CHAPTER I

How Sir Gawaine was nigh weary of the quest of the
Sangreal, and of his marvellous dream.


WHEN Sir Gawaine was departed from his fellowship he
rode long without any adventure.  For he found not the
tenth part of adventure as he was wont to do.  For Sir
Gawaine rode from Whitsuntide until Michaelmas and
found none adventure that pleased him.  So on a day it
befell Gawaine met with Sir Ector de Maris, and either
made great joy of other that it were marvel to tell.  And
so they told everych other, and complained them greatly
that they could find none adventure.  Truly, said Sir
Gawaine unto Sir Ector, I am nigh weary of this quest,
and loath I am to follow further in strange countries.
One thing marvelled me, said Sir Ector, I have met with
twenty knights, fellows of mine, and all they complain as
I do.  I have marvel, said Sir Gawaine, where that Sir
Launcelot, your brother, is.  Truly, said Sir Ector, I
cannot hear of him, nor of Sir Galahad, Percivale, nor
Sir Bors.  Let them be, said Sir Gawaine, for they four
have no peers.  And if one thing were not in Sir Launcelot
he had no fellow of none earthly man; but he is as we be,
but if he took more pain upon him.  But an these four
be met together they will be loath that any man meet with
them; for an they fail of the Sangreal it is in waste of all
the remnant to recover it.

Thus Ector and Gawaine rode more than eight days,
and on a Saturday they found an old chapel, the which
was wasted that there seemed no man thither repaired;
and there they alighted, and set their spears at the door,
and in they entered into the chapel, and there made their
orisons a great while, and set them down in the sieges of
the chapel.  And as they spake of one thing and other,
for heaviness they fell asleep, and there befell them both
marvellous adventures.  Sir Gawaine him seemed he
came into a meadow full of herbs and flowers, and there
he saw a rack of bulls, an hundred and fifty, that were
proud and black, save three of them were all white, and
one had a black spot, and the other two were so fair and
so white that they might be no whiter.  And these three
bulls which were so fair were tied with two strong cords.
And the remnant of the bulls said among them:  Go we
hence to seek better pasture.  And so some went, and
some came again, but they were so lean that they might
not stand upright; and of the bulls that were so white,
that one came again and no mo.  But when this white bull
was come again among these other there rose up a great
cry for lack of wind that failed them; and so they
departed one here and another there: this advision befell
Gawaine that night.