but he has enough lands, he needs no more. I will send him a gift that will please him much more; I will give him the Round Table which Uther, his father, gave me. When it is fully complete, there are a hundred and fifty knights. I have a hundred good knights myself, but I lack fifty, as so many good knights have been slain in my time.”
So King Leodegranz delivered his daughter Guenevere to Merlin, along with the Round Table and a hundred knights. So they rode cheerfully with great pomp over water and land until they came near to London.
When King Arthur heard of Guenevere’s arrival and the hundred knights and the Round Table that accompanied her, he made great joy at her arrival and the rich gift she brought with her. He said publicly, “This fair lady is greatly welcome to me, for I have loved her a long time; therefore there is nothing more dear to me. And these knights with the Round Table please me more than a gift of great riches.” Then quickly the king ordered that the marriage and Guenevere’s coronation should be arranged in the most honorable way that could be devised.
CIII.2
“Now Merlin,” said King Arthur, “go and search the land and find me fifty knights who are of the greatest prowess and worship.” So within a short time, Merlin had found eight-and-twenty such knights, but he could find no more.
Then the Archbishop of Canterbury was fetched and he blessed the seats of the Round Table with great ceremony and devotion, and there he set the eight-and-twenty knights in their seats.
When this was done, Merlin said, “Fair sirs, you all must arise and come to King Arthur and do homage to him; he will then be in a frame of mind to maintain you.” So they arose and did their homage. While they were gone, Merlin found on every seat letters of gold that spelled out the name of the knight who was to sit there; but two seats were blank.
Then young Gawain came in and asked the king for a gift. “Ask,” said the king, “and I shall grant it to you.”
“Sir, I ask that you make me a knight on the same day you wed Dame Guenevere.”
“I will do that gladly,” said King Arthur. “And I will do unto you all the honor that I may, because you are my nephew, my sister’s son.”
Then a poor man came into the court, bringing with him a fair young man of eighteen years of age, riding upon a lean mare. The poor man asked all the men that he met, “Where shall I find King Arthur?”
CIII.3
“He is yonder,” said the knights. “Do you have business with him?”
“Yes,” said the poor man, “it is why I have come here.”
As soon as he came before the king, the poor man greeted him and said, “King Arthur, the flower of all kings, I pray that Jesus save you! Sir, I was told that at the time of your marriage you would grant any man the gift that he asked as long as it was not unreasonable.”
“That is true,” said the king, “I have had such announcements made, and I will keep my promise, as long as it does not harm my realm or my position.”
“You speak well and graciously,” said the poor man. “Sir, I ask nothing else except that you make my son a knight.”
“That is a great thing that you ask of me,” said the king. “What is your name?”
“Sir, my name is Ayres the cowherd.”
“Does this request come from you or from your son?” said the king.
“Sir,” said Ayres, “this desire comes from my son and not from me. I shall tell you: I have thirteen sons, and they all take up whatever labor I assign them, and they are perfectly content to do work. But this child will not labor for anything my wife and I may do. He is always shooting, or casting darts, and excited to see battles and to behold knights. Always, day and night, he tells me that he wishes to be made a knight.”
“What is your name?” said the king to the young man.
“Sir, my name is Tor.”
Then the king looked at him and saw that he was very fine looking, and well shaped for his years.
“Well,” said the king to Ayres the cowherd, “go fetch all your sons and bring them to me so that I may see them.” So the poor man did this. All the sons resembled the poor man, but Tor was like them neither in shape nor in countenance; he surpassed all of them.
“Now,” said King Arthur to the cowherd, “where is the sword with which he shall be made a knight?”
“It is here,” said Tor.
“Take it out of the sheath,” said the king, “and ask me to make you a knight.” So Tor dismounted from his mare and pulled out his sword. Then he kneeled and asked the king to make him a knight, and a knight of the Round Table.
“I shall make you a knight,” said the king, and then struck him in the neck with the sword. “Be a good knight—and I pray to God that you may be—and if you demonstrate prowess and worthiness, you shall become part of the Round Table.
“Now Merlin,” said Arthur, “will this Tor be a good man?”
“Yes, truly sir, he ought to be a good man for he is come of kindred as noble as any alive, and he is of king’s blood.”
“How so, sir?” said the king.
“I shall tell you,” said Merlin. “This poor man, Ayres the cowherd, is not his father; he is no relation to him. King Pellinore is his father.”
“I suppose not,” said the cowherd.
“Well, fetch your wife here,” said Merlin, “and she shall not say ‘nay’ to me.”
So the woman—a fair housewife—was brought forth and she answered Merlin honestly. She told the king and Merlin that when she was still maid and went to milk her cows one day, “I met with a stern knight, and half by force he had my maidenhead. At that time he conceived on me my son Tor. Then he took away a greyhound that I had with me at that time, and said he would keep it as a token of my love.”
“Ah,” said the cowherd, “I did not think it was so, but I may well believe it, for he never bore any resemblance to me.”
Sir Tor said to Merlin, “Do not dishonor my mother.”
“Sir,” said Merlin, “this is more worship than hurt for you, for your father is a good knight and a king. He may very well advance you and your mother both, because you were conceived before your mother was married.”
“That is true,” said the wife.
“It is the less grief to me,” said the cowherd.
So in the morning King Pellinore came to King Arthur’s court. Arthur welcomed him joyfully and told him about Sir Tor—how he was his son, and how he had made him a knight at the request of the cowherd. When King Pellinore beheld Sir Tor, he was very much pleased with him. So although the king made Gawain a knight, Sir Tor was the first that the king dubbed at that feast.
CIII.4
“What is the reason,” said King Arthur, “that
