Book Description

Sir Gawain and the Lady of Lys - Translated for the first time from Wauchier de Denain's section of the Conte del Graal by Jessie L. Weston - With Designs by Morris M. Williams... THE stories contained in the present volume of Arthurian Romances are drawn from the same collection of tales as that from which the first visit of Gawain to the Grail castle, in the preceding volume of the series, is derived. Indeed, the stories follow in close sequence, and a glance at the introductory lines of the Grail visit will show that that adventure is placed immediately after the successful termination of the expedition against Chastel Orguellous, which forms the subject of this volume. These stories practically form three separate tales, and are translated almost entirely from the same MS. as that used for the Grail visit, the fine Perceval codex B.N. 12576. With regard to the second adventure a few words of explanation are necessary. The relations of Gawain with the lady of Lys, recorded in all the Perceval-Wauchier texts, are as a rule related twice over; in the first instance in the section which, in my Perceval studies, I have called the Brun de Branlant section, as it is devoted to Arthur's expedition against that recalcitrant noble. Gawain's meeting with the lady takes place, as he here explains, during the siege. Later on, on the expedition against Chastel Orguellous, related in these pages, Arthur and his knights come all unwittingly to the castle of the lady's brother, Bran de Lis, and Gawain, realising the position, relates the story of the first meeting.