Castle Nigramous is the stronghold of Hellawes the sorceress, whose enchantments make its chapel a trap for Sir Launcelot. The castle’s importance lies in the test staged within its grounds: Hellawes’s desire for Launcelot is thwarted by his refusal to betray Queen Guenever, and the episode ends with him using what he has taken from the chapel to heal Sir Meliot.

Setting and Association

The narrative identifies Hellawes as the lady of Castle Nigramous. The castle is associated with an enchanted chapel and a guarded sword, making it not merely a place Launcelot passes but the setting for a deliberate attempt to detain and control him.

The Chapel and the Enchantment

Inside the chapel, Launcelot sees a corpse covered with silk and takes a sword lying beside it. As he leaves the chapel-yard, knights warn him that he must surrender the weapon or die. Hellawes then meets him and adds a personal threat: she claims that if he leaves the sword behind, he will never see Queen Guenever again. The threat binds the castle’s peril to Launcelot’s attachment to the queen, but he refuses to give up the sword or yield to Hellawes’s entreaties.

Hellawes and Launcelot

Hellawes reveals that she has loved Launcelot for seven years and had prepared the chapel for him and Sir Gawaine. She had previously held Sir Gawaine in her power, but her present scheme is directed toward Launcelot. Unable to win his love, she says she had intended to preserve his dead body and keep it with her. Launcelot rejects her enchantments and leaves the castle; the account says Hellawes dies of grief within a fortnight.

The Castle’s Aftermath

Beyond the castle, Launcelot meets Sir Meliot’s sister and rides with her to where Sir Meliot lies weakened from blood loss. He touches the wounds with the sword taken from the chapel and wipes them with a piece of the bloody cloth that had covered Sir Gilbert’s body; Sir Meliot recovers. Launcelot then urges him to go to King Arthur’s court for the approaching Pentecost feast. The movement from the castle’s attempted imprisonment to Sir Meliot’s recovery gives the enchanted objects a consequence beyond the immediate ordeal: what Hellawes meant to keep Launcelot is instead carried away and used to restore another knight.