effulgentpoet:favorite Child Ballads THE MARRIAGE OF SIR GAWAINTherefor this is my ransome, Gawa
effulgentpoet: favorite Child Ballads THE MARRIAGE OF SIR GAWAIN Therefor this is my ransome, Gawaine, I ought to him to pay: I must come againe, as I am sworne, upon the New Yeers Day. One Christmas, at Tarn Wadling near Carlisle, King Arthur is challenged by a menacing ‘baron.’ To avoid a fight, Arthur agrees to return the following New Year, and tell the baron ‘what thing it is that a woman most desire.’ The following New Year, still without an answer, he is riding across a moor on his way to meet the baron, when he meets a hideous hag, to whom he offers Sir Gawain as a husband in return for the answer to the baron’s riddle. The bargain is made. On the wedding night, the hag is transformed into a beautiful young woman. She offers Gawain the choice to have her be beautiful at night or by day. Gawain allows her to choose and she jubilantly informs him that she will now be beautiful both by day and by night, and reveals that she and her brother were cursed by their stepmother’s witchcraft. LISTEN -- source link
#arthuriana