Then this lady said to Sir Launcelot: Sir, if it please you will ye go
with me hereby into a chapel that we may give loving and thanking unto
God? Madam, said Sir Launcelot, come on with me, I will go with you. So
when they came there and gave thankings to God all the people, both
learned and lewd, gave thankings unto God and him, and said: Sir
knight, since ye have delivered this lady, ye shall deliver us from a
serpent there is here in a tomb. Then Sir Launcelot took his shield and
said: Bring me thither, and what I may do unto the pleasure of God and
you I will do. So when Sir Launcelot came thither he saw written upon
the tomb letters of gold that said thus: Here shall come a leopard of
king’s blood, and he shall slay this serpent, and this leopard shall
engender a lion in this foreign country, the which lion shall pass all
other knights. So then Sir Launcelot lift up the tomb, and there came
out an horrible and a fiendly dragon, spitting fire out of his mouth.
Then Sir Launcelot drew his sword and fought with the dragon long, and
at the last with great pain Sir Launcelot slew that dragon. Therewithal
came King Pelles, the good and noble knight, and saluted Sir Launcelot,
and he him again. Fair knight, said the king, what is your name? I
require you of your knighthood tell me!
CHAPTER II. How Sir Launcelot came to Pelles, and of the Sangreal, and
of Elaine, King Pelles’ daughter.
Sir, said Launcelot, wit you well my name is Sir Launcelot du Lake. And
my name is, said the king, Pelles, king of the foreign country, and
cousin nigh unto Joseph of Armathie. And then either of them made much
of other, and so they went into the castle to take their repast. And
anon there came in a dove at a window, and in her mouth there seemed a
little censer of gold. And herewithal there was such a savour as all
the spicery of the world had been there. And forthwithal there was upon
the table all manner of meats and drinks that they could think upon. So
came in a damosel passing fair and young, and she bare a vessel of gold
betwixt her hands; and thereto the king kneeled devoutly, and said his
prayers, and so did all that were there. O Jesu, said Sir Launcelot,
what may this mean? This is, said the king, the richest thing that any
man hath living. And when this thing goeth about, the Round Table shall
be broken; and wit thou well, said the king, this is the holy Sangreal
that ye have here seen. So the king and Sir Launcelot led their life
the most part of that day. And fain would King Pelles have found the
mean to have had Sir Launcelot to have lain by his daughter, fair
Elaine. And for this intent: the king knew well that Sir Launcelot
should get a child upon his daughter, the which should be named Sir
Galahad the good knight, by whom all the foreign country should be
brought out of danger, and by him the Holy Greal should be achieved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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