My contribution to King Arthur Day. Sir Gawain is the best and most loyal of all the knights, prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice! Watch the rest of the King Arthur Day videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXtT13uVFBphbSBDWLPO687dL6ke3uWv
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| There is a medieval tale of King Arthur and his knights called The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell. | |
| This tale is usually considered a loathly lady tale, in which a handsome knight has to wrangle with a particularly unattractive woman, and this particular story I think is actually of great interest, as it seems to contain timeless wisdom about the gentle sex. | |
| The tale begins with King Arthur and his knights on a hunt. | |
| Arthur spies a deer and chases it alone through thickets and ferns deep into the forest of Inglewood until he finally fells it. | |
| There he encounters a knight called Sir Gromer Somer Jour, a knight with whom Arthur has an unfortunate history, because at some point Arthur wronged Sir Gromer by giving his lands to Sir Gawain. | |
| Gromer has Arthur at a disadvantage. | |
| He is armed for battle, and Arthur is just wearing his hunting greens. | |
| Instead of taking his life, though, Sir Gromer issues a challenge to King Arthur. | |
| First thou shalt swear upon my sword brown, to show me at thy coming what women love best in field and town, and thou shalt meet me here, without and send, even at this day, twelve months end, and thou shalt swear upon thy sword good, that of thy knights none shall come with thee by the road. | |
| Gromer demands Arthur to return in a year, alone and unarmed, and reveal to him what women most desire, or else Gromer will kill Arthur. | |
| After accepting the challenge, Gromer leaves and Arthur blows his horn to summon his knights. | |
| Gwain asks what vexes him, and Arthur explains that on his honour he must discover what women most desire. | |
| Gwain suggests that they split up and ask around, and then write down their findings in a book. | |
| Some sayed they loved to be well arrayed, some sayed they loved to be fair prayed, some sayed they loved a lusty man that in their arms can clap them and kiss them then, some said one and some said another, and so Gwain gets many an answer. | |
| Arthur and Gwain meet again to compare their findings, and notice that they don't have any consistent conclusions. | |
| What is it that women most desire? | |
| The answer is still elusive, and Arthur only has one month left until he must return to Sir Gromer and meet his fate. | |
| So Arthur resolves to keep seeking, and returns to Inglewood, and encounters a remarkable lady. | |
| She was as ungoodly a creature as ever man saw without measure. | |
| King Arthur marvelled securely. | |
| Her face was red, her nose snotted withal, her mouth wide, her teeth yellow overall, with bleary eyes greater than a ball. | |
| Her mouth was not to like, her teeth hung over her lips, her cheeks as wide as women's hips, a loot she bore upon her back, her neck long and thereto great, her hair clotted on a heap, in the shoulders she was a yard broad, hanging breasts to be a horse load, and like a barrel she was made. | |
| This barrel-shaped lady is Dame Ragnall. | |
| She rides a palfrey and is richly adorned with golden gems as she addresses Arthur, and explains that his fate is in her hands. | |
| She holds the secret to what women want, and he will have to satisfy her to receive it. | |
| Worried, Arthur asks her what it is that she wants, and Dame Ragnall replies that she wishes to wed a knight, but not just any knight. | |
| She wants to marry Arthur's closest and most reliable companion, the dashing and gallant Sir Gawain. | |
| Arthur has a bro moment and realised that he can't ask that of Sir Gwain. | |
| Not only will it be a horrible thing to do to Gwain, but he doesn't want to weaponise Gwain's loyalty to him in this way. | |
| However, Ragnal insists he ask Gwain, or else she will not save Arthur, so Arthur travels to Carlisle to meet Gwain and explains the predicament, to which Sir Gwain just replies, Is this all? | |
| I shall wed her and wed her again. | |
| Though she were a fiend, though she were as foul as Beelzebub, I shall I wed by the rood, or else were not I your friend. | |
| So the pair return to Dame Ragnell, and she reveals what women most want. | |
| Ragnell explains that while men think women most desire to be wanton or to bewared or have riches or status, what women want is the magic of a fresh romance, to be the subject of affection from a man who is enchanted with new love, to be the centre of his universe and the object around which all his thoughts revolve. | |
| She calls this the sovereignty of women over men, so that no matter how fierce a knight might be, she will always have a kind of soft dominion over him through his feelings. | |
| To have the sovereignty of such a sire, such is our craft and jinn. | |
| Following this revelation, Arthur meets with Sir Gromer and presents him with the books that he and Gwain have compiled, but Gromer rejects these, and before he can kill Arthur, Arthur informs him of the result of his quest from Dame Ragnell. | |
| I say no more, but above all things, women desire sovereignty, for that is their liking, and that is their most desire, to have the rule of the manliest men, and then are they well. | |
| Thus they me did ken. | |
| So Gromer reveals that Dame Ragnel is his sister, and that he is actually satisfied with Arthur's answer. | |
| He's free to go, and Gromer warns Arthur not to be caught and armed again. | |
| But what to do with Dame Ragnel? | |
| Well, Gawain is still betrothed to her, and, true to his word, he agrees to marry her. | |
| The wedding is arranged, despite Ragnal's hideous demeanour, which she wants out in the open so everyone can see it. | |
| Ragnal spends a fortune on the wedding, and all of the notables of the kingdom assemble for what seems to be Gawain's humiliation on behalf of his liege lord. | |
| After the wedding they go to the feast, and Ragnal eats like a disgusting pig, making a disrespectful spectacle of herself. | |
| Everyone at the feast is revolted by her. | |
| And unfortunately for Gwain, after the feast is the wedding night, and Ragnal insists that they retire to bed to make love. | |
| Ragnel expects that he will shrink from this, and begs him to give her at least a kiss, but Gwain is a man of duty and honour, and replies heartily, I will do more than for to kiss and God before. | |
| Gwain pulls Ragnell towards him and suddenly sees that she's changed. | |
| No longer is she the hideous barrel-shaped pig that he had seen before, but now he saw her the fairest creature that ever he saw without measure. | |
| She said, What is your will? | |
| In the bedroom she is now beautiful and submissive towards him, rather than being haughty, disrespectful and foul as she was in public. | |
| She informs him that he must choose. | |
| She will be ugly at night in the bedroom, and beautiful and polite in public, so that his reputation might be secure, or she will be beautiful at night and ugly during the day, so that his love life with her might be pleasant. | |
| Gwen is in a bind, and doesn't know which to choose, so he tells her to make the choice for him, and puts the decisions in her hands. | |
| He asks, What is your will? | |
| Ragnal is overjoyed. | |
| Gramacy, courteous knight, saith the lady, of all earthly knights blessed must thou be, for I am worshipped. | |
| Thou shalt have me fair by both day and night, and ever will I live as fair and bright, therefore be not grieved. | |
| Ragnal reveals that she was transformed through a necromancy by her stepmother, which has made her ugly until the best knight in England had married her and given her his sovereignty. | |
| Ragnel rejoices. | |
| Now that she is respected and sovereign over herself, she does not need to dominate others, and is released from the curse of her stepmother. | |
| Now she will be fair both day and night, and she promises to be obedient, and quickly becomes the fairest maid in the king's court, a gentlewoman, beloved by all. | |
| What Gawain had done is saved her from the curse of her upbringing. | |
| By restoring Ragnal's sovereignty back to her, he freed her of the bad example of her insecure stepmother, whose habits are burned into her psyche, which saves her from her own villainy. | |
| The emotional damage done by an overbearing mother is restored by a loving and respectful husband. | |
| What the story of the wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnel suggests is that when a man is truly devoted to and in love with his wife, he can give to her a security which frees her of the fears which drive her to try and control others, as her mother did. | |
| To be committed to her allows her to become the devoted wife and mother she longs to be, bringing out the best in her, making her fair both day and night. | |
| Moreover, this is an ennobling story for Gawain. | |
| By acting as a true and worthy knight, by being the best he could be, he has gained everything he had ever hoped for. | |
| He gets the good ending. | |
| And so how does this story end? |