Le Morte Darthur, Chapter 79 summary

What happens

1. A lone knight defeats ten opponents with one spear, then allows them to bind him and lead him away.
2. Sir Gawaine declines to help, despite his damsel’s urging, because the captive seems willing.
3. Asked to settle a knight’s dispute with a dwarf, Gawaine lets their desired lady choose, and she chooses the dwarf.
4. Two knights arrive; one fights Gawaine while the other persuades his dissatisfied damsel to leave with him.
5. Gawaine makes peace with his opponent, who invites him to stay and identifies the captive as Sir Pelleas.
6. The knight recounts how Pelleas wins a tournament and gives its gold circlet to Ettard, declaring her beauty supreme.

In this chapter

What to notice

Gawaine treats the knight’s lack of resistance as a reason not to intervene. His companion reads that decision as unwillingness to help.

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