THE KNIGHTLY TALE OF GOLOGRAS AND GAWAIN: FOOTNOTES

1 The most splendid warriors on earth, with gear who might go

2 Was never known in the world, but in make-believe or story

3 A fairer crop [of warriors] on any field of hardy men, in faith

4 But deep valleys continuously, uplands and [wooded] vales

5 [There was nothing] but mounds and grievous ways, toilsome [to] who[ever] tells [about it]

6 Dragged about and travel-worn thus true men did become tired

7 And [have the messenger] ask leave of the lord [who] those lands has governance over (i.e., who governs there)

8 With [images of] the stoutest heroes who dealt blows in their days

9 Making mention of who, greatest in their manhood, could fight

10 He saw no living person up above [on the dais] settled

11 That with wondrous subtlety was decorated, with grandeur and riches

12 Quickly snatched because of hunger the drumstick from the body

13 Lines 96-98: Why have you hurt my man, trying to assert your superiority? / Unless you make amends to him for that wrong, by Mary [the] gracious virgin, / You shall grieve (rue) for your honor, understand (know you) without doubt

14 The other (i.e., Kay) made his way at a distance stealthily toward the door

15 I advise [that] you send forth some man, more deferential (meeker) in demeanor

16 Sir Gawain goes on the path, who dressed was handsomely

17 Why I tell you this tale, take heed now thereto (i.e., the reason I spoke to you in this manner I will now explain)

18 It would be wrong [for it] to be known (i.e., it would be a misdeed that would cause great shame)

19 And if what I said plainly to him has made my lord (Arthur) displeased

20 He (the lord) had that fair man (Arthur) [escorted] to a hall, [and seated] above on a high [dais]

21 Both with armor and sword to support you completely

22 Though all variety [of food] was sought from the sun to the sea

23 No one might get power over them through malice, nor approach too near to them

24 [Available] for dispatch, when them [it] pleased, into diverse countries

25 But [holds it] forever without [owing] service [to a superior lord], until his death

26 When the pigrimage is completed [which] I pass (i.e., undertake) for my soul's welfare

27 Before he [may] be constrained by force, as concerns threatening yonder fierce (warrior)

28 [If] you threaten yonder knight with harm, you will not escape without shame

29 The powerful king of Macedon (i.e., Alexander the Great), the most worshipful without doubt

30 Shall nonetheless be as light (i.e., ineffectual) as the least leaf of the linden tree

31 With costly diamonds grouped together, that subtly were crafted

32 [One] of the most impressive in appearance, and [someone] held in highest esteem

33 Lines 355-56: And make no threat against him, but [show] complete moderation. / Thus with diplomacy (i.e., entreaty) [should] you act [toward] that true [knight] in his castle (i.e., under his protection)

34 Therefore it pleases us [to] listen and learn [from] your lore

35 Lines 410-11: There answer to our Lord, for service when he needs [them], / Twelve crowned kings together

36 Lines 418-19: Who now is reputed to be virtually the paragon of all nobility / So widely (i.e., in every place) where honor walks by the west (i.e., where honor spreads widely among the people)

37 Not for any riches (i.e., thing) to reign (i.e., within his power)

38 Lines 434-36: Since (i.e., because) [as] free [men] our ancestors have always lived, / Prosperously among this people, not bound as vassals [to anyone], / Were I, through [either] submissiveness or threat, in homage [to another to] bind (i.e., obligate) myself

39 Though I should find them (i.e., the people on the lands) new occupation for these nine years

40 For there are warriors in this hall [who] will take a great risk (see note)

41 Before they [will] be wronged (i.e., crossed), indeed, I assure you [concerning] each man

42 Either warrior was overthrown from his horse in that [first] pass

43 With that furiously they work (i.e., fight), those worthy [fighters] in armor

44 Lines 574-75: Both those warriors, indeed, stoutly and eagerly, / Though they were stunned, in that conflict valiantly stood [their ground]

45 The fight so lethally they engaged, with each fresh attack

46 Until this insult is answered, I [will] never recover in court

47 Present yourself directly to the knight, in your bright gear

48 The worthy (knight) readied himself for the deed (i.e., the encounter), at the day appointed

49 Their steeds staggered on the battleground, and stood nickering

50 And still have men kept them in mind because of their manhood (i.e., their spectacular courage)

51 A second was named Edmond, that tried-and-true lover

52 Those knights renowned as gracious began a savage joust

53 Lines 719-20: [There] was not one [of those knights] who fiercely on the field was fighting- / [Whether] unscathed or wounded - [who was] infirm in spirit

54 Who have faithfully prepared themselves to control the course [of action]

55 The lord who rules yonder stronghold, I advise you without doubt

56 There is none so tried and true in these parts who is his peer in strength

57 Do not take on this fierce knight in single combat in this tight spot

58 He becomes fierce as a bear, that looks for no quarter

59 When he is winded, there (i.e., at that point) strike, and keep him in action

60 In this way may you succeed in the game (i.e., swordplay), through the lore that I teach

61 At the lack of an [opposing] knight to engage in the fighting.

62 Battering on rich armor, fiercely they strike

63 And took care with heart and hand that he (i.e., Kay's opponent) suffered no harm

64 Then said he [the King] for all to hear: "Sir (i.e., Kay's opponent), you are well-off

65 Lines 910-11: Two rushing courses (i.e., tilts) the princely [knights] have vehemently taken, / Each man against his opposite, to try out his foe

66 They spur on two great horses over the ground until they groan [as they gallop]

67 The rocks resounded with (the sound of) the charge, when they ran together

68 The steeds stagger in the battleplace, from the thrusting about

69 Skillfully aimed with his strength at his gorget (i.e., neck-armor)

70 The knight staggered with the stroke, all stunned in the encounter

71 Caused the beryls (i.e., gems) [to] hop off the knight [all] around him on [the] field

72 Caused precious stones to hop off the knight, who was held [to be] fierce

73 Through the gear with that stroke, through fastenings and gems

74 [Those ornaments] that [so] beautifully were set out above (i.e., on the surface), he made fall low (i.e., off)

75 Lines1006-08: [I pray] that Thou would keep from woe Gawain the powerful, / And grant that a more favorable fate may befall the knights on the field, / [In order] to keep safe the honor of both

76 These (fighters) struggled on with violence, those mighty in spirit

77 Maimed through (i.e., in spite of) mail (i.e., chain-links), and caused them to break

78 At that point the warrior (i.e., Gologras) liked Gawain the worse

79 With that, the hero at need (i.e., Gawain, the hero when things are worst) moved nearer to him (i.e., Gologras)

80 I urge [to] do as I advise, or worse [to] you [may] happen

81 Nor none to the ninth degree (even my most distant kin) have dishonor through my name

82 Lines 1077-78: The knight who shrinks from no dishonor (i.e., who does not reject what is shameful) disgrace may well undo him, / Since he loves his life more than his renown here on earth (among the living)

83 Make me hesitate in public, [neither] unlearned nor educated (see note)

84 There (i.e., because of that) will no knights, who are courteous (wise), lament his fate

85 To rest within your sense of honor, without signet or seal (i.e., formal agreement)

86 Lines 1107-08: [If I were] to live (i.e, make my life depend) on your loyalty, and you should prove untrue, / Then had I encased in care many a brave knight [who depend on me as their champion]

87 I do [entrust] myself to your honor, by [the] Lord so beloved

88 Then those noble [knights] consequently moved to their new plan of action

89 There was neither emperor nor king (who) their pact suspected

90 Then they made compact in that field, through agreement in [good] faith

91 The other knights [captured earlier] of Arthur's force lost heart

92 All [of them], thus, with mourning and mirth made [a] mixed [sound]

93 Each knight with a comely lady, who was distinguished of lineage

94 And you bind yourselves to another lord, who might be your protection

95 How fortune had befallen him in combat [and] after how he undertook to restrain [himself]

96 [Anything which] that knight's honor should besmirch

97 Lines 1211-12: I make known and affirm [in view of] his great kindness / The counterpart (i.e., same) to show him if I can

98 Whereas [in truth] Christ controls the course [of events], [and therefore] it runs smoothly

99 Lines 1225-28: When misfortune overwhelms the wheel, there goes success away (i.e., then success is lost); / Whoever [has the spirit] to withstand peril and take no care about his [mortal] fate - / [Cares] that have pushed men to a faintheartedness that lasts forever within [them] - / [For those strong in spirit] their lot will endure no longer than the Lord decrees

100 Lines 1237-40: When they had reached the mark (i.e., their set limit), then might they [do] no more / To advance themselves on the battlefield - [though] vaulting, they fell; / When Fortune becomes hostile, then fails prosperity / There [in such cases] may no [amount of] treasure overcome [Fortune] nor divert her course

101 [So] that all of his warriors of that (i.e., Gawain's behavior) hear, wholly out loud (i.e., give ear to his public account)

102 Because of that bold knight who brought me in bonds (i.e., made me his prisoner)

103 Lines 1324-25: Therefore fealty I to you [make] fast, without [any] deceit, / So that the compact may be [openly] shown, and known through signs

104 By Sir Gologras' submission the King was delighted

105 Lines 1339-40: Wines fittingly in (i.e., around) the hall went (i.e., circulated) [in] very great abundance / Among the princes at table, unequaled in honor

THE KNIGHTLY TALE OF GOLOGRAS AND GAWAIN: NOTES

I have normalized the orthography of the Chepman-Myllar print (giving th for thorn; gh, g, or y for yogh as appropriate; j [note quot. marks] for i; u for v and w, v for u and w, and w for u and v) to accord with modern usage. I have expanded numerals and abbreviations (& as and, and so on). Punctuation (including capitalization) is editorial, and word division reflects current standard use. I have recorded (and corrected) obvious compositor's errors, such as turned letters (u for n, c for t, f for long medial s, and so on); in such cases I have only indicated those instances where Amours' edition differs. On the other hand, in those instances where errors in the print require a substantive emendation, I have tried to indicate the relationship of the present text to Amours' edition. Differentiating between corrections and emendations is not, however, always a straightforward process; I have tried nonetheless to give notice where decisions to change the text follow Amours' lead.
Abbreviations: CM = Beattie's facsimile of the Chepman-Myllar print (1508); A = Amours' edition; M = Madden's edition. See Select Bibliography for these editions.


Title Gologras. I elect the spelling Gologras for the title as the representative one from the print; this occurs thirteen times, with Golagras and Golograse once each. Golagros occurs twice and in the colophon, and Golagrus and Gologrus once each. Editions and allusions have virtually exhausted the possible forms for the poem's title; Pinkerton (1792) used Gologras; David Laing's facsimile reprint (1827), Golagrus; Trautmann (Anglia, 1879), Golagrus; Madden and Amours use Golagros. The Asloan MS (c. 1515) refers to "The buke of Syr Gologruss and Syr Gawane"; in the Complaynt of Scotland (1543), one of the shepherds tells of Gollogras; and Sir David Lyndsay's "Squire Meldrum" (1548) alludes to Golibras. These latter references certainly demonstrate the romance was well known in the earlier sixteenth century.

2 towart Tuskane. In the French source, these adventures of the Round Table take place not on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but when Arthur and his company set out to release the imprisoned Girflet from the Chateau Orgueilleux. The specification of Tuscany (in northern Italy) as a part of Arthur's route to Jerusalem directly recalls one of the major narrative sections of the Alliterative Morte Arthure; here Arthur rejects Rome's claims for tribute, and wages devastating war across France and Italy, until, in the last phase of the campaign, "into Tuskane he tournez" (line 3150). Gologras differs decisively from the other Gawain romances by altering its setting from the regional - Carlisle and its environs - to the international; in moving Arthurian adventure ovr the sey (line 3), Gologras places the Round Table in the context of what the Alliterative Morte Arthure calls "Ewrope the large" (line 574).

5 barounis. CM: baros.

9 douchty. CM: donchty.

16 fenyeing. CM: sen3eing.

17 fresch. CM: fresth.

18 stout. CM: stont.

19 on stray. This prepositional phrase is an ancestor of modern English "astray," though in alliterative poetry its meaning varies to the point, as A notes in his glossary, of being "often meaningless." In Awntyrs, lines 511, 532 (as below at line 916), it seems to mean to hammer "away" at an opponent, rather than to strike an errant blow. In Jeaste, line 207, out of straye seems to mean aside, off the path. Here it certainly does not imply "astray," but simply to be off and away; at line 992 below, which repeats the same phrase from this line, the meaning seems ambiguous, either "start off" or "go astray."

22 silver. CM: silner.

46 Arthur. CM: Arthnr.

47 ane seynd. CM: ane send; A: ane saynd.

49 toune. CM: tonne.

51 boune. CM: bonne.

66 ff. This description of the embroidered or engraved canopy, recording in pictures and words the most memorable deeds of heroic legend, parallels the passage on the Nine Worthy (see lines 1233 ff. and note) or indeed Gologras itself as a mirror of honor bound together by alliteration and rhyme.

67 doughtyest. CM: donghtyest.

69 couth. CM: couh.

77 couth. CM: conth.

80 broche . . . bright. CM: brothe . . . brigh.

82 claught. CM: clanght.

84 angir. CM: augir.

86 ane woundir grym sire. Gologras maintains the anonymity of this protagonist, though in the source, the Roman de Perceval, the knight identifies himself as Ydier le Bel, a knight of the Round Table about whom there is a separate thirteenth-century French verse romance.

98 Thow. The first two letters of the first word of this line are lacking because of a missing piece of the leaf in the printed text. A provides Thow, which I follow.

99 thow. A emends to thou.

103 noght. CM: noghr.

112 mure. CM: mnre.

115 nykis yow with nay. This vivid alliterative formula occurs with some frequency, as below in line 332. When Gawain asks after the whereabouts of the Greene Knight, "al nykked hym wyth nay" (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, line 706, and see line 2471); see also The Pistel of Swete Susan, line 148, in Heroic Women From the Old Testament, ed. Russell A. Peck, TEAMS Middle English Texts Series (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1991).

122 folk. CM: fosk.

122-23 I punctuate as if line 123 were elliptical, meaning, "Let us await some better word." A suggests emending faynt to "fayn," which would give, "Your folk are feeble, and for lack of food are glad to await (or anticipate) some better word."

125 nane. CM: naue.

129 Reynit. CM: Reymt.

130 lightit doune. CM: lighit dou.

133 saill. CM: faill.

145 The lord's response - I will allow no supplies to be sold - is calculated to mislead Gawain, and thereby to test his courtesy. When Gawain sidesteps the temptation to appropriation by force, the lord reveals that - in keeping with the gift economy of an idealized honor culture - payment or sale are not possible since he will freely give all he has.

147 your. CM: yonr.

148 answerit. CM: ansnerit.

151 weild ar. CM: weildar.

159 cognisance. A quasi-technical term designating the arms, colors, and dress distinctive to a knight; the lord here emphasizes the gap between Kay's unmistakable chivalric appearance, and his unknightly behavior. Moreover, by asserting "wait I noght quhut he is" (line 163) the lord reduces Kay to a nobody, stripping him of his chivalric identity and all claims to honor.

162 wraithly. CM: wraighly.

166 And his presence plane. The phrase seems to mean "before the king and court," where presence means "royal presence," and plane means "full" (from French plein, Latin plenus); see A Dictionary of the Older Scotish Tongue, presence, n.2.b.

167 certane. CM: tertane.

174 and welth. CM: in welth. I follow A's emendation.

176 with. CM: witht.

182 blith. CM: bligh.

189 resoun. CM: resonn.

191 cousing. CM: consing. Just who this anonymous knight is, or what relation he claims to Arthur, remains unknown; see line 86 and note.

195 Ressave. CM: Ressane.

196 nedis. CM: uedis.

203 knight. CM: kinght.

205 crownit. CM: crovint; A: crovnit.

209 service . . . sene. CM: sernite . . . seue.

211 to vaill. In this and analogous phrases - in waill (line 223), to wale (line 361) - wale means "to choose," "to be chosen," and suggests those things that are choicest, most honored and honorable, of greatest pleasure or abundance.

215 war. CM: wai.

217 suthly. CM: futhly.

218 dais. A reads days.

226 ff. This cursory reference to a royal hunt signals the nearly obligatory nature of such episodes in Arthurian romance, and their function as narrative cues for impending events. Ragnelle, Carlisle, Avowyng, and Awntyrs all employ the royal hunt in this way. See also line 1344.

229 pavillonis, proudly. CM: pauilloms prondly.

230 knichtis. This rhyme, at the turning point of the stanza, is clearly a misprint or corrupt reading; "hathills" or some similar word is needed.

233 montains gay. CM: montains pay; A reads mountains. The original reading is rejected by all editors, who substitute gay; A suggests "graye" as an alternative.

237 ff. The details of Gologras' castle, which stirs both admiration and hostility in Arthur, strikingly resemble those of the massive strongholds at the center of struggles between monarchs and local lords in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its location on a high rock by a river, with a long curtain wall and defensive towers, recalls, for example, the magnificent Bothwell Castle, built above the steep sides of the River Clyde, south of Glasgow. Bothwell was captured twice by Edward I, lost by Edward II, occupied by Edward III's forces, then captured again and destroyed by the Scots in 1337. It passed to the Douglas family who rebuilt it, and then lost it to King James II of Scotland in 1445. Both Spynagros (lines 274 ff.) and King Arthur (lines 493 ff.) hint at the terrible destructiveness characteristic of siege warfare and castle assault in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; within the narrative of Gologras, on the other hand, such wholesale destruction becomes transformed into idealized chivalric combat between individual champions. Other castles in the south of Scotland associated with great families and enmeshed in strife against English or Scots kings included Threave, Hermitage, and Douglas Castles (Douglas), Craignethan (Hamilton), and Caerlaverock (Maxwell).

240 invy, nor nygh. CM: in vy nor nyt. A interprets, "nobody might view them with envy," meaning desire was pointless because of their impregnability. I take note in the common sense of "make or get use of" (OED, note, v.1).

241 lufsum. CM: luffum.

242 feir. CM: seir; M reads schir. I emend for sense.

255 ever couth. CM: ener couch.

261 Schir Spynagrose. In the Roman de Perceval, Arthur is accompanied in the main episode by Bran de Lis, the Brandles of Jeaste; in Gologras he is replaced by Spynagros. Madden connects the latter (p. 341) with Malory's Sir Epynogrys, but this poet seems rather to have formed his name to echo that of the poem's second hero, Gologras. The character's name (like Gologras) is spelled variously: Spynagrose here and at line 812, Spynagrus (line 535), Spinagrus (line 506), Spynok (line 1263), and Spynagros (lines 341, 779, and 795). These patterns may reflect no more than a compositor's whim in setting type, but I have chosen the last as the representative spelling.

262 lord. CM: lordis.

263 everlesting. CM: ener lesting.

266 ever. CM: ener.

267 never. CM: nener.

273 I mak myne avow. Arthur's impulsive, public oath takes the form of the speech act that defines chivalric identity within an honor/shame culture. Such public vows constitute the central plot of Avowyng; see the introduction to that poem, and lines 127 ff., 313 ff., 425 ff. and notes, and below, lines 292 ff. and note.

274 more. Here, and at line 276, schore, the rhyme is defective. As A suggests, the difficulty in line 274 might be remedied by reversing the last two words - more speir - but the second faulty rhyme word points to some larger problem.

276 be strenyeit. CM: bestren yeit.

278 Goddis. CM: Cristis; A emends to Goddis, which I follow.

      succeudry. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, when the latter character, through his initial challenge of a beheading contest, has reduced the fellowship of the Round Table to silence, he asks, "Where is now your sourquydrye and your conquestes?" (line 311). At the conclusion of the romance, the Green Knight explains that the motive of his mission to Arthur's court was "For to assay the surquidré, yif hit soth were" (line 2457: for to test the pride [of the Round Table] and see if it were true). In both cases, surquidré suggests a false pride or arrogance linked to chivalry, which the Green Knight works to deflate. In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, after Arthur has his dream of the Nine Worthy (see below, lines 1220 ff., especially 1233 ff., and notes), his philosopher explains to him that "thy fortune es passede," for "Thow has schedde myche blode, and schalkes distroyede, / Sakeles, in cirquytrie, in sere kynges landis" (lines 3394, 3398-99: your good fortune is over; you have shed much blood and destroyed people, without cause, in your pride, in many kings' lands). This passage, and the entire denouement of the Alliterative Morte Arthure, link chivalric pride with imperialistic, territorial ambitions and with the fall of the Round Table. Though some readers have taken Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Alliterative Morte Arthure as outright condemnations of knighthood or knightly behavior in the late Middle Ages, they seem perhaps to offer - like Gologras - a delicate probe of the interdependence of honor, violence, pride, and courtesy, of the political constraints of kingship, state-making and national identity, and of the relation of a chivalric ethos to the values and experience of other estates, classes, and groups in an increasingly heterogeneous society.

279 knicht . . . with. CM: knich . . . wyt.

281 the best . . . brevit. CM: thee best . . . beevit.

282 The myghty king of Massidone. Alexander of Macedon, one of the Nine Worthy (see below, lines 1233 ff. and note) was the hero of more medieval narratives than any other figure; throughout Europe and in the Middle East as well, it has been said that Alexander stories were exceeded in popularity only by the Bible. At least ten different works in Middle English and Middle Scots survive.

289 be licht. CM: he licht; A emends to be, which I follow.

290 The demanding rhyme scheme makes clear that this stanza lacks a line following line 290, and that lines are missing as well following lines 331 and 550. Missing lines have not been numbered in the present edition.

292 trou. CM: throu.

292 ff. Arthur reaffirms here the vow he had made at line 273 (see note), and does so in terms that resemble celebrated oaths made by knights, actual and fictional. In particular, his vow that his body will never "be laid unlaissit to sleip" (line 294) recalls the oath made by Prince Edward (the future Edward II) in 1306, that he would not sleep two nights in the same place until he had made a campaign to the Holy Land. For the traditions associated with such public vows, see Avowyng, line 127 and note, and the material cited there, especially Orgelfinger, p. 614.

297 ff. Arthur's open acceptance of the harm his warfare may cause non-combatants echoes the formulas that describe the effects of his campaigns in the Alliterative Morte Arthure:

Towrres he turnes, and turmentez the pople,
Wroghte wedewes fulle wlonke wrotherayle synge[n],
Ofte wery and wepe, and wryngene theire handes

(lines 3153-55: Towers he throws down, and torments the people, made widows most proud to sing of their misery, to curse often and to weep, and to wring their hands). Having Arthur explicitly own responsibility for such consequences highlights the brutality associated with medieval warfare and with chivalric activity in general. Whether the mention of such suffering constitutes a direct critique of knighthood (as Matthews and others have argued) seems less than certain; literary works, vernacular writers, and Latin chroniclers seem often to regard violence as an inevitable condition or by-product of a chivalrous society, so that (as in Froissart) an author can simultaneously exalt knightly exploits and regard its victims as martyrs.

300 Quhan . . . mude. CM: Quhy . . . mynde; I follow A's emendation for the sake of rhyme.

305 spurris. CM: speirris.

306 blonkis. CM: bloukis.

      Thai brochit blonkis to thair sidis brist of rede blude. The distinctive alliterative formulas of these two half-lines are repeated at line 754; they occur elsewhere only in Awntyrs line 499, and provide evidence for direct connection between the two poems.

308 Ithandly. CM: I thaudly.

309 gay. CM: pay. See line 233 and note.

310 Rone. CM: Rome. Arthur's pilgrimage ovr the sey (line 3), to the cieté of Criste, ovr the salt flude (line 302) seems certainly to have Jerusalem as its goal, despite the emphasis on passing through Italy (see line 2, note). Rone here then would seem to indicate not the city of St. Peter, but the Rhone valley. Further evidence for this identification occurs at line 1345: On the riche river of Rone ryot thai maid. The main episode of Gologras is therefore set in southeastern France, after Arthur has made his return from the Holy Land through Tuscany in northwestern Italy.

321 knichtis. CM: kinchtis.

330 burgh. CM: bnrgh.

331 Ressave. CM: Ressane.

      The rhyme scheme indicates another omitted line following this (see lines 290 and 550 and notes).

338 Shir Lancelot de Lake. Though Malory exalts Lancelot as the preeminent champion of the Round Table, at least among secular knights, he does not appear often in the Gawain romances. The exceptions are the Stanzaic Morte Arthur and the Scots romance, Lancelot of the Laik; for the latter, see the edition by Alan Lupack, TEAMS Middle English Texts series (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1994).

339 Schir Ewin. Ywain is a central figure in Arthurian romance from Chrétien de Troyes' twelfth-century Yvain through the fourteenth-century Ywain and Gawain; Carlisle mentions him in passing (see line 40, note).

340 the schore chiftane. A, following M, suggests "high, noble" for this adjective. I take it as an adjective cognate with to schore (line 276), and with the noun of the same spelling, meaning "menace" (see OED, schore sb.2, and v.2).

344 leving. CM: leuiug. A gives leuing in his corrigenda.

345 And. CM: Aud.

356 yon trew. CM: you trew.

360 Ane. CM: Has; I follow A's emendation.

368 Thre knichtis. CM: Thre thre kinchtis.

370 freschly. CM: fresthly.

374 knichtis. CM: kinchtis.

380 swiftly. CM: swistly.

395 Schir Golagrus. Though Spynagros has described this knight at some length, this is the first mention of his name. (For spelling, see note on title above). M tentatively connects the name with Malory's Galagars (see Works, p. 131); it also distantly resembles the name of a fiendish giant - Golapas - whom Arthur dispatches in the Alliterative Morte Arthure (line 2124). It seems to me more likely, however, that the poem uses the associations of the Chateau Orgueilleux (see note at line 2) to name a hero who embodied chivalric honor and pride.

400 mediatour. CM: mediatonr.

402 He is. CM: He his.

405 doughty . . . induring. CM: donghty . . . indurnig.

406 mony big bike. A, following earlier editors, in his glossary suggests "probably a thickly populated place," taking it as a metaphoric usage of the word derived from OE biowic, nest of wild bees. MED provides no help, but OED (bike, sb.4) gives a series of citations, almost all Scots, where the word means "swarm of people."

409 saw. CM: faw.

411 crownit. CM: crovint.

416 doughtynes. CM: donghtynes.

419 quhare wourscip walkis. This alliterative formula specifies the heavy dependence of a shame culture like chivalry upon the circulation of honor through word of mouth; compare Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, "your worchip walkez ayquere" (line 1521).

421 fangit. CM: sangit.

424 riches to rigne. An obscure alliterative formula (compare line 495). A takes rigne to mean "to reign" (which fits well enough with the latter line). I take the phrase to mean something like "with power to dispense," suggesting here that in seeking the friendship and homage of Gologras Arthur will stop short of nothing within his power - offering both an open promise and a covert threat.

429 gracious. CM: gracions.

429 ff. Gologras' assertion here of hereditary autonomy within his own domain parallels claims made by many individual lords in resisting preemptive appropriations by kings and emperors during the later Middle Ages. When Edward I challenged the lordship of the Earl of Gloucester in Glamorganshire - one of the Celtic territories (in southern Wales) that typically provided new lands through conquest - the Earl countered "that he holds these lands and liberties by his and his ancestors' conquests." Similarly, when Edward claimed lordship over the lands of the Earl of Warenne, the latter asserted, "My ancestors came with William the Bastard and conquered their lands with the sword. The king did not conquer and subject the land by himself, but our forebears were sharers and partners with him." Robert Bartlett discusses the conflicts surrounding lordship through conquest in The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change: 950-1350 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 90 ff.; I have taken the above quotations from his citations. Arthurian romances often built their fictional worlds on these sites of real contest and conquest; in Awntyrs Arthur bestows upon Gawain, in compensation for previously appropriated territory that he has now restored to Sir Galeron, "Al the Glamergan londe with greves so grene" (line 665), that is, the very territory whose lordship the Earl of Gloucester had disputed with his king (himself a sponsor of Arthurian recreations).

430 ever. CM: neuer. I follow A's emendation.

434 hail. In its root meaning (whole, sound), hail implies not simply "hale" and "hearty," but also uncompromised in autonomy of lordship, entirely possessed of their own estates and not in service to some higher feudal lord.

441 subjectioun. CM: subiectioun; A reads subiection.

448 na for na distance. In ME, distance usually means "strife" or "discord," and the phrase withoutin distance (line 1362, significantly the last line of Gologras) means "indisputably," "forthwith." Yet in both instances in Gologras the word has connotations of deference connected to the formal gap or remoteness between lord and subject.

449 noght. CM: nogth.

456 unsaught. CM: vnsanght.

459 ff. The details mentioned here concerning supplies and fortifications constitute the starting point for a realistic description of a drawn-out and destructive besieging of Gologras' castle, which Arthur seems about to initiate (see lines 297 ff., 499 ff. and note). The poem quickly leaves such hints behind, however, turning its back on the grinding if dull conduct of warfare most typical of the late Middle Ages. In its place Gologras offers an idealized portrayal of chivalry, a series of duels and jousts that culminates in the battle of the two champions.

461 alkin wappyns, I wys, that wes for were wroght. The inventory mentioned here includes artillery - Pellokis and Gapand gunnys of brase - suggesting the ways in which technology changed the nature of man-to-man combat in the late Middle Ages, and the ways in which chivalry accommodated these new technologies to its style of warfare. Such heavy armaments were deployed (by both defenders and attackers) in the siege warfare that typified many late medieval campaigns. Gunpowder, by increasing the chances of dying by an unknown hand, diminished the potential for honor through violence. Though it mentions these up-to-date contrivances, Gologras clearly presents war as a series of individual encounters that are opportunities to earn honor, in the ultimate case by dying at the hands of a renowned, worshipful opponent; see, for example, lines 635 ff., 713 ff. and notes. On the effects of artillery upon knightly combat and the chivalric ethos, see Keen, Chivalry, pp. 241-42 and the bibliography cited there.

462 bowis of bras. This seems to refer to a cross-bow or perhaps an arbalest, a weapon with a special mechanism (a windlass or craquelin) for drawing and slipping the string. Late medieval cross-bows were made with metal bows, which substantially increased the power with which they might hurl arrows, bolts (perhaps the ganyeis of line 465), or stones. Such armaments were typically used in siege warfare, for they were too large and difficult to manage in open-field combat, let alone in individual encounters. Commonly the bow was made of steel. Other metals, like bronze or bras (as here) lacked sufficient tensile strength, and are not mentioned so far as I know in medieval sources; perhaps bras here describes the drawing mechanism.

465 Grundin. CM: Grundiu.

470 hurdys. These are apparently scaffolds that the wrights construct in the woods; after transport to the walls of Gologras' castle, they will be used in the siege.

471-72 A points out that defective rhymes demonstrate that lines 471-72 are out of place in CM; I have therefore reversed them in the present edition.

479 schaw. CM: schair; I follow A's emendation for the sake of rhyme.

485 lans. CM: laus.

488 cunysance. See line 159 and note. The honor of each knight depends upon the recognition by others of his distinctive arms, and then of his deed. The writing of knights' names - a kind of captioned identity for a literate spectatorship - seems out of keeping with the highly visual character of heraldic sign systems.

489 names writtin. CM: mames wrictin.

494 wist. CM, A: vist.

499 ff. Arthur vows here to destroy the countryside with routis, a kind of pillaging and scorched earth policy typical of English military tactics in France during the Hundred Years War and after; the object of such warfare was to destroy the rentis or income a lord might derive from his lands, and thereby to force his submission even when he was not personally vulnerable to attack. This devastation affected most directly the people who lived and worked on the lands; Arthur's second promise - to find alternate livelihood for his victims during a long campaign - is both a generous and uncharacteristic gesture for a medieval king. Such tactics continued as a practice in the border wars between Scotland and England throughout the late Middle Ages. On the chevauchee, see Greene Knight, line 246 and note, and on border raids see the Introduction, pp. 28-33. I take notis here in its primary ME sense of work, occupation.

501 nine. CM: ix.

504 force. CM: forte (as in line 536); I follow A's emendation in both cases, who follows M and Trautman.

507 you. CM: yuo.

508 saill. CM: faill. I follow A's emendation, which he makes without note.

      wil set upone sevin. Here, and at line 668 - thai set upone sevin - this proverbial phrase means to put everything at risk. It refers to the game of hazard (similar to craps), in which a player might stake his entire wager on one throw of the dice. At line 1045 the similar phrase settis all on sevin has almost the opposite meaning. See B. J. and H. W. Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1968), S359.

514 myght. CM: mygth.

516 sicker. CM: silker. I follow A's silent emendation.

519 upone raw. A, with his usual directness, comments that this "seems a useless tag . . . [whose] meaning is of the vaguest." But this formulaic phrase is both a descriptive and constitutive feature of alliterative poetry's oral component and of the chivalric honor culture that it exalts. The phrase upone raw describes the rhythmic, symmetrical, artificed style of this poetry, with its rhymes, repetitions, echoes, and patterned stanzas, but it names as well the mnemonic principle on which such poetry is composed and performed. When Gawain delivers his message to Gologras on raw - poised amidst the splendor and order of his own court, as Arthur, richest on raw, is later - he praises Arthur as the greatest lord to ryme or rekin on raw (lines 396, 403, 1277). Style, power, meaningful and memorable speech itself, all are dependent upon this articulated order (and upon others seeing, hearing, and confirming such sights and sounds). In the present scene, speaking and understanding are themselves matters of reknand upone raw, of remembering, refashioning, revoicing the scattered but already spoken fragments of shared wisdom. By reiterating formulas like on raw, the patterned, orderly verses of Gologras make clear the equivalence of language and action, of style and substance; moreover, this equivalence marks the exchanges within its narrative descriptions - Gawain before Gologras, Spynagros with Arthur - and its performative demands on its audience, whether in a reading or listening event.

524 seymly. CM: seynily.

525 A gome . . . glisnand. CM: Agane . . . glifnaud. A reads glifnand in his corrigenda.

535 suth. CM: such. I follow A's emendation.

536 force. CM: forte (see note on line 504 above).

540 Spynagros tells Arthur, "Choose a champion" (makis furth ane man) to match the knight who has presented himself on the tower.

545 Gaudifeir. Carlisle mentions Syr Gaytefer (line 43 and note), but he does not otherwise appear as a knight of the Round Table. A points out that his exploits are associated with the cycles of ancient romance (Alexander and Caesar), which are retold in several Scots narratives, and in the French prose romance of Perceforest.

550 gif he nane had. Precisely what this phrase means is unclear, since as a nobleman of great ancestry (see lines 545-46) Gaudifeir would surely possess all the accoutrements of a knight. Perhaps he acts as if starting from scratch, emphasizing the completeness of the arming ritual. The rhyme scheme indicates a line is missing after the present line; see lines 290, 331 and notes.

557 Galiot. Lancelot of the Laik (line 302) mentions a Galiot who seems to be the same knight as Malory's Galehaut; the latter's central role within the Arthurian fellowship makes it impossible to consider him the same knight named here as a vassal of Gologras. The alliterating names of Gologras' champions here and in the following scenes (lines 585, 653 ff.) seem to have been invented for this romance.

564 steil. A reads steill.

572 ane myle way and maire. The ME phrase myle way (also at line 1119) indicates a measure of time, namely the interval it takes to walk a mile, or about twenty minutes. The poet here specifies that the two knights fought for a slightly longer period.

573 These formulas for the berserker character of chivalric violence are repeated at line 1014, and the b-verse occurs again at line 972.

577 yhude. CM: yhnde.

578 mightis. CM: nughtis.

580 craft. CM: crast.

585 Schir Rigal of Rone. A knight apparently otherwise unknown in Arthurian romance. The localization of his lordship - of Rone - provides further evidence that the fictional setting for this episode, and for Gologras' castle, is the Rhone valley, in southeastern France. See lines 310 and 597 and notes.

586 in quert. A takes quert as the fairly common ME word meaning "peace, rest," in which case the line would mean, "until this matter is requited, I will not be at ease." If quert means "court," Gologras is making a stronger statement: "until it is requited, I will not be properly lord in my own court." Compare Awntyrs, line 257, where the ghost has Guenevere swear to act "Als thou art Quene in thi quert."

590 never. CM: nener.

591 graithit. CM: graith it.

597 Raunald. A emends to Rannald to preserve consistency with subsequent spellings. The Alliterative Morte Arthure lists "Sir Raynalde" as one of the knights who accompanies the Roman prisoners to Paris (line 1607); he fights also at the siege in Saxony where one of his companions is "The riche duke of Rowne" (line 1995-96), recalling the title of Rannald's opponent, Schir Rigal of Rone.

599 schroud. CM: schrond.

600 him. CM: hun.

603 With. CM: Wich.

611 knight. CM: kinght.

613 right. CM: rihht.

614 Lightly . . . loft. CM: Lighly . . . lost.

624 in. CM: iu.

635 faucht. CM: fautht.

635 ff. The death of even a minor character is a rare occurrence in a chivalric romance. Though "chronicle" narratives like the stanzaic and alliterative poems on the death of Arthur, and Malory's Morte Darthur, record the deaths of central characters - including Gawain and of course Arthur himself - they do so as part of the narrative underpinning that announces their status as epic or tragedy. These deaths function as moral signals, either of nostalgic loss in the passing of the heroes of chivalry's golden age, or of chastening deficiency in the spectacle of an honorable society's downfall. Occasionally romances seriously contemplate the death of a notable character, as in the life-threatening circumstances that produce the "tappe" that "severed the hyde" in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (lines 2309 ff.), or in the near battle to the death of Sir Galeron and Gawain in Awntyrs. Gologras, however, quite remarkably presents death as grim and grievous, and yet as the predictable, even inevitable, outcome of chivalric violence; though Arthur and Gologras feel fierce distress at the deaths of Sir Rigal and Sir Rannald (and later at the death of Sir Edmond, lines 726 ff.), there is never any question about the rightness of chivalric combat and killing. Both men die "with mekil honour," are simultaneously buried with fit ceremony, and - most important of all - have achieved a lasting fame in the memory of a worshipful community: "Yet has men thame in mynd for thair manhede" (lines 648 ff.). The narrative in this way simultaneously impresses upon its audience the high cost and the ultimate worth of the honor and violence sponsored by knighthood. See lines 713 ff. and note, Gawain's and Gologras' acceptances of their own deaths (lines 808 and 1035 ff.), and Gologras' long speech that pinpoints the paradoxes of honor entailed in freely giving up a life that one has created through the most strenuous exertions (lines 1201 ff. and notes).

639 scheild. CM: scheid.

640 and fel. CM: ane fel.

652 glisnand. CM: glifnand.

653 Schir Louys. The Alliterative Morte Arthure mentions Lowes (line 4266), who is slain in the final battle with Mordred, though the composer of Gologras seems to have invented Louys afresh as a retainer of Gologras.

654 Edmond. This knight is otherwise unknown, and seems to have been created simply as Ywain's victim; he is apparently not the same champion as Ewmond (line 739).

655 Schir Bantellas. Again, this otherwise unknown knight, who subdues Arthur's familiar champion Bedwar, suggests by his name the exotic character of Gologras' retinue.

657 Schir Sanguel. This champion of Gologras is otherwise unknown.

661 Schir Lyonel. As son of Bors of Gaul, and brother to Lancelot's constant companion Bors de Ganys, Lyonel plays a large role in many romances, including Malory's Morte Darthur.

662 athir. CM: a thir.

663 Schir Bedwar. Bedevere is brother of Lucan the Butler, and one of Arthur's chief companions; in the Stanzaic Morte Arthur and Malory, he survives the final battle with Mordred, attends Arthur at his death, and disposes of Excalibur, Arthur's sword.

664 nemmyt. CM: nenmyt. In his glossary, A gives the meaning "taken, chosen" (from OE niman); but (as the OED citation confirms) this seems to be the past participle of nemn, "to be called," in this case, "to be called upon or summoned."

665 Gyromalance. In romances associated with Merlin, Gyromalance is the retainer of Amant, who refuses submission to Arthur. There is perhaps pointed irony in his role in Gologras, which makes him the vassal of Arthur who subdues Sangwel, the retainer of another lord who refuses homage to Arthur.

668 scheildis. CM: scheidis.

669 knightis. CM: kinghtis.

      maid. Broken type in CM makes this a conjectural reading.

674-75 The idiomatic character of these lines makes them difficult to construe. A paraphrases, "Then their horses receive such hurts in their houghs ["hocks," the lower joint of the leg], are so sorely strained, as they stand quaking, checked in their unrest - i.e., pulled up, reined in, though eager to rush on." To me, the lines seem to emphasize not the horses' eagerness, but their frenzy: they suffered such shocks that they stand quaking like horses under great stress who cannot bolt because of their harness.

677 The formulas of these two half-lines, describing the ritualized havoc of battle, repeat with slight variation in lines 755, 847, and 874.

686 bauldly. CM: banldly.

687 brymly. CM: bryimly, which A prints. I emend to the usual form of brym.

      bent. CM: beut.

689 Throu . . . schuldiris. CM: thron . . . schuldis; I follow A in expanding a mark above d in schuldis as an abbreviation for ir.

692 grams. A emends to granis, i.e. "groan." Though the form is somewhat odd (gramys would be a more likely spelling), grams fits the context.

693 reuth . . . rent. CM: renth . . . reut.

694 cair . . . knightis. CM: thair . . . kinghtis. A gives kingthis in his corrigenda.

696 ff. The statement that only God knows, and determines, the outcome of the combat reflects assumptions fundamental to a shame/honor culture like that of chivalry. Because violence constitutes the final proof of honor, the combatants must trust not simply that the best man will win, but that the winner will have proved the justice of his cause with God, the ultimate guarantor of such public rituals. Gaudifeir succeeds in rising from the ground and winning his duel with Galiot only "throu Goddis grete mightis" (line 578, above); Gawain's assertion in Awntyrs, concerning his combat with Galeron, that "God stond with the right," offers a striking articulation of this conviction; see Awntyrs line 471 and note.

698 govern. CM: gonern.

703 here. A argues this is a form of "hire," and takes the line to mean, "they receive great harms and reward or glory." Almost certainly, however, here is related to the common ME word herien, to ravage or pilage; in earlier ME, here in fact means "devastation by war" (see citations in MED).

704 All toturvit. CM, M, A: toturnit. Skeat (The Academy, 6 January 1894, p. 13; cited by A) argues for this emendation on the basis that no such word as toturnit exists in English.

706 swerdis. CM: snerdis.

      The formulas in this line are repeated at line 1106.

710 Stalwart. CM: Scalvart.

713 ff. Though the syntax is ambiguous, the account makes clear that Gologras' champion Lowes captures Lyonell (see lines 722 ff.). Here as earlier, Gologras takes care to emphasize the parity, even the symmetry, of the combat between the forces of Arthur and of Gologras: two of Arthur's knights are taken captive, while one of Gologras' knights is captured and one is killed. In giving the Arthurian side only a slight advantage, the narration makes Gologras a more formidable, and intriguing, opponent, and leaves questions of "rightness" within the poem and of audience sympathy more difficult to settle. The effect is also to increase the sense of the costliness and genuine loss consequent upon knightly violence, though without openly condemning such combat. See lines 635 ff. and note, and Gologras' speeches at lines 1035 ff. and lines 1201 ff. and notes.

714 Giromalans. CM: Giromalaus.

720 Unmanglit. CM: Wnmaglit.

721 The meaning of this line, clearly parallel to line 719, is hard to disentangle. A suggests, "none was so proud of his part that he could boast of it when he left the field, because they had all suffered so severely." I take it to mean almost the opposite: "not one of the knights so proud of his part in the battle did not win honor, even when captured" (though to obtain this meaning one has to assume a suppressed second negative).

739 Schir Agalus. Malory mentions Sir Agloval, the brother of Perceval, some ten times, but it seems doubtful that Cador's prisoner here is identical to this Arthurian knight.

      Schir Ewmond. This knight of Gologras', whose name recalls that of Edmond (line 654, slain by Ywain at line 726), is, except for the present exploit of defeating Owales, unknown.

740 Schir Mychin, Schir Meligor. These retainers of Gologras are otherwise unknown in romance.

742 Schir Hew. This knight of Gologras' retinue, otherwise unknown, resembles in name Arthur's knight Schir Hewis (line 1246).

745 fenyeing. CM: fenyenig.

746 lufsum. CM: luffum.

747 Cornwel. CM: Coruwel.

      Schir Cador of Cornwel. In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, Cador of Cornwall is nephew to Arthur, who brings news of Mordred's treason to the king in Italy; he is father of Constantine, Arthur's successor (see Carlisle, line 44 and note). Cador and Constantine are both accused by Guenevere of lack of courtesy in Awntyrs (line 96).

748 Schir Owales. Since Owales (Owiles, line 765) is otherwise unknown as an Arthurian knight, his defeat at the hands of Ewmond gives Gologras' side a victory without diminishing the glory of the Round Table.

      Schir Iwell. This Arthurian knight is otherwise unknown.

749 Schir Myreot. This seems to be another Arthurian knight invented by the composer of Gologras.

      emell. A is inclined to capitalize Emell as a proper name, making the fifth champion of the Round Table, matching the five knights named by Gologras. But he is not named again, and line 750 specifies four knights.

764 laught. CM: lght. The usual expansion would be langht, which makes no sense in this context, where laught fits appropriately. See note at line 922.

770 as. CM: ad.

775 smal. CM: swal, not noted by A.

776 Arthur. CM: Arthnr.

778 yone. CM: youe.

779 sens peir. CM: sen speir (followed by A), which is clearly a faulty word break.

782 his aune self shall do for his dail. Spynagros' account pinpoints the tension between Arthur and Gologras, namely the latter's autonomy as a lord holding allegiance to no overlord, and therefore offering implicit challenge to Arthur's kingship.

783 in this. CM: is this. I follow A's emendation.

798 to countir. This seems to be a quasi-technical term of chivalric combat, encompassing a knight's formal engagement with an opponent (compare the action of line 845).

807 mobil on the mold. This distinctive alliterative formula occurs only here and in Awntyrs line 199 (see note).

809 he war. CM: the war. I follow A's emendation.

816 do it. CM: doit.

823 nevin. CM: uevin.

827 And. CM: Ayd.

836 ff. The assignment to Sir Kay of a small but successful part in the ongoing chivalric combat is a feature that distinguishes Gologras from all the other verse romances. Here he encounters and defeats, though just barely (see lines 869 ff.), an unknown champion of Gologras. Though this is clearly the preliminary bout to the central encounter of the poem, it is presented in complete seriousness, enabling Kay to earn an unwonted bit of honor.

857 flaw. CM: fllaw, with initial two letters printed as a digraph.

872 harm. CM: harim.

873 Kynge. CM: kynde. I follow A's obvious emendation.

875 ff. Arthur's reassuring reception of the unnamed knight, and the immediate attempt to comfort him and staunch his wounds (lines 882 ff.), reinforce the sense that chivalric values like courtesy and graciousness transcend any individual hostility. Though misfortune may overtake an honorable knight (see lines 864 ff.), he retains his worship and status within the chivalric community.

878 ff. romanis. CM: romams. See note on line 778 above. The King's citation, within an Arthurian romance, of romanis [that] I reid as a source of authority creates a degree of ironic circularity, in which a fictional character cites fiction as a guide to behavior. There is, however, a large body of evidence documenting the broad interdependence of art and life concerning chivalric practices and ideals in the late Middle Ages. Moreover, the King's remark, in idealizing the audience for chivalric romance (suggesting that even monarchs consult them), explicitly points towards difficult questions surrounding their sponsorship and consumption (see General Introduction, pp. 10-23). The King's phrasing in this line, while a common oral formula, confirms the impression that line 879 is a proverb, though it is not recorded by Whiting, Proverbs. It would seem to mean something like, "Even well started plans sometimes fail."

880 pailyeoun. An odd spelling compounded by a stroke over the final "n"; A reads pailyeoune.

884 fresch. CM: fresth.

889 silk. CM: filk.

895 blonk. CM: bonlk.

896 gold and. CM: goldfand.

909 thame. CM: tha.

922 laught. CM: langht.

928 ma. CM: may. I follow A's emendation.

937 And claif throw the cantell of the clene schelde. In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, just before receiving his fatal wound from Mordred, Arthur strikes his nephew/son so fiercely that "The cantelle of the clere schelde he kerfes in sondyre" (line 4231). Awntyrs adapts this line as well in the description of the combat between Gawain and Galeron: "And clef his shelde shene . . . He clef thorgh the cantell" (lines 520-21).

961 as lyoune. The particular comparisons of Gologras - here to a lion, and at line 945, Alse ferse as the fyre - extend back (though not in a direct line) to the elaborated epic similes Homer used to characterize fighters like Sarpedon, Hector, and Achilles.

1002 wondir. CM: wndir.

1012 ff. The abridged, staccato syntax of this crucial stanza, which ends the combat between the main characters, reproduces the dense, chancy, abrupt character of the action. It begins with both champions frenzied from the battle (witlese and wod). Gawain makes the first move, striking at Gologras and destroying his shield (just as Gologras had carved Gawain's In twenty pecis and ma, line 970). The blow is by no means lethal; however, as Gologras makes a return stroke (line 1020) he loses his footing on what seems an uneven battlefield (lines 1021-22). Fatigue, loss of blood, and the weight of his armor bring him crashing to the ground, and Gawain (in the following stanza) takes the opportunity to demand his surrender. The narrative takes care in this way to suggest that Gologras' defeat does not occur solely because of Gawain's superiority, but is an outcome presided over by circumstances, Fortune, and, ultimately, by God (see lines 508, 578, 635 ff., 696 ff., 1220, 1333 ff., and notes); chivalric renown therefore depends not upon victory, but upon honorable conduct.

1025 ever. CM: ener.

1031 life. CM: lise.

1034 answerit. CM: ausnerit; A incorrectly prints ansnerit in his corrigenda.

1039 ever. CM: ener.

1043 levin. CM: leme. M emends for rhyme, though A defends the sense of the original reading as "nor look on my (dishonoured) body in the broad light of day."

1045 God, that settis all on sevin. This proverbial phrase alludes to the order imposed by the Creator during the seven days of creation. In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, Arthur leads his forces against the giants who accompany the Romans: "Thus he settez on sevene with his sekyre knyghttez" (line 2131), restoring order to his army and putting the giants in their place. A cites many additional instances. Compare the similar sounding phrase at lines 508 and 668 (with note at line 508).

1050 Doutles. CM: Dontles.

1053 swownit. CM: swowint.

1064 loft. CM: lost.

1071 eneuch. CM: eneuth.

1080 lurk for ane luke. A paraphrases, "shall make me hide from people's eyes." I take lurk to mean not "hide" but "hesitate," with the phrase emphasizing the public, spectacular nature of chivalric honor, which a knight earns for ane luke, before the gaze of onlookers.

1095 yow. A prints thow here and at line 1099, but the first letter is clearly y, not thorn.

1105 souer. CM: soner; I emend for sense.

          gentrice. CM: gentrite.

1114 sic. CM: sit.

1118 scheith. CM: schetlh.

1119 way. CM: wan.

          myle way and mare. See note at line 572.

1135 knighthede. CM: kinghthede.

1138 presoune. CM: presonne.

1144 garisoune. A paraphrases, "Knights made sport and glee of that prize." Citations from MED indicate that garisoune may mean "treasure," but usually with reference to material wealth or a particular object (compare Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, lines 1255, 1807, 1837); here it seems to refer directly to Gologras' castel of stane (line 1125).

1148 Al thus with murnyng and myrth thai maid melle. The alliterative phrasing of this line recalls the end of St. Erkenwald, where the decomposition of the pagan saint's body causes the assembled throng to feel a mixture of emotions: "Meche mournyng and myrthe was mellyd togeder" (line 350, ed. Ruth Morse [Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1975]).

1154 that. A expands the abbreviation to the.

1165 quhilk. A prints quilk.

1167 thai. CM: thair.

1169 governyng. CM: goduernyng.

1180 concele. CM: coucele.

1186 undir. A prints under.

1220 Sen Fortoune cachis the cours. Gologras' explanation of his motives for saving his life on the battlefield are less psychological than philosophical. Fortune and her ever-moving wheel, which arbitrarily brings prosperity and ruin, is a common figure in medieval literature and visual art from the time of Boethius (sixth century). The iconography of her wheel often represents four kings (at top, bottom, and sides) marked by verbs that describe shifting phases of rule: "I reign," "I was reigning," "I have reigned," "I will reign." King Arthur has a vivid, prophetic dream of Fortune in the Alliterative Morte Arthure, though here her wheel is not populated by anonymous emblematic kings, but by the Nine Worthy (see lines 1233 ff. and note). Gologras' reflections set up an opposition between Fortune's tricky regime, and the orderly providence of Christ (line 1223). But where the traditional Boethian hierarchies firmly establish the superiority of internal to external, of innocence/guilt to honor/shame, Gologras in this instance uses the traditional opposition to define two kinds of externally conferred shame/honor: false knighthood where one acts self-servingly to keep one's life or possessions, and true knighthood which pursues honor while completely disregarding immediate costs or possible gains. The connection between the inscrutable, inevitable chanciness of martial chivalry and the achievement of knightly honor is vividly pictured in one of the elaborate illustrations to Honoré Bonet's Tree of Battles: atop a tree filled with armored knights in combat stands Fortune, blind-folded and turning her wheel. At the bottom, slain knights, fallen from the tree, have their souls rescued by angels or are dragged into the mouth of hell. The iconography of the four kings does not appear; their absence makes the image not simply a memento mori, but an injunction - like Gologras' here - that every true knight should greet his fate - whether life or death, triumph or defeat - with an unflinching equanimity. For a reproduction of this illustration, see Andrea Hopkins, Knights (1990; reprint London: Grange, 1993), p. 135.

1231 And muse in his myrrour. In Awntyrs, the ghost of Guenevere's mother chastizes her daughter in her speech of greeting:

"Thus am I lyke to Lucefere: takis witnes by mee!
For al thi fressh foroure
Muse on my mirrour;
For, king and emperour,
Thus dight shul ye be"
(lines 165-69, italics added; see note)

The recurring presentation in chivalric romances of death - especially the deaths of the rich and famous - as a shocking and thereby memorable mirror of life underscores that gaining worship by arms can take place only in the shadow of death. The poems themselves function as mirrors to the aristocratic ideals of chivalry they describe, but they operate through an aesthetic not of mimesis (art imitating life), but of the spectacular (speculum is the Latin word for mirrour). The brilliant surface, especially of the alliterative poems - their decorated, lapidary descriptive style - mirrors the centrality of public gaze and display within the romances, conveyed, for example, through lavish dress, the jewelled, embroidered accessories of ladies and warriors, and the exhibitionist quality of warfare.

1233 ff. Gologras here allusively invokes the Nine Worthy, a group presented in medieval literature and art as the greatest exemplars of chivalric achievement in history. They included three heathen, three Jews, and three Christians: Hector of Troy, Alexander of Macedon, and Julius Caesar; Joshua, King David, and Judas Maccabeus; Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon. In The Parlement of the Thre Ages, Elde, discoursing on the vanity of the world, devotes almost three hundred lines (nearly half the poem) to the Nine Worthy (lines 297-583); see the edition by M. Y. Offord, EETS 246 (Oxford, 1959). Elde's conclusion is "Bot doghetynes when dede comes ne dare noghte habyde" (line 583: when death comes, valor dare not stay), a moral quite opposite to Gologras' assertion that "Ilkane be werk and be will / Is worth his rewarde" (lines 1244-45). The turning point of the Alliterative Morte Arthure occurs in Arthur's nightmarish but prophetic vision of the Nine Worthy on Fortune's wheel (lines 3218-3455); in effect the vision telescopes his own rise and fall, making Arthur ironically a moral emblem for the fleeting, precarious character of his own experience. Gologras, in omitting the three Christian Worthy, avoids anachronism (since Arthur is, in the course of the present narrative, only achieving his status, and Charlemagne and Godfrey are yet to come) and forgoes prophecy and explicit moralization; instead, the poem substitutes two heroes from the Hebrew Bible, and then compares all these to the modern instances - those heroes who have suffered in the present glorious combat. In drawing on the tradition of the Nine Worthy, Gologras accentuates the tension within chivalry between splendor and mortality; in Gologras' interpretation, the mortal limit that these heroes come up against ("merk," line 1237) becomes not a cause for rejection of the world, but a spur to the individual knight to grasp honor in the world without thought for consequences. This emphasis, though unusual within the moral tradition that surrounds the Nine Worthy, entirely typifies the chivalric ethos celebrated in Gologras, where knights paradoxically attain lasting worship through deadly violence. Certainly one of the most magnificent representations of the theme of the Nine Worthy must have been the set of tapestries woven in Paris around 1400; the much-reproduced portrait of Arthur shows this worthy crowned and enthroned, with crowns on his robes and on the banner he holds, at once sovereign and set for a fall. It is now in the Cloisters Museum (New York); see frontispiece to Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, ed. R. S. Loomis (1959; corrected ed., Oxford, 1967).

1246 Schir Hallolkis. A speculates that this name might be a corruption of Schir Owales (lines 748, 765), and not the introduction of yet another otherwise unknown champion.

      Schir Hewis. This Arthurian knight does not appear elsewhere, though his name is suspiciously similar to that of Gologras' knight, Schir Hew (line 742).

1258 In ony. CM: I nony.

1271 Lufsum. CM: Luffum.

1272 rout. CM: rent. I follow A in emending for the sake of rhyme.

1295 resoune. CM: resonne.

1298 Conquerour. CM: Conquer.

1300 wonnyn. CM: wounyn.

1301 fortoune. CM: fortonne.

1306 prejudice. CM: preuidice.

1308 thi. CM: the (abbreviated); I emend for sense.

1312 than. CM: thau.

1313 Ronsiwall. OF Rencesvals, modern Roncevaux or Roncesvalles (in Spain), ME Rouncyvale, the mountain pass in the Pyrenees where Charlemagne's rear guard, led by his nephew Roland and the Emperor's twelve peers (compare line 1334, douchspere), was annihilated by the Saracens (Spanish Muslims). The event is celebrated as a glorious chivalric exploit in the Chanson de Roland, in ME Charlemagne romances, and in many other retellings.

1318 ever. CM: ener.

1322 I. The pronoun is lacking in CM; I follow A in supplying this.
1324 fenyeing. CM: senyenig.

1326 bidding. CM: bibding.

1331 syll. CM: saill. I follow A in emending for rhyme.

1334 douchspere. The word is a variant of douzeperes, i.e., "twelve peers," and refers in its origin to the twelve companion knights or paladins who accompanied Charlemagne in the battle recounted in the Chanson de Roland (early twelfth century). Since the sixteenth century the word has been used to identify any collection of great knightly champions. See note on line 1313; and see Awntyrs line 4 and note.

1355 thir. CM: their.

1356 tuiching. CM: tiuching.

        temporalité. This term, which usually refers to estates and possessions of the clergy, or more generally to the domain of secular (versus ecclesiastical) lordship, here seems to be used to clarify the autonomy of Gologras' rule, as a lord who owes allegiance to no superior. This emphasis on separate rule, outside the authority of the monarch, establishes for Gologras a unique position among rivals and opponents in the Gawain romances. In the Alliterative Morte Arthure Arthur bestows on an anonymous knight lordship of the region surrounding Toulouse,

"The tolle and the tachementez, tavernez and other,
The towne and the tenementez with towrez so hye,
That towchez to the temporaltee, whiles my tyme lastez"
(lines 1568-70).

See the more traditional use in Turke, line 161.

1358 thin. CM: ym.

1362 On the leaf following the end of Gologras occurs a "Balade" that runs for two and one half pages. It is a version of a poem, entitled "Rhyme without Accord," attributed to John Lydgate, a fifteenth-century monk and follower of Chaucer. The colophon of Gologras, given here immediately after the text, follows the "Balade."