When Sir Gawaine was departed from his fellowship he rode long without
any adventure. For he found not the tenth part of adventure as he was
wont to do. For Sir Gawaine rode from Whitsuntide until Michaelmas and
found none adventure that pleased him. So on a day it befell Gawaine
met with Sir Ector de Maris, and either made great joy of other that it
were marvel to tell. And so they told everych other, and complained
them greatly that they could find none adventure. Truly, said Sir
Gawaine unto Sir Ector, I am nigh weary of this quest, and loath I am
to follow further in strange countries. One thing marvelled me, said
Sir Ector, I have met with twenty knights, fellows of mine, and all
they complain as I do. I have marvel, said Sir Gawaine, where that Sir
Launcelot, your brother, is. Truly, said Sir Ector, I cannot hear of
him, nor of Sir Galahad, Percivale, nor Sir Bors. Let them be, said Sir
Gawaine, for they four have no peers. And if one thing were not in Sir
Launcelot he had no fellow of none earthly man; but he is as we be, but
if he took more pain upon him. But an these four be met together they
will be loath that any man meet with them; for an they fail of the
Sangreal it is in waste of all the remnant to recover it.
Thus Ector and Gawaine rode more than eight days, and on a Saturday
they found an old chapel, the which was wasted that there seemed no man
thither repaired; and there they alighted, and set their spears at the
door, and in they entered into the chapel, and there made their orisons
a great while, and set them down in the sieges of the chapel. And as
they spake of one thing and other, for heaviness they fell asleep, and
there befell them both marvellous adventures. Sir Gawaine him seemed he
came into a meadow full of herbs and flowers, and there he saw a rack
of bulls, an hundred and fifty, that were proud and black, save three
of them were all white, and one had a black spot, and the other two
were so fair and so white that they might be no whiter. And these three
bulls which were so fair were tied with two strong cords. And the
remnant of the bulls said among them: Go we hence to seek better
pasture. And so some went, and some came again, but they were so lean
that they might not stand upright; and of the bulls that were so white,
that one came again and no mo. But when this white bull was come again
among these other there rose up a great cry for lack of wind that
failed them; and so they departed one here and another there: this
advision befell Gawaine that night.
CHAPTER II. Of the advision of Sir Ector, and how he jousted with Sir
Uwaine les Avoutres, his sworn brother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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