The Adventures of Sir Gawain the True

Title Page

Table of Contents

...

...

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

ILLUSTRATED BY
AARON RENIER

H
OUGHTON
M
IFFLIN
H
OUGHTON
M
IFFLIN
H
ARCOURT
B
OSTON
N
EW
Y
ORK
2011

Text copyright © 2011 by Gerald Morris
Illustrations copyright © 2011 by Aaron Renier

All rights reserved. For information about permission to
reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions,
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company,
215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

Houghton Mifflin is an imprint of
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

www.hmhbooks.com

The text of this book is set in Post Mediaeval
The illustrations are brush and ink

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Control Number
2010006808

Manufactured in the United States
DOC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN: 978-0-547-41855-1

F
OR
J
ULIAN AND
J
ONTY,
WHO HEARD THIS FIRST.

C
HAPTER
1
Sir Gawain the Undefeated
[>]

C
HAPTER
2
The Green Knight
[>]

C
HAPTER
3
Spinagras the Dwarf
[>]

C
HAPTER
4
Gologras's Castle
[>]

C
HAPTER
5
Sir Gologras the Unconquered
[>]

C
HAPTER
6
A Fairly Useless Tournament
[>]

C
HAPTER
7
Sir Gawain the Once Defeated
[>]

C
HAPTER
8
Saying Goodbye
[>]

C
HAPTER
9
Sir Bredbaddle the Huntsman
[>]

C
HAPTER
10
Sir Gawain the True
[>]

Now, everyone who knows anything at all about knights knows that they used to dress in metal suits and bash each other off their horses with pointy sticks called lances. This only makes sense, of course. Anyone who happened to have a metal suit, a horse, and a pointy stick would do the same.

Some may have also heard that knights fought dragons as well, often to rescue damsels. (Damsels are what they used to call women. Don't ask why; they just did.) This is less sensible, because—Well, really now! What would a dragon want with a damsel? Still, if a dragon did for some reason make off with one, then it would be perfectly reasonable for a knight to rescue her.

But what many do not realize is that, at least in King Arthur's court, knights were also expected to be courteous and respectful. The king was very clear about this: He wanted no bullies at his Round Table. In fact, he said that courtesy was even more important than wearing metal suits and bashing people from horses. Not surprisingly, this notion took a while to sink in. Knights who had spent their whole lives learning swordsmanship and pointy-stick-bashing did not always see how something else could be more important. Indeed, King Arthur had reigned for several years before he felt that his knights were starting to get the idea.

During those early years, the most celebrated of King Arthur's knights was his nephew Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain had won so many tournaments—which is what knights called the contests where they did all that bashing—that he was called Sir Gawain the Undefeated. One day, as Sir Gawain the Undefeated was riding through a forest, he heard a loud scream and a ferocious roar. Sir Gawain urged his horse forward and soon came upon a huge black lizard that was holding a damsel in one scaly, knobby claw.

"Whatever does a dragon want with a damsel?" wondered Sir Gawain. The idea seemed absurd to him as well.

But Sir Gawain did not have time for philosophical questions, because at that moment the dragon roared again, sending a ball of fire into the air, and the damsel screamed. Sir Gawain charged. It was a fierce battle, which took quite a

long time, and an onlooker would doubtless have found it gripping to watch. For some reason, though, secondhand blow-by-blow accounts of battles are not nearly so interesting as the things themselves, so it won't hurt anything to skip ahead here. What matters is that when the fight was over, the dragon lay dead at Sir Gawain's feet.

"Hooray!" shouted Sir Gawain triumphantly. "I won again!"

"Oh, thank you, Sir Knight!" cried the damsel. "You saved my life!"

"Yes, I suppose I did," agreed Sir Gawain. "By the way, do you have any idea why the dragon captured you?"

"What difference does that make?" the damsel treplied. "He was an evil creature."

"Just wondering," Sir Gawain said.

"What matters is that you saved me, Sir Knight," the damsel repeated.

"Not Sir Knight," Sir Gawain corrected. "I'm Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain the Undefeated."

"I'm ever so grateful to you, Sir Gawain."

"Yes, I suppose you are," Sir Gawain replied. He turned back to the dragon's corpse and gazed at it with satisfaction. "It was quite a fight, wasn't it? Did you see how the lizard tried to get behind me but I reversed my lance? A very tricky bit of lancemanship, let me tell you!"

"Er, quite," said the damsel.

"And how, when it shifted to my weak side, I tossed my sword to my left hand? Not everyone can do that, you know."

"Very clever of you, I'm sure." The damsel's smile was smaller now. "Sir Gawain, to thank you for your service, I would like to give you a gift: this green sash." The woman began to remove a gleaming strip of green silk from her waist. "Wear this as a reminder of your victory, and—"

"Oh, I shan't forget this victory," Sir Gawain said.

"But this is a special sash. As long as you wear it—"

"I really don't have a place for a sash," Sir Gawain said. "Why don't you keep it?"

"Oh," the damsel said. "Well ... if you wish. But I want to thank you somehow. Perhaps it would be enough if I gave you a kiss on the cheek, just to—"

"I say!" interrupted Sir Gawain. "You don't think that just because I saved your life we're, you know,
in love
or something, do you?"

"What?"

"Because a lot of girls might think that, but really I would have saved any damsel. It didn't have to be you. Besides, I'm not looking for a lady of my own right now."

"A lady
of your own?
" gasped the damsel. "I never said—"

"Nothing personal, of course," Sir Gawain said hurriedly. "I'm sure you'll make a very nice lady for someone someday. It's just that I'm not in the market for romance at the moment."

"Of all the ... All I wanted to do was show you my gratitude!"

Suddenly remembering King Arthur's lectures on courtesy, Sir Gawain bowed and said, "You're very welcome," then turned his horse and rode away. He was already thinking about how he would tell the tale of his great victory once he got back to the Round Table.

The story was a success. Sir Gawain held the court spellbound as he recounted his defeat of the horrible dragon, even during the duller bits when he described his lancemanship. But when he told about his conversation with the damsel after the battle, King Arthur sat up.

"Do you mean to say, Gawain," the king asked, "that the lady tried to give you a token of thanks and you refused it?"

"Well, yes."

"So then she asked if she could give you one kiss on the cheek, and you turned that down as well?"