{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart289.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart289.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart289.htm","text":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK X CHAPTER LII\n \n Sacred Texts\u00a0\n Legends and Sagas\u00a0\n Index\u00a0\n BOOK X\u00a0\n Previous\u00a0\n Next\u00a0\n \n \n CHAPTER LII\n \n How Sir Tristram and La Beale Isoud came unto England,\n and how Sir Launcelot brought them to Joyous Gard.\n \n \n THEN La Beale Isoud and Sir Tristram took their vessel,\n and came by water into this land. And so they were not\n in this land four days but there came a cry of a jousts\n and tournament that King Arthur let make. When Sir\n Tristram heard tell of that tournament he disguised himself,\n and La Beale Isoud, and rode unto that tournament.\n And when he came there he saw many knights joust and\n tourney; and so Sir Tristram dressed him to the range,\n and to make short conclusion, he overthrew fourteen\n knights of the Round Table. When Sir Launcelot saw\n these knights thus overthrown, Sir Launcelot dressed him\n to Sir Tristram. That saw La Beale Isoud how Sir\n Launcelot was come into the field. Then La Beale Isoud\n sent unto Sir Launcelot a ring, and bade him wit that it\n was Sir Tristram de Liones. When Sir Launcelot under\n stood that there was Sir Tristram he was full glad, and\n would not joust. Then Sir Launcelot espied whither Sir\n Tristram yede, and after him he rode; and then either\n made of other great joy. And so Sir Launcelot brought\n Sir Tristram and La Beale Isoud unto Joyous Gard, that\n was his own castle, that he had won with his own hands.\n And there Sir Launcelot put them in to wield for their\n own. And wit ye well that castle was garnished and\n furnished for a king and a queen royal there to have\n sojourned. And Sir Launcelot charged all his people to\n honour them and love them as they would do himself.\n \n So Sir Launcelot departed unto King Arthur; and\n then he told Queen Guenever how he that jousted so well\n at the last tournament was Sir Tristram. And there he\n told her how he had with him La Beale Isoud maugre\n King Mark, and so Queen Guenever told all this unto\n King Arthur. When King Arthur wist that Sir Tristram\n was escaped and come from King Mark, and had brought\n La Beale Isoud with him, then was he passing glad. So\n because of Sir Tristram King Arthur let make a cry,\n that on May Day should be a jousts before the castle of\n Lonazep; and that castle was fast by Joyous Gard. And\n thus Arthur devised, that all the knights of this land, and\n of Cornwall, and of North Wales, should joust against\n all these countries, Ireland, Scotland, and the remnant\n of Wales, and the country of Gore, and Surluse, and of\n Listinoise, and they of Northumberland, and all they that\n held lands of Arthur on this half the sea. When this cry\n was made many knights were glad and many were unglad.\n Sir, said Launcelot unto Arthur, by this cry that ye have\n made ye will put us that be about you in great jeopardy,\n for there be many knights that have great envy to us;\n therefore when we shall meet at the day of jousts there\n will be hard shift among us. As for that, said Arthur,\n I care not; there shall we prove who shall be best of\n his hands. So when Sir Launcelot understood wherefore\n King Arthur made this jousting, then he made such\n purveyance that La Beale Isoud should behold the jousts\n in a secret place that was honest for her estate.\n \n Now turn we unto Sir Tristram and to La Beale Isoud,\n how they made great joy daily together with all manner\n of mirths that they could devise; and every day Sir\n Tristram would go ride a-hunting, for Sir Tristram was\n that time called the best chaser of the world, and the\n noblest blower of an horn of all manner of measures; for\n as books report, of Sir Tristram came all the good terms\n of venery and hunting, and all the sizes and measures of\n blowing of an horn; and of him we had first all the terms\n of hawking, and which were beasts of chase and beasts of\n venery, and which were vermins, and all the blasts that\n long to all manner of games. First to the uncoupling, to\n the seeking, to the rechate, to the flight, to the death, and\n to strake, and many other blasts and terms, that all manner\n of gentlemen have cause to the world's end to praise Sir\n Tristram, and to pray for his soul.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK X CHAPTER LII","type":"page"}