Welcome to day three of Legendary Love Week at White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings. Today’s post is about the Knight Gawain and his wife, Ragnelle! Ragnelle falls into the Loathly Lady category as she enters the story by appearing as an old woman. The Loathly Lady is often literally described as a hag or ‘Demoiselle Hideuse’ in the French Romances.
The love story between Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle all started when a Knight of mystical (likely Faery) origins posed a question to King Arthur. The Knight asked Arthur ‘What is it that a woman most desires?’ This question was posed as a riddle that if not solved would have dire consequences. In fact, this circumstance holds a lot of resemblance to Gawain’s own testing by the Green Knight because Arthur encountered this Faery Knight alone in a Forest when separated from his hunting party, and he was told that he must return with the answer to the question in a year’s time, or be beheaded!
Gawain is the one capable of getting Arthur to confess what had happened, and ever the loving nephew and Knight, he immediately offers to help Arthur find the answer to this question. Arthur in his distress chose to return to the same Forest and this time met the Loathly Lady Ragnelle, who offered him a solution. She stated that she would give him the answer he sought, under the condition that she could marry Gawain! What was not known at the time was that Ragnelle was the sister of Sir Gromer Somer Joure, the Faery Knight who had posed the riddle to Arthur originally.
Arthur agrees to the terms and Ragnelle tells him that what women most desire is Sovereignty. Women most desire that their free will be respected by the men in their lives! With this answer, Arthur wins his battle with the Faery Knight, and the Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle happens as planned.
It is on the Wedding Night that Gawain, being a very honorable Knight, is set on treating Ragnelle well (even as if she were beautiful), but is astonished to find that in their room at night, she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Ragnelle explained that she was under a curse that could only be broken when a truly Good Knight married her (hence the reason for the riddle and subterfuge with the aid of her brother). She further explained that she could only appear as her true self for half the day, but Gawain got to choose when she would be beautiful. Either he could have a beautiful wife to show off at Court during the day, or a beautiful wife to bed at night, and she would be the Loathly Lady the other time. Gawain asserted that he could not make that choice, as it should be hers alone! This is what fully broke Ragnelle’s curse because she was given her Sovereignty by her new husband, and is now allowed to be her beautiful self always!
Now, this is a gorgeous story and leads to Gawain and Ragnelle’s true love. But I do need to mention that some tellings of this legend state that although Gawain and Ragnelle were blissfully happy, she only lived for five years after their marriage, and Gawain mourned her for the rest of his life! I find this heartbreaking, but also beautiful in a tragic way, as it truly was a love of quality even if it lacked the quantity of time together. Of course, that is one variation, and some tellings do not include it, allowing them to have a happily ever after ending.
I hope you have enjoyed this post about Gawain and Ragnelle. What is your favorite part of their story? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a lovely painting of Gawain and Ragnelle. I found the painting at https://coniunctioblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/gawain-and-the-loathly-damsel.pdf.
LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries
Further Reading
- Sir Gawain Knight of the Goddess by John Matthews
- https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch031.htm (This is a link to read one of the original versions of the poem for free online.)
- https://www.coachmyrna.org/blog/a-true-love-story-sir-gawain-and-ragnell