Arthurian Romances (71 page)

The boy rode along until he saw a charcoal-burner approaching, driving an ass before him.

‘Peasant,' he said, ‘driving that ass before you, tell me the shortest way to Carlisle. They say that King Arthur, whom I want to see, makes knights there.'

‘Young man,' he answered, ‘in this direction lies a castle built above the sea. And if you go to this castle, my good friend, you'll find King Arthur both happy and sad.'

‘Now I want you to tell me what makes the king joyful and sad.'

‘I'll tell you at once,' he replied. ‘King Arthur and all his army have fought against King Ryon. The King of the Isles was defeated, and that is why King Arthur is happy; but he is unhappy because his comrades have returned to their own castles where it is more pleasant to live, and he doesn't know how they're faring: this is the reason for the king's sadness.'

The boy did not give a penny for the charcoal-burner's information, except that he did ride off along the road that had been indicated to him
until he saw a castle above the sea, strong and elegant and well fortified. From the gate he saw an armed knight emerge, bearing in his hand a golden cup. He was holding his lance, his bridle, and his shield in his left hand, and the golden cup in his right; and his armour, all of which was red, suited him perfectly. The boy saw the beautiful armour, which was fresh and newly made, and was greatly impressed by it, and he said: ‘By my faith, I'll ask the king to give me this armour. How fine it will be if he gives it to me, and damned be anyone who settles for any other!'

Then he hurried towards the castle, for he was eager to reach the court, and soon passed near the knight. The knight delayed him for a moment and inquired: ‘Tell me, young man, where are you going?'

‘I want to go to court,' he replied, ‘to ask the king for this armour.'

‘Young man,' he said, ‘that's a fine idea! Go swiftly, then, and return as fast, and tell this to that wicked king: if he doesn't want to pay me homage for his land he must give it to me or send a champion to defend it against me, for I claim it is mine. And so that he'll believe your words, remind him that I snatched this cup I am carrying from him just now, with his wine still in it.'

He should have found another to carry out his mission, for the young man had not understood a word. He did not slow down until he reached court, where the king and his knights were seated at table. The main hall was at ground level and the boy entered on horseback into the long wide hall, which was paved with marble. King Arthur was seated dejectedly at the head of a table; all the knights were eating and talking among themselves, except for Arthur who was disheartened and silent. The boy came forward but did not know whom to greet, since he did not recognize the king, until Yonet came towards him holding a knife in his hand.

‘Squire,' said the boy, ‘you coming there with the knife in your hand, show me which of these men is the king.'

Yonet, who was very courteous, replied: ‘Friend, there he is.'

The boy went to him at once and greeted him in his manner. The king was downcast and answered not a word, so the boy spoke to him again. The king remained downcast and silent.

‘By my faith,' the boy then said, ‘this king never made a knight! How could he make knights if you can't get a word out of him?'

Immediately the boy prepared to depart; he turned his hunter's head but, like the untutored fellow he was, he brought his horse so close to the king – I tell no lie – that he knocked the king's cap of fine cloth from his head on to the table.

The king turned his still-lowered head in the young man's direction, abandoned his serious thoughts, and said: ‘Dear brother, welcome. I beg you not to take it ill that I failed to answer your greeting. My anger prevented a reply; for the greatest enemy I have, who hates and distresses me most, has just laid claim to my land and is so impertinent as to state that he'll have it whether I like it or not. He's called the Red Knight from the forest of Quinqueroy.
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And the queen had come here to sit in my presence, to see and to comfort these wounded knights. The knight would never have angered me by words alone, but he snatched away my cup and lifted it so insolently that he spilled all the wine in it over the queen. After this dreadful deed the queen returned to her chambers, in deadly fury and grief. So help me God, I don't think she'll come out alive.'

The boy did not give a fig for anything the king told him, nor did his grief or the shame done the queen make any impression on him.

‘Make me a knight, sir king,' he said, ‘for I wish to be on my way.'

The eyes of the rustic youth were bright and laughing in his head. None who saw him thought him wise, but everyone who observed him considered him handsome and noble.

‘Friend,' said the king, ‘dismount and give your hunter to this squire, who will watch over it and do whatever you ask. I swear to God that all will be done in accordance with my honour and to your benefit.'

And the boy replied: ‘The knights I met in the heath never dismounted, yet you want me to dismount! By my head, I'll not dismount, so get on with it and I'll be on my way.'

‘Ah!' said the king, ‘my dear good friend, I'll willingly do it to your benefit and my honour.'

‘By the faith I owe the Creator,' said the boy, ‘good sir king, I'll never be a knight if I'm not a red knight. Grant me the armour of the knight I met outside your gate, the one who carried off your golden cup.'

The seneschal, who had been wounded, was angered by what he heard, and said: ‘Right you are, friend! Go and snatch his armour from him right now, for it belongs to you. You were no fool to come here and ask for it!'

‘Kay,' said the king, ‘for the love of God, you are too eager to speak ill, and it doesn't matter to whom! This is a wicked vice in a gentleman. Though the boy is naïve, still he may be of very noble line; and if his folly has come from poor teaching, because he had a low-bred master, he can still prove brave and wise. It is a wicked thing to mock another and to promise without giving. A gentleman should never undertake to promise anything to another that he cannot or will not grant him, for he might then earn the
dislike of this person who otherwise would have been his friend but who, once the promise has been given, expects it to be kept. So by this you may understand that it is better to refuse a man something than to give him false hopes for, to tell the truth, he who makes promises he does not honour mocks and deceives himself, because it turns his friend's heart from him.' So the king spoke to Kay.

As the boy turned to leave, he saw a maiden, fair and noble, whom he greeted. She returned his greeting with a laugh, and as she laughed she said to him: ‘Young man, if you live long enough, I think and believe in my heart that in this whole world there will never be, nor will anyone ever acknowledge, a better knight than yourself. This I think and feel and believe.'

The maiden had not laughed in six full years or more, yet she said this so loudly that everyone heard her. And Kay, greatly upset by her words, leapt up and struck her so forcefully with his palm on her tender cheek that he knocked her to the ground. After slapping the maiden he turned back and saw a court jester standing beside a fireplace; he kicked him into the roaring fire because he was furiously angry at having often heard the jester say: ‘This maiden will not laugh until she has seen the man who will be the supreme lord among all knights.'

The jester cried out and the maiden wept, and the boy tarried no longer; without a word to anyone he set off after the Red Knight. Yonet, who was well acquainted with all the best roads and was an enthusiastic carrier of news to the court, hurried alone and unaccompanied through an orchard beside the hall and out a postern gate until he came directly to the path where the Red Knight was awaiting knightly adventure. The boy swiftly approached to claim his armour, and the knight as he waited had put down the golden cup on a block of dark stone.

When the boy had come near enough to make himself heard, he shouted: ‘Take off your armour! King Arthur commands you not to wear it any more!'

And the Red Knight asked him: ‘Boy, does anyone dare come forth to uphold the king's cause? If anyone does, don't hide him from me.'

‘What the devil is this? Sir knight, are you mocking me by not taking off my armour? Remove it at once, I order you!'

‘Boy,' he replied. ‘I'm asking you if anyone is coming on the king's behalf to do combat against me.'

‘Sir knight, take off this armour at once, or I'll take it from you myself, for I shall let you keep it no longer. Be confident that I shall attack you if you make me say more about this.'

Then the Red Knight became irate. He raised his lance with both hands and struck the boy such a mighty blow across the shoulders with the shaft of his lance that it drove him down over the neck of his horse; the boy became enraged when he felt himself injured by the blow he had received. With all the accuracy he could summon he let fly his javelin at the knight's eye: before he could react, the javelin had pierced the knight through the eye and brain, and had emerged from the back of his neck amid a gush of blood and brains. The Red Knight's heart failed in agony and he tumbled forward, full-length, upon the ground.

The boy dismounted, placed the knight's lance to one side and lifted his shield from his shoulders. But he could not manage to get the helmet off the head because he did not know how to grasp it. And he wanted to ungird the sword, but he did not know how and could not pull it from its scabbard. So he took the scabbard and pulled and tugged. And Yonet began to laugh when he saw the boy struggling like this.

‘What's going on, friend?' he asked. ‘What are you doing?'

‘I don't know. I thought your king had given me these arms, but I think I'll have to carve up this dead knight into scraps before I can obtain any of his armour, since it clings so tightly to the corpse that inside and outside are as one, it seems to me, so tightly do they cling together.'

‘Now don't you worry about a thing,' said Yonet, ‘for I'll separate it easily, if you wish me to.'

‘Then do it quickly,' said the boy, ‘and give it to me without delay.'

Yonet undressed the knight at once, right down to his big toe, leaving neither hauberk nor hose of mail, no helmet on his head nor any other armour. But the boy did not want to take off his own clothing, and refused, in spite of all Yonet's pleadings, to don a very comfortable tunic of padded silken material that the knight, when he was alive, had worn beneath his hauberk; nor could Yonet persuade him to remove the rawhide buskins from his feet. He just said: ‘What the devil! Are you mocking me? Do you think I'll change the good clothes so recently made for me by my mother for this knight's clothing? Do you want me to trade my heavy canvas shirt for his thin shift? My jacket, which keeps out the water, for this one that wouldn't stop a drop? May the man be hanged who ever would exchange his good clothing for someone else's bad!'

It is a difficult task to teach a fool. In spite of every exhortation, he would not take anything except the armour. Yonet laced up his mail leggings for him and strapped on the spurs over his rawhide buskins; then he put the hauberk on him – of which there was no finer – and placed the helmet,
which fitted him perfectly, over the coif, and showed him how to gird on the sword so that it swung loosely. Then he placed the boy's foot in the stirrup and had him mount the knight's charger: the boy had never before seen a stirrup and knew nothing about spurs, having used only switches or whips. Yonet brought the shield and lance and gave them to him.

Before Yonet left, the boy said: ‘Friend, take my hunter away with you, for he's a fine horse and I am giving him to you because I have no need of him any longer; and take the king his cup and greet him for me, and tell the maiden whom Kay struck on the jaw that if I can, before I die, I hope to cook her such a dish that she'll consider herself fully avenged.'

Yonet replied that he would return the king's cup and deliver the young man's message faithfully. Then they parted and went their own ways. By the main door Yonet entered the hall where the barons were assembled; he returned the cup to the king, saying: ‘Sire, be cheerful, for your knight who was here sends back your cup to you.'

‘What knight are you talking about?' asked the king, who was still filled with anger.

‘In the name of God, sire,' said Yonet, ‘I'm talking about the boy who left here a short while ago.'

‘Are you talking about that Welsh boy who asked me for the red-tinted armour of the knight who had caused me the greatest possible shame?' inquired the king.

‘Sire, truly I mean him.'

‘And how did he get my cup? Did the Red Knight have such affection or respect for him that he freely gave it to him?'

‘No, the boy made him pay dearly for it by killing him.'

‘How did this come about, good friend?'

‘I don't know, my lord, except that I saw the Red Knight strike him with his lance and injure him grievously, and then I saw the boy strike him with a javelin through the eye-slit so that blood and brains spilled out from beneath his helmet and he lay stretched out, dead, on the ground.'

Then the king addressed the seneschal: ‘Ha! Kay, what harm you've caused me this day! By your venomous tongue, which has spoken many an idle word, you've driven from me a knight who today has done me a great service.'

‘My lord,' said Yonet to the king, ‘by my head, he sends word by me to the queen's handmaiden, whom Kay in his fury struck out of hatred and spite, that he will avenge her if he lives long enough and has the opportunity to do so.'

The fool, who was sitting beside the fire, jumped to his feet as he heard these words, and came merrily before the king, leaping and dancing for joy, and saying: ‘Sire, king, as God is my saviour, the time of your adventure is nearing. You will often witness cruel and harsh ones, and I swear to you that Kay can be sure that he will regret his feet and hands and his wicked, foolish tongue because before forty days have passed the young knight will have avenged the kick Kay gave me; and the blow he struck the maiden will be dearly paid for and properly avenged, for his right arm will be broken between the shoulder and elbow – he'll carry it in a sling from his neck for half a year, and well deserved! He can no more escape this than death.'