Perceval, the Story of the Grail

Gawain proceeds on his journey but encounters reproaches and betrayals at every step, despite his good intentions. He first comes across a woman mourning a fallen knight—not dead, but grievously wounded. The knight warns him against going farther, saying that no one returns safely from beyond the boundaries of the next territory, which are guarded by a fierce knight. This does not deter Gawain, but he promises to return to tend to the wounded knight if he is able to do so.

Riding on, he encounters a beautiful young woman in a field, but she immediately accosts him upon his approach, taunting him and warning him against treating her with the presumption that knights so often take with maidens:

I’m no maid, silly and naïve

like those whom knights take pleasure bearing

upon their horses’ necks when faring

in search of deeds of chivalry!

You won’t go riding off with me! (6706-10).

Gawain is nonetheless bound by the chivalric rule that requires him to comply with a maiden’s requests, and she asks that he retrieve her palfrey, a riding-horse that was left staked some distance away. As he goes to untether the palfrey, Gawain is warned against doing so, both by a series of onlookers and a large knight, all of whom tell him that the young woman is an evil maiden and that terrible things will befall him if he brings her the horse.