King Arthur's Knights
laund, with two green hillocks in the middle thereof. And feeding upon
the grass was a great buck, and it had a silver ring round its neck.
Perceval wondered at this beast being thus adorned, and went up to it
to stroke it.
But the buck was fierce, and would have gored him with its horns, but
Perceval seized them, and after a great struggle he threw the animal,
and held it down, and in his wrath he would have slain it with a sharp
stick. With that a swarm of little angry trolls poured from the hollow
hillocks with great cries, and seizing Perceval would have hurt him.
But suddenly Tod ran among them, and commanded them to release him. And
in the end Tod, who came himself of the troll folk, made the little
people pass the words of peace and friendship with Perceval, and ever
after that the boy went with the trolls, and sported with them in
wrestling, running and other games; and he learned many things of great
wisdom from them concerning the secrets of the earth and air and the
wind, and the spirits that haunt waste places and standing stones, and
how to put to naught the power of witches and wizards.
Tod ever bade them treat the young lord with reverence. 'For this is he
who shall do great deeds,' he said. 'He shall be a stainless knight,
who shall gain from evil the greatest strength, and, if God wills, he
shall beat down the evil powers in this land.'
But the lad knew not what he meant, though he was very content to have
the trolls for his friends.
One day Perceval was in the forest far up the mountain, and he looked
over the blue distance far below across the moor, and saw a man riding
on a wide road which he had never noticed before. And the man rode very
fast, and as he went the sun seemed to flash from him as if he was
clothed in glass. Perceval wondered what he was, and resolved to go
across the moor to the road he had seen.
When he reached the road he found it was very broad, and banked on
either side, and went straight as the flight of a wild duck right
across the moor, and never swerved by the hills or pools, but went over
everything in its way. And as he stood marvelling what mighty men had
builded it, he heard a strange rattling sound behind him, and, turning,
he saw three men on horseback, and the sun shone from them as he had
seen it shine from the first horseman.
The foremost checked his horse beside Perceval, and said:
'Tell me, good soul, sawest thou a knight pass this way either this day
or yesterday?'
'I know not what a knight is,' answered Perceval.
'Such a one as I,' said the horseman, smiling good-naturedly, for it
was Sir Owen, one of King Arthur's knights.
'If ye will tell me what I ask, I will tell you,' said Perceval.
'I will answer gladly,' said Sir Owen, smiling, yet wondering at the
fearless and noble air of this youth in so wild a waste.
'What is this?' asked Perceval, and pulled the skirt of the hauberk.
'It is a dress made of rings of steel,' answered Sir Owen, 'which I put
on to turn the swords of those I fight.'
'And what is it to fight?'
'What strange youth art thou?' asked Sir Owen. 'To fight is to do
battle with spears or swords, so that you would slay the man that would
slay you.'
'Ah, as I would have slain the buck that would have gored me,' said
Perceval, nodding his head.
Many other questions the youth asked eagerly, as to the arms they bore
and the accoutrements and their uses. And at length he said:
'Sirs, I thank you for your courtesy. Go forward swiftly, for I saw
such a one as ye go by here but two hours ago, and he flashed in the
sun as he rode swiftly. And now I will be as one of you.'
Perceval went swiftly back to his mother's house and found her among
her women.
'Mother,' he said, 'I have seen a great and wonderful sight on the
great road across the moor.'
'Ah, my dear son, what was that?' she asked.
'They were three honourable knights,' he said. 'And, mother, I will be
a knight also.'
With a great shriek his mother swooned away, and the women turned him
from the room and said he had slain his mother.
Much grieved was Perceval that he had hurt his mother, and so, taking
his store of pointed sticks, he went off into the forest, and strayed
there a long time, torn between his love for his mother, and the
strange restlessness which the sight of the three warriors had caused
in him.
As he wandered, troubled, his quick ear caught the clang of metal,
though he knew not what it was. And swiftly he ran towards the sound a
long way, until he came into a clearing, and found two knights on
horseback doing mighty battle. One bore a red shield and the other a
green one.
He looked eagerly at this strange sight, and the blood sang in his
veins. And then he saw that the green knight was of slighter frame than
the other, and was weakening before the strokes of the red knight.
Full of anger at the sight, Perceval launched one of his hard-wood
javelins at the red knight. With such force did it go, and so true was
the aim, that it pierced the coif of the knight, and entered between
the neck and the head, and the red knight swayed and then clattered to
the ground, dead.
The green knight came and thanked Perceval for thus saving his life.
'Are knights then so easy to slay?' asked the lad. 'Methought that none
might pierce through the hauberk of a knight, and I sorrow that I have
slain him, not thinking what I did.'
'He was a full evil knight,' said the other, 'and deserved death richly
for his many villainies and oppressions of weak orphans and friendless
widows.'
The knight took the body of the dead knight to be buried in a chapel,
and told Perceval he could have the horse. But the lad would not have
it, though he longed greatly to possess it, and the green knight took
it with him.
Then Perceval went home, sad, yet wild with wonder at what he had done.
He found his mother well again, but very sorrowful. And for fear of
giving her pain, he did not tell her of the knight he had slain.
She called him to her, and said:
'Dear son of mine, it seems I may not keep thy fate from thee. The
blood of thy warlike generations before thee may not be quenched,
whatever fond and foolish plans I made to keep thee from knowledge of
battle and weapons. Dear son, dost thou desire to ride forth into the
world?'
'Yes, mother, of a truth,' said Perceval. 'I shall not be happy more
until I go.'
'Go forward, then,' she said weeping, 'and God be with thee, my dear
son. And as I have no man who is strong of his hands, thou must go
alone, yet will I give thee gold for thy proper garnishing and lodging.
But make all the haste ye may to the court of King Arthur at
Caerleon-upon-Usk, for there are the best and the boldest and the most
worshipful of knights. And the king will give thee knighthood. And
wherever thou seest a church, go kneel and repeat thy prayers therein;
and if thou hearest an outcry, go quickly and defend the weak, the poor
and the unprotected. And be ever tender towards women, my son, and
remember that thy mother loves thee and prays for thy stay in health
and life. And come thou to see me within a little while.'
And he thanked her, saying he would do naught that should shame her,
but would remember all the nobleness of her teaching; also, that he
would return to see her within a little while.
Perceval went to the stable and took a bony, piebald horse, which
seemed the strongest, and he pressed a pallet of straw into the
semblance of a saddle, and with pieces of leather and wood he imitated
the trappings he had seen on the horses of the knights.
Then, after taking leave of his mother, he rode forth, sad at first for
leaving her in sorrow and tears, but afterwards glad that now he was
going into the world to become a knight. And for armour he had a rough
jerkin, old and moth-eaten, and for arms he had a handful of
sharp-pointed sticks of hard wood.
He journeyed southwards two days and two nights along the great
straight road, which went through the deep dark forests, over desert
places and over the high mountains. And all that time he ate nothing
but wild berries, for he had not thought to bring food with him.
While he was yet but a little way from the court of King Arthur, a
stranger knight, tall and big, in black armour, had ridden into the
hall where sat Gwenevere the queen, with a few of the younger knights
and her women. The page of the chamber was serving the queen with wine
in a golden goblet richly wrought, which Lancelot had taken from a
knight whom he had lately slain.
The stranger knight had alighted before the chair of Gwenevere, and all
had seen that full of rage and pride was his look. And he caught sight
of the goblet in the hand of Gwenevere, and he snatched it from her,
spilling the wine over her dress and dashing it even into her face.
'Now am I well lighted here,' he said, 'for this is the very goblet
which thy robber knight Sir Lancelot reaved from my brother, Sir
Wilder. And if any of you knights here desire to wrest this goblet from
me, or to avenge the insult I have done your queen, let him come to the
meadow beside the ford, and I will slay him, ay, if it be that traitor
Sir Lancelot himself.'
All the young knights hung their heads as he mounted his horse and
insolently rode out of the hall; for it seemed to them that no one
would have done so daring an outrage unless, like Sir Garlon whom Balin
slew, he fought with evil magic, so that the strength and prowess of
the mightiest knight would be put to naught.
Then Perceval entered the hall, and at sight of him upon his rough
piebald horse, with its uncouth trappings, and the old and mouldy
jerkin upon the youth, the knights and others broke forth in excessive
laughter, as much at the sight as to cover their discomfiture and fear
of the knight who had just gone.
But Perceval took no note of their laughter, but rode up the hall to
where Sir Kay the seneschal stood, wrathful at the outrage on the queen
which he had not dared to avenge instantly. And Perceval looked about
and saw a knight more richly dressed than the others, and, turning to
Kay, he said:
'Tell me, tall man, is that King Arthur yonder?'
'What wouldst thou with Arthur, knave?' asked Kay angrily.
'My mother told me to seek King Arthur,' responded Perceval,' and he
will give me the honour of knighthood.'
'By my faith, thou farmer's churl,' said Kay, 'thou art richly equipped
indeed with horse and arms to have that honour.'
Thereupon the others shouted with laughter, and commenced to throw
sticks at Perceval, or the bones left by the dogs upon the floor.
Then a dwarf pressed forward between the laughing crowd and saluted
Perceval. And the lad rejoiced to recognise him. It was Tod, who had
been his friend among the trolls of the mountains, and with Tod was his
wife. They had come to the court of Arthur, and had craved harbourage
there, and the king of his kindness had granted it them. But by reason
of the prophecy which the trolls knew of concerning the great renown
which Perceval was to gain, they had been dumb of speech since they had
last seen the young man.
And now at sight of him their tongues were loosed, and they ran and
kissed his feet, and cried together:
'The welcome of Heaven be unto thee, goodly Perceval, son of Earl
Evroc! Chief of warriors art thou, and stainless flower of knighthood!'
'Truly,' said Kay wrathfully, 'thou art an ill-conditioned pair, to
remain a year mute at King Arthur's court, and now before the face of
goodly knights to acclaim this churl with the mouldy coat, chief of
warriors and flower of knighthood!'
In his rage he beat Tod the dwarf such a blow, that the poor troll fell