YWAIN AND GAWAIN: FOOTNOTE

1 She who is his foe possesses his heart

YWAIN AND GAWAIN: NOTES

[Abbreviations: MS = BL Cotton Galba E. ix. R = Joseph Ritson's Ancient Engleish Metrical Romancees (1802). S = Gustav Schleich, Ywain and Gawain (1887). F&H = French and Hale, Middle English Metrical Romances (1964). EETS = Albert B. Friedman and Norman T. Harrington, Ywain and Gawain (1964). Mills = Everyman edition. Full references to these works appears in the Select Bibliography, after the Introduction to this romance.]

Title. Ywain and Gawain was probably the poet's intended title, since he makes specific, internal references to the poem this way; he refers, for example, to the audience in line 4 as those who "harkens Ywayne and Gawayne." The poem is clearly about the adventures of Ywain, not Gawain, and EETS speculates that the name "Gawain" was added for audience appeal, he being the more popular and better known of the two knights. Ywain appears in several Arthurian works, as early as the sixth-century Book of Taliesin, which contains three panegyrics to him. He is best known, of course, in Chrétien's Yvain, but can also be found in the comic thirteenth-century Welsh Dream of Rhonabwy, where he and Arthur play at chess. Also the thirteenth-century Welsh Owain includes rudiments of Chrétien and the English poet's story of the knight who kills a woman's husband and then marries her, only to lose her and regain her once again.

1 There is a tear at the top of MS, and a brown stain extends from the title down through the first few lines of the text. A large capital letter, trimmed in red and blue extends down four lines into the text.

6 Tharfore listens a lytel stownde indicates that this poem, like Sir Perceval, belongs to the minstrel tradition, where the bard must settle his audience before he can begin his tale. Such a request for attention is noticeably absent from Chrétien's courtly romance.

9 sayes. Taglicht notes that the spelling is says, sais everywhere else in the text and that the scribe spells -s suffixes with great consistency: "1) Words ending in a stressed diphthong or /i:/ or /u:/ take -es, e.g. praies 2329, sawes 83, sewes 3053, flies 94, lyes 986, browes 261. Except: says, and dais: lays 2791 . . . . 2) Words ending in any other stressed vowel take -se, the -e marking the length of the preceding vowel, e.g. fase 1534, gase 146, dose 143, trese 2965, sese 1899. 3) Disyllabic words ending in l, r, n, m, and stressed on the first syllable always remain disyllabic; the ending is normally -s, e.g. girdels 1401, fingers 300, listens 6, Adams 1052; rarely -es, e.g. shuldres 424. 4) Words ending in a plosive consonant always take -es regardless of the position of the stress, e.g. landes 958, takes 3563, getes 2986, wodes 1446, lesinges 151, hauberkes 649, covaites 3642, herlotes 2404. Except: wirships 1572" (NM, p. 641).

16 Witsononday. See Sir Perceval, note to line 393.

17 es is written above the line. EETS notes that the English poet has changed Chrétien's "Carduel in Gales" to Cardiff in Wales, probably assuming Chrétien's geography here to have been inaccurate. Although Cardiff is not as rich in Arthurian tradition as other localities in Wales, it was the departure point for several of the king's adventures.

33 bitwene. MS: bitwne; R's emendation.

35 The concern with "trowthe," at once the basis for all feudal society and the bond between individuals, echoes throughout the poem: failure to keep one's vows brings shame and ultimately, destruction. Yet as the poem will reveal, one must make one's vows judiciously, for truth and justice must be aligned, and careless promises can lead to ruin. See Gayle Hamilton (1976).

47 MS is split at the top of the page, and a brown stain extends through line 58 on the outer edge. This line begins with a large red capital letter "A," presumably due to another hand.

53 slepe. A brown stain on the manuscript obliterates the word. R's emendation.

55 ff. Sir Dedyne is a puzzle. A knight whose name bears this spelling appears nowhere else in the Arthurian canon. Chrétien's spelling of the name is "Didonez," and EETS suggests that the English poet was actually referring to Sir Dodynas "the Saueage," who was killed by Lancelot in a tournament (p. 111). However, if the poet were aware of the prose Tristan (mid-thirteenth century), he might have had in mind Sir Dinadan, whose amused skepticism toward codes of chivalry would have worked well in this context. Sir Segramore is a knight of the Round Table who appears in Chrétien's Perceval, the prose Tristan, and Froissart's Meliador. He was one of the last to be killed by Mordred in Arthur's final battle. According to the Vulgate, he is the nephew of the Emperor of Constantinople and has a mysterious illness that makes him the object of Kay's contempt. For Kay, see note to lines 261-63 of Sir Perceval.

58 Colgrevance is Ywain's cousin, who appears in several of the Prose Vulgate romances and briefly in Malory.

68 ff. Kay's attitude towards Colgrevance's display of manners is probably due to the medieval notion that one's outward grace reflected one's inward grace, or that "manners maketh the man." Kay's failure to rise immediately upon the queen's entrance has put him at a disadvantage in courtesy, or so he believes.

79 fayntise. EETS glosses as "guile or deceit"; but Taglicht argues sensibly for "sluggishness" on the basis of the French peresce (Chrétien, line 80).

80 Ne us denyd noght forto rise. MS: Ne for us denyd noght forto rise. F&H's emendation, which improves the meter and avoids the awkward for/forto repetition. Eyeskip may be at work from the beginning of the previous line; or the for may reflect an awkward attempt to follow Chrétien's Por ce que nos ne deignames, as F&H suggest (p. 488). EETS follows F&H. Taglicht defends MS reading, however, calling the emendation unnecessary and likewise citing the French source to which the MS is more close. Taglicht glosses the unemended meaning as "Nor because we did not deign to rise."

84 despise. S emends to despised.

93 manes. EETS glosses the sense as "grieves," as if the word derived from moan. Taglicht suggests that it is a contracted form of manace (NM, p. 642). Mills glosses as "upsets."

94 MS is split here, obliterating the word that R supplies as flies. Followed by S, F&H, EETS, and Mills.

98 brok. Colgrevance compares the disagreeable Kay to a malodorous badger. The expression is proverbial.

100-15 A brown stain on MS obscures the beginning of these lines. Most editors follow R's readings, though in line 103, instead of Bot of, as in R, S, F&H, and EETS, Taglicht reads, "Bot ofthink that I bygan," and glosses the sense as "But am sorry that I began" (NM, p. 642).

135 me. Added above the line in another hand.

149 An initial capital letter "H" in blue.

157 The abrupt change in topography, from civilization to the wild woods, often signals the reader to expect the "marvelous."

186 The MED translates "burde" as "shield," but EETS suggests that "burde" is a calque from Chrétien's table, with the sense of a "sheet of metal," hence a "gong." Taglicht questions the gloss and prefers "shield." Unless we are to believe that one would smite a shield to summon one's attendants, the EETS explanation makes better sense. Originally the "burd" may have been associated with the magic spring as part of a rite to conjure storms, but neither Chrétien nor the English poet seems to have clearly understood this connection (EETS, pp. 113-14). Mills glosses burde as "panel," but a panel, likely to have been of wood, would have been battered by a hammer's strong blow.

187 EETS notes the missing relative pronoun, observing numerous other instances (e.g. lines 256, 1068, 1981, 3076-78, 3154).

244 Critics have suggested that the Giant Herdsman, who appears in several romances, can be seen as a foil for Ywain, who will meet up with him in line 612. But just how he operates in this regard is an open debate. Doob suggests that, being outwardly ugly, he retains his rationality, as his domination over the beasts implies, while Ywain, at this point in his life, is both "morally ugly" and truly "irrational" (pp. 147-48). Wilson, however, sees in the Herdsman's domination over the animals a "monstrousness" which his "hideous animal features" reflect, a dominance at odds with Ywain's subsequent magnanimous relationship with his own beast (pp. 71-72).

253-54 S reverses these two lines.

309 al torent. MS: alto rent. Taglicht notes similar formations in MS 823 (alto drogh), 934 (alto breke), 2619 (alto rent), 3551 (alto torn), and 3632 (alto reven). The forms torent, todrogh, etc. appear nowhere in MS.

339 Storm-making springs can be found in early classical literature (Pausanias and Pliny, for example), and were often cited by travellers to the East into the Middle Ages and beyond. The presence of anything "unclean" or foreign to the well that stirred the waters was likely to bring about a disturbance. In the West, such writers as Geoffrey of Tours and Nennius narrated accounts of these springs, some of them reputedly found in Wales (George L. Hamilton, "Storm-Making Springs: Rings of Invisibility and Protection - Studies in the Sources of the Yvain of Chrétien de Troyes," Romanic Review 2 [1911], 355-75).

354 Taglicht emends to groved.

403 A red capital "S" here.

436 bitide. MS: bite. So in R, S, and F&H, who gloss the sense as "for fear worse might befall me." Emendation suggested by E. Kolbing in English Studies 24 (1897), 146, and followed by EETS and Mills. F. Holthausen suggests abide (Anglia 14 [1891-92]), 319.

439 A blue capital Þ here.

457 A red initial letter "N."

470 karcas of Saynt Martyne. F&H gloss: "Meaning a flitch of dried beef." EETS notes that Martinmas is a time of slaughtering and suggests that since Saint Martin was noted for his temperance, he is being contrasted here with the heavy drinker who boasts and brags. Kay, true to form, has no use for Ywain's brave words; he implies that Ywain is more a drunkard than a butcher or man of action.

478 leve at ilke frende. Kay's scurrilous innuendo is that if Ywain does undertake the quest he had better say goodbye to everyone now, since he will not come back.

482 say I bad. Taglicht glosses: "say I told you to" and challenges EETS's "predicted" for bad, which he takes to be a preterite for bede ("offer") and notes that the text does not confuse bede with bid, from OE biddan (NM, p. 643). Mills reads: say, "I bad!" and glosses bad as "am staying." I follow EETS, which makes good sense to me.

483 A blue initial þ.

485 withyn. MS with thu.

509 A red initial capital "A."

522 Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon ("head dragon" or "foremost leader"), appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia, where his London court, his association with Merlin, and Arthur's enchanted birth are described.

525 It is no accident that Arthur chooses to set out on Saint John's Eve, for that day, June 23, coincided with midsummer's eve and its pagan celebrations. "Elves and fairies were abroad," an opportune time for marvels (EETS, p.116).

526 barn. Taglicht, noting that MS shows no sign of er > ar, suggests that barn may be a variant of baron (NM, p. 643).

559 karl of Kaymes kyn. EETS notes that "according to tradition monsters, elves, giants, and spirits of hell were descended from Cain, who was the father of all evil progeny" (pp. 116-17). This, of course, is Grendel's heritage in Beowulf. See O. F. Emerson, "Legends of Cain, Especially in Old and Middle English," PMLA 21 (1906), 831-929.

575 palfray. MS: palfra.

585 A blue capital "F."

599 Although the word "sty" or "sti" could refer to a small road or path, it was often used in the Middle Ages to portend the ominous, as in the expressions "prisoun sti" or "helle sti," for the deepest pit of hell (MED, s.v.).

611 A red capital "A."

624 In MS, after thonor is the word hayl, cancelled by a single line drawn through the middle of the word. EETS without explanation drops the and after thonor.

649 On thaire hauberkes. MS: Thaire hauberkes. "[At] thaire hauberkes" first suggested by S; followed by F&H and EETS. S deletes that from the line.

664 folowd. MS: folow. S's emendation.

673 iwys. MS: I wys, as always in this text. Emendation by S, F&H, and EETS.

674 Chrétien is very specific in the functioning of the trap: built like a rat trap ("l'arbaleste qui agaite/ le rat"), it had a blade poised to fall at the slightest trigger, and was designed to cut apart anything caught in its path. Beneath the gate are two fulcrums ("trabuchet") connected to the razor-like edge of the portcullis. When activated, these caused the gate to drop, severing anything in its way. Curiously, in light of the English poet's omission of these realistic details, he goes on to treat in a much more naturalistic manner the architectural arrangement of the castle, replacing Chrétien's elaborate fantasy layout.

686 Than. MS: that. S's emendation, followed by F&H, EETS, and Mills.

708 Here. The first two letters of this word are obscured by a water stain. R reads Her; S and F&H read Thare. EETS reads [He]re and Mills Here.

711 wate. EETS glosses as "wait, watch," and places a comma after wate, for a rather different reading of the line.

712 Thai. MS: The. S follows MS. R, F&H, and EETS emend to Th[ai]. Mills normalizes to they.

737 Magic rings (usually supplied by women) often figure heavily in the story line of medieval romances where they serve to activate the plot and to tie together its loose ends. In this regard, see Sir Perceval.

797 "o" in noght added above the line.

809 Sir Ywaine saw. MS: Sir saw. After Sir is a faint Yw is written above a caret. In the same hand Ywaine is written in the margin.

843 said added by another hand above the line.

868 swownyng; MS: swownyg. F&H's emendation, followed by EETS and Mills. R and S emend to swowyng.

869 A blue initial capital.

881 gane; M: yane by another hand over erasure. R's emendation, followed by all.

904 ful. MS and R: fu. Schleich's emendation.

909 A red initial capital.

915 MS reads said above the line in another hand.

931 Sho kend al. MS: Sho al. R's emendation followed by S, F&H, and EETS. Mills emends to Sho [wist] al.

946 The English poet copies this character directly from Chrétien. In both works there is the suggestion that the audience would be familiar with this woman, but no clue to her identify is found in the literature.

959 A blue capital þ.

987 thoue. F&H read MS as thone, which they emend to thou.

990 me na mawgré. Barely legible letters are written above the line after me. S reads as na and so emends, followed by F&H, EETS, and Mills. R reads as on.

998 bot. MS: bo. R's emendation, followed by all.

1057 tithyng. MS: tithng. R's emendation.

1059 Another hand has written him above the line.

1070 he is written above the line.

1072 Sho is written out in the left margin.

1133 he is written in another hand over erasure.

1146 Salados the Rouse is apparently the English poet's rendering of Chrétien's "Esclados le Ros," a character who does not figure again in the Arthurian legends.

1152 Another hand has written said above the line; the "y" of "nay" is written over an indecipherable letter.

1189 A red initial capital.

1254 EETS notes that in the naming of the lady, the English poet has misread a passage in Chrétien: "Prise a Laudine de Landuc/ La dame, qui fu fille au duc/ Laudunet, don an note un law." Mistaking "a Laudine" as one word, he subsequently anglicized it to "Alundyne."

1291 A blue initial capital.

1321 A red capital þ.

1365 A blue capital "S."

1440 forto. MS: to is added above the line by another hand.

1449 A red capital initial.

1452 ff. The situation set up by the poet here - the husband's proving himself in "armes" after a happy marriage - is one Chaucer exploits from a female point of view in the Franklin's Tale. In both stories this motif serves to portend trouble.

1539 ay, whils. MS: aywhils.

1551 A blue capital "S."

1567 Arthur's court tended to move about and one of its seats was Chester. Geoffrey Ashe and others have argued that Chester might have been the "Cair Legion" mentioned in Nennius' Annales Cambriae, thus the site of Arthur's ninth battle (A Guidebook to Arthurian Britain [London and New York: Longman, 1980], s.v.).

1637 A red capital "S."

1640 MS: murnig: R's emendation, followed by others. Madness, following the separation or estrangement from one's beloved, is a part of the courtly code (see, for example, Chaucer's Knight's Tale or "Sir Orfeo"). One may view Ywain as a "Traytur untrew," both to his vow to Alundyne that he will return within the year, and to the real meaning of chivalry. He has been playing at tournaments when he should have been helping the weak and defenseless, and his behavior will subsequently change. But first he must do "penance" in the wild woods. On the other hand, Ywain's frustration may have led to an imbalance of humours, thus associating him with the medieval "wild man" who must gain control of the "beasts" within him. See Anne Hunsaker Hawkins, "Yvain's Madness,"PQ 71 (1992), 377-97.

1687 drank. MS: drak. Ritson's emendation.

1700 ilka. EETS reads ilke.

1709 A blue initial capital.

1713 MS: A naked man I think I se. S leaves the line unemended, looking upon naked as a substantive (i.e., a "naked man"). R emends to "naked man" and EETS agrees, suggesting that the antecedent "it" in the next line is used here "for a human being regardless of sex." Mills follows R and EETS, as I do too. See resumé of the dispute in EETS.

1745 Taglicht emends we to me.

1753 Morgan, of course, immediately suggests Morgan le Fay, Arthur's sister, who was believed to have been skilled in medical arts. It is unclear why the English poet refers to her as "he" several times in the following lines. There is no indication in Chrétien that the French poet thought of Morgan as masculine, but Roger Sherman Loomis (Arthurian Tradition and Chrétien de Troyes [New York: Octagon Books], 1949, p. 307) cites some evidence that this character's sex was undetermined. Mills emends "He" to "Sho" in line 1755.

1789 A red initial capital.

1823 Text reads P charite. R reads as if the abbreviation for "r" is missing in the text, and emends accordingly; followed by S, EETS, and Mills.

1842 Lunet's motive for tossing away the ointment box and then lying to her mistress is obscured in the English poet's work, but not in Chrétien's. There the maiden is told that she must use the precious ointment only on the effected part - on Yvain's brow and temples alone, since his brain is causing his madness. Wasting the salve, it is stressed, would not help the knight. In her eagerness to cure Yvain, however, the maiden deliberately disobeys - thus her ruse to ward off her mistress' anger.

1869 A blue capital "S."

1899 he. MS: the; R's emendation, followed by S, EETS, and Mills.

1975 A red capital "N."

2055 obout. EETS reads about, but Taglicht notes that "the form with initial a- does not occur in this text" (NM, p. 645).

2059 A blue capital "O."

2107 The pronoun "it" is probably used in this instance because Ywain does not know the identity (hence, the sex) of the person in the prison-chapel (EETS).

2136 From barbaric times it was customary in French law for a woman who has accused someone or has been accused herself to be burned at the stake if her husband or champion fails to win the battle fought to exonerate her (EETS).

2181 MS lacks he; R's suggestion, followed by S, EETS, and Mills.

2182 This is an allusion to Chrétien's Lancelot (which that poet was presumably composing simultaneously), although the English poet might not have known it. In the French poem, a strange knight enters Arthur's household and demands to take the queen back to his land where he has imprisoned Arthur's people. If a knight will follow the queen and bring her back, the people will be freed. Kay sets out and then Gawain, although it is Lancelot who will ultimately return her to Caerleon. Chrétien, perhaps advertizing, gives quite a few details. The English poet omits them.

2219 so is added above the line by another hand.

2237 murnyng. MS: murnyg. S's emendation, followed by EETS and Mills.

2249 On giants, see Sir Perceval, note to line 1963.

2264 And. MS: In. S's emendation.

2353 A red capital initial.

2428 Between this line and the next appear the words of the scribe: "here is the myddes of this boke." Since this is not the midpoint of the romance - it is 412 lines past the middle - this remark presents a problem. EETS suggests that the scribe is referring here not only to his own work, but to his copy text as well, and that, since that manuscript was not likely to have been neatly numbered, the scribe of our text simply estimated the number of lines. S hypothesized that the poet carelessly omitted lines here and elsewhere might account for the discrepancy but does not specify which lines have been omitted or why. Neither theory is altogether satisfactory.

2429 A blue capital "S."

2441 prest. MS: prst. R's emendation, followed by S, EETS, & Mills.

2480 opon. MS: open. Schleich's emendation, followed by EETS, and Mills.

2522 foure ogayns tham thre. The four are Ywain, the lion, God, and justice ("right"), a powerful foursome against the three fiendish accusers.

2523 A red initial capital.

2611 A blue capital þ.

2645 The rich lady is, of course, Alundyne, who does not recognize Ywain in his battle attire (his visor is over his face) and would not know that her husband would be associated with a lion. It is not yet time for Ywain to make himself known to her.

2662 EETS (citing Ernst Brugger, "Yvain and his Lion," MP 38 [1941], 277ff.) notes that it was not unusual in the Middle Ages for a brave knight to be compared to a lion, as in Richard the Lionheart or King William the Lion of Scotland. Doob takes another tack, seeing the lion as a foil for Ywain, and a symbol for what the knight has first lost, then won. His faithfulness to his master contrasts with Ywain's neglect of his wife; his compassion, with Ywain's hedonistic quest for personal glory. The lion's traits are those the knight must learn, and only after he learns them can be hailed "the knight with the lyoun" (pp. 150-51). Hawkins ("Yvain's Madness") views the knight's harmonious relationship with the animal as a conquering of his own "inner beasts" and the finding of his identity as a knight who can reconcile the forces and prowess of love.

2676 len. Taglicht notes that the MS distinguishes consistently between len "grant" (also 2677, 2872, 2875) and lene "lend" (737, 1527, 1542, 1824), both from OE laenan (NM, p. 646).

2683 A red initial capital.

2743 A blue capital "B."

2746 The following story of the lord who died and of his two daughters who used the law to gain their inheritance is found in a number of medieval works - see, for example, Diu Crone and La Mule sans Frein.

2748 two is added above the line in the same hand.

2788 noght. MS: nght. R's emendation, followed by all.

2798 MS lacks the second the. R's emendation, followed by all.

2877 Lundet. MS: Lunded. R's emendation, followed by all.

2880 fand. EETS ignores the rhyme and reads fond, but Taglicht notes that that form does not appear in the MS.

2931 A red initial capital.

2935 said. Missing in MS. R's emendation, followed by all.

2966 The English poet has taken the episode of the silk maidens entirely from Chrétien, whose own "realistic" details are probably drawn from Sicilian and Oriental sources. See R. A. Hall, "The Silk Factory in Chrétien de Troyes," MLN 56 (1941), 418-22.

2995 noght. MS: nght. R's emendation, followed by all.

3025 I follow Taglicht's gloss here, who notes that the use of wight + infinitive in the sense of "capable of" is not noted by the OED (NM, p. 646), though the usage is common in ME.

3230 nowther. MS: nowthr. R's emendation, followed by all. It should be noted, however, that the scribe frequently drops e from suffixes.

3238 murnyng. MS: Murnyg. R's emendation, followed by all.

3243 A blue capital "N."

3251 maiden. EETS considers the form to be an uninflected plural, but Taglicht suggests the reference may be to his damysel in 3237 (see also line 3195) (NM, p. 647).

3260 had added above the line, same hand.

3289 saide added above the line, another hand.

3331 A red capital initial.

3357 forth er. EETS reads forther. I follow Mills' gloss of onward.

3443 A blue capital Þ.

3481 elder. MS has yonger, written by a later hand over erasure. R's emendation, followed by all. S notes the hint of l in the erasure, which he takes to have been part of the original word, elder.

3494 als. MS: al. R's emendation, followed by all.

3509 Chrétien's "incognito battle," between friends, a folkloristic trope, becomes common in subsequent medieval romances, though this is its first appearance in the Arthurian romance (EETS).

3526 kast a glove. Throws down the gage, the challenge to a duel.

3567 nobillay. I follow Taglicht and Mills' gloss here. EETS suggests "nobility of nature and rank," but see OED nobley, sb. 2, which cites this line.

3571 A red initial letter.

3604 ogayns. EETS reads ogaynes.

3681 A blue capital letter.

3704 knaw. MS: knw. R's emendation, followed by all.

3767 According to medieval inheritance laws, land should not be divided. Rather, it should pass intact to the eldest son, should there be one. When the heir was a daughter, however, the law was not so precise and two resolutions were possible. First, the land could be held by the eldest daughter as "representative tenent," to whom her sisters would have been answerable according to feudal law. Second, the land could have been "parted," i.e., divided into as many sections as there were daughters to inherit it, and these women would owe fealty to the king. The first solution seems to be comparable to that one found in the poem. (See EETS.)

3769 withowten. MS: the second t is added above the line in another hand.

3773 A red capital þ.

3827 ever. MS: over. R's emendation, followed by all.

3903 Madame. MS: Madana. R's emendation, followed by all.

3913 swere here over erasure: the first e of swere is added above the line by another hand.

3916 anikyns. MS: akyns. S's emendation, followed by EETS and Mills. R emends to alkyns.

3941 A blue capital initial.

3953 A red capital initial.

4009 A red capital "N."

4033-34 These two lines are scribal and have been added to the MS in the same hand, but in red ink.