Patrick Stuart's Blog, page 72

Gawain 2478 - 2530, Merry Christmas everyone.

He's actually pretty sad.

Wild ways in the world Gawain now rides
On Gryngolet, that by grace had got still his life.
Oft he harboured in house and oft all thereout,
And many adventures in vale, and vanquished oft,
That I will no take the time in this tale to recount.
The hurt was whole that had had rent in his neck,
And the bright belt he bore thereabout,
Across, as a baldric, bound by his side,
Linked under his left arm, the lace, with a knot,
Betokening he was caught and taught of a fault.
And thus he comes to court, knight all in sound.
There wakened wonder in that residence when they learned
That good Gawain was come; a great thing they thought.
The king kisses the knight, and the queen also,
And then many super knights that sought him to know,
How he fared, what he found, and he frankly told,
Lets be known all the costs of care that he had,
The chance of the chapel, the cheer of the knight,
The love of the lady, the lace at the last,
The nick in his neck he naked them showed,
That he was allowed for his lewdness at the lords hands
           for blame.
He quailed when he should tell,
He groaned for grief to name;
The blood in his face blushed well,
When it he should show, for shame.


"Lo! lord," said the lad, and the lace handles,
"This is the banner of the blame I bear in my neck,
This is the shame and the scar that I seemly received
For the cowardice and covetousness that I have cast there.
This is the token of untruth that I am taken in,
And I must needs it wear while I may last;
For man may hide his harm, but un-harmed may not be,
For where it once is attached it  detach never will."
The king comforts the knight, and all the court also
Laughed loudly thereat and lovingly accord
That lords and ladies that belonged to the Table,
Each bro of brotherhood, a baldric should have,
A band across them about of a bright green,
And that, for sake of that sire, they swore to wear.
For that was accorded the renown of the Round Table,
And he honoured that it had, evermore after,
As it is bound in the best book of romance.
Thus in Arthur's day this adventure befell,
That Brutus' book thereof bears witness.
Since Brutus, the bold bro, bowled hither first,
After the siege and the assault that ceased at Troy,
          ended so amiss.
Many adventures here-befallen
Have happened so 'ere this.
Now who bears the crown of thorn,
May he bring us to his bliss!

AMEN

...................................................................

If you'd like the whole thing in PDF or MOBI format then clicking on the cinquefoil below will take you to the shared drive where you can download them both for free.

Gawain 2429 - 2478, I wouldn't go back to that house either.

"But for your girdle," said Gawain, "God give you thanks!
That will I wield with good will, not for the wild gold,
Nor the sake of the silk, nor the side pendants,
For wealth nor for worship, nor wondrous works,
But in sign of my surfeit I shall see it oft,
When I ride in renown, to remind myself
of the fault and the faintness of our frail flesh,
How tender it is to entice touches of filth;
And thus, when pride shall me prick for prowess of arms,
The look of this love-lace shall leap to my heart.
But one thing I would pray of you, displease you never:
Since you be lord of yonder land where I have spent time
With you with worship - the wise one send you
That upholds the heavens and on high sits -
How known is your right name, and then no more?
That shall I tell you truly," said that other theign;
Bertilak de Hautdesert I am in this land.
Through might of Morgane le Faye, that in my house dwells,
And kindness of clergy by crafts well learned,
The mysteries of Merlin many has taken-
For she had direct dealings full dear sometime
With that accomplished clerk, as know all your knights
          at home.
Morgan the goddess
Therefore is her name:
Wields none so high haughtiness
That she cannot make full tame.


"She girded me in this guise, and to your good hall
For to assay the chivalry, if it truth were
Those rumours of the great renown of the Round Table.
She worked on me this wonder you wits to rob,
For to have grieved Guinevere and scared her to death
With horror of that ghastly guy that ghostly spoke
With his head in his hand before the high table.
That is who that is at home, the ancient lady;
She is even thy aunt, Arthurs half-sister.
The duchess's daughter of Tyntagell, that there Uther after
Had Arthur upon, that autarch is now.
Therefore I ask you, Gawain, to come to your aunt,
Make merry in my house; my many thee love,
And I will thee as well, wanderer, by my faith,
as any guy under God, for thy great Truth."
And he answered Nay, he would no way come.
They accorded and kissed, and commended each other
To the prince of paradise, and parted right there
          in the cold.
Gawain on his horse lean
To the kings burgh rides bold,
And the knight in bright green
Where-so-ever he would.

Gawain 2358 - 2428, Sarcasm, and a bit of arguable misogyny, Gawain is a poor winner.

"For it is my work you wear, that woven girdle;
My own wife it you gave, I know well for certain.
Now know I well your kisses and your cost also,
And the wooing of my wife; I wrought it myself.
I sent her to assay you, and I certainly think
You the most faultless fellow that ever foot set;
As a pearl to dried peas is worth prize more,
So is Gawain, in good faith, than other gay knights.
But here you lacked a little sir, and lewd you were;
But that was for no wild work, nor wooing neither,
But for you loved your life; the less I you blame."
That other staunch man in study stood a great while,
So aggrieved for guilt he greyed within;
All the blood of his breast blushed in his face,
That all he shrank for shame at what the man said.
The first word upon field that the found to reply:
"Cursed be cowardice and covetousness both!
In you is villainy and vice that virtue destroys."
Then he clasped at the knot and the cloth loosens,
Whipped wrathfully the wrap at the waiting knight,
"Lo! there is the false thing, foul may it fall!
For care of thy cut cowardice me took
To accord me with covetousness, my kind to forsake,
That boldness and bravery that belongs to all knights,
For I am faulty and false and have broken my faith,
Am treasonous and untrue - am abhorred both, beyond
          all care!
I confess you knight, here still,
All faulty is my fare;
Let me overtake your will
And after shall be ware.


Then laughed that other lord and lightly said:
"I hold it healed whole, the harm that I had.
You are confessed so clean, and know your faults,
And had you your penance at the point of my blade,
I hold you pared of that plight and purged as clean
As you had never forfeited since you were first born.
And I give you sir, the girdle that is gold-hemmed;
For it is green as my gear, Sir Gawain, you may
Think upon this thing when thee have found thy way
Among princes of prize, and this a pure token be
Of the chance of the green chapel among chivalrous knights.
And you shall return in this New Year season to my home,
And we shall revel the remnant of this rich feasts
          full cream."
There pressed him the lord
And said: "With my wife, I deem
We shall you well accord,
That was your enemy keen."


"No, for certain," said the chevalier, and seized his helm
And tips it off civilly and the knight thanks,
"I have sojourned sadly; sweet future to you,
May he send you your salary that our saviour made!
And commend me to that courteous one, your comely wife,
Both that one and that other, mine honoured ladies,
That thus her knight with her cunning has cleverly beguiled.
But that a fool behave foolishly should hardly faze her,
And through wiles of women be won to sore end,
For so was Adam in earth with one beguiled,
And Solomon with a fair few, and Samson as well-
Delilah dealt him his wyrd - and David thereafter
Was blinded by Bathsheeba, with baleful result.
Since they were wrecked with their wiles, it were a wynne huge
To love them well and believe them not, if only we could.
For these were formed the finest, most favoured alive
Excellently of all these other, under heaven
          that mused;
And all they were bewildered
With women that they used.
That I be now beguiled,
I may think myself excused.

Gawain 2309 - 2357, Gawain = ALIVE!!! But WHY?

He lifts lightly his cleaver and let it down fair
With the barb of the bit by the bare neck.
Though he hammered heartily, hurt him no more
But snipped him on one side, that severed the hide.
The sharp slice to the flesh through the white fat goes,
That the scarlet blood past his shoulders shot to the earth.
And when the boy sees the blood splatter the snow,
He sprang forth, (from standing feet,) more than a spears length,
He heaved up his helm and on his head cast,
Shrugged with his shoulders his shield into his grasp,
Brings out a bright sword, and boldly he speaks-
(Never since that he was boy born of his mother,
Was he ever in this wide world half so blithe),
"Cease, knight, of thy severing, swing you no more!
I have a stroke in this stead without strife had
And if you rehearse me more, I shall readily return them,
And serve severely back - and therefore sit there -
          and stew!
But One stroke here me falls-
The covenant set it so,
Formed in Arthur's halls-
And therefore, knight, fuck you!"


The huge man hunched over and on his axe rested,
Set the shaft upon the shore and to the sharp leaned,
And looked to the lord that leapt over the steam,
He that doughty, dreadless, undaunted there stands,
Armed, alive, angry; in heart it him likes.
Then he mouths merrily with a mighty voice,
Like caroling bells he to the knight said:
"My brave boy, on this bank do not be grim-dark.
No man here unmannerly your honour has harmed,
Nor acted but as covenant at knights court shaped.
I owed you a stroke and you have it, hold you well paid;
I release you of the remnant of all other rights.
If I deadlier had been,  a buffet par-adventure
I could wrathfully have worked, to thee have wrought anger.
First I messed with you merrily with a minor game,
And left you with no lacerations, as I legally should,
For the pledge that we promised that primary night,
And thou tried no tryst and truth with me kept,
And all the gain you gave me, as good men should.
That other mark for the morrow, man, I thee proffered,
You kissed my clear wife, then kissed me in return.
For both two here I you bade but two bare marks,
         no pain.
True men truth restore,
Then that man dread no bane.
At the third you failed though,
Therefore that third tap you gain.

Gawain 2258 - 2308, The Green Knights main deal is fucking with people.

Then the guy in the green got swiftly set,
Gathers up his grim tool. Gawain to smite;
With all the brawn in his body he bears it aloft,
Moved full mightily as maim him he would.
Had it driven down as directly as it could,
There had been killed by the cut that knight so good.
But Gawain on that guisarme glanced him beside,
As it came gliding down to shear him from our globe,
And shrank a little with the shoulders from the sharp iron.
That elvish surgeon with a shunt the steel withholds,
And then reproved the prince with many proud words:
"You are not Gawain," said the guy, "that is so good held,
He never arsed it from horror by hill or by vale,
And now you flinch for fear before you feel harm!
Such cowardice of that knight could I never hear.
Neither flinched I nor fluttered, my friend, when you struck,
Nor claimed any complication in king Arthur's house.
My head fell to my feet, and  yet not a flicker;
And you, before the slightest bite, shrank in your heart.
Lawfully, the finer fellow I feel I should be called
          therefore."
Said Gawain, " I shrank once,
And so will I no more;
But that my head fall on the stones,
I can not it restore.


"But get busy bro, by your faith, and bring me to the point.
Deal to me my destiny and do it out of hand,
For I shall stand thee a stroke, and start no more
Till thy axe has me hit - have here my Truth."
"Have at you then!" said that other, and heaves it aloft,
And swung it like a psychopath, that mad motherfucker.
He strikes out with certainty, but right at the slice,
Expertly withheld his hand before it might hurt.
Gawain gravely bides it and moves with no member,
But stood still as the stone, or the stump of a tree
Rightly locked in rocky ground with roots-a-hundred.
Then merrily he remarked, the man in the green:
"So, now you have your heart whole, hit you I must.
Hold you now the high honour that Arthur gave you,
If it cures decapitations, you might keep your skull."
Gawain full raging with anger then said:
"Why! strike on, you stupid man, you threaten so long;
I think that that your hearts pumping your own bullshit."
"Faith," said that other fellow, "you speak so fell,
I will no longer lightly let thy errand lie
          right now!"
Then set he him to strike,
And frowns both lip and brow;
No marvel that him misliked
That hoped of no rescue.

Gawain 2213 - 2258, Do it bro! Dooooo iiiiiiiittt!

Then the knight called out full high:
"Who claims this place, to keep my meeting?
For now is good Gawain hanging right here.
If any one wants me, win hither fast,
Either now or never, you need to speed up."
"Abide," said one on the bank over and above his head,
"And you shall have all in haste that I thee might owe."
Still he ground with his gryndelstone, getting it done
Worked his whetting awhile, before he would come.
And then he crops up by a crag and comes from a hole,
Whirling out of a vent with a fell weapon,
A Danish axe new devised, to deliver the gift,
With a burnished bit bent to the haft,
Filed with a flint-wheel, four foot large -
It was no less than that lace that gleamed full bright.
And the guy in green was geared as before,
Both the look and the legs, locks and beard,
Save that fair with his feet he finds now the earth,
Sets the steel to the stone and stalks beside.
When he walks to the water, he would not wade,
He hopped over on his axe, and awfully strides,
Brutal and bold over a bank that broad was about,
          with snow.
Sir Gawain came that knight to meet
His bow was by no means low.
That other said, "Now Sir, sweet,
What they say of you may be true."


"Gawain," said that green guy, "God may you keep!
With good will you are welcome, wanderer, to my place.
And thou has timed thy travel as true men should,
And you know the covenant kept us between:
At this time twelvemonth past, to take what befell,
And I should at this New Year indemnify in full.
And we are in this valley, verily, on our own;
Here are no knights to come between us, keep as we like.
Have your helm off your head and have here your pay;
Speak no more debate than I served thee then
When you whipped off my head with one blow."
"No, by the God," said Gawain, "that me gave life,
I shall bear you no bitterness for returning the blow.
But stick to one stroke please, and I shall stand still
And take you no trouble but cut as you like,
          anywhere."
He bent his neck and kneeled
And showed that skin all bare,
And let as he nought feared;
For dread he would not dare.

Gawain 2160 - 2211, gryndelstone = ACTIVATED

Then girds he Gryngolet and gets on the path,
Shoves through some shrubbery at the sheer side,
Rides down the rough slope right to the dale.
And then he walks his gaze, and wild it he thought,
And sees no sign of settlement anywhere about,
But high banks and buttresses upon both halves,
And rough rugged knarrs with gnarled stones;
The skies by the scree scraped he thought.
Then he halted and witheld his horse for a while,
And oft changed his cheer the chapel to search.
He sees nothing on either side, and strange it he thought,
Save, a little across the glade, a knoll as it were,
A bitter barrow by a bank the beck beside,
By fall of a flood that flashes there;
The burn bubbled therein as if to boil.
The knight catches his halter and comes to the knoll,
Alights down lightly, and at a linden attaches
The reins and his ride with a rough branch.
Then he goes to the knoll, about it he walks,
Debating with himself what it might be.
It has a hole on the end and on either side,
And overgrown with grass in gobbets and tufts,
And all was hollow within, naught but an old cave,
Or a crevasse of an old crag - he could not it name
          or spell.
"Say! Lord," said the gentle knight,
"Whether this be the green chapel?
Here might about midnight
The Devil his matins tell!


"Good grief," said Gawain, "grim it is here;
An ugly auditorium, with herbs overgrown;
Well beseems it the one wrapped in green
Deal here his devotions in the Devils way.
Now I feel in my five wits it is the fiend,
That has set on me this scheme to strike me here.
This is a chapel of mischance, may chaos it betide!
It is the coarsest church that ever I came in!"
With his helm on his head, his lance in his hand,
He roams up to the roof of the rough house.
Then heard he of that high hill, in a hard rock
Beside the brook, in a bank, a wondrous bold noise.
What! it clatters in the cliff as if it cleave should,
As if one upon a gryndelstone was grinding a scythe.
What! it whirred and whisked as water at a mill;
What! it rushed and rang, raw to the ear.
Then "By God," said Gawain, "that gong as I think,
Is raised at my reverence, to my rank a herald
          unsought.
Let God work! 'Oh no'-
It helps me not a mote.
If my life I must forego
Dread then me no note."

Gawain 2117 - 2159, Gawain confirms, Knight Levels = MAXIMUM.

"Therefore good Sir Gawain, leave the guy alone,
And go away some other gate, for Gods sake!
Career to some other kingdom, there Christ may you speed,
And I shall hie me home again, and I wholly declare
That I shall swear by God and all his good saints,
So help me Jesus and his holy mum, AND everyone else,
That I shall loyally lie and the tale never tell
That ever you ran or retired from a fight in this realm."
"Grant mercy," said Gawain, and grimly he said:
"Well work you, sir, that wishes me well,
And that loyally lie I think well you would.
But hid you it never so wholly, if I here passed,
Fucked-off in fear and fled, in form you suggest,
I were a knight coward, I might not be excused.
But I will to the chapel, what chance may there fall,
And talk with that terror the tale that me likes,
Whether it mean weal or woe, as wyrd likes it
          to have.
Though he be a stern knave
To meet, armed with glaive
Full well can Jesus shape
His servants for to save."


"Mary! said that other man, "now you so much spell
That you will your own termination to yourself name,
If you lease your life that lightly, the letting I won't keep.
Have here your helm on your head, your spear in your hand,
And ride you down this ill rut by the rock side,
Till you be brought to the bottom of the barren valley.
Then look a little to the land on your left hand,
And you shall glimpse in that glade the green chapel,
And the mad murdering motherfucker that it keeps.
Now fare well, in Gods name, Gawain the noble!
For all the gold under ground I'd not go with you,
Nor bear you fellowship a foot further through this forest."
With that the wise lad winds his bridle,
Hits the horse with his heels as hard as he might,
Leaps him over the land, and leaves the knight there
          all alone.
"By Gods sake," said Gawain,
"I will neither grieve or groan;
To Gods will I am full fain,
And to him I shall atone."

Gawain 2069 - 2017, My new favorite character: Nameless Doomsayer.

The bridge was brought down, and the broad gates
Unbarred and borne open upon both halves.
The knight crossed himself quickly and came over the planks-
Praises the porter who before the prince kneeled,
Gave him God and good day, that Gawain he save-
And went on his way with his wise one,
That should teach him the turns to that place
where the rueful wound he would receive.
They rode by hill-banks where boughs were bare,
They climbed by cliffs where clings the cold.
The heavens were upheld, but ugly thereunder;
Mist murks on the moor, melts in the mountains,
Each hill had a hat, a mist-helmet huge.
Brooks boiled and broke down the hill banks,
Sheer shattering on shores where the doomed path showed.
Well wild was the way that through the wood wound,
Till it was soon season that the sun rises
          that tide.
They were on a hill full high,
The white snow lay beside;
The man that rode him by
Bade his master abide.


"For I have won you here, wanderer, at this time,
And now you are not far from that notorious place
That you have spied and spurred so specially after.
But I shall say you for certain, since I you know,
And you are a lad upon life that I well love,
Would you work by my wit, its worth to you more.
The place you set path to full perilous is held;
There walks a one in that waste, the worst upon earth,
For he is stark and stern, and to strike loves,
There's more to him any man upon middle earth,
And his body bigger than the best four
That are in Arthur's house, Hector, Hercules, any.
He chops down chevaliers at the chapel green,
There pass none by that place so proud in his arms
That he not drive them to death with a dent from his hand;
For he is a man mirthless, and mercy = none uses,
For it be churl or chaplain that by the chapel rides,
Monk or mass-priest, or any man else,
He thinks as fun to fuck them up as laughter is to us.
Therefore I say you, as certain as you in saddle sit,
Come you there, you'll be killed, as the knight collects,
Know you that truly, if you had twenty lives,
          to spend.
He has lived here since yore,
And wrecked much the land;
Against his blows sore
You may not defend.



Despite the above image I kind of imagine the Nameless Doomsayer more as a Dave Chapelle figure.

Also get ready for me to shovel more fucks into this Middle English text. From this point on they come thick and fucking fast.

Gawain 2025 - 2068, He's had some practice at doomed goodbyes by this point.

While his richest robe he wrapped round himself -
His coat with the cinquefoil of the clear works
Emblazoned on velvet, virtuous stones
About beaten and bounded with embroidered seams,
And fair furred within with fine pelts -
He left not the lace, the ladies gift;
That forgot not Gawain, for good of himself.
When he had belted his brand on his steel-bound hips,
Then drawed he his dishonour double him about;
Swiftly and succinctly swathed around his sides that knight;
The girdle of the green silk, that gay well beseemed,
Upon that royal red cloth that rich was to show.
But wore not this woeful man for wealth this girdle,
For pride of the pendants, that polished they were,
Or that the glittering gold gleamed upon ends,
But for to save himself, when suffer he would
To bide that blow without debate of brand or
          of shield.
By that the bold man bound,
Goes out into the field,
And that many of renown,
With thanks their arms sealed.


Then was Gryngolet groomed, that great was and huge,
And had a more secure sojourn, and snug stabling;
He was pumped-up, well prepared that proud horse.
The knight comes to him and his coat smooths down,
And said soberly himself and by this truth swears:
"Here is a many in the mansion that are mindfully kind -
The man who maintains them, joy may he have;
The liege lady, in life, love her betide.
If they for charity cherish a guest,
And hold honour in their hands, may happiness them send
That holds the heavens upon high, and also to you all!
And if I might live upon land long any while,
I should return you some reward readily, if I might."
Then he steps into the stirrup and strides aloft;
His servant showed him his shield, on shoulder he it cast,
Goads he Gryngolet with his gilt heels,
And he starts on the stone, stood he no longer
          to prance.
His knight on horse was then,
That bore his spear and lance.
"This castle to Christ I commend".
He gave them all good chance.