{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart065.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart065.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart065.htm","text":"CHAPTER V\nHow Sir Tor was made knight of the Round Table, and\nhow Bagdemagus was displeased.\nNOW, said King Pellinore, I shall put to you two knights, and ye\nshall choose which is most worthy, that is Sir Bagdemagus, and\nSir Tor, my son. But because Sir Tor is my son I may not praise\nhim, but else, an he were not my son, I durst say that of his age\nthere is not in this land a better knight than he is, nor of\nbetter conditions and loath to do any wrong, and loath to take\nany wrong. By my head, said Arthur, he is a passing good knight\nas any ye spake of this day, that wot I well, said the king; for\nI have seen him proved, but he saith little and he doth much\nmore, for I know none in all this court an he were <109>as well\nborn on his mother's side as he is on your side, that is like him\nof prowess and of might: and therefore I will have him at this\ntime, and leave Sir Bagdemagus till another time. So when they\nwere so chosen by the assent of all the barons, so were there\nfound in their sieges every knights' names that here are\nrehearsed, and so were they set in their sieges; whereof Sir\nBagdemagus was wonderly wroth, that Sir Tor was advanced afore\nhim, and therefore suddenly he departed from the court, and took\nhis squire with him, and rode long in a forest till they came to\na cross, and there alighted and said his prayers devoutly. The\nmeanwhile his squire found written upon the cross, that\nBagdemagus should never return unto the court again, till he had\nwon a knight's body of the Round Table, body for body. So, sir,\nsaid the squire, here I find writing of you, therefore I rede you\nreturn again to the court. That shall I never, said Bagdemagus,\ntill men speak of me great worship, and that I be worthy to be a\nknight of the Round Table. And so he rode forth, and there by\nthe way he found a branch of an holy herb that was the sign of\nthe Sangreal, and no knight found such tokens but he were a good\nliver.\nSo, as Sir Bagdemagus rode to see many adventures, it happed him\nto come to the rock whereas the Lady of the Lake had put Merlin\nunder the stone, and there he heard him make great dole; whereof\nSir Bagdemagus would have holpen him, and went unto the great\nstone, and it was so heavy that an hundred men might not lift it\nup. When Merlin wist he was there, he bade leave his labour, for\nall was in vain, for he might never be holpen but by her that put\nhim there. And so Bagdemagus departed and did many adventures,\nand proved after a full good knight, and came again to the court\nand was made knight of the Round Table. So on the morn there\nfell new tidings and other adventures.\n<110>","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK IV CHAPTER V","type":"page"}