Abstract: Mule without bridle
So, the story begins: to the court of the legendary King Arthur, where the brave and noble knights are assembled, is a girl on a mule. The beauty goes “without any bridle” and weeps bitterly. Noble ladies and knights send seneschal Kay to find out what’s wrong. Soon Kay comes back and reports: the girl is sad that her mule does not have a reins, and she is looking for a brave knight who will agree to find this bridle and return it. And if she finds one and fulfills her request, she is ready to become his obedient wife.
Admired by the beauty of the lady, Kay asks to allow him to perform this feat. Ready to go for a bridle to the end of the world, Kay wants to get a kiss from the lady before the road. However, she refuses to him: before the bridle, and then – a kiss. Without losing more precious time, Kay sits on the mule, and he confidently scares the familiar road. Soon the mule turns into a forest full of lions, leopards and tigers; with a loud roar, the
The forest is over, the mule has left on a plain, and Kay has cheered up. However, he does not rejoice for long: the mule enters the gorge, where “snakes, tarantulas and spiders” swish at the bottom, whose stinking, fetid breathing, swirling like black smoke, so frightens Kay that he is terrified ready to return to the forest to the wild beasts. Finally, and this obstacle is behind, now Kay waits for a violent stream, to cross through which can only be along the bridge. The seneschal can not stand it and turns back; thanks to the mule he passes unscathed all the creeps and beast and finally arrives at the Arthur’s palace.
Learning that he did not bring the reins, the girl in the grief tears her hair. Touched by her sorrow, Knight Gauvin asks him to allow him to bring her a bridle. Hearing his words,
The mule carries Gauvin with the same paths as Kay. Seeing a friend mule and his rider, brave Goven, the animals run out to meet them. Gowen realizes that, frightened by the beast, Kay broke the word given to the lady. Goven himself fearlessly rushes on and with a smile on his lips passes the gorge of horror, and stench, at the bottom of which the reptiles swarm.
On the narrow plank, the knight fearlessly crosses the bubbling stream and approaches the castle, rotating like a mill wheel. The castle is surrounded by a deep moat with water, around the moat is a palisade, decorated with human heads; one pole of this terrible fence is still free. But the knight is not shy of soul. Having entered the bridge, Goven bravely rushes forward and penetrates into the castle at the cost of only half of the tail of the mule, which “remained suspended at the gate.” The place is empty and quiet. In the courtyard he is met by a silent dwarf; Following him, Goven faces a huge hairy villan with an ax on his neck. Villan warns the knight that it will not be easy to get to the coveted bridle; but this caution only ignites the courage of the hero. Then the villain bustles about the knight, takes him into the house, serves dinner, heals the bed, and before going to sleep offers the game: first Gowen cuts his head, and then he – Goven. The knight agrees, cuts off the villan’s head, he takes it under his arm and leaves, promising to come tomorrow behind Goven’s head.
In the morning, true to his word, Goven puts his head on the block. But it turns out that the shaggy giant wanted only to frighten him. A terrible villain becomes a faithful servant of a knight and equips him for a fight with ferocious lions. Predators beat seven shields, but still the knight defeats them. Goven is ready to get a bridle, but this is only the first test. When the knight had rested and changed his armor, the villain led him into the hall, where the wounded knight lay. As usual, this knight fights with anyone who comes to the castle for a bridle. The knight defeats the alien, cuts off his head and puts it on the count near the ditch. If the alien conquers the knight, he will have to cut off his head and take his place. Goven, of course, defeats the knight of the castle, but generously keeps his head on his shoulders. Now the shaggy villain will bring him a bridle, thinks Goven. But Arturov knight is waiting for a new test: Villan leads him two fire-breathing snakes. A powerful blow Goven cuts off both heads of the head.
Then to Goven is the former dwarf and on behalf of her mistress invites the knight to share a meal with her. Gauvin accepts the invitation, but, not trusting the dwarf, requires that he is accompanied by a faithful villain. Following his escort, the knight comes to a beautiful lady. Delighted with his courage, the lady invites Goven to the table. Villan and the dwarf serve them, the lady cordially treats the hero. When the meal is over and the servants take away the water for washing their hands, Gowen asks the lady to give him a bridle. In response, she claims that he fought for her sister, and therefore she is ready to give him all of himself, so that he became master of both her and her fifty locks. But the knight politely responds that “about what happened, the lime” is obliged by him “to bring the king to the king”, and therefore he must immediately start off on his way back. Then the lady points to a silver nail, where the precious bridle hangs. Goven removes the bridle, says goodbye to the lady, and Villan leads him a mule. The lady asks the villan to stop the rotation of the castle, so that the knight can easily leave his walls, and he willingly fulfills her request,
Going past the gate, Gowen looks with astonishment at the jubilant crowd: when he entered the castle, there was not a soul in him. Villan explains to him: before all these people were hiding in a cave, because they were afraid of wild animals. Only those who porhrebrey, sometimes went to work. Now, when Gowen killed all the predators, they rejoice in the light, and there is no limit to their merriment. Speech villana – a great joy for Goven.
Here the mule again runs across the narrow board, turns into a stinking canyon, enters a dense forest, where all the animals again jump out to meet him – to kneel before the valiant knight. But Goven is not at leisure – he rushes to the castle of Arthur.
Goven drives into the meadow in front of the castle, from the windows he notices the queen and her retinue. Everyone rushes towards the brave knight, and the most rejoicing is the visiting lady: she knows that Gauvin brought her a bridle. Having awarded the knight a kiss, she thanks him for the feat. “And then Gauvin told her adventure without embarrassment”: about the forest, about the violent stream, about the wonderful palace, about the dwarf and about the villanas, about how the lions are killed, how the famous knight is defeated, how two snakes are struck at once, about the meal and conversation with her sister, about the rejoicing of the people in the castle.
After hearing the story of Gauvin, the lady asks to allow her to retire, although everyone, including the king himself, persuades her to stay and choose her master among the knights of the Round Table. But the lady stands on her own: she is not free to stay, however she wants it. Having settled on the mule, she, having refused from escorts, jumps back into the forest. On this story, “about the girl on the mule, who suddenly left the palace, here finds its end.”
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