Le Morte d’Arthur Guided Reading 14: Book 1, Chapter 17

The battle ends and we have some curious scenes, including King Arthur having the first of two sons he will sire in this chapter… only this one we never hear from again.

Chapter Seventeen

When Sir Arthur and King Ban and Bors beheld them and all their knights, they praised them much for their noble cheer of chivalry, for the hardiest fighters that ever they heard or saw. With that there dressed them a forty noble knights and said unto the three kings they would break their battle. These were their names; Lionses, Phariance, Ulfius, Brastias, Ector, Kay, Lucan the Butler, Griflet la Fise de Dieu, Moris de la Roche, Gwinas de Bloi, Briant of the Forest Savage, Bellias, Morians of the Castle of Maidens, Flannedrius of the Castle of Ladies, Annecians that was King Bors’ godson, a noble knight, Ladinas de la Rouse, Emerause Caulas, Graciens le Castlein, one Blois de la Case, and Sir Colegaunce de Gore. All these knights rode on with spears on their thighs and spurred their horses mightily as the horses might run. And the eleven kings with part of their knights rushed with their horses as fast as they might with their spears, and there they did on both parties marvelous deeds of arms. So came into the thick of the press Arthur, Ban and Bors and slew down right on both hands that their horses went in blood up to the fetlocks. But the eleven kings and their host was ever in the visage of Arthur. Wherefore Ban and Bors had great marvel, considering the great slaughter that there was, but at last they were driven aback over a little river.

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With that came Merlin on a great black horse and said unto Arthur, “Thou hast never done? Hast thou not done enough? Of three score thousand this day hast you left alive but fifteen thousand, and it is time to say ‘Ho!’ For God is wroth with you that you will never have done, for yonder eleven kings at this time will not be overthrown. But if you tarry on them any longer, your fortune will turn, and they shall increase. And therefore, withdraw unto your lodging and rest you as soon as you may, and reward your good knights with gold and silver, for they have well deserved it. There may be no riches too dear for them, for so few men as you have there were never men did more of prowess than they have done today, for you have matched this day the best fighters of the world.”

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“That is truth,” said King Ban and Bors.

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“Also,” said Merlin, “withdraw now where you list, for this three year I dare undertake they shall not test you, and by then you shall hear new tidings.” And then Merlin said unto Arthur, “These eleven kings have more on hand than they are aware of, for the Saracens are landed in their countries more than forty thousand, that burn and slay and have laid siege at the Castle Wandesborow and make great destruction. Therefore dread you not this three year. Also, sir, all the goods that be gotten at this battle let them be searched, and when you have them in your hands, let them be given freely unto these two kings, Ban and Bors, that they may reward their knights withal, and that shall cause strangers to be of better will to do you service at need. Also you be able to reward your own knights of your own goods whensomever it liketh you.”

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“It is well said,” quoth Arthur, “and as thou hast devised, so shall it be done.”

Merlin comes up and tells Arthur to end the battle because he has done all he can do, and if he keeps going, the tide will turn and he will start to lose. I’m curious about this one thing he says, that God is angry with Arthur. “Wroth” means angry, and plenty of times as you’re reading Le Morte d’Arthur you will encounter the beautiful phrase “wonderly wroth,” which means incredibly angry. But… I just think this is a funny thing to say to Arthur. God is angry with him that he didn’t end the battle when he should have? There’s another incident coming up in which Merlin also says that God is angry with Arthur. We are to believe that Arthur is the choice of God to be king at that time… the whole thing with the sword in the stone means God himself chose Arthur to be king… and now God is angry with him? Hmm. As I write my books, I find that Merlin says a lot of pretty nasty things, and lays a lot of serious mind games on the kings he works with, and this is one of them. God is angry with you. To me that’s pretty serious.

He also tells Arthur to give his knights and the knights of Ban and Bors silver and gold, as well as the armor they take off the fallen knights in the field, to reward them. Merlin is always about rewarding the people with riches in order to secure their loyalty. He also predicts that Arthur will have no further trouble with the rebel kings for three years, since they will be fighting off the Saxons in their lands. The Saxons are called Saracens here, although Saracens are mostly considered to be Muslims, and Saxons are from Germanic countries. But you remember I told you in the section before Arthur arrives on the scene, that Vortigern allowed the Saxons into the country, and they have been trying to come in and settle ever since. So when the text says Saracens it means people who are coming into the country and looking to settle there.

When it was delivered to Ban and Bors, they gave the goods as freely to their knights as freely as it was given to them. Then Merlin took his leave of Arthur and the two kings, to go and see his master Blaise, that dwelled in Northumberland, and so he departed and came to his master that was passing glad of his coming.

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And there he told how Arthur and the two kings had sped at the great battle and how it was ended and told the names of every king and knight of worship that was there. And so Blaise wrote the battle word by word as Merlin told him how it began and by whom, and in likewise how it was ended, and who had the worse. All the battles that were done in Arthur’s days, Merlin did his master Blaise to write, also he did write down all the battles that every worthy knight did of Arthur’s court.

Now Merlin goes to Northumberland to see Blaise, whom they describe as his master. I don’t think Blaise has been mentioned previously in Le Morte d’Arthur. Blaise is the friend of Merlin’s mother and was a big character in the story of Merlin’s birth. It was Blaise’s idea to have Merlin baptized in order to have him cleansed of the devil’s influence, and after that, Merlin told Blaise to go to Northumberland, where he would begin writing a book chronicling everything that happens here, and in the Vulgate we are often told that his book is how we all still know this story today.

A tradition Arthur establishes later in the saga is that when knights return from adventures, they tell the court and it is written down. Consider at the time they were only starting to conceive of the concept of “history” (and most of the “histories” we have, including the ones that feature King Arthur, are more than half fiction), so to discuss writing this down is a gesture toward understanding that if events are not written down, they are often lost to time.

The other thing that is kind of interesting is that, in the Vulgate, Merlin tells everyone that there are times when he cannot be around people, and I think at a certain point it says that if he didn’t go away he would hurt people. So during those times he goes to stay with Blaise in Northumberland.

After this, Merlin departed from his master and came to King Arthur that was in the Castle of Bedegraine, that was one of the castles that stood in the forest of Sherwood. And Merlin was so disguised that King Arthur knew him not, for he was all befurred in black sheepskin and a great pair of boots and bow and arrows in a russet gown and brought wild geese in his hand. It was on the morn after Candlemass day, but King Arthur knew him not.

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“Sir,” said Merlin unto the king, “will you give me a gift?”

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“Wherefore,” said King Arthur, “should I give thee a gift, churl?”

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“Sir,” said Merlin, “you were better to give me a gift that is not in your hand than to lose great riches, for here in the same place where the great battle was is great treasure his in the earth.”

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“Who told you so, churl?” said Arthur.

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“Merlin told me so,” said he.

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Then Ulfius and Brastias knew him well enough and smiled. “Sire,” said these two knights, “it is Merlin that so speaketh unto you.”

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Then King Arthur was greatly abashed and had marvel of Merlin and so had King Ban and King Bors, and so they had great desport at him.

So here is something that is odd and doesn’t necessarily come off in this telling. It is much longer in the Vulgate, and even then it took me several times through to figure out what it is about. But first let’s talk about Merlin’s abilities. Merlin knows everything that happens in the past and future, and he is able to shapeshift. So when the text says, “Merlin comes in disguise,” it means that he actually looks like a completely different person, and this will start happening more often very soon.

So in the longer telling, Merlin looks like a hunter who has two birds. Arthur offers to buy the birds, but the bird catcher chides him that the price is too low. He says that King Arthur has the ability to make a rich man out of a poor one, since he has immense wealth at his disposal, but he is being cheap. So the scene is really about Merlin chiding Arthur for not being more generous. There is that mention of buried treasure, but that ultimately goes nowhere. And speaking of things that go nowhere, let’s consider the next paragraph.

So in the meanwhile there came a damsel that was an earl’s daughter. His name was Sanam, and her name was Lionors, a passing fair damsel, and she came tither for to do homage as other lords did after the great battle. And King Arthur set his love greatly upon her, and so did she upon him, and the king had ado with her and gat on her a child. His name was Borre, that was after a good knight and of the Table Round.

You heard that right; it says that King Arthur had a son, named Borre. Only this person, this son of the mighty King Arthur, is never, ever mentioned or heard of again. I told you the whole thing was pretty loose on cohesion.

Then came word that King Rience of Northen Wales made great war on King Leodegrance of Camelerd, for the which Arthur was wroth, for he loved him well and hated King Rience, for he was always against him. So by ordinance of the three kings that were sent home unto Benwick, all they would depart for dread of King Claudas and Phariance, and Antemes, and Gracian, and Lionses of Payarne, with the leaders of those that should keep the king’s lands.

This is just saying that they heard that King Rience was attacking King Leodegrance, and they all go to help him. We’ll hear more about King Rience and King Leodegrance as we go forward, so let’s just move into the next chapter.

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