The Mabinogion (Oxford World's Classics) (28 page)

After Arthur had left the court Gwenhwyfar woke up, and she called her maidens and got dressed.

‘Maidens,’ she said, ‘I was given permission last night to go and watch the hunt. One of you go to the stable and have brought all the horses suitable for women to ride.’

One of them went, but only two horses were found in the stable. So Gwenhwyfar and one of the maidens went off on the two horses. They crossed through the Wysg and followed the trail and tracks of the men and the horses. As they were travelling thus they could hear a mighty, ferocious noise. They looked behind them and could see a rider on a willow-grey colt, enormous in size, a young, auburn-haired, bare-legged, noble squire with a gold-hilted sword on his thigh, wearing a tunic and surcoat of brocaded silk with two low boots of Cordovan leather on his feet, and a mantle of blue purple over that with a golden apple in each corner. The horse was tall and stately, swift and lively, with a short steady step. The rider caught up with Gwenhwyfar and greeted her.

‘May God be good to you, Geraint,’
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she replied, ‘and I recognized you when I first saw you just now. And God’s welcome to you. And why did you not go hunting with your lord?’

‘Because I did not realize that he had left,’ he said.

‘I, too, was surprised that he could have gone without my knowing,’ she said.

‘Yes, lady,’ he said, ‘I was also asleep so did not know what time he left.’

‘In my opinion, of all the young men in the whole kingdom you
are the best companion to have as my escort,’ she said. ‘And we could have as much pleasure from the hunting as they do, because we shall hear the horns when they are sounded and hear the hounds when they are unleashed and begin to bark.’

They came to the edge of the forest and there they stopped.

‘We shall hear when the hounds are unleashed from here,’ she said.

Suddenly they heard a noise. They looked in the direction of the noise, and they could see a dwarf riding a big, sturdy horse, powerful, wide-nostrilled, ground-devouring, courageous, and in the dwarf ’s hand there was a whip. Near the dwarf they could see a woman on a horse, pale-white and handsome with pace smooth and stately, and she was dressed in a golden garment of brocaded silk. And close to her a knight on a great, muddy charger,
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with heavy, shining armour on him and his horse. And they were sure that they had never seen a man and horse and armour whose size impressed them more, and all riding close together.

‘Geraint,’ said Gwenhwyfar, ‘do you recognize the large knight over there?’

‘No,’ he replied. ‘That massive, strange armour allows neither his face nor his features to be seen.’

‘Go, maiden,’ said Gwenhwyfar, ‘and ask the dwarf who the knight is.’

The maiden went to meet the dwarf. The dwarf waited for the maiden when he saw her approaching him. She asked the dwarf, ‘Who is the knight?’ she said.

‘I will not tell you that,’ he said.

‘Since you are so bad-mannered that you will not tell me that,’ she said, ‘I will ask him personally.’

‘You will not, by my faith,’ he replied.

‘Why?’ she said.

‘Because your status is not that of a person for whom it is proper to speak with my lord.’

Then the maiden turned her horse’s head towards the knight. With that the dwarf struck her with a whip that was in his hand, across her face and eyes, so that the blood flowed. Because of the pain from the blow the maiden returned to Gwenhwyfar, complaining of the pain.

‘The dwarf behaved towards you in a very ugly way,’ said Geraint. ‘I shall go,’ said Geraint, ‘and find out who the knight is.’

‘Go,’ said Gwenhwyfar.

Geraint came to the dwarf. He said, ‘Who is the knight?’

‘I will not tell you,’ said the dwarf.

‘I will ask it of the knight personally,’ he replied.

‘You will not, by my faith,’ said the dwarf. ‘Your status is not high enough to entitle you to speak with my lord.’

‘I’, said Geraint, ‘have spoken with a man who is as good as your lord,’ and he turned his horse’s head towards the knight. The dwarf overtook him and struck him where he had struck the maiden, until the blood stained the mantle that Geraint was wearing. Geraint placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and turned things over in his head, but decided that it was no revenge for him to kill the dwarf while the armed knight could take him cheaply and without armour. He returned to Gwenhwyfar.

‘You behaved wisely and prudently,’ she said.

‘Lady,’ he said, ‘I shall go after him again, with your permission, and he will come eventually to a place that is inhabited, where I shall find armour, either on loan or in exchange for surety, so that I shall get the opportunity to test myself against the knight.’

‘Go then,’ she said, ‘but do not go too close to him until you get good armour. And I shall worry a great deal about you,’ she said, ‘until I get news of you.’

‘If I am still alive, by late afternoon tomorrow you shall have news, if I survive,’ he said. Then he set off.

They travelled below the court at Caerllion and to the ford over the Wysg, crossed over, and travelled along a fair plain, very high and elevated, until they came to a walled town. At the end of the town they could see a fortress and a castle. They came to the end of the town. As the knight rode through the town the people of every house would rise to their feet to greet and welcome him. When Geraint came to the town he looked in every house to see whether he recognized anyone (but he recognized no one, nor any one him), so that he might secure a favour of armour, either on loan or in exchange for surety. But he could see that every house was full of men and armour and horses, and shields being polished and swords burnished and armour cleaned and horses shod. The knight and the lady and the dwarf made for the castle that was in the town. Everyone in the castle was happy to see them, and on the battlements and on the gates and in
every direction people were craning their necks to greet and welcome them.

Geraint stood and looked to see whether the knight would stay in the castle. When he knew for sure that he was staying, Geraint looked around him. And he could see, a short distance from the town, an old, run-down court and in it a dilapidated hall. Since he knew no one in the town he went towards the old court. When he got to the court he could see hardly anything, but he saw an upper storey and a stairway of marble coming down from the upper storey. On the stairway sat a grey-haired man wearing old, worn-out clothes. Geraint stared hard at him for a long time. The grey-haired man said to him, ‘Squire,’ he said, ‘what are you thinking?’

‘I am thinking that I don’t know where I shall stay tonight,’ he said.

‘Won’t you come in here, lord?’ he said, ‘and you shall have the best that we can provide for you.’

‘I will,’ he replied, ‘and may God repay you.’

He came forward, and the grey-haired man went to the hall ahead of him. Geraint dismounted in the hall and left his horse there and proceeded to the upper storey, he and the grey-haired man. And in the chamber he could see an elderly woman sitting on a cushion, dressed in old, shabby clothes of brocaded silk. When she had been in the flush of her youth he thought it likely that no one would have seen a fairer woman than she. There was a maiden beside her dressed in a smock and a linen mantle which was quite old and beginning to fall apart. And Geraint was sure that he had never seen any maiden more perfect as regards beauty and elegance and grace than she. The grey-haired man said to the maiden, ‘There is no groom for this squire’s horse tonight apart from you.’

‘I shall give the best service that I can,’ she said, ‘both to him and to his horse.’ The maiden took off the squire’s shoes and then gave the horse his fill of straw and corn, and made her way back to the hall and returned to the upstairs chamber. Then the grey-haired man said to the maiden, ‘Go to the town,’ he said, ‘and the best provision you can get of food and drink, have it brought here.’

‘I will gladly,’ she said. The maiden went to the town, and they conversed while the maiden was in the town. Soon, behold, the maiden returned and a servant with her, and a flagon on his back full of bought mead, and a quarter of a young bullock. In the maiden’s hands there was a portion of white bread and a loaf of
the finest wheat in her linen mantle. She came to the upstairs chamber.

‘I could not find any better provision than this,’ she said, ‘nor could I get credit for anything better.’

‘It will do very well,’ said Geraint.

They had the meat boiled, and when their food was ready they went to sit down: Geraint sat between the grey-haired man and his wife, and the maiden waited on them. And they ate and drank.

When they had finished eating, Geraint began to converse with the grey-haired man and asked him if he was the first to own the court he was in.

‘It is I, indeed, who built it,’ he said, ‘and I owned the town with the castle that you have seen.’

‘Alas, sir,’ said Geraint, ‘why did you lose that?’

‘I lost a large earldom too,’ he replied. ‘And this is why I lost it. I had a nephew, a brother’s son, and I took possession of his kingdom and my own, and when he came to maturity he laid claim to his kingdom. But I kept his kingdom from him. So what he did was to wage war on me and take everything that was under my control.’

‘Lord,’ said Geraint, ‘will you tell me about the arrival of the knight who came to the town earlier, and the lady and the dwarf, and why there is all the preparation that I saw for repairing weapons?’

‘I will,’ he said. ‘It is preparation for tomorrow, for a game that the young earl plays, namely to set up two forks in a meadow over there, and on the two forks a silver rod. And a sparrowhawk
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will be placed on the rod, and a tournament will take place for the sparrowhawk. And the entire crowd of men and horses and weapons that you saw in the town will come to the tournament; and the woman he loves most will accompany each man, and any man who is not accompanied by the woman he loves most will not be allowed to joust for the sparrowhawk. And the knight you saw has won the sparrowhawk for two years, and if he wins it for a third it will be sent to him every year after that, and he himself will not have to come here, and he will be called the Knight of the Sparrowhawk from then on.’

‘Lord,’ said Geraint, ‘what is your advice to me regarding that knight and the insult that I, and a maidservant of Gwenhwyfar, Arthur’s wife, received from the dwarf?’—and Geraint told the grey-haired man the story of the insult.

‘I cannot easily advise you, since there is neither a woman nor a
maiden that you champion in order that you might go and joust with him. Those weapons there that were mine, you could have those, and if you preferred you could also have my horse rather than your own.’

‘Lord,’ he replied, ‘may God repay you. My own horse is good enough for me—I am used to him—together with your armour. And will you not allow me, lord, to champion that maiden over there, your daughter, at the appointed hour tomorrow? And if I survive the tournament my loyalty and love will be hers as long as I live. If I do not survive, the maiden will be as chaste as before.’

‘I will agree to that gladly,’ said the grey-haired man. ‘And since you are decided on that course of action, early tomorrow morning your horse and armour will need to be ready, for it is then that the Knight of the Sparrowhawk will make a proclamation, namely, he will ask the woman he loves best to take the sparrowhawk: “since it becomes you best and you won it,” he will say, “a year and two years ago. And if there is anyone who denies it to you today by force, I will defend it for you.” And because of that,’ said the grey-haired man, ‘you must be there at daybreak, and the three of us will be with you.’ They decided on that, and at that hour of the night they went to sleep.

Before daybreak they arose and got dressed. By the time it was day all four were standing on the bank of the meadow. Then the Knight of the Sparrowhawk was making the proclamation and asking his lady to take the sparrowhawk.

‘Do not take it,’ said Geraint. ‘There is here a maiden who is fairer and more beautiful and more noble than you, and has a better claim to it.’

‘If you consider the sparrowhawk to be hers, come forward to joust with me.’

Geraint went forward to the end of the meadow equipped with a horse, and heavy, rusty, worthless, strange armour about him and his horse. And they charged each other, and broke a set of lances, and broke the second, and broke the third set, and that alternately. And they broke them as they were brought to them. When the earl and his followers could see the Knight of the Sparrowhawk getting the better of Geraint, there would be shouting and rejoicing and jubilation from him and his followers; and the grey-haired man and his wife and his daughter would be sad.

The grey-haired man served Geraint with the lances as he broke them and the dwarf served the Knight of the Sparrowhawk. Then the grey-haired man came to Geraint.

‘Lord,’ he said, ‘here is the lance that was in my hand the day I was ordained a knight, and from that day to this I have not broken it. And there is an excellent head to it—seeing that no lance has availed you.’

Geraint took the lance, thanking the grey-haired man for it. Then, behold, the dwarf came to his lord, he, too, with a lance.

‘Here is a lance that is just as good,’ said the dwarf, ‘and remember that no knight has ever stood up to you as long as this one.’

‘Between me and God,’ said Geraint, ‘unless sudden death takes me, he will be none the better for your help.’

At a distance from him Geraint spurred his horse and charged him, warning him and striking him a blow severe and keen, bloody and bold in the strongest part of his shield so that his shield splits and the armour breaks in the direction of the attack and the girths break so that he and his saddle are thrown over the horse’s crupper to the ground.

Quickly Geraint dismounted and became angry and drew his sword and attacked him, furious and fierce. Then the knight got up and drew another sword against Geraint, and they pounded each other on foot with swords until each one’s armour was smashed by the other and until the sweat and the blood were taking away the vision from their eyes. When Geraint had the upper hand the grey-haired man and his wife and his daughter would rejoice; and when the knight had the upper hand the earl and his followers would rejoice. When the greyhaired man saw that Geraint had received a mighty, harsh blow, he approached him quickly and said to him, ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘keep in mind the insult you received from the dwarf. And did you not come here to try and avenge your insult, and the insult to Gwenhwyfar, Arthur’s wife?’