unless they be of great worship. And in the Seat Perilous, no man shall sit but one; and if there are any so hardy as to try it, they shall be destroyed, for he who sits there will have no equal.
Then Merlin took King Pellinore by the hand and led him to one of the open seats next to the Seat Perilous and said in the hearing of all, “This is your place, for you are the most worthy to sit here of any that are gathered here.”
At this, Gawain was envious and told his brother Gaheris, “Yonder knight is shown great honor, which grieves me sorely, for he killed our father, King Lot. Therefore I will slay him,” said Gawain, “with a deadly sword that was sent to me.”
“You shall not do so,” said Gaheris, “at this time. For now, I am only your squire; when I am made a knight, I will be revenged upon him. Therefore, brother, it is best if you wait until another time when we may confront him outside of court; for if we did as you suggest we would ruin this high feast.”
“I will do as you say gladly,” said Gawain. Then the feast was made ready, and the king was wedded to Guenevere at Camelot in the church of Saint Stephen’s with great solemnity.
CIII.5
When every man was seated according to his status, Merlin went to all the knights of the Round Table and bade them sit still, “and none of you leave, for you shall see a strange and marvelous adventure.” So as they sat there a white hart came running into the hall, followed by a white brachet; they were pursued by a pack of sixty black hounds, who came running after them making great noise.
The hart ran around the Round Table, and as he passed by the sideboard the brachet bit him on the buttock and ripped out a chunk of flesh, which caused the hart to make a great leap that knocked over a knight who was sitting at the sideboard. Then the knight got up and took the brachet, went out of the hall, got on his horse, and rode away with the brachet.
At that moment a lady came in on a white palfrey and cried aloud to King Arthur, saying “Sir, do not allow me to suffer this humiliation, for that brachet is mine which the knight has led away.”
“There is nothing I can do,” said the king.
Then at this a knight—riding fully armed—came in on a great horse, and took the lady away with him by force. And ever she cried out and made great dole. When she was gone the king was glad, because she had made so much noise.
“Nay,” said Merlin, “you may not leave this adventure so lightly. These adventures must be brought to an end, or else it will be a disgrace to you and to your feast.”
“I will,” said the king, “follow your advice concerning this.”
Then Merlin had him call Sir Gawain, and said that he must bring back the white hart. “Also, sir, you must call Sir Tor, for he must bring back the brachet and the knight that took it, or else slay him. Also have King Pellinore summoned, for he must bring back the lady and the knight who took her, or else slay that knight. These three knights will have marvelous adventures before they return again.”
So these three were called as Merlin had asked and each of them was charged with their task, and they armed themselves. But Gawain had the first assignment, so we will begin with him, and then move on to the others.
7 The First Adventure of Sir Gawain
Sir Gawain rode some distance and Gaheris, his brother, rode with him in the position of squire, to do him service. As they rode, they saw two knights on horseback fighting fiercely. Sir Gawain and his brother rode between them and asked them why they fought.
CIII.6
One of the knights said, “We fight for a simple reason: we are brothers, begotten of the same man and woman.”
“Alas!” said Sir Gawain.
“Sir,” said the elder brother, “a white hart came this way today with many hounds chasing him, and there was a white brachet following him. We understood that this was an adventure to mark the occasion of the high feast of Arthur. I would have gone after them to win worship for myself, but my younger brother here said he would go after the hart, because he is a bigger knight than I. For this reason, we fell into a quarrel, and so we thought to prove which of us is the bigger knight.”
“Truly, that is a simple quarrel,” said Gawain. “You should debate thus with uncouth men, not brother against brother. Therefore follow my advice, or else I shall fight you both: both of you yield to me and go to King Arthur and yield to his grace.”
“Sir knight,” said the brethren, “we have fought long and lost much blood through our willfulness, and thus we are loath to have ado with you.”
“Then do as I would have you do,” said Sir Gawain.
“We agree to fulfill your request. But by whom shall we say we have been sent?”
“You may say, ‘by the knight who follows the quest of the hart.’ Now what are your names?” said Gawain.
“Sir, my name is Sorluse of the Forest,” said the elder.
“And my name is,” said the younger, “Brian of the Forest.” So they departed and went to the king’s court, and Sir Gawain followed his quest.
As Gawain followed the hart by the cries of the hounds, he found himself before a great river, which the hart swam over. Sir Gawain made himself ready to follow, but a knight on the other side said, “Sir knight, do not come across the river after this hart unless you wish to joust with me.”
“I will not fail,” said Sir Gawain, “to follow the quest in which I am engaged.” So he made his horse swim over the river, and as soon as he reached the other side, he and the knight took up their glaives and ran at each other full hard. Gawain knocked him off his horse and then bade him yield himself.
“Nay,” said the knight, “not so! For though you have the better of me on horseback, I pray you, valiant knight, alight on foot so that we challenge one another with our swords.”
“What is your name?” said Gawain.
“Sir, my name is Alardyne of the Outer Isles.”
Then each positioned their shields and struck together, but Gawain smote him so hard through the helmet that his stroke went into the brain and the knight fell down dead.
“Ah,” said Gaheris, “what a mighty stroke for such a young knight!” Then Sir Gawain and Gaheris continued on after the white hart, and turned loose on the hart six greyhounds. So they chased the hart into a castle, and in the main hall of the castle they killed the hart.
CIII.7
Gawain and Gaheris followed after the hounds, and at that moment a knight came out of a chamber with his drawn sword in his hand and killed two of Gawain’s greyhounds in front of his own eyes. He then chased the remnant out of the castle with his sword.
When he returned, he said, “Ah, my white hart! I am sorry that you are dead, for my sovereign lady gave you to me; poorly have I looked after you! Your death will be dearly bought, I swear on my life.” Then he went into the chamber and armed himself, and came out fiercely. There he met with Sir Gawain, who said,
“Why have you killed my hounds? I would have preferred
