Pelleas and Ettard is an episode of devoted love undone by Sir Gawaine’s betrayal and reshaped by Nimue’s enchantment. Sir Pelleas wins renown in a three-day tournament, yet submits repeatedly to humiliation for the chance to see Ettard. Gawaine pledges to help him win her, then takes his place at her castle and betrays that trust. The episode’s reversals culminate in Pelleas’s rejection of Ettard after Nimue makes her love him, and in his departure with Nimue.

Pelleas’s devotion and Ettard’s scorn

Sir Pelleas is a lord of the Isles, and the episode first presents him through the mismatch between his public prowess and private submission. At a three-day tournament attended by five hundred knights, he defeats every opponent he meets, striking down twenty knights each day. He receives the prize, a fine sword and a gold circlet intended for the fairest lady, and gives the circlet to Ettard, publicly declaring her fairest.

Pelleas chooses Ettard as his sovereign lady and resolves to love no other. She scorns him and says she will never love him, even if he dies for her. He nevertheless follows her into her country, lodging near her castle and hoping that persistence will win her regard. Each week she sends knights to fight him. Although he can defeat them, he allows himself to be taken prisoner because captivity brings him into Ettard’s presence. Her men subject him to repeated humiliation, including tying him to a horse, while she refuses to let him stay or even eat and drink before turning him away. His service to her thus becomes not a courtly triumph but an ordeal he willingly prolongs.

Gawaine’s promise and betrayal

Sir Gawaine hears Pelleas’s story after learning that the knight renowned for defeating ten opponents had willingly allowed himself to be captured. Pelleas explains that he endures the indignities because he hopes to see Ettard and cannot reach her otherwise. Gawaine, who identifies himself as a knight of King Arthur’s court and King Lot’s son, pities him and pledges his word to help him win her love.

To carry out his plan, Gawaine borrows Pelleas’s horse and armor and rides to Ettard’s castle, claiming that he has killed Pelleas. Ettard welcomes him, admits that she hated Pelleas and is glad to be rid of him, and promises to help Gawaine win the love of the lady he says he desires. Gawaine then reveals that the lady is Ettard herself. Bound by her promise, she yields to him. The deception grants Gawaine immediate access to the woman Pelleas loves, but it violates the pledge of fidelity he made to Pelleas.

The sword at the pavilions

The betrayal unfolds in May. Ettard and Gawaine spend two days and two nights together in a pavilion outside the castle, while her attendants and knights sleep in separate tents. Pelleas, who has not slept since Gawaine left, comes looking for him on the third morning. He finds the other pavilions occupied, then discovers Gawaine asleep with Ettard.

Pelleas rides away in grief, turns back more than once, and considers killing the pair. Even in the extremity of his anguish, he refuses to kill Gawaine while he sleeps, reasoning that such an act would dishonor knighthood. Instead, he lays his unsheathed sword across both their throats and leaves. The gesture makes the danger unmistakable while preserving Pelleas’s chosen limit: he will not answer treachery with the dishonorable killing of sleeping people.

Believing his hope destroyed, Pelleas returns to his own camp, gives his possessions to his followers, and says he intends to take to his bed and never rise again. He asks that, after his death, they take his heart and carry it to Ettard between two silver dishes, telling her that he saw her with Gawaine. The scene turns his devotion inward, from pursuit of the beloved to a plan for a final message of grief.

Nimue’s intervention and the reversal of love

When Gawaine and Ettard wake, the sword across their throats exposes the lie. Ettard recognizes Pelleas’s weapon and confronts Gawaine: he had told her he killed Pelleas, while Pelleas had spared their lives. She calls the deception a betrayal and warns that their conduct will bring shame upon them. Gawaine readies himself and leaves for the forest.

Nimue learns from one of Pelleas’s knights that Pelleas has been betrayed and intends to die in bed. She goes to him, uses enchantment to put him to sleep, and then brings Ettard to see him. Nimue condemns Ettard’s treatment of such a knight and enchants her so that she loves the man she had hated. Ettard is bewildered by the sudden change, but Pelleas wakes and rejects her, now saying that he hates her more than any woman alive. The attempted repair does not restore his former devotion: the enchantment changes Ettard’s feeling, not his judgment of what she has done.

Departure and ending

Nimue invites Pelleas to leave the country with her and promises that he will love a lady who loves him. He agrees, explaining that Ettard has brought him shame and that his love has become hatred. He arms himself, gathers his men and belongings, and departs with Nimue. The account states that Ettard dies of sorrow, while Nimue rejoices Pelleas and remains with him for the rest of their lives.

The ending makes the episode’s reversals decisive rather than restorative. Pelleas’s patience cannot secure Ettard’s love; Gawaine’s promise becomes the means of betraying him; and Nimue’s magic gives Ettard the love she once refused only after Pelleas has ceased to want it. The outcome separates the former lovers and gives Pelleas a new companion, but it cannot undo the betrayal or save Ettard.