Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/130

122 W. P. Ker. himself high up on the cliff, above a raging river; his good horse Gringalet carries him through.

Then he comes to the castle of King Wonder, the owner of the chessboard, who promises to give the chessboard if Gawain will bring him the sword of the rings from King Amoraen (or Amoris). The search for the sword is the next adventure. There are episodes on the way, of a common romantic kind (Gawain "does away an ill custom" ,and takes part in a tournament on behalf of a luckless man), but these things do not interfere with the principal story: they are accretions, not complications.

King Amoris has his castle in Ravensten, an island in the sea. He will give up the sword to Gawain, if Gawain will win for him the Princess of the Garden of India; meanwhile he lends the sword to Gawain for the journey.

The sword is one that knows its master, and of itself makes obeisance to Gawain,

There is an episode of some importance before Gawain comes to the castle of King Assentin, father of the Princess Ysabele, and to the Garden of India where is the Fountain of Youth. He mortally wounds a felon Red Knight, who prays Gawain to give him Christian burial. It is the grateful ghost of this dead man who afterwards helps Gawain out of trouble.

The castle of King Assentin, like those of Wonder and of the Lord of Ravensten, has water about it; but this is the burning water of Purgatory (Vaghevier, 5825), with the bridge of the sharp edge lying across it, and Gawain cannot get over. He comes to a pleasant garden close and lies down to rest. As he is asleep the master of the place comes home, the Fox Roges, a prince transformed by his wicked stepmother. The Fox explains to Gawain the nature of the river: it rises in Hell and falls into the leversee (5955), the dull water, where nothing moves. He shows Gawain the dingy birds that shoot into the river and come out white and clean (5840); they are the souls. Gawain is led by the Fox through a passage under the river into the castle. There