Page:The Mediaeval Mind Vol 1.djvu/614

592 that insult and scoff might drive him back to her. She also gave him counsel, wise and foolish.

So the youth is launched. He rides away; his mother dies of grief. As his path winds on, he finds a lady asleep in a pavilion, and following his mother's counsel he kisses her, and takes her ring by force; trouble came from this deed of folly. Then he meets with Sigune, mourning a dead knight. He stops and promises to avenge her. She was his cousin and, recognizing him, called him by name, and spoke to him of his lineage. Then the youth is piloted by a fisherman, till, in the neighbourhood of Arthur's Court, he meets a knight, Ither, in red armour, who greets him, points out the way, and sends a challenge to Arthur and his Round Table. Parzival now finds himself at Arthur's thronging Court. The young Iwein first speaks to him and the fool-youth returns: "God keep thee—so my mother bade me say. Here I see so many Arthurs; who is it that will make me knight?" Iwein, laughing, leads him to the royal pavilion, where he says: "God keep you, gentles, especially the king and his wife—as my mother bade me greet—and all the honoured knights of the Round Table. But I cannot tell which one here is lord. To him a red knight sends a challenge; I think he wants to fight. O! might the king's hand grant me the Red Knight's harness!" They crowd around the glorious youth. "Thanks, young sir, for your greeting which I shall hope to earn," said the king. "Would to God!" cried the young man, quivering with impatience; "the time seems years before I shall be knight. Give me knighthood now."

"Gladly," returns the king. "Might I grant it to you worthily. Wait till to-morrow that I may knight you duly and with gifts."

"I want no gifts—only that knight's armour. My mother can give me gifts; she is a queen." Arthur feared to send the raw youth against the noble Ither, but yielded to the malignant spurring of Sir Kay, and Parzival rode out with his unknightly hunting-spear. Abruptly he bade Ither give him his horse and armour, and on the knight's sarcastic answer, grasped his horse's bridle. The angry Ither reversed his lance, and with the butt end