"SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT" RESOURCES
(excerpts from posts)
(If you want to retell any of the stories listed below, be sure to obtain permission from the copyright holder if the material is not in the public domain)

1) Here it is in all its full-text glory.
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/CAMELOT/sggk.htm

2) Synopsis with illustrations and links
http://csis.pace.edu/grendel/projs4a/gawain.htm

3) Analyses and synopses of sections; also Middle English version
http://csis.pace.edu/grendel/proj2b/main.html

4) Middle English original/Modern English translation
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/sggk.html

5) URL no longer valid.

6) Links and essays
http://www.livinghistory.co.uk/homepages/sirgawain/

7) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Play by The Reverend James Yeames
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/yeames.htm

8) Message Board for Q&As
http://www.bookrags.com/notes/sgk/

9) Annotated Middle English (but still difficult)
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/gawmenu.htm

10) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Translation by Paul Deane; Copyright © Paul Deane, 1999
http://alliteration.net/gawain1.htm

11) Short synopsis
http://faculty.acu.edu/~appletonl/mb1/sggk.htm

12) Annotated verse (easy to follow)
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/green.htm

13) Synopses, character analyses, scholarly research (quiteunderstandable)
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/web_design/green_knight/

14) ClassicNotes from GradeSaver (similar to Cliff Notes)
http://www.classicnote.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/gawain/

15) Map
http://faculty-web.at.nwu.edu/english/caregan/c02/hel/me/gawain/gawain.html

16) Excerpts (esp. The Wedding)
http://www.uidaho.edu/student_orgs/arthurian_legend/hunt/gawain.html

17) Full translation by W.A. Neilson (large print; easy to read and understand)
http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/sggk_neilson.pdf

18) Dictionary of unfamiliary terms and Criticism
http://csis.pace.edu/grendel/projs3h/defnt.htm

19) British Literature short analysis
http://www174.pair.com/mja/Gawain.html

20) Genre essay
http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~jdl16615/writing/gawain.html

21) There's also a story different from the Lady Ragnell one, involving a challenge to cut off the Knight's head and show up a year later to let him cut off Gawain's head. Cathy Mosley's version of that one is on the NILAS website:
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~nilas/seasons/gawain.html
along with some commentary about the seasonal imagery of the tale.

22) From Chuck Larkin:
Subject: A pre-Christian Celtic Teaching Legend
About 2,068 words
THE MARRIAGE OF SIR GAWAIN AND DAME RAGNELL
Adapted by Bluegrass Storyteller Chuck Larkin

This Saga was adapted from a Mid 15th century poem fragment and from listening to other variants of this legend from a number of storytellers. This story is one of the surviving feminist teaching stories.

A well known variant to this theme, collected by Geoffrey Chaucer (AC 1343 - 1400), is The Wife of Bath's Tale published in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer has changed the knight of King Arthur into a knight who is a convicted rapist who weds a hag to save his life. The hag is in a grotesque physical form do to a spell placed on her by her brother. The Green Knight, her brother, has been changed into the Black Knight. In the Christian variations of the story one will note the lack of motivation as to the action of the brother in turning his sister into a hag and the other principal change in the later story variations occurs when sovranty is delegated to the wife by the husband. In recasting this story back into a pre-Christian leitmotif I used my knowledge of the old religions and the folkways of the Warrior. As example, what is the motivation that modifies the behavior of the Green Knight? Warriors traditionally held an enemy in great respect when displaying courage.

In one major Civil War battle, an all Irish brigade attacked a Confederate position over and over and over again and each attacking wave of Irish warriors knew they would die and they did die. The confederate warriors (many of themselves Irish) began cheering this incredible display of courage. Julius Caius Caesar, following a Roman victory in Gaul, noted with praise in his commentaries how a defeated army (Celts) chose death to slavery and in straight lines, line after line, naked they moved forward to be killed by the swords of the Roman legion. The Viking warrior and the Samurai warrior just before entering combat would look about themselves and consciously bring themselves into harmony with their environment and then create and deliver a poem about the beauty of nature about them.

A common phrase used by warriors in many cultures as they went into certain death with valor: "This is a good day to die." It is with this knowledge I bridge the gaps in the story.

Contact Chuck Larkin for the full text: e-mail to Chuck9Larkin@aol.com or website:
http://ChuckLarkin.com/

23) I just heard on the radio that there is a new edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight coming out soon, by the poet W.S. Merwin. It got a pretty good review.

24) James C. Work's western novel Ride South to Purgatory is a retelling of Gawain and the Green Knight. In this novel, the "Green Knight" character wears a scarf "the color of kinnikinnick" which is a dark green in summer -- the story doesn't acknowledge that it goes red in the fall. But it's still a rousing Western and I understand he intends to write more.

25) So, I thought that "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" was when Gawain goes to live with the Green Knight (the GK came to Camelot and said "Right, I'll give anyone here three swings at my neck; in a year's time I'll come back and swing at their neck." No one really wants to give up their head, and he starts taunting them all-- King Arthur is about to have to do it when GAwain stands up and says he will. He strikes the GK's head right off-- and then the GK puts it back on an smiles and says "Good. Two more tries". Quite fearsome. I forget why Gawain then goes and spends time with the GK, it may be part of the deal. Anyway:), and while there the Green Knight says "I'm going out hunting. Whatever I get, I'll give to you. While you're in my castle, whatever you receive, you must give to me." It's agreed; Gawain is a rather handsome young lad, and the Green Knight's Lady gives him a kiss on the cheek. When the Green Knight comes back, he gives Gawain a stag, and Gawain gives him a kiss on the cheek. The Green Knight laughs, and makes the same deal for the next day. The Green Lady gives Gawain a kiss on the other cheek (or lips? something) and the Green Knight gets the same, and laughs and is mighty curious--but Gawain won't tell him from whom he got the kiss in the first place. On the third day, the Green Lady gives Gawain her green scarf-- if he gives it to the Green Knight, he will know who has been kissing Gawain. He has this terrible struggle between the knightly virtue of protecting women and keeping his oath to the Green Knight. Finally, he gets out of it by <erk, forget-- but he doesn't give the Green Knight the scarf>... and goes back to camelot. After the year is up, the GK comes back and Gawain kneels before him, ready to get his head chopped off. GK swings once-- but stops at Gawain's neck. Swings a second time-- but stops without harming a hair on Gawain's neck. Then he swings a third time and the crowd gasps-- a trickle of blood on Gawain's neck. The Green Knight helps him to his feet and says "The first two strikes were for the first two days you were with me, when you gave me everything you received in my home. But the third day-- the third day you held something back from me, and so I cut your neck." There may be some more moralising, but that's all I remember of it.

26) You are right that these are two separate stories, though there are links between the two. Gawain and the Loathly Lady (also known as The Marriage of Sir Gawain, Gawain and Lady Ragnall etc.) - this is the story about what women most desire. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - this is the story where the Green Kinght turns up at King Arthur's court at Christmas time with a challenge to the beheading game. Penguin's Classic translation gives notes about the mythological origins and meaning of the tale.

27) Chuck Larkin Re: Dame Ragnell with some additives About 2,340 words
THE MARRIAGE OF SIR GAWAIN AND DAME RAGNELL
And Background Information Supporting the Structure of the Story
Adapted by Bluegrass Storyteller Chuck Larkin
This Saga was adapted from a Mid 15th century poem fragment and from listening to other variants of this legend from a number of storytellers. This story is one of the surviving feminist teaching stories. A well known variant to this theme, collected by Geoffrey Chaucer (AC 1343 - 1400), is "The Wife of Bath's Tale" published in "The Canterbury Tales." Chaucer has changed the knight of King Arthur into a knight who is a convicted rapist who weds a hag to save his life. The hag is in a grotesque physical form do to a spell placed on her by her brother. The Green Knight her brother has been changed into the Black Knight. In the Christian variations of the story one will note the lack of motivation as to the action of the brother in turning his sister into a hag and the other principal change in the later story variations occurs when ***sovranty is delegated to the wife by the husband.

In recasting this story back into a pre-Christian leitmotif I used my knowledge of the old religions and the folkways of the Warrior. As example, what is the motivation that modifies the behavior of the Green Knight? Warriors traditionally held an enemy in great respect when displaying courage. In one major Civil War battle, an all Irish brigade attacked a Confederate position over and over and over again and each attacking wave of Irish warriors knew they would die and they did die. The confederate warriors (many of themselves Irish) began cheering this incredible display of courage.

Julius Caius Caesar, following a Roman victory in Gaul, noted with praise in his commentaries how a defeated army (Celts) chose death to slavery and in straight lines, line after line, naked they moved forward to be killed by the swords of the Roman legion.

The Viking warrior and the Samurai warrior just before entering combat would look about themselves and consciously bring themselves into harmony with their environment and then create and deliver a poem about the beauty of nature about them.

A common phrase used by warriors in many cultures as they went into certain death with valor "This is a good day to die."

Additional period additives are the presence of the great sacred Oak trees of our ancestors and when laced with mistletoe even combat ceased in such a holy place. Dame Ragnel is seated between a tall oak tree and a green holly tree, dressed in bright scarlet red, all ancient symbols. As Princess Iseult said in the Tristan saga, "Blessed be the tongue that has spoken and blessed be the pen to write such words for three trees their be, the Holly, Ivy and Yew that holds their leaves the whole year through!" For did not our Christian Celtic ancestors believe, that holly hid the holy family fleeing to Egypt and also "Nine leaves of Ivy, I place under my head, to dream of the living and not of the dead, to dream of the one I am going to wed, and to see (him/her) tonight at the foot of my bed."

Dame Ragnell is a surviving "Rights Of Women" Story The Dame Ragnell legend is a teaching story that reminded our ancestors and now ourselves the male and female balance we need to attain and retain. The old balance before Europe fell under the edict of "God Over Man, Man Over woman."

One last piece of knowledge is the role of women warriors. In the older Celtic sagas and fragments of Roman history, husbands and wives were combat teams. Women warriors were the Gunny Sergeants training the next generation of warriors in order to keep the gender issues in balance. The warrior Queen Boadicea, who led the Northern tribes and who whipped the Romans at Mons Graupius in Britain was described by Dio Cassius as follows, "She was huge of frame, terrifying of aspect, and with a harsh voice. A great mass of bright red hair fell to her knees: she wore a great twisted golden necklace, and a tunic of many colors, over which was a thick mantle, fastened by a brooch. Now she grasped a long spear to strike fear into all
those who watched her."

Ammianus Marcellinus in the second century AC said, " A single Gaul can stand against a whole troop of foreigners with his wife, who is usually very strong, and with blue eyes; especially when, swelling her neck, gnashing her teeth and brandishing her fair arms of enormous size, she begins to strike blows mingled with kicks, as if they were so many missiles sent from the string of a catapult."

In ancient Mother Caledonia (the Roman name for Albe) the Scottish defeated the English in the battle of Ancrum Muir known today as Lilliard's Edge, one and a half miles north of the village of Ancrum. The bravest of the Scottish warriors was a woman, Lilliard who fought besides her mate. A stone was raised with this inscription.
"Fair Maden Lillard lies under this stone;
Little was her stature, but great was her fame;
Upon the English loons she laid mony thumps,
and when her legs were cuttit off,
She focht upon her stumps!"

It is with this knowledge I bridge the gaps in the story. I give permission to all storytellers and others to tell and write this story. As was in the olden Sencha Bardic days blessed be those who learn the story's flowing images and tell in their own words so they can pass foreword the flowing images, history and message to the next generation while adding their own creations to the story.

Chuck Larkin
ONCE UPON A TIME, A LONG TIME AGO
A. Celtic Welshman, whose line also reached back into Homer's ancient Troy, this Celtic Welshman rose to be the first King Pendragon over the Kings of Wales, Cornwall, Manx, Scotland, Brittiney and Ireland. Arthur, who still rests behind the vale in Avelon, was then Pendragon with 150 Knights of the round table. Knights who in their day stood for courage, courtesy, generosity and fidelity to their word.

This tale begins when King Arthur was hunting. And with his great bow he wounded a magnificent white stag. And as hunters will do, even to this day, Arthur followed the stag deep, deep, deep into the woods, into a small glade shaded by great oak trees laced with mistletoe. Suddenly King Arthur was confronted by a huge, giant knight dressed in shimmering green armor and on his Helmet horns with nine tines.
"Ah, who dare hunt the stag in my wood?"
"I am King Arthur, Pendragon of these lands. This be my wood."
"Arthur you are not my King Pendragon. This ancient sacred wood be my domain, my kingdom, and here I, Cernunnos, be the Wood Lord, and the old laws against poaching is death by beheading!"
The green knight began to draw his great broadsword, King Arthur dressed for hunting, without battle armor would only stand tall with the courage of knighthood.
"Green knight, I hear singing birds in the tall trees, I see aged Oaks festooned with mistletoe, a gurgling brook twisting through a meadow, bowers of flowers, hovering butterflies, buzzing bees, white clouds in the blue sky. If Arthur must stand and die, what better day could be chosen so fair, for even the sweet fragrance of honeysuckle is in the air!"
"Ahhhh! Arthur you have the courage of a warrior king. I'll tell you what I'll do. I will parole thee with riddle. Return within one year and a day, on your word, and bring a true answer to this riddle question. Arthur, what thing is it that all women desire above all else. A false answer Arthur will be your death be it rain or shine. A true answer will be your pardon for poaching."

King Arthur agreed and gave his word to return by the appointed time. During the year King Arthur, his knights and advisors went forth, north, south, east and west asking the riddle question and many, many, many answers did they receive. The year was near spent when King Arthur returned to the wood, mulling over in his mind the numerous answers, uneasy in thought, wondering if he had the true answer to the riddle question. As Arthur reached the edge of the forest he came upon a hideous looking woman seated between a tall oak tree and a green holly tree, dressed in bright scarlet red. As Arthur was riding past the woman spoke.
"Arthur hold and look on this grim personage. I am Ragnell. Dame Ragnell and I am sister to the Green Knight. Arthur I know the true answer to your riddle. And Arthur, I would trade what I know for what I want, if you want to see the sun rise tomorrow." "Dame Ragnell, for my life, what thou want, on my oath, if able I will give." "Arthur what I wilt, for your life, is for thee to ask, thy nephew Sir Gawain, to wed me and become husband to Dame Ragnell."

Let me tell you about Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain, who in his day, had the fairest flesh in the land. Sir Gawain who's strength and courage was greater then any knight of the Round Table. Sir Gawain who's strength and courage in battle increased three fold between mid morning and noon and mid afternoon and dusk. And when the battle rage was upon him, Sir Gawain could walk across a meadow of grass and not bend a blade. Sir Gawain whom all other knights held in great reverence for gentle kindness was his nature and deep was his humility.

And let me tell you about Dame Ragnell. She was incredibly ugly. Green tusks grew from her mouth and curled toward her ears. Her face was shaped with a snout with little red beady eyes. Her hair was matted with filth and little creatures crawled among the strands. Her bent and twisted hairy body with crocked legs and massive ankles was covered with open oozing sores. Her dugs hung below her knees.

But, let me tell you what King Arthur did not know. Yet our Celtic ancestors, listening to this story, two thousand years ago, knew and understood. The ancient audiences knew when they heard the name Dame Ragnell that she was the raging storm, the devastating tornado, the erupting volcano. The ancient audiences knew that Dame Ragnell was the great floods, the mud slides, the destructive earthquakes. They also knew that Dame Ragnell was the rolling hills, the valleys, the snow topped mountains, the rippling brook, the waterfall, the lakes, the streams, the ground we walk on.

The ancient audience knew Dame Ragnell by many names: Morriga, Bridget, Macha, Frey, Dana, Diana, The Queen of May, The lady of the Lake who gave King Arthur his sword Excalibur. You should know as they knew that Dame Ragnell, the sister, was our earth mother incarnate, a Goddess who has nine faces. And you should know that the Green Knight, Dame Ragnell's brother, King of the Sacred Grove, Dagda or Frey is that which lives and dies on mother earth. You should know that he is the spirit of vegetation, fertility, peace. He sends the rain, the sun shine, he makes the crops grow, mothers to bring forth, flocks and herds to multiply, even the crystals in mother earth to grow. The Green Knight, is father May, and he was known too as Lug, Dionysus, Osires, Adonis and the Celt's Aryan ancestors, the Kurgans, who crossed into India called him Krishna.

But King Arthur, the Celtic Pendragon, in this story, did not knew these truths. King Arthur, he did love his nephew Sir Gawain. And knew Sir Gawain as a loyal, courteous and generous knight. And did I tell you the ladies knew the handsome knight Sir Gawain? Did I tell you the ladies knew that Sir Gawain's words, thoughts and acts were always in balance? Did I tell you the ladies knew Sir Gawain never told a lie? Did I tell you the ladies knew he was integrity and fidelity? He was loved. He was chivalry. "Dame Ragnell, I will ask Sir Gawain to be thy wife but I will not command, it will be his choice." Dame Ragnell smiled and nodded her head and told King Arthur the true answer to the riddle question. Arthur entered the forest and again found the Green Knight. "Augh, huh? Arthur! Do you have true answer to my riddle?" Answer after answer after answer Arthur gave, collected from all his advisors and to each the Green Giant said, nay. The Green Knight began to draw his sword. "Hold thy hand Green Knight there be one more answer to what all women desire above all else and that be sovereignty, the right to choose, the right to be free from outside interference." "Well, Pendragon Arthur, you have learned your lesson well. I pardon thee from poaching." Arthur thanked the Green Knight and returned again to Tintagle but now with a heavy heart. He sought out his nephew Sir Gawain and told him of his agreement with Dame Ragnell and described her in all her odorous foulness. And Sir Gawain said, "Be not concerned uncle I will wed the lady." And he persisted, and Arthur reluctantly consented.

The wedding day arrived and the wedding took place on the rising sun but not with the usual jocularity and good humor, for all had a heavy hart at this wedding for even after cleansing Dame Ragnell was unsightly. That afternoon Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell talked of many things and as the sun set, they retired to their rooms. Sir Gawain turned to fall asleep. "Sir Gawain, be it not your duty on your wedding night to bid thy wife a good night before sleep?" And Sir Gawain answered, "Aye, It be my duty to bid my wife a good night, and to kiss my wife and to hug my wife and all that I will do!" And turning hand and eye to his wife he found beauty! "Ahhh, husband, you like this form? But first you must choose. I can be beautiful for you at night or beautiful for your friends by day, but not both, I must share my other form." "Lady Ragnell. You have your own will! Why should I choose? I yield to your choice."

And the Lady Ragnell having sovereignty recognized, chose to be beautiful both day and night. And the handsome Sir Gawain and the beautiful Lady Ragnell choose to be faithful to each other throughout their lives. This be the end of this old legend, The Green Knight, well he later became a Knight of the Round Table. However our ancient ancestors, when they heard this legend, they were reminded that not only was this legend about a woman's right of sovereignty but also when exercising choice one needs to stay in balance with the people one is bonded to. Did not Lady Ragnell choose on behalf of her mate. These legends reminded one of the bonding between a young couple that lasts into the craggy lines of old age, the love of the young for the old, the love for a parent for a child who is not perfect. The ancient Celts understood that in this legend not only was Dame Ragnell a manifestation of the Earth Mother but so was the perfect man Sir Gawain also a manifestation of the Earth Mother and so was the Green Knight but one more manifestation of the Earth Mother who in olden times came to us in many forms for each of her nine faces had nine faces in order to teach us how to live one with the other.

28) I'm new on the list. I've been trying to locate a story that is pretty popular but I don't remember the exact details of it. I hope it might sound familiar to one of you and you might be able to either give me the title, tell me where I might find the full story, or fill in some of the details for me.

Here are the bones of it, as I remember.
It takes place in during the days of King Arthur. Apparently there is a very ugly looking woman who Sir Lancelot or another of the knights ends up having to marry, for some reason which I don't quite remember. After they are married, however, she transforms herself into a beautiful maiden. She then offers him the option of being either beautiful by day when they are in public, or beautiful by night when they're alone. The knight, being quite knightly and honorable, tells her it is her call. When he says this she is immediately transformed into the beautiful maiden which is how she remains. The upshot of the story is that she got what she wanted: her choice. The name of the story might even be: "What a woman wants." Or was that some goofy Mel Gibson movie? Anyway, if this story sounds familiar to anyone and they care to flesh it out for me, I would totally appreciate it.
Response: The story you seek is called Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. There are many versions.
Response: I believe the story you're seeking is Gawain and the Lady Ragnell, one version of which can be found in Ethel Johnston Phelps' The Maid of the North: Feminist Folktales from Around the World [Holt, 1981]. (Other versions are out there - this is just one that springs to mind at the moment.)
Response: Here are two sources for the wedding of Dame Ragnall--one is an online source and the other is a book. Following that is my adaptation of this story.

Chapter V: Sir Gwain, Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Chivalry or Legends of King Arthur, Thomas Bulfinch, 1858. Available at
http://camelot.celtic-twilight.com/bulfinchs_ka/index.htm (1-8-03)
Sir Gwain Gets Married - Medieval Tales that Kids Can Read and Tell, Lorna MacDonald Czarnota

Sir Gwain
SIR GAWAIN was nephew to King Arthur, by his sister Morgana, married to Lot, king of Orkney, who was by Arthur made king of Norway. Sir Gawain was one of the most famous knights of the Round Table, and is characterized by the romancers as the sage and courteous Gawain. To this Chaucer alludes in his Squiere's Tale, which the strange knight "saluteth" all the court-
"With so high reverence and observance,
As well in speeche as in countenance,
That Gawain, with his olde curtesie,
Though he were come agen out of faerie,
Ne coude him not amenden with a word."
Gawain's brothers were Agravain, Gaharet, and Gareth.

SIR GAWAIN'S MARRIAGE.
Once upon a time King Arthur held his court in merry Carlisle, when a damsel came before him and craved a boon. It was for vengeance upon a caitiff knight, who had made her lover captive and despoiled her of her lands. King Arthur commanded to bring him his sword, Excalibar, and to saddle his steed, and rode forth without delay to right the lady's wrong. Ere long he reached the castle of the grim baron, and challenged him to the conflict. But the castle stood on magic ground, and the spell was such that no knight could tread thereon but straight his courage fell and his strength decayed. King Arthur felt the charm, and before a blow was struck his sturdy limbs lost their strength, and his head grew faint. He was fain to yield himself prisoner to the churlish knight, who refused to release him except upon condition that he should return at the end of a year, andbring a true answer to the question, "What thing is it which women most desire?" or in default thereof surrender himself and his lands. King Arthur accepted the terms, and gave his oath to return at the time appointed. During the year the king rode east, and he rode west, and inquired of all whom he met what thing it is which all women most desire. Some told him riches, some pomp and state; some mirth; some flattery; and some a gallant knight. But in the diversity of answers he could find no sure dependence. The year was well nigh spen when, one day, as he rode thoughtfully through a forest, he saw sitting beneath a tree a lady of such hideous aspect that he turned away his eyes, and when she greeted him in seemly sort made no answer. "What wight art thou," the lady said, "that will not speak to me? It may chance that I may resolve thy doubts, though I be not fair of aspect." "If thou wilt do so," said King Arthur, "choose what reward thou wilt, thou grim lady, and it shall be given thee." "Swear me this upon thy faith," she said, and Arthur swore it. Then the lady told him the secret, and demanded her reward, which was that the king should find some fair and courtly knight to be her husband. King Arthur hastened to the grim baron's castle and told him one by one all the answers which he had received from his various advisers, except the last, and not one was admitted as the true one. "Now yield thee, Arthur," the giant said, "for thou hast not paid thy ransom, and thou and thy lands are forfeited to me." Then King Arthur said:-
"Yet hold thy hand, thou proud baron,
I pray thee hold thy hand.
And give me leave to speak once more,
In rescue of my land.
This morn, as I came over a moor,
I saw a lady set,
Between an oak and a green holly,
All clad in red scarlet.
She says all women would have their will,
This is their chief desire;
Now yield, as thou art a baron true,
That I have paid my hire."
"It was my sister that told thee this," the churlish baron exclaimed.
"Vengeance light on her! I will some time or other do her as ill a turn."
King Arthur rode homeward, but not light of heart; for he remembered the promise he was under to the loathly lady to give her one of his young and gallant knights for a husband. He told his grief to Sir Gawain, his nephew, and he replied, "Be not sad, my lord, for I will marry the loathly lady."
King Arthur replied:-
"Now nay, now nay, good Sir Gawaine,
My sister's son ye be;
The loathly lady's all too grim,
And all too foule for thee."
But Gawain persisted, and the king at last, with sorrow of heart, consented that Gawain should be his ransom. So, one day, the king and his knights rode to the forest, met the loathly lady, and brought her to the court. Sir Gawain stood the scoffs and jeers of his companions as he best might, and the marriage was solemnized, but not with the usual festivities, Chaucer tells us:-
"There was no joye, ne feste at alle;
There n'as [not was] but hevinesse and mochel sorwe [much sorrow],
For prively he wed her on the morwe [morrow],
And all day after hid him as an owle,
So wo was him his wife loked so foule!"(1)
When night came, and they were alone together, Sir Gawain could not conceal his aversion; and the lady asked him why he sighed so heavily, and turned away his face. He candidly confessed it was on account of three things, her age, her ugliness, and her low degree. The lady, not at all offended, replied with excellent arguments to all his objections. She showed him that with age is discretion, with ugliness security from rivals, and that all true gentility depends, not upon the accident of birth, but upon th character of the individual. Sir Gawain made no reply; but, turning his eyes on his bride, what was his amazement to perceive that she wore no longer the unseemly aspect that had so distressed him. She then told him that the form she had worn was not her true form, but a disguise imposed upon her by a wicked enchanter, and that she was condemned to wear it until two things should happen; one, that she should obtain some young and gallant knight to be her husband. This having been done, one half of the charm was removed. She was now at liberty to wear her true form for half the time, and she bade him choose whether he would have her fair by day and ugly by night, or the reverse. Sir Gawain would fain have had her look, her best by night, when he alone should see her, and show her repulsive visage, if at all, to others. But she reminded him how much more pleasant it would be to her to wear her best looks in the throng of knights and ladies by day. Sir Gawain yielded, and gave up his will to hers. He said she could choose for herself. This alone was wanting to dissolve the charm. The lovely lady now with joy assured him that she should change no more; but as she now was so would she remain by night as well as by day. What all women truly want is the right to choose for themselves. The dissolution of the charm which had held the lady also released her brother, the "grim baron," for he too had been implicated in it. He ceased to be a churlish oppressor, and became a gallant and generous knight as any at Arthur's court.
Adapted from Bulfinch's Mythology:The Age of Chivalry or Legends of King Arthur, Chapter V: Sir Gawain. Thomas Bulfinch, 1858.
http://camelot.celtic-twilight.com/bulfinchs_ka/index.htm (1-8-03)

28) You can find plenty of sites if you put the following into Google (www.google.com): Use the quotes and type all this: "Dame Ragnell" OR "Lady Ragnell" Also, there is a great picture book of the Ragnell story by Selina Hastings called Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady.

29) Finley Stewart's excellent version of this story is in Best Stories from the Texas Storytelling Festival, available from August House.

30) I think Chuck Larkin's version is available on his web site.
http://www.chucklarkin.com/stories.html
scroll down almost to the bottom of page.

31) Query: The Knight in Lady Ragnall asks the question to be answered, I've heard it a number of ways, but forgotten them all.

I often phrase it: "What is it that, in her heart of hearts, a woman most desires?"
Richard M. Germany 2/12/06
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32) A round I remember from elementary school:
The hart he loves the high wood
The hare he loves the hill.
The knight, he loves his bright sword,
The lady loves her will.
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TimJ 2/12/06
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33) Joan Bodger gave her answer as "to be what she would be when she would choose to be that." I really like her version on her StorySave CD.
http://www.storysave.ca
Ruthanne E. 2/14/06
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(This web page updated 2/6/04; 2/12/06; 2/23/06)