"Sir," answered Merlin, "no man shall occupy those places but the most worshipful of knights. And in the Seat Perilous, which adjoins them, no man shall sit but one, and if any one unworthy of this honor shall be so hardy as to attempt it, he shall be destroyed. He that shall sit there shall have no fellow."
Anon came young Gawaine, the son of King Lot, a squire of handsome mien, who asked of the king a gift.
"Ask, and I shall grant it," answered the king.
"I ask that you make me knight on the day you wed fair Guenever."
"That shall I do willingly," said Arthur, "and with what worship I may, since you are my nephew, my sister's son."
[Here it is proper to say that Arthur had three sisters, the daughters of Queen Igraine and her first husband, the Duke of Tintagil. One of these, Margawse, had married King Lot, and had four sons, all of whom became valiant knights; Elaine, the second, had married King Neutres of Garlot; the third sister, Morgan le Fay, had been put to school, where she became learned in the art of necromancy; of the fourth the chronicles fail to speak.]
Hardly had Gawaine spoken when there came riding into the court a poor man, who brought with him a fair-faced youth, of eighteen years of age, riding upon a lean mare.
"Sir, will you grant me a gift?" the old man asked of the king. "I was told that you would at the time of your marriage grant any gift that was asked for in reason."
"That is true," said the king. "What would you have?"
"Jesu save you, most gracious king. I ask nothing more than that you make my son a knight."