Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK III CHAPTER III

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 CHAPTER III
 
 How a poor man riding upon a lean mare desired King
 Arthur to make his son knight.
 
 FORTHWITHAL there came a poor man into the court, and brought
 with him a fair young man of eighteen years of age riding upon a
 lean mare; and the poor man asked all men that he met, Where
 shall I find King Arthur?  Yonder he is, said the knights, wilt
 thou anything with him?  Yea, said the poor man, therefore I came
 hither.  Anon as he came before the king, he saluted him and
 said:  O King Arthur, the flower of all knights and kings, I
 beseech Jesu save thee.  Sir, it was told me that at this time of
 your marriage ye would give any man the gift that <82>he would
 ask, out except that were unreasonable.  That is truth, said the
 king, such cries I let make, and that will I hold, so it apair
 not my realm nor mine estate.  Ye say well and graciously, said
 the poor man; Sir, I ask nothing else but that ye will make my
 son here a knight.  It is a great thing thou askest of me, said
 the king.  What is thy name? said the king to the poor man.  Sir,
 my name is Aries the cowherd.  Whether cometh this of thee or of
 thy son? said the king.  Nay, sir, said Aries, this desire cometh
 of my son and not of me, for I shall tell you I have thirteen
 sons, and all they will fall to what labour I put them, and will
 be right glad to do labour, but this child will not labour for
 me, for anything that my wife or I may do, but always he will be
 shooting or casting darts, and glad for to see battles and to
 behold knights, and always day and night he desireth of me to be
 made a knight.  What is thy name? said the king unto the young
 man.  Sir, my name is Tor.  The king beheld him fast, and saw he
 was passingly well-visaged and passingly well made of his years. 
 Well, said King Arthur unto Aries the cowherd, fetch all thy sons
 afore me that I may see them.  And so the poor man did, and all
 were shaped much like the poor man.  But Tor was not like none of
 them all in shape nor in countenance, for he was much more than
 any of them.  Now, said King Arthur unto the cow herd, where is
 the sword he shall be made knight withal?  It is here, said Tor. 
 Take it out of the sheath, said the king, and require me to make
 you a knight.
 
 Then Tor alighted off his mare and pulled out his sword,
 kneeling, and requiring the king that he would make him knight,
 and that he might be a knight of the Table Round.  As for a
 knight I will make you, and therewith smote him in the neck with
 the sword, saying, Be ye a good knight, and so I pray to God so
 ye may be, and if ye be of prowess and of worthiness ye shall be
 a knight of the Table Round.  Now Merlin, said Arthur, say
 whether this Tor shall be a good knight or no.  Yea, sir, he
 ought to be a good knight, for he is come of as good a man as any
 is alive, and of kings' blood.  How <83>so, sir? said the king. 
 I shall tell you, said Merlin:  This poor man, Aries the cowherd,
 is not his father; he is nothing sib to him, for King Pellinore
 is his father.  I suppose nay, said the cowherd.  Fetch thy wife
 afore me, said Merlin, and she shall not say nay.  Anon the wife
 was fetched, which was a fair housewife, and there she answered
 Merlin full womanly, and there she told the king and Merlin that
 when she was a maid, and went to milk kine, there met with her a
 stern knight, and half by force he had my maidenhead, and at that
 time he begat my son Tor, and he took away from me my greyhound
 that I had that time with me, and said that he would keep the
 greyhound for my love.  Ah, said the cowherd, I weened not this,
 but I may believe it well, for he had never no tatches of me. 
 Sir, said Tor unto Merlin, dishonour not my mother.  Sir, said
 Merlin, it is more for your worship than hurt, for your father is
 a good man and a king, and he may right well advance you and your
 mother, for ye were begotten or ever she was wedded.  That is
 truth, said the wife.  It is the less grief unto me, said the
 cowherd.