The Adventures of Sir Gawain the True Read Free Page A

hungry. I'll start another ox."
    So it was that soon afterward, all King Arthur's knights were well fed, and the king had procured supplies for their journey from Spinagras, who, it turned out, was steward of a great estate. Spinagras assured the king that he would be happy to supply the king with anything he needed, free of charge.
    "Are you sure?" asked the king. "I'm willing to pay."
    "Don't be silly," replied Spinagras. "Every noble in England has vowed to support you, sire. Giving you food is just keeping that vow."

    Since this was perfectly true—all the English nobility had vowed to support the throne—King Arthur didn't argue. Instead, he asked the dwarf, "Could you give us directions, then? We lost our way in the storm."

    "Where were you going?" asked Spinagras.
    "To look for Merlin the Enchanter."
    Spinagras shook his head. "Waste of time. Merlin's not in England."
    King Arthur's face fell. "Are you sure? I had heard that an enchanter was in that area, and I thought it might be Merlin."
    "It wasn't, though, and he's gone now anyway. You might as well just go home, O king."
    The king lowered his eyes and stared gloomily at the ground. He had convinced himself that if he could just talk to Merlin, he'd know how to save Sir Gawain from the Green Knight. Now that hope was gone. He was silent for a long time. At last he looked up at the dwarf. "Then, can you give us directions back home to Camelot?"
    Spinagras pursed his lips. "These woods are tricky. I'd better show you the way myself."
    "Thank you, Spinagras," the king said dully.
    "You're welcome," said the dwarf softly. "Trust me, sire. I'll see you home safe. All of you."

Chapter 4
Gologras's Castle

    The idea of "vows" has already figured several times in this story, and since that idea is about to be important, it is worth pausing over it for a moment. A vow, of course, is a promise, but in King Arthur's time, promises meant rather more than they sometimes have since then. In the dangerous days before Arthur united England under one king, lawless scoundrels and cowardly bullies called "recreant knights" roamed the land. They did whatever they felt like doing and took whatever they wanted from anyone who was weaker than they were, for there was no one to stop them. People couldn't call the police, because there were no police, so they turned to one another for protection, making solemn vows to join together and help each other out whenever one was in need. People took these promises very seriously, because keeping their vows was a matter of life and death.
    Later, when King Arthur rose to the throne, he established the Round Table and began sending his knights out to protect people from recreants and scoundrels. Life began to get better, but promises remained just as important. All the king's knights took solemn vows to help the helpless and protect the weak, and—as Spinagras pointed out—all England's nobles took vows to support the king and obey his laws and help him to bring peace.
One could say that the king's peace—indeed, the kingdom itself—was built on people keeping their promises. This was why Sir Gawain intended to meet the Green Knight, even though it meant his death; he had made a vow, and in those days a person who didn't keep his word might as well be dead anyway.
    (Things are different nowadays. Nations are not founded on keeping promises so much as on bleak and gloomy things called economies, which expect people to do whatever suits them rather than what they've said they would do. Of course, there
are
still people who believe that keeping their word is a life-and-death matter; they're just less common. One should always be on the lookout for such people; they make the best friends. In fact, they make the only friends. But back to the story.)
    As Spinagras said, the forest where they had gotten lost was tricky. He led King Arthur's party through snowy woods and icy plains, over frozen lakes, and between towering crags