Gareth and Gawaine Reunite when a fierce, mistaken combat between the brothers is interrupted by Linet’s recognition of them. Their reunion replaces the contest’s uncertain outcome with kinship and public reconciliation: the brothers embrace, King Arthur and their mother respond with overwhelming joy, and the court remains with them for eight days while they recover.

The Fight and the Recognition

After Gareth has parted from the duke he defeated, he stands alone and sees an armed knight approaching. Gareth takes the duke’s shield, mounts, and meets the stranger without exchanging words. They charge at one another, and the combat continues on foot with swords for two hours. Neither fighter initially recognizes the other; each is committed to the encounter before its meaning becomes clear.

Linet arrives riding a mule and calls to the approaching knight, identifying him as Gawaine and telling him to stop fighting his brother. The recognition changes the course of the scene at once. Gawaine throws away both shield and sword, runs to Gareth, embraces him, and asks his forgiveness. Gareth, who had just faced him as an opponent, removes his helmet, kneels, and asks forgiveness in turn.

Reconciliation Between Brothers

Once they know each other, the brothers rise and embrace again, weeping before they can speak. Each gives the other the prize of the battle, refusing to claim victory over his brother. Their exchange turns the contest’s measure of prowess into a gesture of mutual honor: Gawaine acknowledges Gareth’s achievements even apart from their kinship, saying Gareth has brought great honor to King Arthur and his court through the knights he has sent there.

Linet, also called the damsel Savage, tends the brothers’ wounds and helps bring the immediate consequences of the fight to an end. The encounter had put both brothers in danger; recognition restores their relationship, while her care allows them to recover together rather than remain divided by the accidental combat.

King Arthur and the Family Gather

Gawaine asks Linet to carry news of the reunion to King Arthur, who is only two miles away. Arthur rides to the brothers with the court following in haste. When he reaches the hillside where Gareth and Gawaine are sitting, he is so overcome with gladness that he cannot speak and falls from his horse in a swoon. The brothers hurry to him and comfort him.

Their mother, Morgause, arrives as well. Seeing Gareth’s face, she too collapses in a swoon and lies as though dead. Gareth comforts her until she recovers. The reactions of uncle and mother make the reunion more than a private reconciliation: it restores members of a family whose separation has been felt as sorrow and labor, and brings that recovered bond into the presence of the court.

The Court’s Celebration

Arthur orders the knights under his authority to lodge at the meeting place in honor of his nephews. Provisions are gathered so that nothing obtainable, tame or wild, is lacking, and the company remains there for eight days. The scale of the welcome marks the brothers’ reunion as a courtly event, not merely the end of a dangerous encounter.

During the stay, Linet helps heal both men. Arthur then asks why her sister, Dame Liones, has not come to visit Gareth, who has endured so much for her love. Linet explains that her sister does not know Gareth is there. Arthur asks her to fetch Liones so that a decision can be made according to Gareth’s wishes. The reunion thus reconnects the brothers while also returning Gareth’s relationship with Liones to the attention of the court.