Part 3.
The Story of Sir Gawain Chapter 1.
How a White Deer Appeared Before King Arthur, How Sir Gawain and his brother Gaharis went after it, and what happened to them on that quest.
This final part shall tell the story of Sir Gawain who, as you have seen, was sometimes rough and harsh in his manner, but in whom a gentle nature and great loyalty also lay.
One day, while King Arthur and his court were picnicking on the grounds, a delicate white deer burst through some distant trees, followed quickly by a handsome white dog.
After a bit of a chase out in the open, the terrified deer ran back into the forest, the dog nipping closely at its heels.
Before the court even had a chance to turn back to their food, two other creatures burst noisily from the woods.
They were a knight and a lady dressed as if for a hunt.
Finally, a third creature appeared.
It was a single night on a black horse, and he seemed angry.
Charging at the other knight and striking him with his sword.
He grabbed the lady, threw her yelling across his saddle and rode back into the forest.
After a moment, two esquires came, picked up the wounded knight, and led the horses away.
As all of this had taken place quite quickly and some distance away from the picnic site, no one in the court was able to step in.
However, King Arthur asked Sir Gawain to investigate and to take his brother Gaharis as his esquire.
The first thing Gawain and Gaharis found were two knights fighting.
It turned out that the knights were brothers fighting over that very same deer and dog.
They had started fighting because one brother was hoping the deer would escape the dog and the other that the dog would catch and kill the deer.
Then they'd started to argue over who would be the one to rescue the lady, and they were still at it.
Gawain and Gaharis left those knights and continued on their adventure.
The next thing the brothers found was a large castle.
The dog lay dead at their feet, hit several times by arrows.
Gawain loved dogs and blamed the deer.
When the deer ran by again a moment later, Gawain caught and killed it.
Having seen this from their windows, the lord and lady of the castle came rushing out.
Oh!
What have you done to my beloved deer? cried the lady, falling weeping upon the ground.
Gawain apologized, but when the Lord hit him with his sword, he found himself surprised and angry.
Although the Lord begged for mercy, Gawain raised his own sword to slay him.
What happened next, however, Gawain didn't intend.
As he swung, the lady moved in front to defend her husband.
Gawain tried to turn his swing, but his sword still grazed the lady's neck, causing her to bleed and fall down as if as dead as the deer.
Thankfully, she did not die.
The Lord was so grateful that he forgave all and invited Gawain and Gehaerys to dinner.
Over the meal, the Lord told them the story of his brother, who had taken his wife's sister as his own wife.
A strange woman, he said, dressed all in red and with red hair, had given one sister the deer and the other the dog.
The sisters had been very happy, but almost immediately the chase began and the couples clashed.
The Lord confessed that he had been the angry knight in black who had hit his brother and kidnapped his brother's wife.
He had done it, he said, out of revenge and for the honor of his own wife and her deer.
Gawain was suspicious.
The woman the Lord described sounded like the witch Vivian, famous for making mischief such as this for pure fun.
Since both deer and dog are now dead, he said, let your fight with your brother also die.
The Lord agreed.
When Gawain returned to Camelot however, and described to Arthur and Guinevere all that had happened, Queen Guinevere decided he was the troublemaker.
She privately told an attendant how Gawain had shown the Lord no mercy and how he had struck and injured a woman.
Surely his sword has now been dishonored, she said.
Gawain, overhearing this, decided that Guinevere would hate him forever and would never really give him a chance.
He hid his anger however and, out of respect for the queen, broke his now dishonored sword across his knee.
Don't worry about Sir Gawain, though.
He went on to prove himself both to Queen Guinevere and perhaps to you as well.
