{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart342.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart342.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart342.htm","text":"CHAPTER III\nHow Sir Launcelot fought against a boar and slew him, and\nhow he was hurt, and brought unto an hermitage.\nSO came Sir Launcelot and found the horse bounden till a\ntree, and a spear leaning against a tree, and a sword tied\nto the saddle bow; and then Sir Launcelot leapt into the\nsaddle and gat that spear in his hand, and then he rode\nafter the boar; and then Sir Launcelot was ware where\nthe boar set his arse to a tree fast by an hermitage.\nThen Sir Launcelot ran at the boar with his spear, and\ntherewith the boar turned him nimbly, and rove out the\nlungs and the heart of the horse, so that Launcelot fell to\nthe earth; and, or ever Sir Launcelot might get from the\nhorse, the boar rove him on the brawn of the thigh up to\nthe hough bone. And then Sir Launcelot was wroth, and\nup he gat upon his feet, and drew his sword, and he smote\noff the boar's head at one stroke. And therewithal came\nout the hermit, and saw him have such a wound. Then\nthe hermit came to Sir Launcelot and bemoaned him, and\nwould have had him home unto his hermitage; but when\nSir Launcelot heard him speak, he was so wroth with his\nwound that he ran upon the hermit to have slain him,\nand the hermit ran away. And when Sir Launcelot might\nnot overget him, he threw his sword after him, for Sir\nLauncelot might go no further for bleeding; then the\nhermit turned again, and asked Sir Launcelot how he was\nhurt. Fellow, said Sir Launcelot, this boar hath bitten\nme sore. Then come with me, said the hermit, and I\nshall heal you. Go thy way, said Sir Launcelot, and deal\nnot with me.\nThen the hermit ran his way, and there he met with a\ngood knight with many men. Sir, said the hermit, here\nis fast by my place the goodliest man that ever I saw, and\nhe is sore wounded with a boar, and yet he hath slain the\nboar. But well I wot, said the hermit, and he be not\nholpen, that goodly man shall die of that wound, and that\nwere great pity. Then that knight at the desire of the\nhermit gat a cart, and in that cart that knight put the boar\nand Sir Launcelot, for Sir Launcelot was so feeble that\nthey might right easily deal with him; and so Sir Launcelot\nwas brought unto the hermitage, and there the hermit\nhealed him of his wound. But the hermit might not find\nSir Launcelot's sustenance, and so he impaired and waxed\nfeeble, both of his body and of his wit: for the default of\nhis sustenance he waxed more wooder than he was aforehand.\nAnd then upon a day Sir Launcelot ran his way into\nthe forest; and by adventure he came to the city of\nCorbin, where Dame Elaine was, that bare Galahad, Sir\nLauncelot's son. And so when he was entered into the\ntown he ran through the town to the castle; and then all\nthe young men of that city ran after Sir Launcelot, and\nthere they threw turves at him, and gave him many sad\nstrokes. And ever as Sir Launcelot might overreach any\nof them, he threw them so that they would never come in\nhis hands no more; for of some he brake the legs and\nthe arms, and so fled into the castle; and then came out\nknights and squires and rescued Sir Launcelot. And\nwhen they beheld him and looked upon his person, they\nthought they saw never so goodly a man. And when\nthey saw so many wounds upon him, all they deemed that\nhe had been a man of worship. And then they ordained\nhim clothes to his body, and straw underneath him, and a\nlittle house. And then every day they would throw him\nmeat, and set him drink, but there was but few would\nbring him meat to his hands.","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK XII CHAPTER III","type":"page"}