King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table

by Roger Lancelyn Green

  So, for a whole year, Beaumains served in the kitchen; and Sir Kay laughed at him, said unkind things to him, made rude jokes about him, and generally did his best to make his life as unbearable as possible.

  But Beaumains was always gentle and patient, never answering Sir Kay back, nor refusing to do whatever unworthy and lowly an office he commanded him – and Sir Kay, feeling that he might be in the wrong himself, jeered at him more and more unkindly.

  Pentecost came once more, and the whole Round Table was met again at Camelot; nor would King Arthur sit down to the feast until a squire came to him and said:

  ‘Sir, you may go to your meat; for here cometh a damsel with some strange adventures …’

  And in a few minutes the damsel came into the hall and knelt before King Arthur, begging him for help.

  ‘For whom?’ said the King. ‘What is the adventure?’

  ‘For my sister, the Lady Liones,’ she answered, ‘who is kept a prisoner in a castle by a wicked tyrant who has destroyed all her lands. And his name is the Red Knight of the Red Lawns.’

  At these words Beaumains came suddenly before the King, and said:

  ‘My lord, I thank you for that I have been these twelve months in your kitchen and have had my fill of meat and drink. And now I will ask for the other two gifts which you promised me: firstly, that you will grant me the adventure of this damsel, and secondly, that Sir Launcelot of the Lake shall ride with me until I have proved myself worthy of knighthood at his hands – for it is my desire to be made a knight by no one but Launcelot.’

  ‘These things I will grant to you …’ began King Arthur; but the damsel, whose name was the Lady Linnet, broke in angrily:

  ‘Fie upon you, King Arthur! What an insult is this, that you send a filthy scullion out of your kitchen to save my sister, when here at your Round Table sit Sir Launcelot and Sir Gawain, Sir Gaheris and Sir Bors – the best knights in the world – besides many others that are brave and noble also!’

  Then in a great rage she mounted her white palfrey and rode away from Camelot. And as Beaumains made ready to follow her, there came a dwarf carrying a great sword for him, which he hung at his side; and outside the hall a mighty war-horse was waiting, on which Beaumains mounted and rode away, Launcelot following a little behind.

  Then in the hall Sir Kay sprang up angrily, exclaiming: ‘I will ride after my kitchen-boy and thrash him soundly for setting himself up like this!’

  ‘You had best abide at home!’ said Sir Gawain. But Sir Kay would listen to no advice: away he went, fully armed, as fast as his horse would carry him, and before long he overtook Beaumains, who had just caught up with Lady Linnet.

  ‘Hey, Beaumains!’ shouted Sir Kay, ‘what are you doing out of the kitchen? Where is your reverence for your betters? Do you not know who I am?’

  ‘Right well I know you!’ answered Beaumains, turning his horse. ‘You are Sir Kay, the rudest and most ungentle Knight of the Court: therefore, beware of me!’

  This made Sir Kay so furious that at once he set his spear in rest and charged at Beaumains, who, unarmed as he was, spurred to meet him, his drawn sword in his hand. And just as Sir Kay’s spear seemed about to transfix Beaumains like a moth on a pin, he swerved his horse suddenly to one side, parried the spear with the back of his sword-blade, and caught Sir Kay deftly on the point of it. Then Sir Kay fell off his horse and lay there with a great wound; but Beaumains took his spear and shield and rode on after the Lady Linnet, while Launcelot, who was following close behind, flung Sir Kay across his horse and turned it loose to carry Kay back to Camelot as best it could.

  Meanwhile Beaumains overtook Lady Linnet: but he met with no kind greeting.

  ‘Fie upon you!’ she cried. ‘Why have you dared to follow me? You stink of the kitchen, and your clothes are mouldy with grease and tallow! As for that knight whom you have wounded or killed, you struck him a coward’s blow … Turn round, I tell you, and go back to your kitchen: for well I know that you are only the dirty scullion whom Sir Kay named Beaumains because of your big hands! Bah! Your hands are only fit for plucking fowls and turning the spigot in a beer-butt!’

  ‘Damsel,’ answered Beaumains politely, ‘you may say to me what you wish, but never will I turn back. For I have promised King Arthur to undertake your adventure – and achieve it I will, or die in the attempt.’

  ‘You’ll achieve my adventure, will you!’ jeered Linnet. ‘Why, before long you will meet with such an adversary that you’ll give all the broth in Camelot to be allowed to go back to your kitchen alive!’

  ‘That we shall see,’ answered Beaumains quietly, and they rode on in silence, the Lady Linnet a little way in front.

  Before long they came to a great black hawthorn-tree by the side of a dark glade; and there hung a black banner and a black shield, and by it sat a knight all clad in black armour upon a black horse.

  ‘Now flee away quickly,’ said Lady Linnet to Beaumains. ‘For this is the Black Knight of the Black Lawns!’

  ‘I thank you for your words,’ answered Beaumains. But he showed no sign of doing as she advised.

  ‘Damsel!’ cried the Black Knight. ‘Have you brought this fellow from the Court of King Arthur to be your champion?’

  ‘Heaven forbid!’ said Linnet. ‘This is only a scurvy scullion who follows me, whether I will or not. And I beg you, Sir knight, to deliver me from him – for he wearies me greatly,’

  ‘Why then,’ said the Black Knight, taking up his black shield and his black spear, ‘I’ll knock him off his horse and let him walk back to Camelot … It’s a fine horse, and will be very useful to me!’

  ‘You make passing free with my horse,’ said Beaumains. ‘Come now and take it if you can: and if you cannot, then stand aside and let me pass across these black lawns of yours.’

  ‘Say you so!’ cried the Black Knight. ‘You speak saucily for a mere kitchen knave!’

  ‘You lie!’ shouted Beaumains. ‘I am no scullion, but a gentleman born, and of nobler ancestry than you are!’

  After this they set their spears in rest and came together like two mad bulls. The Black Knight’s spear glanced off Beaumains’ shield and did no harm; but Beaumains’ pierced the Black Knight through shield and armour, so that he fell out of his saddle and died.

  ‘Fie on you, cowardly scullion!’ cried Linnet. ‘You slew him by treachery!’ And with that she rode away quickly.

  But Beaumains got off his horse and clothed himself in the Black Knight’s armour; but he kept his own sword and Sir Kay’s shield and spear.

  Now Sir Launcelot had seen all that passed, and coming up to Beaumains he said: ‘Sir, you have done right valiantly, and I now will make you a knight with all my heart. But your name you must tell me first – though I will not speak it to others until you wish it.’

  ‘My lord,’ answered Beaumains, kneeling with bowed head, ‘I am Gareth of Orkney, youngest son of King Lot and of Arthur’s sister Queen Morgawse. Sir Gawain is my brother and Gaheris and Agravaine also: but they knew me not, for none of them have seen me these last ten years.’

  ‘Right glad am I this day!’ said Launcelot. ‘And herewith I make you a knight. Go forward as you have begun, and there will be a place waiting for you at the Round Table. And I hold that you will be one of the truest knights in all the Realm of Logres, and one of the gentlest and most valiant.’

  Then Launcelot returned joyfully to Camelot, but Beaumains, whom we must now call Sir Gareth, sprang upon the Black Knight’s horse and rode after the Lady Linnet.

  ‘Away, kitchen knave!’ she cried. ‘Faugh, out of the wind – for the smell of stale grease makes me sick! … Alas that so good a knight should be murdered by such as you! But there is one hereby who will make you pay dearly – therefore, run away while there is still time!’

  ‘I may be beaten or slain,’ said Gareth gently, ‘but flee will I never, nor leave you until this adventure be accomplished.’

  Before long they met suddenly a knight dressed all
in green armour, with green spear and green shield.

  ‘Greetings, damsel,’ said the Green Knight of the Green Lawns. ‘Is that my brother the Black Knight whom you have brought with you?’

  ‘No, alas!’ said Linnet. ‘It’s only a wretched kitchen knave who has slain him by treachery.’

  ‘Traitor!’ cried the Green Knight. ‘You shall die for this!’

  ‘I defy you,’ answered Sir Gareth, ‘for your brother died honourably and in fair fight. Indeed any unfairness lay on his side, for he was in full armour, while I had only a shield.’

  Then the two knights jousted furiously – and broke their spears into little pieces. After this they fought with swords: on horseback until Gareth struck the Green Knight to the earth, and then on foot.

  ‘Sir Knight!’ cried Linnet presently. ‘Why do you take such a time to dispatch a mere kitchen knave? Alas, it is a shame to let him live so long!’

  Then, mad with rage, the Green Knight struck such a blow at Sir Gareth that he cut his shield into two pieces; but Gareth dropped the broken half from his arm, took his sword in both hands, and gave the Green Knight such a buffet on the helm that he rolled over on the ground like a shot rabbit, and lay there asking for mercy.

  ‘You plead in vain,’ said Sir Gareth. ‘For I will most certainly kill you unless this lady begs me for your life.’

  ‘That I will never do!’ cried Linnet. ‘I would not be in debt to a mere scullion!’

  ‘Then he must die,’ said Gareth.

  ‘Spare me, I beg of you,’ gasped the Green Knight. ‘I will forgive you for my brother’s death, and serve you faithfully, with my fifty knights.’

  ‘It is of no avail, unless she pleads for you,’ said Gareth. ‘You are about to die.’

  ‘Do not kill him, you filthy scullion!’ cried Linnet.

  ‘Damsel,’ said Gareth bowing to her, ‘your command is my pleasure always: at your request I will spare this noble knight. Sir Knight of the Green Lawns, I release you herewith: get you to Camelot with your fifty men, do allegiance to King Arthur, and say that the Knight of the Kitchen sent you!’

  That evening the Green Knight entertained Gareth and Linnet at his castle, and although she never ceased from railing and insulting words, Gareth received all honour from everyone else.

  ‘Fie!’ cried the Lady Linnet, ‘it is shameful for you all to honour this man so!’

  ‘Truly,’ answered the Green Knight, ‘it would be more shameful were I to do him any dishonour, who has proved himself a better knight than I am.’

  ‘Lady,’ said Sir Gareth as they rode through the forest next morning, ‘you are uncourteous so to rebuke me and mock at me, for I think that I have done you good service so far, and overcome those knights who, you said, would beat me. Moreover, whatever you may say, I will in no wise depart from you until my quest is accomplished.’

  ‘Well,’ said she, ‘very soon you will indeed meet your match. For now we draw near to the castle of the Blue Knight of the Blue Lawns – and only Sir Launcelot, Sir Gawain, Sir Bors, or King Arthur himself, could vanquish him. And I doubt if even these could save my sister, the Lady Liones, for the Red Knight of the Red Lawns who holds her besieged is the mightiest man in the world, and the secret of his strength is that it comes of the magic of Queen Morgana le Fay.’

  ‘The mightier mine enemies be, the greater my honour if I conquer them,’ said Sir Gareth.

  Then they came out of the forest into a great meadow carpeted with blue speedwell: and therein stood many pavilions of blue silk, and knights and ladies dressed all in blue moved amongst them. In the midst of the meadow grew a great mulberry tree on which hung many shields which had belonged to the knights whom the Blue Knight had slain: and from a low-sweeping bough hung a huge blue shield, with a blue spear struck into the ground beside it, and an iron-grey horse tied to the tree-trunk.

  ‘Run away, you stinking scullion!’ taunted the Lady Linnet. ‘Hereby is the Blue Knight, and his hundred followers!’

  ‘Then here shall I stay and fight,’ said Gareth, ‘and overthrow maybe a few of them – if they come at me in turns.’

  ‘I marvel greatly who you are,’ said the Lady Linnet, ceasing suddenly from her usual tone of mockery. ‘Surely you must come of noble and gentle blood – for never did woman rail and insult a knight as I have done you, and still you answer me courteously and depart not from my service.’

  ‘Lady,’ said Sir Gareth gravely, ‘a knight who could not put up with hard words from a woman would be of little worth. You anger me, certainly, by your cruel sayings – but then I fight all the more fiercely against your enemies. And as for my birth, I have served you as a gentleman should: if I be one or not, you shall know in time, for better service still I have to do before we part.’

  ‘Alas, fair Beaumains,’ sobbed Linnet, ‘forgive me for all I have said against you – and fly before it really is too late.’

  ‘I forgive you right joyously’ said Gareth. ‘But fly I will not, rather fight the harder so that I may win from you fairer words still.’

  At this moment the great Blue Knight saw Gareth, and sprang upon his horse, crying:

  ‘You there! Knight in the black armour! Jump down from your horse and kiss my foot in surrender this instant, or I will kill you without mercy!’

  ‘Nay, rather do you come to your knees,’ answered Gareth, ‘for I would need great mercifulness to spare the life of one who has slain so many good knights!’

  Then the Blue Knight looked to his blue armour, closed the vizor of his blue helmet, set his blue spear in rest, and came thundering down on Sir Gareth, who met him in mid-career – so hard that both spears were broken, and both horses rolled over on the ground. Then the two knights drew their swords, and began hacking and hewing until the sparks flew, striking such blows that sometimes they both fell grovelling on the ground.

  And at last Sir Gareth struck off the Blue Knight’s helmet and felled him to the ground, and made as though to slay him.

  But the Lady Linnet begged for his life, and the Blue Knight yielded himself to Gareth.

  ‘I will indeed grant you mercy,’ Gareth said. ‘For you are a mighty fighter, and it were a pity to slay such a one. Ride therefore to King Arthur’s court at Camelot with a hundred followers, and do homage to him, and say that the Knight of the Kitchen sent you.’

  That night Sir Gareth and the Lady Linnet were entertained most hospitably by the Blue Knight, and next morning he rode with them for a little while to show them the way.

  ‘Fair damsel,’ he said, ‘whitherward are you leading this knight?’

  ‘Sir,’ she answered, ‘we are going to Castle Dangerous where my sister the Lady Liones is besieged.’

  ‘Ah,’ said the Blue Knight. ‘Then you go against the Red Knight of the Red Lawns, which is the most perilous knight now living in the world, and a man without mercy: and by evil magic he has the strength of seven men. He has laid siege to that castle for long, and well might he have taken it many times: but he did not so, for the Queen Morgana le Fay made it by magic and gave him also his strength. And they hoped that Sir Launcelot or Sir Gawain would come on this quest, or King Arthur himself, and that the Red Knight would slay him, as I fear that he will slay you.’

  ‘That shall fall out as God wills,’ said Sir Gareth. ‘And yet perchance He wills that the Red Knight shall fall by my hand, that I may bring honour to the realm of Logres … And I will tell you now, but let it not come to the ears of any at Camelot until I desire it, that I am Gareth, brother of Gawain and Gaheris, youngest son of the King of Orkney and of Morgawse, King Arthur’s sister.’

  The Blue Knight left them before long, and they came through a thick wood and out on to an open plain, all red with poppies, and in the midst of it a castle built of red sandstone, and about the castle many tents and pavilions of red, where dwelt the followers of the Red Knight besieging the castle. Across the plain rode Gareth and the Lady Linnet, and before they reached the encampment they came to a great red
Judas tree on which, half hidden by the scarlet blossoms, hung the decaying bodies of many goodly knights, each still in his armour with his golden spurs upon his heels.

  ‘These are all those others who came before you to rescue my sister the Lady Liones,’ said Linnet. ‘The Red Knight of the Red Lawns overcame them one and all, and put them to this shameful death without mercy or pity.’

  ‘Then it is time I came to blows with him!’ said Gareth, angered at the sight of the slaughtered men. And he took a great horn made of an elephant’s tusk which hung from a branch of the tree, and raised it to his lips.

  ‘Stay!’ cried the Lady Linnet. ‘Blow not the horn until the noon be passed: for now it is still early in the morning, and it is said that the Red Knight’s strength grows and grows until the middle of the day, and then wanes in the afternoon, until at sunset he is no stronger than other men – albeit he is always the strongest of any.’

  ‘Ah, fie for shame, fair lady,’ said Sir Gareth. ‘I were indeed unworthy if I should wait to fight with him when his strength had gone!’

  With that he blew such a blast on the horn that the red walls of Castle Dangerous re-echoed it, and people came running out of all the tents and pavilions. And in the castle everyone came to the windows or looked down from the walls to see who it was that thus dared to challenge the terrible Red Knight of the Red Lawns.

  ‘Look, Sir Gareth,’ exclaimed Linnet suddenly, ‘there is my sister the Lady Liones looking out of her window – and here comes the Red Knight himself!’

  Then Gareth turned first towards the castle and bowed low to the lovely lady who was leaning out of the window and waving to him; and meanwhile the Red Knight, dressed all in red armour and riding a strawberry-roan war-horse, was riding towards him.