CHAPTER III

How a poor man riding upon a lean mare desired King
Arthur to make his son knight.

FORTHWITHAL there came a poor man into the court, and brought
with him a fair young man of eighteen years of age riding upon a
lean mare; and the poor man asked all men that he met, Where
shall I find King Arthur?  Yonder he is, said the knights, wilt
thou anything with him?  Yea, said the poor man, therefore I came
hither.  Anon as he came before the king, he saluted him and
said:  O King Arthur, the flower of all knights and kings, I
beseech Jesu save thee.  Sir, it was told me that at this time of
your marriage ye would give any man the gift that <82>he would
ask, out except that were unreasonable.  That is truth, said the
king, such cries I let make, and that will I hold, so it apair
not my realm nor mine estate.  Ye say well and graciously, said
the poor man; Sir, I ask nothing else but that ye will make my
son here a knight.  It is a great thing thou askest of me, said
the king.  What is thy name? said the king to the poor man.  Sir,
my name is Aries the cowherd.  Whether cometh this of thee or of
thy son? said the king.  Nay, sir, said Aries, this desire cometh
of my son and not of me, for I shall tell you I have thirteen
sons, and all they will fall to what labour I put them, and will
be right glad to do labour, but this child will not labour for
me, for anything that my wife or I may do, but always he will be
shooting or casting darts, and glad for to see battles and to
behold knights, and always day and night he desireth of me to be
made a knight.  What is thy name? said the king unto the young
man.  Sir, my name is Tor.  The king beheld him fast, and saw he
was passingly well-visaged and passingly well made of his years. 
Well, said King Arthur unto Aries the cowherd, fetch all thy sons
afore me that I may see them.  And so the poor man did, and all
were shaped much like the poor man.  But Tor was not like none of
them all in shape nor in countenance, for he was much more than
any of them.  Now, said King Arthur unto the cow herd, where is
the sword he shall be made knight withal?  It is here, said Tor. 
Take it out of the sheath, said the king, and require me to make
you a knight.

Then Tor alighted off his mare and pulled out his sword,
kneeling, and requiring the king that he would make him knight,
and that he might be a knight of the Table Round.  As for a
knight I will make you, and therewith smote him in the neck with
the sword, saying, Be ye a good knight, and so I pray to God so
ye may be, and if ye be of prowess and of worthiness ye shall be
a knight of the Table Round.  Now Merlin, said Arthur, say
whether this Tor shall be a good knight or no.  Yea, sir, he
ought to be a good knight, for he is come of as good a man as any
is alive, and of kings' blood.  How <83>so, sir? said the king. 
I shall tell you, said Merlin:  This poor man, Aries the cowherd,
is not his father; he is nothing sib to him, for King Pellinore
is his father.  I suppose nay, said the cowherd.  Fetch thy wife
afore me, said Merlin, and she shall not say nay.  Anon the wife
was fetched, which was a fair housewife, and there she answered
Merlin full womanly, and there she told the king and Merlin that
when she was a maid, and went to milk kine, there met with her a
stern knight, and half by force he had my maidenhead, and at that
time he begat my son Tor, and he took away from me my greyhound
that I had that time with me, and said that he would keep the
greyhound for my love.  Ah, said the cowherd, I weened not this,
but I may believe it well, for he had never no tatches of me. 
Sir, said Tor unto Merlin, dishonour not my mother.  Sir, said
Merlin, it is more for your worship than hurt, for your father is
a good man and a king, and he may right well advance you and your
mother, for ye were begotten or ever she was wedded.  That is
truth, said the wife.  It is the less grief unto me, said the
cowherd.