Mabinogion by Davies Sioned;

Author:Davies, Sioned;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2009-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

Then the young earl and his men came to Geraint, and greeted him and invited him along to the castle.

‘No,’ said Geraint. ‘Where I stayed last night I will go tonight.’

‘Though you refuse the invitation, you will surely not refuse a plentiful supply of what I can have prepared for you in the place where you stayed last night. And I will arrange a bath for you, and throw off your weariness and exhaustion.’

‘God repay you,’ said Geraint, ‘and I will go to my lodging.’ So Geraint went, and Earl Ynywl* and his wife and daughter, and when they came to the upstairs storey the young earl’s chamberlains had already arrived at the court with their service and were preparing all the rooms and supplying them with straw and fire. In a short while the bath was ready, and Geraint got into it and his head was washed. Then the young earl arrived, one of forty ordained knights what with his own men and guests from the tournament. Then Geraint got out of the bath and the earl asked him to go to the hall and eat.

‘Where is Earl Ynywl,’ he replied, ‘and his wife and daughter?’

‘They are in the upstairs chamber over there,’ said the earl’s chamberlain, ‘putting on the clothes the earl has had brought to them.’

‘Let the maiden wear nothing but her smock and linen mantle,’ he said, ‘until she gets to Arthur’s court, so that Gwenhwyfar may dress her in whatever garment she wants’. So the maiden did not get dressed.

Then they all came to the hall and washed and went to sit and eat. This is how they sat: on one side of Geraint sat the young earl and then Earl Ynywl; on the other side of Geraint sat the maiden and her mother; and after that, each one in order of rank. They ate and were served generously, and received an abundance of various dishes. They conversed, and the young earl invited Geraint to be his guest the next day.

‘No, between me and God,’ said Geraint, ‘to Arthur’s court I will go tomorrow with this maiden. And for long enough, I believe, Earl Ynywl has been in poverty and misery, and it is mainly to try and increase maintenance for him that I am going.’

‘Lord,’ said the young earl, ‘it is not through any fault of mine that Ynywl is without land.’

‘By my faith,’ said Geraint, ‘he will not be without the land that is his unless sudden death takes me.’

‘Lord,’ he said, ‘as regards any disagreement that has been between me and Ynywl, I will gladly submit to your advice, since you are impartial between us in respect of what is right.’

‘I do not ask that he be given anything except what he is entitled to,’ said Geraint, ‘together with his various losses, from the time he lost his land until today.’

‘And I agree to that gladly for your sake,’ he said.

‘Good,’ said Geraint. ‘All those here who should be vassals of Ynywl, let them pay him homage here and now.

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