“Castle, he who hence might bear ye
Would do ill an he should spare ye!”
Thus came they all into the inner burg, and, still ahorse, into the great hall, but they found no man to whom they might speak, or to whose care they might give their steeds. Then they said to each other, “’Twere ill to let them fast,” and the king spake, “I counsel that after supper we go forth into yonder fair meadow.”
This they held for good rede, and dismounted, making fast their steeds to the stag’s antlers on the wall. Then they washed their faces and their hands in a bowl of silver, and the king sat himself down first, and his knights after.
With no delay Kay set the first course before the king; ’twas a great boar’s head, and he bare it joyfully, and thereafter swiftly served the rest, saying an any found cause for plaint, there was no lack, he could have at his will. “The food hath cost me naught and I give it freely; nay, of a verity we might, an we were so minded, feed our steeds on boars’ heads; this is no niggard hostelry! See ye the fair couches in yonder chamber?” And he pointed to an open doorway.
Sir Gawain looked, and saw a shield hanging on the wall, and within the shield yet stood the fragment of a mighty lance, with a silken pennon hanging from it. I tell ye of a truth, so soon as he was ware thereof the blood stirred in his veins; he spake no word, but swiftly as might be he sprang up from meat, casting aside the knife he held, and gat him to his steed, and girthed him tightly, and set his helmet on his head, and sat him down again on a bench near by the daïs, his shield beside him.
The king marvelled greatly, and the knights said the one to the other, “Ha, God, what aileth Sir Gawain?” Each would fain know wherefore he had armed himself thus swiftly; they thought of a surety his head had grown light through over much fasting and the great heat of the day. They were sore dismayed thereat, for they had seen and heard naught that might give occasion for arming, and they might not guess the cause.
The king spake simply, “Fair nephew, say, wherefore have ye ceased to eat? And wherefore thus arm in haste? Ye make us much to marvel; tell me, I pray, doth aught ail ye?”
“Naught, Sire, save that I pray ye to eat quickly, an ye love me!”
“How,” quoth Arthur, “without ye, who have fasted even as we? Methinks that were ill done!”
“By God and Saint Thomas, to eat here will profit me naught; ye are wrong, Sire!” Thus answered Sir Gawain, swearing that for naught in the world would he eat in this hostelry, neither might he be joyful or at ease so long as they abode therein. “But I pray ye, Sire, hasten and eat.”