The first story, _Kay and the Spit_, and the taking of _Chastel Orguellous_, all part of one and the same expedition, possess a special interest for us, in that we have in our English _Gawayne and Golagros_ another version of the same tales. Sir Frederick Madden, in his _Syr Gawayne_, drew attention to this, and gave a brief summary of the French text. It seemed to me that the interest of the story itself, and its connection with our vernacular literature, were sufficient to warrant a full translation being placed at the disposal of English readers. For indeed the interest of these stories is great, and if I be not mistaken, their importance as yet scarcely realised. Since the publication of the last volume of this series we have become aware of certain facts, small in themselves, but weighty in their connection and _ensemble_, which go to prove that there existed at an early date a collection of poems dealing with the feats of Gawain and his kin, which may be styled _The Geste of Syr Gawayne_, the authorship of which was ascribed to a certain Bleheris. Of this collection the story in vol. i., _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_; the first visit of Sir Gawain to the Grail castle, in vol. vi.; and the stories here given all formed part, while our English _Gawain_ poems are a late and fragmentary survival of the same collection. Judging also from the appearance on the scene of Gawain's son, Guinglain, and the numerous allusions in Wauchier's text to the length and importance of the _grande conte_ of which these tales formed a part, it seems most probable that the original collection included a version of the adventures of the hero we know as _Sir Libeaus Desconus_, whose feats will be found recorded in vol. v. of this series. The English poem there modernised says that the hero was _begotten by a forest side_, thus apparently identifying him with the child of the picturesque adventure related in these pages. At the same time the adventures summarised by Wauchier--for he gives but little detail concerning Guinglain--do not agree with the English tradition. At a considerably later point of the collection, however, we find the young knight giving his name in terms which accord completely with our poem; on meeting his father, Sire, fait il, 'ie sui Giglain Votre fis, qui le roi Artus Mist nom Le Biax Desconeus. Which may well refer to the tale we know. This is not the place to enter into a discussion of the varying tradition connected with Sir Guinglain; the point of interest is rather the character of the stories with which we are immediately dealing.