Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/65

 The European Sky -God. 37

a damsel rides up and calls him a hypocrite, and a thief who has stolen her lady's heart and forgotten his promise to return. She demands back the ring. When Iwain does not reply, she snatches the ring from his finger and departs. Iwain goes mad and runs into the forest, where he lives like a beast. A hermit supplies him with musty bread. At length one day a lady, accompanied by two damsels, finds a naked man asleep in the forest. One of the damsels recognizes Iwain by a scar on his cheek. At her request the lady allows the damsel to bring a box of ointment, a gift from Morgue the Wise, by means of which Iwain is cured of his madness. In return Iwain frees the lady from the oppression of a powerful enemy, Count Alier.

As Iwain is riding through a deep forest, he finds a serpent and a lion fighting. He succors the lion and slays the serpent. The lion kneels down before Iwain and indicates by his tears that he thanks him. After this the lion accompanies Iwain everywhere. Iwain comes to the Fountain Perilous and finds Lunete shut up in the little chapel near by. She tells Iwain a wicked seneschal has accused her of treason in persuading Laudine to marry Iwain. She is to be burned to-morrow unless a knight can be found who will fight the seneschal and two others, in order to prove her innocence. Iwain promises to undertake the combat but is obliged to go some distance before he finds lodgings for the night at a castle. This castle is beset by a giant, Harpin of the Mountain, who will kill the lord's sons or carry off the daughter of the house in the morning unless a champion can be found to fight him. Iwain promises to fight the giant if the latter appears early in the morning ; otherwise he shall be obliged to go to keep his promise and save Lunete. In the morning Iwain waits till prime for the giant to appear, and, as he does not come, is distracted in his mind whether to go or stay. At last Harpin comes and Iwain subdues him, aided in the struggle by his faithful lion. Iwain rides hurriedly to the Fountain Perilous, and arrives in time to rescue Lunete by fighting at once the wicked seneschal and two others. The lion again helps Iwain. Laudine does not know who Iwain is. He calls himself the Knight of the Lion.

Iwain is met by a messenger from the younger daughter of the lord of La Noire Espine. The lord is dead, and the elder daughter has usurped all the land and secured Gawain to defend her claim. Iwain, who does not know that his opponent will be Gawain, agrees to fight for the younger daughter. He does not reveal his own name but is called the Knight of the Lion. Iwain and the messenger come to a place called the Castle of 111 Adventure and are advised not to enter. They do enter, however, and find three hundred girls behind a row of stakes. These girls are pale and thin and obliged to toil at working silk with thread of gold. It is explained that many years ago the King of the Isle of Maidens went like a fool in search of adventure. He fell into the power of two " fiz de deable " who own this castle. Being not yet eighteen years old, he ransomed himself as best he could by swearing to send each year thirty maidens as tribute till the monsters should be vanquished. Iwain is well entertained for the night by