Arthurian Romances (16 page)

Erec replied: ‘I in turn boast that I am quite a noble man; Erec, son of King Lac, is my name. My father is king of Estre-Gales. He has many rich citadels, beautiful halls, and strong castles; no king or emperor has more, except for King Arthur alone: in truth I set him apart, for no one is his equal.'

When Guivret heard this, he was astonished and said: ‘My lord, this is wondrous news; nothing else has ever brought me such joy as making your acquaintance. You may count on me, and if you wish to stay in my land or my domain you shall be greatly honoured. However long you may wish to stay here, you will be my overlord. We both have need of a doctor, and one of my castles is near here: it's no more than six or seven leagues away. I wish to take you there with me, and we shall have our wounds tended.'

Erec replied: ‘I am grateful to you for what you have said. I shall not go with you, by your leave, but I ask just this of you: that if any need should befall me and the news reach you that I needed help, then you should not forget me.'

‘My lord,' he said, ‘I promise you that, as long as I live, whenever you need my help, I will quickly come to aid you with all the resources at my command.'

‘I wish to ask no more of you,' said Erec; ‘you have promised me much. You are my lord and friend, if your deeds match your words.'

Each of them kissed and embraced the other. Never from such a fierce battle was there such a sweet parting, for moved by love and generosity each of them cut long, broad bands from the tail of his shirt, and they bound up each other's wounds. When they had bandaged each other, they commended one another to God. They separated in this way: Guivret came back alone; Erec, who was badly in need of dressing to care for his wounds, resumed his journey.

He never ceased riding until he came to a meadow beside a tall forest full of stags, does, and fallow deer, roe deer and game animals, and every other wild beast. King Arthur and the queen and the best of his barons had come there that day; the king wanted to stay three or four days in the forest for his amusement and sport, and he had ordered tents and pavilions to be brought.

Into the king's tent had come my lord Gawain, very tired from a long ride. In front of his tent was a hornbeam from which he had hung, suspended from a branch by the shoulder-strap, his ashen lance and a shield with his coat of arms, and to which he had tied his horse, saddled and bridled, by the reins. The horse had been there some while when the
seneschal Kay came riding very rapidly in that direction. As if to play a trick, he took the horse and mounted it: no one opposed him; then he took the lance and the shield that were there nearby beneath the tree. Galloping on Gawain's horse Gringalet, Kay went off along a valley until by chance it happened that Erec came to meet him. Erec recognized the seneschal and the arms and the horse, but Kay did not recognize him, for on his armour appeared no identifiable markings: he had taken so many blows on it from sword and lance that all the paint had fallen off.

And the lady very cleverly put her wimple over her face, just as she would have done to protect herself from heat or dust, because she did not want Kay to see or recognize her. Kay came rapidly forward and immediately, without greeting him, seized Erec's reins; before allowing him to move, he questioned him most haughtily. ‘Knight,' he said, ‘I want to know who you are and where you're from.'

‘You are mad to hold me like this,' said Erec; ‘you'll not learn it today.'

And Kay replied: ‘Don't let it trouble you, for it is for your good that I inquire. I can clearly see that you are wounded and injured. Take my lodgings this night! If you will come with me, I shall see that you are richly treated, honoured, and cared for, for you have need of rest. King Arthur and the queen are nearby in a small wood, encamped in tents and pavilions. In good faith I advise you to come with me to see the queen and the king, who will welcome you warmly and show you great honour.'

Erec replied: ‘You speak well, but I would not go there for anything. You do not know my need; I still have further to go. Let me go, for I have delayed too long; there is still plenty of daylight left.'

Kay replied: ‘You speak very unwisely in refusing to come along, and you may well regret it. I think you will both come, you and your wife, just as the priest goes to the synod: either willingly or not. This night you will be badly served, if you want my opinion, unless you are properly introduced. Come along quickly, for I'm taking you.'

Erec was greatly disdainful of this. ‘Vassal,' he said, ‘you are quite mad to drag me after you by force. You have taken me without challenge. I say that you have acted wrongly, for I believed myself secure from danger; I was not on my guard against you.' Then he put his hand to his sword, saying: ‘Vassal, let go of my bridle! Draw back! I consider you excessively haughty and daring. If you pull me after you any more, be assured that I will strike you. Let me go!'

And Kay did so; he galloped away across the field, then turned around and challenged Erec like a man full of great wickedness. They turned to
attack one another, but since the other wore no armour Erec behaved nobly by reversing the head of his lance and holding the butt in front. None the less Erec gave him such a blow on his shield at the widest part that it struck him on the temple and pinned his arm against his chest; Erec stretched him out prostrate on the ground.

Then he came to the charger and took it; by the reins he gave it to Enide. He wanted to take it with him, but the other, who was very skilled in flattery, begged him to return it out of generosity. Artfully he flattered and blandished him. ‘Vassal,' he said, ‘God protect me, I have no right to this charger; rather it belongs to that knight in whom in all the world the greatest prowess abounds, my lord Gawain the brave. So on his behalf I ask you to send him his charger, so that you may gain honour thereby; you will be acting both nobly and wisely, and I shall be your messenger.'

Erec replied: ‘Vassal, take the horse and return it; since it belongs to my lord Gawain, it is not right that I should take it.'

Kay took the horse and remounted; he came to the king's tent and told him the truth, keeping nothing hidden. And the king called Gawain. ‘Dear nephew Gawain,' said the king, ‘if ever you were noble or courteous, go speedily after him; ask him in a friendly way about himself and his business. And if you can persuade him so that you can bring him back with you, be sure you do not fail to do so.'

Gawain mounted his Gringalet, and two squires followed him; they soon caught up with Erec, but they did not recognize him at all. Gawain greeted Erec and Erec him. Then my lord Gawain, who was full of great nobility, said: ‘My lord, King Arthur sends me on this path to you. The queen and the king send you greetings and beg and request that you come and take pleasure with them. They wish to help you, not to harm you, and they are not far from here.'

Erec replied: ‘I sincerely thank both the king and the queen, and you too, who seem to be of noble birth and well bred. I am not at all in good health, for my body is wounded, but yet I will not stray from my road to take lodgings. You need wait no longer; I will thank you to go back.'

Gawain was very clever. He drew back and whispered to one of the squires to go quickly and tell the king that he should take immediate measures to have his tents taken down, then proceed three or four leagues in front of them and have his linen tents set up right on the road. ‘That is where he must spend this night, if he wants to meet and give lodging to the best knight he ever saw, for he absolutely refuses to abandon his path to seek lodging.'

The squire left and delivered his message. The king had his tents taken down without any delay. They loaded the packhorses and left. The king mounted Aubagu and next the queen mounted upon a white Norwegian palfrey. My lord Gawain, meanwhile, kept on delaying Erec, who said to him: ‘I went much further yesterday than I shall go today. Sir, you are annoying me; let me go. You have greatly disrupted my day's travel.'

And my lord Gawain said to him: ‘I wish to accompany you a little further, if you don't mind, for there is still plenty of time before nightfall.'

They spent so much time talking that all the tents were set up ahead of them, and Erec saw them; he saw clearly that he was to be lodged. ‘Oh ho, Gawain!' he said. ‘I am dumbfounded by your great cleverness; you have very craftily detained me. Since that's the way things are, I shall tell you my name at once; hiding it would do me no good. I am Erec, who used to be your companion and friend.'

Gawain heard this and went to embrace him; he lifted up his helmet and untied his ventail; for joy he embraced him again and again, and Erec for his part did likewise. Then Gawain parted from him, saying: ‘Sir, this news will be very pleasing to my lord the king. My lady and my lord will be delighted, and I shall go ahead to tell them. But first I must embrace and welcome and comfort my lady Enide, your wife; my lady the queen is very eager to see her – I heard her speak of it only yesterday.'

Then Gawain drew near her and asked her how she was, whether she was quite healthy and well; she replied with appropriate courtesy: ‘My lord, I should have neither pain nor sorrow were I not extremely concerned for my lord, but it frightens me that he has scarcely a single limb without a wound.'

Gawain replied: ‘This concerns me deeply. It shows very clearly in his face, which is pale and colourless. I might well have wept at seeing him so pale and wan; but joy extinguishes sorrow: he brought me such joy that I forgot my sorrow. Now come along at an easy pace; I shall go swiftly ahead to tell the queen and king that you are coming after me. I know well that they both will be overjoyed to learn this.'

Then he left and came to the king's tent. ‘Sire,' he said, ‘now you should be joyous, you and my lady, for Erec and his wife are coming here.'

The king sprang to his feet for joy. ‘Truly,' he said, ‘I am very glad. No other news could give me so much joy.'

Then the king left his tent. They met Erec quite close at hand. When Erec saw the king coming, he immediately dismounted, and Enide got down in turn. The king embraced and greeted them, and the queen likewise sweetly
kissed and embraced them; everyone welcomed them joyfully. Right there on the spot they removed Erec's armour, and when they saw his wounds their joy turned to anger. The king sighed deeply, then had an ointment brought which his sister Morgan had made. The ointment that Morgan had given Arthur was so wonderfully effective that the wound to which it was applied, whether on nerve or joint, could not fail to be completely cured and healed within a week, provided it was treated with the ointment once a day. They brought the ointment to the king and it brought great relief to Erec.

When they had washed his wounds, put on the ointment and rebandaged them, the king led him and Enide into his own chamber and said that for love of Erec he wanted to stay two full weeks in the forest, until he was completely healed and well. Erec thanked the king for this and said: ‘Sire, I have no wound from which I am suffering so much that I want to interrupt my journey. No one could detain me; tomorrow – I shall tarry no more – I want to leave in the morning, when I see the day dawning.'

At this the king shook his head and said: ‘There is something very wrong here, if you do not wish to stay. I know full well that you are in great pain; if you want to act sensibly, then stay – for it will be a great loss if you die in this forest. Dear good friend, do stay until you have recovered.'

Erec replied: ‘That is enough. I am resolved in this matter and would not delay for anything.'

The king heard that there was no way to convince him to stay, so he dropped the matter and ordered the evening meal quickly prepared and the tables set; the squires went to work at it. It was a Saturday evening, when they ate fish and fruit: pike and perch, salmon and trout, and then raw and cooked pears. They did not linger long after the meal; they ordered the tablecloths to be removed. The king had great love for Erec; he had him sleep in a bed alone, for he did not want anyone to he with him who might touch his wounds. Erec was well lodged that night. In a nearby chamber Enide and the queen slept in deep repose on a great ermine coverlet until the morning dawned.

The next day, as soon as it was light, Erec arose and made ready; he ordered his horses to be saddled and had his arms brought to him; squires ran to fetch them. The king and all his knights again exhorted him to stay, but prayers were of no avail, for he would not stay for anything. Then you could have seen them all weep and display such sorrow as though they were looking at him already dead.

Erec put on his armour; Enide arose. Their departure distressed everyone
for no one thought ever to see them again. Everyone poured out of their tents after them; they sent for their own horses in order to accompany and escort the two of them. Erec said to them all: ‘Don't be insulted, but you shall not go one step with me; I implore you, stay.' His horse was brought to him and he mounted without delay; he took his shield and lance and commended them all to God, and they in turn commended him. Enide mounted and off they went.

They entered a forest and did not stop until about the hour of prime. They rode through the forest until they heard the distant cry of a damsel in distress. Erec heard the cry and he clearly knew, from its sound, that it was the voice of someone in distress needing help. Immediately he called to Enide. ‘My lady,' he said, ‘some maiden is going through this wood, crying out loud; she is, I am sure, in need of aid and help. I want to hurry in her direction and find out what her need is. Dismount here while I go there, and wait for me meanwhile.'

‘My lord,' she said, ‘willingly.'

He left her alone, and alone went off until he found the maiden who was crying in the wood for her lover, whom two giants had taken prisoner and were leading away; they were vilely mistreating him. The maiden was tearing her hair and pulling at her clothes and her tender rosy face. Erec saw her and marvelled and begged her to tell him why she was weeping and crying so bitterly. The maiden wept and sighed, and as she was sighing she replied: ‘My lord, it is no wonder that I show grief, for I wish that I were dead. I neither love nor value my life, for my beloved has been taken prisoner by two evil and cruel giants who are his mortal enemies. God! What shall I do, wretch that I am, for the best knight alive, the noblest and the most generous? Now he is in the grip of mortal danger; today, they will treacherously make him suffer an ignoble death. Noble knight, I pray you for God's sake to assist my beloved, if ever you can assist him. You will not need to go far: they are still very near here.'