Dialect Gologras is written in
Middle Scots, a dialect closely related to the northern variants of
Middle English. It was written in the
Anglo-Scottish border country, a region that produced many other poems such as
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and
Awntyrs off Arthure. The vocabulary is very similar to that in those poems, and like them heavy use is made of
alliteration. and the Holy pilgrimage setting do not parallel the French romance. Bryant's summary; Madden's summary.) The paralleling portions occur in Section IV "Castle Orgueillous" in Roach's edition of the First Continuation. Arthur proposes and adventure, which is to rescue
Gifflet, who has been held prisoner at the Castle Orgueillous ("The Proud Castle" He finds a dwarf roasting a peacock, and asks "Are there any persons about?" (as if a dwarf is not a human being). Ignored, Kay holds back his compulsion to kill the dwarf on the spot, and now says, in effect, that "Since such a lovely bird as this is a mismatch for a humnchbacked dwarf, I shall have it for dinner." The angered dwarf now tells him to leave or suffer the consequences. Kay hurls the dwarf to a pillar supporting the chimney, when the lord of the manor makes entrance. The lord asks what is going on, and Kay is characteristically rude. So the lord declares "It is not in the habit of my family to refuse food to anyone who asks," and he grabs the peacock (probably by its spit) and slugs Kay in the neck, leaving him with an indelible burn mark. Kay reports back to Arthur of his failure, and the courteous Gawain is sent. The lord of the manor (named Yder li biaus or "Yder the Fair") is impressed and gives Arthur and his men a cordial invitation to his manor. (Potvin ed. III, lines 16331-16624; and knights from the neighboring lands gather, so that three thousand banners now flourish the castle. But no all-out siege warfare follows, and each army sends out a representative each day to joust in single-combat. Shortly after arriving, a number of single-combats take place. First Sir Lucan defeats one of the castle's knights, then he is himself defeated and taken prisoner. Bran de Lis is then victorious for King Arthur, Sir Kay loses his joust and, after an interval for a hunt, Sir Yvain is also victorious. The castle's lord, the "Riche Soldoier" [sic], then decides to fight. Sir Gawain rides against him. The first day,
Sir Lucan the butler is given the honor of jousting. He unhorses his opponent, and captured his horse, seemingly to gain victory. However, Brandelis explains that according to rules, victory hinged on him bringing back his opponent as captive, and had he done so, the castle would have surrendered and their adventure be over. Lucan goes back to the field and is met by a different opponent, and this time he is defeated and taken prisoner. The upside is that Lucan becomes inmates with
Griflet, and is able to give him the news that Arthur was here to rescue him. The second day, Brandleis wins the joust. The third day, Kay fights a pitched battle, but loses for and infraction of an
out of bounds rule. (The borders were marked by four olive trees). Kay tries to insist he won, but is laughed by his peers. The jousting is interrupted by Saint Mary's feast, so Arthur and his men go hunting. Sir Gawain discovers a certain knight sitting by a tree. He does not respond to conversation, so Gawain tries to lift him up, and carry him back to Arthur. The knight tells him angrily to leave him alone, for he wishes to die. Gawain leaves the spot perplexed but soon gains an inkling of the circumstances when he encounters a maiden who happen to be the knight's
betrothed. She was not able to make it in time to marry her knight on the wedding day, and she feared that would be the death of him. Gawain reassures her that her knight is alive. Gawain later learns from Brandelis that this knight turns out to be the ruler of the Proud Castle, named the Riche Soudoier, and the lady was his
amie. The jousting resumes, and the fourth entrant
Iwain also wins. The day after, the Riche Soudoier himself was announced to be the combant, so Sir Gawain volunteers to fight. In the end, Gawain is victorious and Arthur achieves the adventure (recovery of Sir Griflet). But just as in the English poem
Gologras and Gawain, Gawain will pretend to have been defeated by his opponent, so in the meanwhile, Arthur and the others must worry about Gawain's well-being. In the English poem, Gawaine agrees to the charade merely to save his opponent's face. But in the
First Perceval Continuation, the life of the Riche Sodoier's fiancee is at stake, because, he says, if the girl he loves knows that he has been defeated, she will die of grief.
Further parallels Parallels can be found in medieval Arthurian literature, medieval romance and in
Welsh mythology. In particular, the motif of reciprocity is widespread in early British literature.
Alliterative Morte Arthure In the late-14th century Middle English poem known as the
Alliterative Morte Arthure, based upon an episode in
Geoffrey of Monmouth's mid-twelfth century
Historia Regum Britanniae, King Arthur travels with an army across France in order to meet a Roman army sent against him. He encounters this army in France, defeats and kills its commander, sending the army back to Rome in disarray, along with the bodies of sixty of the chief senators of Rome, and reaches
Tuscany (an area of
Italy to the immediate south of the ancient region of
Cisalpine Gaul) before news reaches him of Mordred's treachery, prompting an inauspicious and premature return.
The Knightly tale of Gologras and Gawain, also, has King Arthur fighting in France and leading an army towards Tuscany: "In the tyme of Arthur, as trew men me tald / The King turnit on ane tyde towart Tuskane, / Hym to seik ovr the sey, that saiklese was sald, / The syre that sendis all seill, suthly to sane." ("In the time of Arthur, as honest men have told me, the king set off one day for Tuscany, to seek Our Lord over the sea who was betrayed and died for us, our benevolent Father in all truthfulness.")
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight In addition to the episodes described above, the
First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes'
Perceval includes a scene in which a magician, who is the father of a knight of the Round Table, Sir Carados, enters King Arthur's court and invites one of the king's knights to cut off his head, promising that the knight can cut off
his head afterwards. This is done, and a token blow received in return. The episode is very similar to one composed two hundred years later in Middle English alliterative verse, the opening scene of
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight found in
MS Cotton Nero A.x, and is possibly its direct source. In the story of
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, however, the return blow is to be delivered in exactly a year's time. Sir Gawain, on his last night at Sir Bertilak's castle in
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, having gone through much to locate the Green Chapel at which he must suffer this return stroke of the axe, is determined, in truly chivalrous style, to be "merrier than ever before." Likewise, Gologras, in
The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain, is determined to be seen to be relaxed and "mery" in his hall, even when things are going badly for him outside and his knights are failing to gain the upper hand. This show of composure in adversity becomes a measure of honour and chivalry for both protagonists. And the climax of both
The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain and
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight involves reciprocity. In the one, Sir Gawain takes upon himself what he has given to Gologras, that is, the mantle of defeat. In the other, Sir Gawain receives what he has given to his opponent, that is, a stroke of the axe. And not only a stroke of the axe, but earlier, also, in Bertilak's castle, a game was played in which everything that Bertilak had gained in the forest was given to Sir Gawain, and everything that Sir Gawain had achieved in the castle was (supposed to be) given to his host. More reciprocity.
Amis and Amiloun A 14th-century Middle English poem
Amis and Amiloun, found in the famous
Auchinleck Manuscript, tells a story that contains many elements and motifs that are ultimately derived from European folklore. Based upon a 12th-century Old French poem
Amis et Amiles, it tells of a pair of unrelated young men who are so alike that nobody can tell them apart. They swear
blood brotherhood together, a pledge that is put to the test when Amis has to fight a
trial by combat over a crime of which he is guilty. He rides to Amiloun, who by now is married, and they exchange identities. Amis rides back to Amiloun's castle pretending to be its lord. Amiloun rides away to fight the single combat on Amis's behalf, able to swear that he is innocent of the crime.
Mabinogion Tales from the
Middle Welsh Mabinogion are found in two manuscripts dating to the mid- and late-fourteenth century, but many of the tales themselves "evolved over a span of centuries: passed on from storyteller to storyteller, they were by turns expanded and distorted, improved and misunderstood." A mythological tale in the first of the Four Branches of the
Mabinogi, one involving
Annwvyn, not-world, or the
Otherworld, tells of a hunting expedition undertaken by
Pwyll Lord of
Dyved. He sets his hounds against those of
Arawn, the king of the Otherworld, and in an attempt to make amends, agrees to exchange places with this king for a year and a day in order to do battle with another king of the Otherworld, Havgan, in a year's time. So Arawn takes on the form of Pywll, Pwyll takes on the appearance of Arawn, and after spending a year in each other's lands, Pwyll (who looks like Arawn) does battle with Havgan, who must only be struck once, since if he is struck repeatedly, he will return the next day as fit and well as he ever was. ==Explanatory notes==