to the world as the
greatest and the most puissant knight who ever lived._

[Illustration: Merlin Prophesieth from a Cloud of Mist:]

[Illustration]

Chapter First

_How Sir Bors de Ganis and Sir Gawaine went forth in search of Sir
Launcelot. How they parted company, and what befell Sir Gawaine
thereafter._

Now the history hath been told of those things that happened to several
of the knights who went forth in quest of Sir Launcelot after that he
went mad as aforetold; to wit, the history hath been told of Sir
Percival and of Sir Ewaine and of Sir Sagramore and of Sir Ector de
Maris. Here followeth an account of that which befell Sir Gawaine, when
he, together with Sir Bors de Ganis, also went forth in search of Sir
Launcelot.

After they two had left the court of King Arthur they joined company for
a while. Thus travelling together as companions in arms, they met with
several adventures, some of which are told in histories of chivalry and
some of which are not. In such companionship there passed the spring and
the summer and by and by it was the fall of the year.

[Sidenote: _How Sir Gawaine and Sir Bors rode forth together._]

Now some there be who love the summer time the best and some there be
that love the spring; yet others still there be who love the autumn the
best of all. And certes each season hath its beauties, so that one
cannot wonder that there are some who love the beauties of the fall
above the beauties of all other seasons. For in that time of the year
there comes the nutting season, when country folk take joy in being
abroad in the hazel thickets, gathering the bright brown fruits of the
hazel bushes. Then are days so clear and frosty, all early in the
morning, that it is as though the whole vault of heaven were made of
clear crystal. Then, when you look into the cold blue shadows of the
wayside bank, there you behold everywhere the sparkling of many myriads
of bright points of light where the thin frosts catch the shining of the
early and yet slanting sun. Then do the birds cry with a wilder note as
though heralding the approach of dreary winter. Then do the squirrels
gambol in the dry, dead foliage in search of their winter store of food.
Then is all the world clad very gloriously in russet and gold, and when
the bright and jolly sun shines down through the thin yellow leaves of
the woodland, all the earth appears to be illuminated with a wonderful
splendor of golden light, so that