Le Morte d’Arthur: Book 16 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 1 Meanwhile Gawaine rides along without finding any adventure. Then he meets Ector de Maris, who is also bored. They ride together and come across an old chapel, where they pray. They fall asleep. Gawaine dreams he comes to a meadow full of flowers, where a rack of black bulls—except for three white, one of which has a black spot—are tied. Some black ones go to seek better pasture, but many grow so thin that they cannot keep upright.

Chapter 2 Ector de Maris, meanwhile, dreams that he and his brother Launcelot are riding, and a man beats Launcelot and drags him to a well. Launcelot stops to drink, but the water sinks from him. He and Ector then go to a rich man’s house, where they are told there is no space for them. When the two knights wake up, they tell each other of their dreams and marvel. As they’re talking, they see a hand covered with red silk holding a great candle: it enters the chapel and then vanishes. They hear a voice saying that they are of poor faith, and have failed, so they will not be able to achieve the Sangreal.

They depart to a valley, where a squire tells them they can find Nacien the hermit, a holy man, on a nearby mountain. They meet with an armed knight who offers to joust with Gawaine, and Gawaine strikes him down and orders him to yield. The knight says he will die anyway from his wounds, so he asks Gawaine to take him to an abbey. He says he is Uwaine les Avoutres, son of Uriens, and he was questing after the Sangreal. Gawaine realizes this is his brother.

Chapter 3 Gawaine cries out in sorrow. Uwaine asks him to recommend himself to Arthur and the court. Gawaine and Ector de Maris begin to weep as Uwaine dies. They bury him, and then depart, their hearts heavy. They come to Nacien, and say they must confess their dreams. The hermit tells Gawaine that the meadow is the Round Table, founded for humility and patience. But most of the knights are blackened by sin and wickedness: only Galahad and Percivale, as virgins, are white, and Sir Bors de Ganis only broke his chastity once.

Chapter 4 Then Nacien tells Ector de Maris that he and Launcelot both go in search of what they will never find. Launcelot falling off his horse means that he has left pride for humility. The well signifies the high grace of God, which Launcelot still cannot fully receive. Nacien also says that the hand with the candle signifies the Holy Ghost, whose clearness and sight shows the right way of Jesus Christ. The voice meant that the two knights cannot achieve the Sangreal.

Chapter 5 Gawaine asks why they have not met with many adventures: Nacien says that they have been too great of sinners. Launcelot, he says, will die a holy man, since he has not murdered anyone since repenting. Gawaine and Ector de Maris depart, and ride without meeting adventure.

Chapter 6 Bors de Ganis, meanwhile, has met with a religious man since departing from Camelot. They ride to a hermitage. Bors confesses and they eat. The man tells him to eat none other than bread or water until sitting at the table where the Sangreal will be, and Bors agrees. The man gives him a scarlet coat to wear until fulfilling the quest of the Sangreal. Bors departs and sees a great bird on an old, dry tree, with young chicks dying for hunger below. The bird kills itself with its own beak, and its blood gives life to the young birds.

Chapter 7 Sir Bors goes to a high tower where a lovely young lady tries to feed him richly, but Bors eats only bread. Then a squire arrives and says that the lady must find a champion, for her sister will take her castle unless she finds a knight to fight against Pridam le Noire the next day. The lady tells Bors that a king Aniause used to live here, and he loved a woman who had evil customs, putting to death many of his relatives. He later chased her out of the castle and married herself (the lady telling the story), but now the first lady is fighting to have it back. Bors offers to fight for the lady.

Chapter 8 When Sir Bors falls asleep, he sees a vision of two swans, one white and one black. The white bird asks him for meat and says that if he serves her she’ll give him all the riches of the world. The black bird tells him to serve her instead, for blackness suits him better. In another vision, Bors goes to a chapel and sees a worm-eaten tree on his left, and on the right two flowers. He hears a man say that these flowers should not perish to save a rotten tree.

Sir Bors wakes up and greets the lady. A company of knights arrives to lead Bors to battle. Bors meets the rival knight Pridam, and they fight, each wounding the other. Then they fall to earth and fight on foot. Finally Bors strikes Pridam’s helmet off and cries that he must yield, or he’ll kill him. Pridam asks for mercy, and the enemy lady flees with her knights.

Chapter 9 Sir Bors reinstates peace in the land, and the lady thanks Bors greatly, but he refuses all her riches. He departs and rides to a forest, where at a crossroads he sees two knights leading his brother Lionel, naked and bound to a horse. Bors prepares to save him, but then sees a knight leading a fair lady into the thicket, and she cries for him to defend her honor. Bors is torn, and asks God to forgive him for choosing the lady over his brother.

Chapter 10 Sir Bors fights the knight and strikes him to the earth, where he faints. The knight is her cousin, the lady says, and took her from her father. Twelve knights arrive and she tells them how Bors has saved her. They praise him and invite him to their castle, but Bors has to ride after Lionel. He comes across a religious man, and asks him if he’s seen a wounded, bound man. The man says that he is dead, pointing to a slain body in a bush, who indeed looks like Lionel. Bors falls down in grief and takes the body into his arms. He carries it to a chapel with a tomb.

Chapter 11 At the chapel Sir Bors tells the priest about his dream. The priest says that the white swan signifies a lady who loves Bors, and if he doesn’t return her love she’ll soon die. But if he goes to her then his cousin, Launcelot, will die. He must choose one or the other. The priest leads Bors into a high tower, where ladies and knights give him a fur mantle and celebrate with him so much that he forgets Lionel and Launcelot. A fair lady comes to him and they all say she loves Bors more than anyone in the world. They sit down and speak of many things, but Bors is troubled, and refuses to break his chastity.

Chapter 12 Sir Bors refuses to sleep with the lady, who is in great grief. She says she will die for his love. She goes up to a high battlement, and one of the ladies cries that the lady and all her maidens must jump off the tower and die if he doesn’t change his mind. Bors, distraught, makes the sign of the cross. Suddenly he hears a great noise and cry, and the tower and ladies all disappear. He holds up his hands to heaven and thanks God for his escape.

Sir Bors goes to an abbey, where he is led to the abbot in a chapel. Bors tells him of his adventure, and the abbot says he’ll counsel him the next day.

Chapter 13 In the morning, the abbot says that Jesus gave Sir Bors a sign of himself in King Aniause and the lady he fought for. Bors battled for good and against evil in the form of the jealous lady. What seemed to be a holy man (the priest who pointed at Lionel’s body) was actually a fiend, who lied in saying that Lionel was killed, so that Bors might lose faith. Referring to an earlier dream, the abbot says that the two flowers signify two virgins, one the wounded knight and one the lady Bors rescued: the wounded knight would have “deflowered” the lady.

Chapter 14 Sir Bors leaves the abbot and rides to a castle in a valley, where he meets a farmer who tells him there will be a great joust here. Bors goes to a hermitage, and there finds his brother Lionel, and is thrilled to see him. Lionel is furious, though, saying that Bors left him to die. Bors asks for mercy, but Lionel says he will kill him for being such a traitor—he refuses to have mercy. He strikes Bors off his horse, and, possessed by the devil, is about to strike off his head, when an old hermit runs forward and puts himself in the way.

Chapter 15 The hermit asks Lionel to have mercy on his brother. Lionel warns him to get back, but the hermit refuses, and Lionel kills the hermit. Again he’s about to kill Sir Bors when a knight of the Round Table, Colgrevance, arrives and grabs Lionel by the shoulders, begging him to stop. When he won’t, they begin to fight. Bors, wounded, watches them in horror, and once he regains his strength, he arises.

Chapter 16 Colgrevance cries to Sir Bors that he only wants to die for the sake of a worthy man. Lionel knocks off Colgrevance’s helmet, and Colgrevance begins to pray to God. Lionel strikes him down dead, then races after his brother. Weeping, Bors draws his sword, saying that Lionel is evil to have killed two good men in trying to kill his own brother. Bors asks for God’s mercy, and lifts his sword.

Chapter 17 Sir Bors then hears a voice telling him to flee rather than kill Lionel. A marvelous light appears, and the two brothers fall to the ground in a swoon. Then Bors hears a voice telling him to go to the sea to meet Percivale. Bors asks his brother to forgive him, and Lionel does. Bors departs and rests at an abbey. A voice in the night tells him to go to the sea: there he finds a ship, enters it, and it races across the water. He falls asleep, and when he awakens he sees Percivale on the ship deck. They embrace, and Bors tells him all that’s happened.