Sir Percivale

Sir Percivale


As I sit here looking back on the last weeks, I realize what a magnificent journey I have just been on, and how lucky I was to come across the lad who would journey with me. I had been winding through the dense fog and thick trees for hours, with no sign of the thief who had stolen my horse. Being on foot, I was sure the thief had put many miles' distance between us, and I therefore abandoned my search and sought the shelter of one of the giant sweet gums of the forest.

No sooner had I sat down, than a Knight passed by, just a stone's throw away. I shouted to him, and he turned and rode towards me. I told him I was King Arthur, and that I had lost my most prized stallion to a thief that morning, and had followed him into this maze of a forest before losing sight of him. The Knight introduced himself as Sir Percivale, and reached down, pulling me onto the back of his horse, and we sped off through the forest. Of course, I had heard of this Sir Percivale before, and knew of his prestige.

Sir Percivale said he had seen a man on a magnificent horse not an hour ago, and so we weaved quickly through the trees in the direction of the thief. The Knight was a spectacular rider, and it took him only a little time to track the fugitive and draw within eyesight of him. I began shouting at the tops of my lungs as we drew closer to the man, ordering him to halt and return the stolen horse, but he refused. This worried me little though, for the great rider Sir Percivale had by this time nearly pulled up next to the thief. As we were nearly within arm's reach, the man reached into his satchel and pulled from it several of the largest gum balls of a sweet gum I had ever seen. He threw them to the ground in front of our horse, bringing the animal, and both Sir Percivale and myself, crashing to the ground as he sped out of sight, again, on my stallion. Sir Percivale tried to rally his horse, but it was useless; the spike-filled weapons had badly injured the hooves of the animal. Again, I was without a horse, and without any means of catching the thief.

We began what would come to be a long walk out of the forest. Looking back on it, I cannot believe how far we ventured. For days we wandered after the thief. The trees began to look the same to me, and the fog made it increasingly difficult to navigate. Had it not been for Sir Percivale, I might have spent the remainder of my days in those woods. At last we reached the edge, only to find ourselves confronted by a much greater obstacle. On the far edge of this forest was a valley full of wild beasts. Snakes and small dragons stretched as far as my eyes could see. But these beasts did not seem to deter Sir Percivale from the quest to recover my stallion. He drew his sword and marched straight into the heart of the valley, thrusting himself into the midst of the reptiles. It was not long before we came upon one of the beast's dinners in the making: a dragon had cornered a tiger against several large boulders. The large cat appeared to be near its end, but Sir Percivale charged down the hill towards the beast with his sword drawn and his shield in front of him. The dragon, hearing the clanging armor of the charging Knight, turned to face him. He took a deep breath, and let out a blast of fire from his fang-filled jaws. But the shield of Sir Percivale deflected the flames, and he lunged right at the creature, driving his sword into the neck of the dragon.
 
The tiger, almost sensing and understanding that Sir Percivale had given him new life, began to follow us as we walked out of that place. He followed our every step for days as we walked. As we reached the far edge of the valley, I told Sir Percivale that it looked as though my horse was gone, and perhaps we should just make our way back to our homes. Sensing my disappointment, Sir Percivale replied that a tiger should make a suitable replacement for the horse of a King, and turned the tiger over to me. I could not believe all he had done for me. At that, I asked if he had ever heard of the Round Table, and our paths have been intertwined ever since. It was an excellent adventure, but I am glad to be sitting here by the warmth of the fire, with my new tiger at my feet.

Cover Page

Sir Lancelot



Story: The Adventure of Sir Percivale, King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table, Andrew Lang, 1902.

Image: Sir Percivale, Authurian Literary Character, Early British Kingdoms, David Nash Ford.

Note:
Andrew Lang's version of The Adventure of Sir Percivale is told in the third person narrative style with no identified narrator. King Arthur was not actually a character in the original version. He is, however, a character in this retelling, which is an account of King Arthur's journey with Sir Percivale, from the King's perspective. Several parts of the original story were left out. In Lang's version, Sir Percivale was searching for Sir Galahad at the beginning, and was actually rescued by Sir Galahad without knowing it was him. They parted ways, and as Sir Galahad left, a Knight on a stolen horse followed by a chasing yeoman enter the story, which is where this retelling picks up.

In the original story, Sir Percivale is persuaded by the yeoman to retrieve his stolen steed, and Sir Percivale takes the yeoman's horse to pursue the thief. The thief kills the horse Sir Percivale is riding with a spear, and Sir Percivale is again without a horse. However, the original story then has a part where a woman appears and provides another horse for Sir Percivale, which is actually a fiend. The fiend horse leads Sir Percivale to the next portion of this retelling, where a serpent is attacking a lion. In this retelling, a tiger is used in place of the lion, and a dragon is used in place of the serpent. In both the Lang's version and this retelling, Sir Percivale slays the beast and saves the large cat, who then follows Sir Percivale as a guardian.

The next story will focus on the adventures of Sir Lancelot, again from the perspective of King Arthur.



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