User:Richard asr/sandpit/KnightlyTaleofGG

A medieval castle on the river Rhone in southern France.

The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain is a Middle English Arthurian romance whose earliest copy survives in a printed edition now lying in the National Library of Scotland dated 8 April, 1508. No manuscript copy of this lively and exciting tale has survived.

The story told in The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain is based upon episodes in the First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes's late-twelfth century romance, the Conte del Graal. King Arthur is on pilgrimage to the Holy Land; ostensibly, although all the action takes place in France. The king encounters a castle near the river Rhone whose lord bears allegiance to no higher sovereign. King Arthur is aghast at the thought and lays siege to it on his return. The final outcome of the siege is decided by a single-combat between King Arthur's nephew Sir Gawain and Gologras, the lord of the castle. Sir Gologras appears in no other medieval Arthurian romance and is unique to this tale.

The poem is notable for upholding a Middle English Arthurian tradition of casting Sir Gawain as an exemplar of courtesy; Sir Gawain twice demonstrates that fairness and chivalry will, in the end, gain more for King Arthur than will violence alone. The closing episode of the poem also shows another aspect of this character of Sir Gawain, one that is evident in the late-fourteenth century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by the Pearl poet. His courtesy involves the reciprocal exchange of favours. Sir Gawain wins a long and intricately-described battle with Gologras, but then pretends, instead, to have been defeated and is taken prisoner by his adversary.

Early printed copy

The earliest copy of The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain is found in a book that was printed in Edinburgh in 1508 by Chepman and Myllar: now classified as National Library of Scotland, Advocates Library H.30.a. This romance probably existed in manuscript form before 1508; however, no manuscript copy has survived, and it is likely that the poem was written not much earlier than the beginning of the sixteenth century.

The text of this tale was re-published by J Pinkerton in 1792. No other editions are known until 1827, when a facsimile version of the 1508 copy was produced.

Poetic style

The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain is written in stanzas of thirteen lines each, rhyming ababababcdddc. Like another Middle English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, most of the lines of each stanza are alliterative long lines; and like this earlier and more famous Arthurian poem recounting an adventure of Sir Gawain, it has a tail of four short lines at the end of every stanza. In the case of The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain, however – unlike its more famous cousin – the last four lines of every stanza form a "seperate quatrain... linked by final rhyme to the ninth line", a style of alliteration and rhyme that is identical to that found in the Middle English poem The Awntyrs off Arthure Perhaps this challenging rhyme scheme, coupled with the poem's use of a large number of technical terms for combat and costume, a Scots dialect and general unavailability of the text, has contributed to its relative, although undeserved, neglect.

Plot

The action of this romance takes place during a journey of pilgrimage that King Arthur takes to the Holy Land. At least, this is what the listener is told he is doing:

"The Roy rial raid withoutin resting,

And socht to the cieté of Christe, ovr the salt flude."

'The king rode without resting and travelled to the city of Christ, across the salt sea.' King Arthur embarks upon this journey with an army, however:

"With banrentis, barounis, and bernis full bald,

Biggast of bane and blude bred in Britane.

Thai walit out werryouris with wapinnis to wald,

The gayest grumys on grund, with geir that myght gane."

'Bannerets, barons and brave warriors sought out the strongest and most capable, those who had the finest weapons, the most splendid knights of the age, formidably armed for combat.' King Arthur's army soon runs out of food. They arrive near a castle whose lord swears allegiance to the king, offers him food in abundance and also thirty thousand more troops:

"I may refresh yow with folk, to feght gif you nedis,

With thretty thousand tald, and traistfully tight,

Of wise, wourthy, and wight, in their ware weedis."

'I can refresh you with folk to fight if the need arises; with thirty thousand trusted men, well-equipped with armour and weaponry.' Perhaps this is meant not so much as a pilgrimage as a crusade.

But whatever the ultimate motives behind his journey, King Arthur sets out for the Holy Land and soon arrives, in France, tired and hungry, at the castle of this lord who will soon offer him thirty thousand more troops. And here there is an episode illustrating an established characterisation of Sir Kay and Sir Gawain; one found, for example, in the Middle English tail-rhyme romance Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle and one that can be found in the possibly late-twelfth century First Continuation of Chretien de Troyes' story of Perceval and the graal. Sir Kay is sent into the castle to ask for food. He finds the hall deserted but in an adjoining kitchen is a dwarf roasting a fowl. Sir Kay assaults the dwarf and grabs the meat, earning for himself a graphic punch in the face when the lord of the castle appears to see what is going on. Sir Kay flees the castle and King Arthur sends Sir Gawain to engage with its lord.

Sir Gawain exhibits his characteristic refinement and courtesy, receives in return the full obedience of the lord to King Arthur’s sovereignty and the occasion is marked by a feast that lasts for four days, along with the provision of an extra thirty thousand mouths to feed on the journey. After many more weary days of travel, King Arthur reaches a magnificent castle on the river Rhone. Moored alongside are forty sea-going vessels bound for distant corners of the world and King Arthur asks who is the overlord of this wonderful place. On being told that its lord owes allegiance to nobody, he is horrified and vows to lay siege to it on his return.

King Arthur journeys to the Holy land, but the tale says nothing about his business there and proceeds very quickly to his arrival back within sight of this magnificent castle on the Rhone. He crosses the river and begins to build siege engines and to assemble his army in readiness for attack. The lord of this castle, Gologras, sends out a company of armed warriors to show their defiance and King Arthur prepares himself for a long siege.

The king soon shows himself to be curiously unfamiliar with the rules of war. Parallels may be drawn with some Old Welsh tales found in the Mabinogion, in which King Arthur is sometimes shown in a rather feeble light. But fortunately, he has Sir Spinogras at his side, who is able to explain that the presence of a warrior on the top of a tower flashing sunlight in his direction from his shield and brandishing his spear, is a challenge to single combat. King Arthur assigns one of his own knights to the challenge.

The knights meet on the plain and Gologras’s knight is defeated. Gologras sends out another warrior, King Arthur responds accordingly and after a long and hard battle, the two knights kill one another. In response, Gologras sends out four knights and these are met by four of King Arthur’s knights. Following this battle in which honours are even, four more are sent out the following day, but honours at the end of it all, remain even. Perhaps at this point, in these rules of engagement, a commander is forced to choose, on the strength of what he has seen of the prowess of the opposing side's nobility, whether to acknowledge their superiority, to engage all his forces in pitched battle, or to settle the matter in a final, single combat. Gologras emerges from the castle with a retinue of knights. In true Celtic fashion, he has chosen the latter. King Arthur’s nephew Sir Gawain, insists upon taking up this challenge on the king’s behalf.

This single-combat between Gologras and Sir Gawain is long and very evenly fought, but at last Sir Gawain gains the upper hand, Gologras slips in the blood that covers the ground beneath them and Sir Gawain is able to draw his dagger and hold it to his adversary's throat. But Gologras will not ask for mercy. He prefers death to the dishonour of surrendering to Sir Gawain. The victorious knight tries to persuade the other to capitulate and Gologras replies that if Sir Gawain will pretend to have been defeated and to walk off the field as his prisoner, then he will see that matters are resolved to Sir Gawain’s liking once he is in his castle. Despite not knowing Gologras at all, Sir Gawain agrees to this plan, sensing that his adversary is honourable. They pick themselves up from the ground, pretend to fight for a while, then Gologras leads Sir Gawain off the field as his prisoner. Roles have been reversed. King Arthur groans in anguish and begins to weep.

Once inside the castle, however, Gologras addresses his noblemen, lets them understand the situation and they tell him that they would rather that he remained as their lord, even though he may have been defeated in battle. Gologras and Sir Gawain issue from the castle together, unarmed, and Gologras approaches King Arthur in submission. Three days’ feasting ensues in celebration, and at the end of it, as King Arthur prepares to leave, he relinquishes his sovereignty of the land and gives full control back to Gologras.

Influences

The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain contains a number of themes and allusions that are traditional or derived from earlier Arthurian romances. In particular, most of the elements that make up the story might have been inspired or directly derived from the First Continuation of Chretien de Troyes' story of Perceval and the graal.

First Continuation

Sir Gawain finds himself obliged to fight with two knights at the same time at the castle of Escavalon, having journeyed there from the castle of the Fisher King, but he is rescued from this grim necessity by the timely arrival and intervention of his uncle, King Arthur. The king so impresses everybody at Escavalon that: "In all the isles of the sea there was no prince one could name waging war on King Arthur who did not make peace with him and pay him homage there before all his noble company." All except for one, we are told, against whom King Arthur marches. During a long siege of this lord's castle, Sir Gawain is badly injured. The castle finally surrenders and Sir Gawain is carried there to recover from his wounds.

Later in the story, on his way to a "castle Proud" to rescue Gifflet, who is held prisoner there, King Arthur and his knights have to cross a barren wasteland. Unable to find food for three days, they arrive at last at a manor. Sir Kay goes in to ask for food and finds a dwarf roasting a peacock; he is rude to this dwarf, assaults him and is given a blow in return by the lord of the manor who appears suddenly. Sir Kay goes back to inform the king that no food is available. Sir Gawain goes in instead and soon King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table have the sustenance they require. Sir Gawain has already been described as being "the most courteous of the age, unsurpassed by count or king,"

King Arthur and his knights at last reach the castle Proud, which is heavily defended. Shortly after arriving, a number of single-combats take place. First Sir Lucan defeats one of the castle's knights, then he is himself defeated and taken prisoner. Bran de Lis is then victorious for King Arthur, Sir Kay loses his joust and, after an interval for a hunt, Sir Yvain is also victorius. The castle's lord, the "Riche Soldoier" [sic], then decides to fight. Sir Gawain rides against him.

The battle is won by Sir Gawain, but the Riche Soldoier will not surrender. He tells Sir Gawain that he would rather die than ask for mercy, because if the girl he loves knows that he has been defeated, she will die of grief. But he promises that he and his castle will surrender to King Arthur if they can walk off the field now as though he has won the battle; in this way the girl will be shielded from the truth. Sir Gawain agrees to this, leaves the field as though defeated and King Arthur's knights despair. But soon, Sir Gawain reappears with Gifflet and the castle's lord approaches King Arthur in submission.

Later still in the tale, Sir Gawain wears the armour and rides the horse of an unknown knight who has been killed, in order to pursue the knight's quest.

Alliterative Morte Arthure

bla bla bla

Parallels

Parallels can be found in medieval Arthurian literature, medieval romance and in Welsh mythology.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The climax of the story told in The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain involves reciprocity. Sir Gawain assumes what has been given to Gologras, that is, defeat. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight also involves Sir Gawain assuming what has been given to his opponent. And not only in the stroke of the axe that he has to suffer, the stroke that he gave to the Green Knight a year earlier. He also plays a game in Bertilak's castle in which everything Bertilak gains must be given to Sir Gawain, and visa versa.

Gologras is determined to be seen to be relaxed and "mery" in his hall, even when things appear to be going badly for him and his knights are failing to gain the upper hand outside. A show of composure becomes a measure of his honour and chivalry and in this way he behaves very like Sir Gawain on his last night at Sir Bercilak's castle, awaiting a stroke of the axe the next day but determined to be "merrier than ever before."

A scene in which a knight enters king Arthur's court and invites one of the king's knights to cut off his head, promising that the knight can cut off his head afterwards, occurs in the First Continuation of Chretien de Troyes' Perceval.

First Branch of the Mabinogion

bla bla bla

Amis and Amiloun

bla bla bla

External links

• The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain, from Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales, edited by Thomas Hahn, Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1995.