Chapter 9

[Woodcut from the 1526 edition, printed in Seville by Jacobo and Juan Cromberger.]

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How the Childe of the Sea did battle with King Abies in the war he had with King Perion of Gaul.

Once the battle between King Abies and the Childe of the Sea was arranged, as ye have heard, those on both sides saw that most of the day had already passed, so they agreed to wait until the next day, against the wishes of the two combatants. They could clean their weapons as well as treat their wounds, and because all the men on both sides were injured and tired and they wished to rest and recover, each side went to back to where they lodged.

The Childe of the Sea, riding bare-headed, entered the town with King Perion and Agrajes, and everyone in the town sang:

"Oh, good knight, God help thee and give thee virtue
that thou mayst end well what thou hast begun to do!
Oh, handsome knight! In him, chivalry gets its due
for he above all keeps it most noble and true!"

When they arrived at the palace of the King, a damsel came and said to the Childe of the Sea:

"My lord, the Queen asks you not to remove your armor until ye arrive at your room, where she waits for you."

This was agreed to by the King, who said:

"My friend, go to the Queen, and Agrajes may go with you to keep you company."

Then the King went to his rooms, and the Childe and Agrajes to his, where they found the Queen and many ladies and damsels, who took their armor. But the Queen would not allow anyone to touch the Childe besides her, and she removed his armor and covered him with a cloak. At this time the King came and saw that the Childe was injured, and he said:

"Why did ye not ask for a delay on the day of the battle?"

"That was not necessary," said the Childe. "There is no wound that would keep me from it."

Then they treated his wounds and they gave them supper.

The next morning the Queen came with all her ladies and found them talking with the King. Mass began, and after it was said, the Childe of the Sea armed himself not with the arms from the previous day, because nothing remained that was useful, but with others that were more handsome and strong. He bid goodbye to the Queen and the ladies and damsels, and he rode off on a well-rested horse that they had for him at the gate of the castle.

King Perion carried his helmet, Agrajes his shield, and old knight named Agonon, who was well-esteemed at arms, his lance. Because of Agonon's great nobility in the past, and for his courage as well as his virtue, he was the Childe's third, after the King and the son of the King. The shield that Agrajes carried had a field of gold with two blue lions in it, facing each other as if they wished to bite each other.

When they left the gate of the town, they saw King Abies on a large black horse, fully armed, though he had not yet strapped on his helmet. The villagers and the enemy soldiers arranged themselves to watch the battle as well as they could. The field had been marked and a stockade erected with many stands around it.

They strapped on their helmets and picked up their shields. King Abies put a shield around his neck with an indigo field that displayed a giant and a knight next to it who was cutting off its head. He used that insignia because he had fought against a giant that had entered his lands and left barren all that it encountered, and because he had cut off its head, he carried that feat's representation on his shield.

After both took up their arms, all others left the field, and each side commended its knight to God.

Without delay, they had their horses charge at a gallop. Since both were strong and wholehearted, at the first strike all their arms failed. Their lances broke, and both the men and the horses struck each other so hard that both were knocked off. Everyone believed they were dead. Pieces of the lance were embedded in their shields and the iron tips had reached their flesh.

But as both were agile and brave of heart, they quickly got up, removed the pieces of lance from themselves, and took their swords in hand. They attacked so fiercely that those who were around the field were frightened to see it.

Yet the battle seemed unequal, not because the Childe of the Sea was not well built and reasonably tall, but because King Abies was a palm taller than any other knight, and his arms and legs seemed to belong to a giant. He was well loved by his people and always demonstrated good conduct, except that he was more arrogant than he ought to have been.

The battle between them was both cruel and relentless, with no time to rest, and the blows were so great that they seemed more like twenty knights. They cut at each others' shields, which fell to the field in large pieces. They dented each others' helmets and rent each other's hauberks. Thus each made his strength and his passion known to the other. And the great strength and quality of their swords made their armor almost worthless, so that frequently they cut flesh, since nothing remained of their shields to protect themselves.

So much blood flowed that it was amazing they remained standing, but so great was the passion that each carried within him that they hardly felt it. And so they continued in this first battle until the third hour of the day. Neither weakness nor cowardice could be detected in either. Instead they fought with spirit, but the sun heated their armor and made them fatigued.

At this time King Abies stepped back and said:

"Wait and let us straighten our helmets, and if thou wishest, let us rest a bit. Our battle will not be delayed much. And although I would do thee mortal harm, I esteem thee more than any other knight against whom I have fought, though thou shouldst not take my esteem as a wish not to do thee ill, for thou killedst he whom I loved dearly and thou givest me great shame that this battle has lasted so long in front of so many good men."

The Childe of the Sea said:

"King Abies, this gives thee shame, but not having come arrogantly to do so much wrong to he who does not deserve it from thee? Thou shouldst see that men, especially kings, ought not do what they can but what they must, because often it happens that the harm and violence that they wish on those who do not deserve it in the end befalls on themselves and they lose all, even their lives. Now, if thou wishest me to let thee rest, there are others, greatly oppressed, who wish respite from thee, which thou wilt not grant, and because thou feelst what thou hast made them suffer, prepare thyself, for thou shalt not rest with my permission."

The King took up his sword and what little remained of his shield and said:

"This passion ill behooves thee, for it puts thee into a danger from which thou shalt not leave without losing thy head."

"Now use thy might," said the Childe of the Sea, "for thou shalt not rest until thy death comes to thee or thy honor is finished."

And they attacked with more wrath than before, and so bravely that it seemed that the battle had begun at that moment and they had not struck a blow earlier that day. King Abies, who was very skilled in the use of arms, fought wisely, protecting himself from blows and attacking where he could do the most harm. The Childe moved and attacked with amazing speed and struck so hard that everything the King knew seemed wrong. In spite of himself, things were going badly, and he began losing ground.

The Childe of the Sea had just destroyed the shield on his arm, and nothing remained of it, and had cut to the flesh in many places. The King's blood flowed freely. He could no longer attack, and his sword twisted in his hand. He was so afflicted that he almost turned his back to the Childe as he searched for a place of refuge in fear of his sword, which he felt so cruelly in his flesh.

But when the King saw that he had no choice but death, he turned, took his sword in both hands, and ran at the Childe, meaning to strike the top of his helmet. The Childe lifted up his shield, which took the blow, and the blade sunk so deep that it could not be withdrawn. As the King pulled back, he exposed his left leg, and the Childe of the Sea struck such that his leg was cut in half.

The King fell onto the field. The Childe came at him, pulled off his helmet and said:

"Thou art dead, King Abies, if thou dost not surrender."

He said:

"Truly I am dead, but not vanquished. Instead I believe that my arrogance killed me. I beg thee to pledge that my war party will suffer no harm and may take me to my homeland. I forgive thee and those whom I wished to harm, and I order returned to King Perion all that I took from him. I beg thee to let me make confession, for I am dead."

The Childe of the Sea, when he heard this, felt great and amazing sorrow for him, but he knew well that the King would not have sorrow for him if he had won.

Once all this had happened, as ye have heard, the invaders and the townspeople came together, since the safety of all was assured. King Abies ordered that everything he had taken from King Perion be returned, and King Perion pledged to him that all his troops would be secure until they had taken him to his lands. Then, having received all the sacraments of the Holy Church, King Abies's soul left him. His vassals, with great lamentations, took his body back to his lands.

King Perion and Agrajes and other outstanding men in his court took the Childe of the Sea from the battlefield with the kind of glory that the victors of such deeds usually earn, not only for the honor but for the restoration a kingdom to someone who has lost it, and they went with him to the town.

The damsel of Denmark, who had come on behalf of Oriana, as I have told you, arrived there just as the battle had began, and she saw it end in his great honor. She approached him and said:

"Childe of the Sea, speak with me privately, for I must tell you of your lineage, more than ye know now."

He received her well and rode with her through the fields. The damsel told him:

"Oriana, your beloved, sent me to give you this letter on which your name is written."

He took the letter, but he understood nothing of what it said, so altered was he when he heard the name of his lady mentioned. The letter fell from his hand, and the reins of the horse, and he was left senseless. The damsel asked one of the people who had watched the battle to give the letter to her, and returned to him. Everyone was watching what happened and marveling at the way the news she brought had disturbed the Childe. When she returned to him, she said:

"What is this, my lord? Do ye receive so poorly a message from the most noble damsel in the world, she who loves you dearly and who made me suffer so much effort to find you?"

"My dear," he said, "I did not understand what ye had said to me with this illness that I suffered, just as I have suffered it before you earlier."

The damsel said:

"My lord, ye need not hide anything from me, for I know more about your situation and about that of my lady than ye know. She wished me to know it, and I tell you that if ye love her, do not act half-blind, for she loves you so much that it cannot be easily told. Know that they have taken her to the house of her father. She sent me to tell you that when ye leave this war, go to Great Britain and seek to dwell with her father as long as she commands. She said to tell you that she knows that ye are son of a king, which makes her no less happy than you, and since even not knowing your lineage ye were so noble, now strive to be even better."

Then she gave him the letter, and said:

"See here this letter in which your name is written. Ye wore this around your neck when ye were launched into the sea."

He took it and said:

"Why, letter, how well thou wert kept by that lady who is my heart, by she for whom I have many times come to the point of death. But if I suffered pain and anguish for her, I am satisfied by an even greater joy. Oh, God, my Lord, when shall I see the time to serve that lady and repay this favor she has done me?"

He read the letter and learned that his true name was Amadis. The damsel told him:

"My lord, I wish to return to my lady, for I have executed her orders."

"Oh, damsel," said the Childe of the Sea, "by God, rest here for three days, and do not leave my side for any reason, then I will take you wherever ye please."

"I came to you," the damsel said, "and I will do nothing other than what ye command."

When they were done speaking, the Childe of the Sea went to the King and Agrajes, who were waiting for him, and they entered the village. Everyone sang:

"Come, good knight, and welcome!
Through you we have regained
our honor and our joy!"

And so they went to the palace, where in the Childe of the Sea's rooms they found the Queen waiting with all her ladies and damsels, in great merriment. The women raised their arms to take him from his horse, and the hands of the Queen removed his armor. Doctors came to treat his wounds, which were many, but none caused him great distress. The King wanted him and Agrajes to dine with him, but the Childe would only do it with his damsel to do her honor, for he realized she could remedy much of his anguish.

So he spent those days resting in great pleasure, especially because of the good news that had come to him. Neither the troubles of the past nor the injuries of the present could keep him from arising and walking through the halls with the damsel, always conversing, for he was having her wait until he could take up arms and leave with her.

But at that time an extraordinary event befell him that made him remain for some days longer while the damsel left from there alone, as ye shall now hear.
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Gothic Romance Novel of Chivalry - a few definitions

[Tristan and Isolde with the Potion, by John William Waterhouse, 1916. Waterhouse (1849-1917) belonged to the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The knight Tristan and Princess Isolde shared a love potion, which led to tragedy.]

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Over time, the meanings of words can shift. Here are some words to watch out for:

Chivalry

Amadis would have understood that word in its most basic sense: an armed group of men on horseback. (It has the same roots as cavalry: "horse," cheval in French.) He also would have understood the term to encompass the rank and sacred responsibility that he assumed when he became a knight (caballero in Spanish), since in his day, as trained and well-armed soldiers, knights enjoyed both great esteem and great power.

Over time, as knighthood became more ceremonial, the term lost its lethal-weapons element and centered more on rank and honor, as well as on social elements such as courtesy, honor, and gallantry toward women.

These days, the meaning of chivalry sometimes settles on that last element: gallantry toward women. A chivalric man opens doors for them, pulls out their chairs, and such. Amadis might have been perplexed by that. He had servants to do those sorts of things.

Romance

Amadis of Gaul is a romance: It is a medieval popular fictional work of poetry or prose about chivalric heroism written in a vernacular, romance language such as French or Spanish rather than in Latin. These stories often include a love story as well as adventures and bloody battles. The tales of the King Arthur cycles were important medieval romances, inspiring medieval authors like Créchien de Troyes. Amadis, Tristan, Isolde, Merlin, the quest for the Holy Grail, the Knights of the Round Table, Lancelot, Guinevere, and Percival are elements of Arthurian literature.

As the centuries moved on, romance came to mean simply "novel," a work of book-length fiction.

These days, in English, romance refers almost exclusively to love and emotional attachment. According to the Romance Writers of America, "two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending." Happy endings are not guaranteed in medieval romances.

The term romanticism refers to the artistic, literary, and intellectual movement in the second half of the 18th century in western Europe that stressed emotion rather than rationalism, and sometimes reached back to medieval romances and art for pre-industrial and pre-neoclassic "authentic" elements. Tales of King Arthur and his Round Table (though not the tales of Amadis) were revived by writers like Alfred Lord Tennyson, whose re-imaginations of the legends mark our Arthurian imagery to this day, as seen in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The romantic movement included the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painters; the name Pre-Raphaelite refers to the Renaissance Italian painter Raphael (1483-1520).

Romanesque is a style of European architecture from the 11th and 12th centuries that contained Roman and Byzantine elements, such as barrel vaults.

Gothic

This architectural style flourished in Europe from 12th to 15th centuries and can be easily distinguished by its pointed arches, distinct from Roman and Greek styles. But gothic can also mean "medieval." The first Goths were Germanic tribes who settled much of Europe after the fall of the Roman empire.

The 1765 novel by Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic Story, added the notion of terror and gloom to the definition of medieval, and soon gothic romances sprang up, which were a type of horror story, including Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula. These days, urban goths favor vampiric aesthetics.

Novel

The word novel as a name for a kind of book-length narrative comes from the Italian word novella, or "piece of news," since these books recount events, albeit fictional.
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Chapter 8 [final half]

[The Battle of Hastings, from the Bayeux Tapestry.]

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When morning came, King Perion and his wife went to see what the Childe of the Sea was doing. When they found him, he had risen and washed his hands. They saw that his eyes were red and his cheeks wet with tears, and he seemed to have slept very little during the night. In fact, that was so, for he had remembered his beloved and had thought of the distress that had come to him due to her, and that nothing besides death awaited him.

The Queen called Gandalin and said to him:

"My friend, what happened to your lord? It seems to me, looking at his face, that he is very sad. Is it for something here that has made him discontent?"

"My lady," he said, "he has been received here with great honor and favors, but he has the custom of weeping in his sleep, and that is what ye see now in his appearance."

And while they were speaking, people in the town saw many well-armed enemies nearby, and they shouted:

"To arms! To arms!"

The Childe of the Sea, who noticed the alarm, was very happy, and the King said:

"Good friend, our enemies are here."

The Childe said:

"Let us arm ourselves and go see them."

The King asked for his armor and the Childe his, and when they were armed and mounted, they went to the gate of the town. There they found Agrajes greatly vexed because no one would open it, since he was one of the world's most heart-strong knights and most eager to attack in every battle. If his strength had served him as well as his spirit, no other knight would have surpassed him in feats of arms.

As they had arrived, the Childe of the Sea said:

"My lord, order them to open the gate for us."

The King, who was no less pleased to fight, ordered it opened, and all the knights left. When they saw how many their enemies were, there were some who said that it would be madness to attack them.

Agrajes spurred his horse, saying:

"Now let there be bad fortune for whoever holds back!"

As he charged, he saw the Childe of the Sea go forward, and all followed him as one. Daganel and Galain, who saw them coming, prepared to receive them and do them harm.

The Childe of the Sea attacked Galain, who was coming toward him, and hit him so bravely that Galain and his horse were knocked to the ground and his leg was broken. The Childe had broken his lance, so he immediately put his hand on his sword and charged the opposition like an enraged lion, giving wondrous blows in all directions. Everyone who came before his sword was knocked to the ground, some killed and others injured. But so many attacked him that his horse could not move forward, and he was in grave danger.

Agrajes saw it and arrived with some of his men, and they caused great injury to their opponents. King Perion arrived with all his knights, brave and eager to take the offensive. Daganel and his forces received him with spirit. And so both sides joined together.

There ye would have seen the Childe of the Sea do amazing things, defeating and killing all those who he found before him, and no man dared to attack him. He came at the enemy, making them run, for he seemed like a brave lion. When Agrajes saw this, he became even more filled with ardor, and shouted to encourage his men:

"Knights, see the best and bravest knight that ever was born!"

When Daganel saw how he was destroying his men, like a good knight he went at the Childe of the Sea and tried to injure his horse so that the Childe would fall among Daganel's men, but he failed. The Childe gave him such a blow on the top of his helmet that its straps were snapped and it flew from his head. King Perion, who arrived to help the Childe of the Sea, struck Daganel with his sword and caused such a wound that it cleaved his head down to his teeth.

Thus they defeated the troops of Daganel and of Normandy, who fled to where King Abies waited, and many said:

"Alas, King Abies, why have you waited so long while they killed us?"

And so as King Perion and his troops continued their attack against their enemy, very soon King Abies of Ireland appeared with all his troops, who came saying:

"Have at them! Let no man live, and let us fight to enter into the town with them."

When King Perion and his men to their surprise saw those troops, who they had not known were there, many were frightened, for they were already tired, they had no lances, and they knew that King Abies was one of the best knights of the world and the one they most feared. But the Childe of the Sea began to shout:

"Now, my lords, we must keep our honor. Now we shall see who will disgrace himself!"

They had been spread out, but he made them regroup. The Irishmen came at them so bravely it was wonder to behold, because they came well-rested and with their hearts ready to do harm. King Abies left no knight in his saddle for as long as his lance lasted, and when he lost it, he put his hand on his sword and began to attack with it so fiercely that his enemies took fear. His men were at his side, and they injured and brought down so many of their opponents that King Perion's men could suffer no more losses, and they retreated toward the town.

When the Childe of the Sea saw that things were going badly, he began to attack with more rage than ever, so that the troops on his side would not retreat in disorder. He entered the fray between the two forces, injuring and killing the Irish to give his own side space so they would not turn around and expose their backs. Agrajes and King Perion, who saw him in such danger and fighting so well, remained always at his side. Thus those three offered protection to their men and kept the enemy engaged. King Abies ordered his men to advance, for he had spotted victory. If they could enter the town, he believed the war would be concluded.

So with haste, as ye now hear, they arrived at the gates of the town, where if it had not been for those three knights, the Irish troops would have entered with Perion's force. And these three had suffered so many blows and had given so many that it was a wonder they had been able to endure.

King Abies thought his men were among Perion's, but as he moved ahead he saw they were not, and he felt great grief at that and even more to learn that Daganel and Galain were dead. One of his knights drew near and said:

"My lord, do ye see that knight on the white horse? He does nothing but amazing feats, and he has killed your captains and many others."

He was referring to the Childe of the Sea, who rode on Galpano's white horse. King Abies approached him and said:

"Knight, by your doing, the man I loved most in the world is dead, and I will make you pay dearly if ye are willing to keep fighting."

"Now is not the time for me to fight with you," said the Childe of the Sea, "for ye have many well-rested men, and we few and very tired. It would be a miracle if we could defend ourselves. But if ye wish as ye say to avenge yourself as a knight and to show the great courage for which ye are praised, chose from your men those whom ye prefer and I shall do it among mine. Being equal, ye can win more honor than ye could by overcoming us by numbers and by the arrogance of coming for no reason to take that which is not yours."

"Then," King Abies said, "tell me how many ye wish to be in the battle."

"Since ye leave it to me," the Childe said, "I propose another deal that ye may find more agreeable. Ye hold great ire against me for what I have done, and I against you for what ye have done in this land. There is no reason for anyone else to suffer on our account. Let it be a battle between me and you, right now, if ye wish, provided your men and ours give assurance to do nothing until it is finished."

"So be it," King Abies said.

He called forward ten knights, the best he had, and with ten that the Childe of the Sea called, they guaranteed that no matter what happened in the field, no one would interfere. King Perion and Agrajes proposed that the battle not occur until the next morning, for they saw that the Childe was injured. But they could not dissuade him, for he desired the battle more than any other thing. This was for two reasons: one, to test himself against the man praised as the best knight in the world; and the other, because if he defeated him, the war would be over, and he could go to see his lady Oriana, for in her was all his heart and desire.
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Why kings hunt so often

[From the facade Palace of Charles V, begun in 1526 and never completed, in the Alhambra, Granada, Spain. Photo by Cindy Van Vreede]

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As ye have heard, kings, princes, and knights often go out hunting. This was not just to put meat on the table. Noccoló Machiavelli, in his 1514 book The Prince, explains why they should hunt, and it tells us something key about their role:

"Chapter XIV. How a prince should organize his militia

"A prince, therefore, must have no other object or thought, nor acquire skill in anything, except war, its organization, and its discipline. The art of war is all that is expected of a ruler....

"So he must never let his thoughts stray from military exercises, which he must pursue more vigorously in peace than in war. These exercises can be both physical and mental. As for the first, besides always keeping his men well organized and trained, he must always be out hunting, so accustoming his body to hardships and also learning some practical geography: how the mountains slope, how the valleys open, how the plains spread out. He must study rivers and marshes; and in all this he should take great pains.

"Such knowledge is useful in two ways: First, if he obtains a better understanding of local geography he will have a better understanding of how to organize his defence; and in addition his knowledge of and acquaintance with local conditions will make it easy for him to grasp the features of any new locality with which he may need to familiarize himself.

"For example, the hills and valleys, the plains, the rivers, and the marshes of Tuscany have certain features in common with those of other provinces; so with a knowledge of the geography of one particular province one can easily acquire knowledge of the geography of others. The prince who lacks this knowledge also lacks the first qualification of a good commander. This kind of ability teaches him how to locate the enemy, where to take up quarters, how to lead his army on the march and draw it up for battle, and lay siege to a town to the best advantage...."

— translation by George Bull, available as a Penguin Classics book

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