lord had forbidden that they should be slain, but the hinds and the does they turned back, and drave down into the valleys.22 Then might ye see much shooting of arrows.23 As the deer fled under the boughs a broad whistling shaft smote and wounded each sorely, so that, wounded and bleeding, they fell dying on the banks.24 The hounds followed swiftly on their tracks, and hunters, blowing the horn, sped after them with ringing shouts that well-nigh burst the cliffs asunder.25 What game escaped those that shot was run down at the outer ring.26 Thus were they driven on the hills, and harassed at the waters, so well did the men know their work, and the greyhounds were so great and swift that they ran them down as fast as the hunters could slay them.27 Thus the lord passed the day in mirth and joyfulness, even to nightfall.28

How the lady of the castle came to Sir Gawain29

So the lord roamed the woods, and Gawain, that good knight, lay ever a-bed, curtained about, under the costly coverlet, while the daylight gleamed on the walls.30 And as he lay half slumbering, he heard a little sound at the door, and he raised his head, and caught back a corner of the curtain, and waited to see what it might be.31 It was the lovely lady, the lord’s wife; she shut the door softly behind her, and turned towards the bed; and Gawain laid him down softly and made as if he slept.32 And she came lightly to the bedside, within the curtain, and sat herself down beside him, to wait till he wakened.33 The knight lay there awhile, and marvelled within himself what her coming might betoken; and he said to himself, “’Twere more seemly if I asked her what hath brought her hither.”34 Then he made feint to waken, and turned towards her, and opened his eyes as one astonished, and crossed himself; and she looked on him laughing, with her cheeks red and white, lovely to behold.35

“Good morrow, Sir Gawain,” said that fair lady; “ye are but a careless sleeper, since one can enter thus.36 Now are ye taken unawares, and lest ye escape me I shall bind you in your bed; of that be ye assured!”37 Laughing, she spake these words.38

“Good morrow, fair lady,” quoth Gawain blithely.39 “I will do your will, as it likes me well.40 For I yield me readily, and pray your grace, and that is best, by my faith, since I needs must do so.”41 Thus he jested again, laughing.42 “But an ye would, fair lady, grant me this grace that ye pray your prisoner to rise.43 I would get me from bed, and array me better, then could I talk with ye in more comfort.”44

“Nay, forsooth, fair sir,” quoth the lady, “ye shall not rise, I will rede ye better.45 I shall keep ye here, since ye can do no other, and talk with my knight whom I have captured.46 For I know well that ye are Sir Gawain, whom all the world worships, wheresoever ye may ride.47 Your honour and your courtesy are praised by lords and ladies, by all who live.48 Now ye are here and we are alone, my lord and his men are afield; the serving men in their beds, and my maidens also, and the door shut upon us.49 And since in this hour I have him that all men love, I shall use my time well with speech, while it lasts.50 Ye are welcome to my company, for it behoves me in sooth to be your servant.”51

“In good faith,” quoth Gawain, “I think me that I am not he of whom ye speak, for unworthy am I of such service as ye here proffer.52 In sooth, I were glad if I might set myself by word or service to your pleasure; a pure joy would it be to me!”53

“In good faith, Sir Gawain,” quoth the gay lady, “the praise and the prowess that pleases all ladies I lack them not, nor hold them light; yet are there ladies enough who would liever now have the knight in their hold, as I have ye here, to dally with your courteous words, to bring them comfort and to ease their cares, than much of the treasure and the gold that are theirs.54 And now, through the grace of Him who upholds the heavens, I have wholly in my power that which they all desire!”55

Thus the lady, fair to look upon, made him great cheer, and Sir Gawain, with modest words, answered her again: “Madam,” he quoth, “may Mary requite ye, for in good faith I have found in ye a noble frankness.56 Much courtesy have other folk shown me, but the honour they have done me is naught to the worship of yourself, who knoweth but good.”57

“By Mary,” quoth the lady, “I think otherwise; for were I worth all the women alive, and had I the wealth of the world in my hand, and might choose me a lord to my liking, then, for all that I have seen in ye, Sir Knight, of beauty and courtesy and blithe semblance, and for all that I have hearkened and hold for true, there should be no knight on earth to be chosen before ye!”58