The Buried Giant

Gawain finds himself on a mountain path confronted by “dark widows” (203). He says that they were all once youthful and pretty. Speaking to his horse, Horace, he remembers a young girl toward whom he felt affection.

He remembers, too, how Horace woke him up, after only an hour of sleep, that morning, as if the horse knew that some issue awaited them. After they began their travels, they saw an old monk running to Lord Brennus to relay the news that Master Wistan had escaped and killed Brennus’ men. Gawain remembers the skill of Wistan, though he “might have seen a small weakness of his left side” (205).

He remembers, too, how the dark widows crossed his path after that—how he thought at first that they were birds, but saw that “they were no birds, but old women in flapping cloaks” (206). They confronted Gawain and Horace on the path. They laughed at him and taunted him. When he asked them why they tormented him like this, they replied, “Had you done your duty long ago and slain the she-dragon, we’d not be wandering distressed this way” (207). They explained that Querig the dragon is responsible for the boatman taking their husbands away and leaving the tormented here—that it was Querig’s breath that robbed them of their memories and, thus, of their husbands, when the boatman questioned them.