56. 'That I shall loyally screen you, and never give out the tale that you fled for fear of any man that I knew.' 64. _for chaunce þat may falle_, 'in spite of anything that may happen'. 68-9. 'Though he be a stern lord (lit. a stern man to rule), and armed with a stave'. The short lines are built more with a view to rime than to sense. 72-4. 'Marry!' said the other, 'now you say so decidedly that you will take your own harm upon yourself, and it pleases you to lose your life, I have no wish to hinder you.' 76. _ryde me_: an instance of the rare ethic dative, which expresses some interest in the action of the verb on the part of one who is neither the doer of the action nor its object. Distinguish the uses referred to in the notes to II 289, XV _g_ 24. 86. _Lepeȝ hym_, 'gallops'. For _hym_, which refers to the rider, not the horse, cp. note to XV _g_ 24. 92. _Gryngolet_: the name of Gawayn's horse. _gedereȝ þe rake_ seems to mean 'takes the path'. No similar transitive use of 'gather' is known. 95. _he wayted hym aboute_, 'he looked around him'. Cp. l. 221 _wayteȝ_, and note to l. 121. 99. 'The clouds seemed to him grazed by the crags'; i.e. the crags were so high that they seemed to him to scrape the clouds. I owe to Professor Craigie the suggestion that _skayned_ is ON. _skeina_ 'to graze', 'scratch'. 102-4. 'And soon, a little way off on an open space, a mound (as it appeared) seemed to him remarkable.' 107. _kacheȝ his caple_, 'takes control of his horse', i.e. takes up the reins again to start the horse after the halt mentioned at l. 100. 109. _his riche_: possibly 'his good steed'. The substantival use of an adjective is common in alliterative verse, e.g. l. 188 _þat schyre_ (neck); 200 _þe schene_ (axe); 245 _þe scharp_ (axe); 343 _þat cortays_ (lady). But it has been suggested that _brydel_ has fallen out of the text after _riche_. 114. 'And it was all hollow within, nothing but an old cave.' 115 f. _he couþe hit noȝt deme with spelle_, 'he could not say <which it was>'. For _deme_ 'to speak', &c., cp. VI 1, XV _b_ 29-30. 118. _Wheþer_ commonly introduces a direct question and should not be separately translated. Cp. VI 205 and note to XI _a_ 51. 121. _wysty is here_, 'it is desolate here'. Note _Wowayn_ = _Wauwayn_, an alternative form of _Gawayn_ used for the alliteration. The alternation is parallel to that in _guardian_: _warden_; _regard_: _reward_ XIV _c_ 105; _guarantee_: _warranty_; _(bi)gyled_ 359: _(bi)wyled_ 357; _werre_ 'war' beside French _guerre_; _wait_ 'watch' (as at l. 95) beside French _guetter_; and is due to dialectal differences in Old French. The Anglo-Norman dialect usually preserved _w_ in words borrowed from Germanic or Celtic, while others replaced it by _gw_, _gu_, which later became simple _g_ in pronunciation. 125. _in my fyue wytteȝ_: construe with _fele_. 127. _þat chekke hit bytyde_, 'which destruction befall!' _þat... hit_ = 'which'. _chekke_ refers to the checkmate at chess.