Gawaine and Uwaine’s encounter with Marhaus turns a challenge over a defiled shield into a revealing test of strength and judgment. Both knights are defeated by the Irish king’s son, but the meeting ends not in lasting hostility: Marhaus explains the grievance behind his reputation, and he and Gawaine swear to love one another as brothers.

The Dishonoured Shield

Gawaine and Uwaine meet twelve damsels beside a tower, where they see a white shield hanging from a tree. As the women pass it, they spit on it or throw dirt at it. Asked why they treat the shield this way, they say it belongs to Marhaus, a powerful knight who hates all ladies and gentlewomen. The explanation makes the shield a public sign of grievance: the women do not merely describe Marhaus as hostile but mark his property with contempt.

Gawaine challenges their account without accepting their treatment of the shield as a proper response. He argues that it is unbecoming for a good knight to despise all women, while allowing that Marhaus may have reasons for his conduct and may love women elsewhere. Uwaine recognizes the name and confirms that Marhaus has proved himself exceptionally strong at tournaments, where no one could withstand him. Their exchange places the coming fight between competing judgments: the damsels’ accusation, Uwaine’s respect for Marhaus’s prowess, and Gawaine’s insistence that a knight’s conduct toward women matters.

Marhaus Arrives and the Fight Begins

When Marhaus rides toward the tower, the twelve damsels flee inside in alarm, some stumbling along the way. Two knights stationed there challenge him in turn. Marhaus defeats both, first breaking one knight’s neck and the horse’s back, then striking down the second knight and his horse. The episode establishes his formidable force before either visitor takes up the challenge.

After seeing that his shield has been defiled, Marhaus says he is partly avenged for the affront. He nevertheless chooses to wear that white shield in place of his own, explaining that he will do so for the love of the lady who gave it to him. The gesture complicates the report that he hates women: the shield is both the object of the damsels’ insult and a token connected to a woman he values. Marhaus then asks Gawaine and Uwaine what they are doing there. They say they have come from King Arthur’s court in search of adventures, and Marhaus offers to undertake whatever adventure they ask of him.

Uwaine privately cautions Gawaine that Marhaus is an exceptionally good knight and says he would rather neither of them were matched against him. Gawaine believes it would be shameful not to test such a knight, however strong. Uwaine volunteers to face Marhaus first, reasoning that he is the weaker of the two and Gawaine can avenge him if he falls. The decision makes the encounter a measure of their courage as well as Marhaus’s skill.

Defeat and Reversal

Uwaine and Marhaus charge one another. Uwaine’s spear breaks against Marhaus’s shield, and Marhaus strikes him down with his horse, wounding him in the side. Marhaus then turns to Gawaine. Their lances meet with force: Gawaine’s spear breaks, while Marhaus’s holds, and Gawaine is thrown from his horse. He rises and draws his sword, but asks Marhaus to dismount, refusing to continue the contest with one knight on foot and the other on horseback. Marhaus accepts, commending the courtesy of the request, and ties his horse to a tree before resuming the fight on equal footing.

On foot, the two exchange blows until their shields break apart and both their helmets and armour are damaged; each is wounded. The balance shifts as the day advances. From after nine o’clock until noon, Gawaine grows stronger, his might increasing threefold. Marhaus observes the change with wonder. After noon, however, Gawaine’s strength wanes, while Marhaus grows stronger. The contest therefore gives Gawaine a temporary advantage without overturning its result: his power is tied to the hours, and Marhaus outlasts that rise and decline.

As Gawaine weakens toward evening, Marhaus recognizes his exceptional ability and proposes that they stop, saying their quarrel is not great and it would be a pity to injure him further. Gawaine agrees that Marhaus has spoken as he himself should have done. They remove their helmets, kiss, and swear to love one another as brothers. Defeat thus becomes the occasion for recognition: Marhaus’s restraint and Gawaine’s acceptance of his judgment end a fight that neither needs to carry to a fatal conclusion.

The Charge of Hating Women

Riding toward Marhaus’s home, Gawaine asks why so valiant a knight supposedly loves no ladies or damsels. Marhaus rejects the accusation as a false name given to him by the damsels at the tower and others like them. He says that some women are sorceresses and enchantresses who can make even a knight of great bodily prowess into a coward in order to gain the advantage over him; that, he explains, is the principal reason he hates them. He distinguishes those women from good ladies and gentlewomen, to whom he says a knight owes his service. The conversation revises the initial report: Marhaus’s opposition is not presented as a rejection of all women, but as a grievance against enchantment and its use against knights.

The text also places the encounter within Gawaine’s wider record of contests, noting that six knights, including Marhaus, have had the better of him. The list makes the defeat part of a pattern rather than an isolated humiliation, while Marhaus’s conduct here helps distinguish strength from mere domination. He wins, but he also accepts a fairer footing, stops when Gawaine is failing, and treats his opponent as a brother.

Hospitality and Further Adventure

Marhaus invites Gawaine to lodge with him, and Uwaine accompanies them. At Marhaus’s priory, ladies and damsels tend the wounds of all three knights. When Marhaus learns that the visitors are sons of King Arthur’s sister, he gives them the best welcome he can. They remain there for seven nights while recovering, turning an encounter that began with an accusation and a duel into a relationship sustained by hospitality.

When they depart, Marhaus insists on accompanying them through the forest. They ride for about seven days before finding another adventure, eventually reaching the Forest of Arroy, described as a country of strange adventures. The journey carries the reconciliation beyond the place of combat: Marhaus does not simply make peace with Gawaine and Uwaine but rides onward with them as their companion.