Enid's Loyalty and Trial of Silence

Enid's loyalty and trial of silence is the defining tension of Geraint and Enid's wilderness journey: Geraint demands silence as proof of obedience, while Enid repeatedly speaks because she fears for his life. Her fidelity is not passive. It appears in the warnings she risks giving, her refusal of another lord's offer, and her insistence on sharing Geraint's apparent death rather than accepting comfort without him. The ordeal ends when Geraint's survival makes the truth impossible to evade: his judgment of her had been wrong, and her loyalty had endured both his suspicion and his anger.

The Crisis Behind the Trial

Geraint's estrangement from his companions precedes the journey. After establishing his reputation, enriching his court, and winning fame in tournaments, he turns toward ease and pleasure. He spends a long time at home, then withdraws into his wife's chamber, abandoning the friendship of his nobles, hunting, and other amusements. The people of the palace murmur and scoff at his neglect of their company. Erbin asks Enid whether she caused Geraint to forsake his people. She denies it and is distressed: she finds his withdrawal hateful, but fears that telling him what others say will be difficult.

One summer morning, while Geraint sleeps beside her, Enid looks at his exposed arms and breast and laments that they have lost their former glory and warlike renown. Her tears fall on him and awaken him. Rather than understand her words as grief for his decline, he suspects that she is thinking of another man and longs for other company. The misunderstanding turns her concern for his honor into the supposed evidence against her fidelity. He orders her to dress in her worst riding clothes and accompany him on a quest, warning her not to return until she knows whether he has truly lost his strength. He also tells her to ride far ahead, not to turn back, and not to speak unless he speaks first.

The command makes silence the outward rule of their journey, but the circumstances continually test it. Geraint chooses a wild road beset by thieves, robbers, and venomous animals rather than a pleasant, well-traveled route. Enid is made both his companion and a witness: she must see dangers gathering around him while knowing that a warning will earn his displeasure.

Warnings on the Road

In a forest, four armed horsemen see Geraint and Enid and discuss taking their horses, armor, and the lady, expecting little resistance from a solitary knight. Enid hears them. Afraid of disobeying Geraint, she nevertheless decides that she would rather risk his anger than witness his death without warning him. She speaks; Geraint rebukes her for breaking the silence he demanded and says he has no fear of the attackers.

His answer is borne out by the fight. Geraint receives the first rider's charge, splits his shield and armor with a blow, and kills him; he then kills the other three in turn. He collects their arms, secures their horses, and orders Enid to drive the animals ahead while again forbidding her to speak unless addressed. Her warning has not been necessary to his victory, but the fact that he prevailed does not make her fear or decision insincere.

The pattern recurs after they leave the forest. Three more armed horsemen approach, expecting to take the horses and armor and capture Enid. She fears Geraint is tired from the earlier combat and warns him again. He answers that her refusal to keep silent troubles him more than the men's threats. He defeats all three, gathers their armor and horses, and leaves Enid to drive the enlarged train; he now has seven horses. Her concern is set against his repeated insistence that obedience, not warning, is what he wants. The encounters make the contradiction plain: he demands her silence even when she is the one who hears danger first, while she continues to speak because her attachment to him matters more than compliance with that demand.

Fidelity Under Earl Dwrm's Pressure

At a later lodging, Geraint welcomes Earl Dwrm and his twelve knights. When asked why he is traveling, he says he seeks adventures and follows his inclination. Earl Dwrm notices Enid and privately questions whether the journey can be pleasant for her. She replies that traveling the same road as Geraint is more pleasant than being attended by servants. She identifies her commitment plainly: Geraint was the first man to whom she pledged her faith, and she will not be untrue to him.

Earl Dwrm offers her his entire earldom if she will live with him. When she refuses, he says he could kill Geraint and keep her by force, though he would eventually cast her aside; he presents a willing union as lasting for as long as he lives. Enid does not reveal the conversation to Geraint at once, fearing it will provoke his anger and add to his distress. Instead, she encourages the Earl to return the next day and take her away as though she knew nothing of his plan. Her apparent cooperation is a stratagem within the danger, not a change of allegiance.

At midnight she gathers Geraint's armor so it will be ready and wakes him gently to report the Earl's words and intention. Geraint is angry with her, but this time he accepts the warning and arms himself. Before leaving, he gives the lodging's host eleven horses and eleven suits of armor, though the host says he spent the value of not even one suit on them. Geraint asks the host to guide him out by a different road from the one by which he entered. Earl Dwrm arrives with eighty armed knights only after Geraint has escaped. The scene contrasts Enid's earlier warnings, which Geraint resented, with this warning, which enables him to avoid being trapped by the Earl's force.

Apparent Death and Recognition

Enid's loyalty reaches its harshest test after Geraint is gravely wounded. When the Earl of Limours finds her beside the injured knight, she says that the only man she has loved, or ever will love, is dead. She also tells the Earl that giants killed her beloved and that the other knight went after them, concealing Geraint's condition while he is carried to the court. The Earl hopes Geraint may still live and has him brought on a bier. He urges Enid to change her clothes, accept his earldom, and be happy whether Geraint lives or dies. She refuses the offered comfort and will not eat until the man on the bier eats too.

When the Earl strikes her for resisting, Enid cries out. Geraint revives from his swoon, finds his sword in the hollow of his shield, and kills the Earl with a blow that cleaves his head. The people flee, terrified not only by the armed man but by the sight of one they believed dead rising to strike. Geraint sees that Enid has lost her color and recognizes that she had been right. He asks about the horses, retrieves his own, and lifts her onto it with him.

Meaning and Outcome

The silence imposed on Enid is not evidence that she has failed Geraint; it is the condition under which her fidelity becomes visible. She repeatedly breaks the rule for his protection, refuses Earl Dwrm despite the promise of an earldom, and will not eat while Geraint lies apparently dead. These actions distinguish loyalty from mere obedience: she keeps faith with Geraint even when he mistrusts her, rebukes her, and makes the journey harder by insisting that she not speak.

Geraint's recognition comes through events rather than argument. The warnings he resents are confirmed as acts of care, and his revival at Enid's cry turns her refusal to abandon him into the means by which he returns to action. The narrative closes their ordeal with reconciliation in deed: they travel back toward Geraint's dominions, where he thereafter reigns prosperously, and his warlike fame and splendor endure alongside Enid's renown.