Geraint defeats Earl Dwrm and his knights

Geraint defeats Earl Dwrm and his knights after Enid refuses the Earl’s offer and warns Geraint that their escape has been discovered. The encounter turns an attempt to claim Enid by force into a test of her constancy and Geraint’s ability to protect her: he overcomes the pursuing company, but spares its leader.

The Earl’s Offer and Enid’s Answer

Geraint and Enid arrive at a lodging during their travels, where their host arranges food and drink and Geraint pays to entertain the companions the host chooses. Earl Dwrm then visits with twelve knights. Asked about his journey, Geraint says he is seeking adventures and following his inclination. The Earl’s attention shifts to Enid, who is apart from Geraint, and he asks permission to speak with her. Geraint grants it.

In private, Earl Dwrm tries to persuade Enid to remain with him. He offers her his entire earldom, but she refuses: Geraint was the first man to whom she pledged her faith, and she will not be untrue to him. The Earl counters that he could kill Geraint and keep her with him, while claiming that a willing union would last for life. Enid recognizes the danger in refusing him outright. She pretends to encourage his proposal and arranges for him to return the next day, while concealing the conversation from Geraint so as not to provoke his anger or worry him.

Warning and Departure

At midnight, Enid rises and gathers Geraint’s armour so that it will be ready. Though afraid, she approaches his bed and tells him what Earl Dwrm has said and intends. Geraint is angry with her, but he takes the warning and dresses. He asks the lodging’s host to come, then gives him eleven horses and eleven suits of armour, although the host says that Geraint owes him very little. The gift repays hospitality generously and makes the departure a deliberate parting rather than a hurried flight without acknowledgment.

Geraint chooses to leave by a different road from the one by which he entered the town. The host accompanies him part of the way, and Geraint sends Enid ahead. The host has only just returned home when Earl Dwrm arrives with a force of eighty fully armed knights. Asked where Geraint has gone, the host says that he left some time earlier and that the high road is the only direction he knows. Earl Dwrm follows the tracks along that road.

The Pursuit and Battle

At daybreak, Enid sees a large cloud of dust approaching and fears that Earl Dwrm and his men are close behind. She also sees a knight advancing through the mist. Despite Geraint’s orders that she should go ahead and remain silent, she warns him of the pursuers. Her choice repeats the conflict at the heart of the episode: obedience to Geraint’s command would leave him without warning, while speaking risks his displeasure. Enid decides that he must know the danger.

Geraint turns to meet the pursuing knight and unhorses him with his first thrust. The rest of Earl Dwrm’s knights attack one at a time, from the weakest to the strongest, and Geraint overthrows each at the first onset. Earl Dwrm comes last. Geraint breaks two of his lances before striking the centre of his shield with a third thrust; the shield splits, the Earl’s armour gives way, and he is thrown from his horse. The fight resolves the pursuit decisively: the eighty knights are all overcome, and Earl Dwrm’s attempt to take Enid ends in defeat.

Mercy and the Romance’s Pattern of Trials

When Earl Dwrm recovers, he asks for mercy. Geraint grants it. The account says that none of the knights escaped the encounter without falling and suffering serious consequences, but the episode closes on Geraint’s restraint toward the Earl rather than on further punishment. The contrast between the Earl’s threat and Geraint’s mercy defines the result as more than a victory in arms: Geraint protects Enid without adopting the coercive purpose that brought the Earl after them.

The episode also belongs to a recurring romance pattern in which a challenge is answered through combat, but its outcome depends on what the victor does next. Owain’s adventure at the Fountain likewise brings him into conflict with a knight; afterward, the Countess’s people consent to her marriage to him, and he defends her lands for three years. Geraint’s encounter with Earl Dwrm has a different immediate consequence: it secures the couple’s passage onward, and he claims neither the Earl’s lands nor Enid as a reward. Later on the same journey, Geraint enters the enchanted mist alone and insists that its games and enchantment end. Set beside that later trial, the fight with Earl Dwrm shows the journey moving through distinct tests of courage, loyalty, and the exercise of power.