Geraint slays the giants and Earl of Limours

Geraint’s fight with the giants turns a roadside rescue into a trial of endurance: he defeats the attackers, but his wounds leave Enid believing that he has died. His revival then brings the Earl of Limours into the same chain of events, with fatal consequences.

The Attack on the Road

While traveling with Enid, Geraint heard loud lamentation and went to investigate. In a glade beside the road he found a knight dead in his armor and a young woman mourning him; her husband, she explained, had been killed without cause by three giants. Geraint learned which way the attackers had gone and returned to Enid, directing her to wait with the bereaved woman while he pursued them. Enid obeyed, though she feared he would not come back.

Geraint overtook the giants, each of them described as taller than three ordinary men and carrying a huge club. He killed two with his lance. The third struck him hard enough to damage his shield and worsen his earlier wounds, but Geraint continued the fight with his sword and killed him. He then returned to Enid, only to fall from his horse, apparently lifeless. His victory had rescued the dead knight’s companion from the giants, but it had left Enid facing what seemed to be the loss of her own husband.

The Earl's Intervention and Geraint's Revival

Enid’s cries drew the Earl of Limours and his traveling company from their road. She told him that the knight who had gone after the giants had returned badly wounded, while the other knight had been killed. The Earl arranged for the dead man to be buried and, suspecting that Geraint might still live, had him carried on a bier in the hollow of his shield. The two women went with the party to the Earl’s court, where Geraint was laid before the table in the hall.

At the court, the Earl urged Enid to change from her traveling clothes, offered her an earldom and himself, and pressed her to eat and drink. She refused each offer, insisting that she would not eat or drink while Geraint, lying on the bier, did neither. When the Earl struck her, her cry brought Geraint out of his swoon. He rose, took the sword from his shield, and killed the Earl. The company fled, frightened by the apparent return of a dead man as well as by the attack. Geraint then recognized Enid’s distress and understood that she had been right; he asked where their horses were, retrieved his own, and lifted her onto it.

Recovery, Counsel, and the Road On

The roadside fight comes during a journey resumed only after an earlier period of care. Arthur and his company had stayed nearly a month while physicians treated Geraint; when Geraint asked to leave, Arthur declined to rely on his assurance alone and sought the physicians’ judgment. Morgan Tud confirmed that Geraint was well enough to travel, and Arthur permitted him to depart the following day. The renewed wounds sustained against the giants therefore interrupt a recovery that had already been formally assessed, rather than following an uninterrupted stretch of health.

After Geraint had taken Enid onto his horse, they continued between two hedges as daylight faded. The sound of an approaching host made Geraint place Enid on the far side of a hedge, away from the approaching rider. Seeing a knight charge toward him, Enid called out that there could be no honor in killing a man who was already dead. The rider recognized Geraint and identified himself as Gwiffert Petit, who had come to help after hearing that Enid was in trouble. His arrival turns the scene from a renewed threat into an offer of aid, while his reminder that Geraint might have avoided hardship by following his earlier advice gives the rescue a note of reproach.

Geraint acknowledges that counsel can bring good, while maintaining that events ultimately occur by Heaven’s will. He accepts Gwiffert Petit’s proposal to seek medical assistance at the nearby palace of a son-in-law of Gwiffert’s sister. Enid is placed on one of the squire’s horses, and the party is received hospitably. Physicians attend Geraint until he is fully recovered, while Gwiffert Petit has his armor repaired. They remain there for a fortnight and a month. The sequence thus closes the immediate consequences of the fight not with another victory, but with care, repaired equipment, and a renewed dependence on assistance from others.

The Two Forms of Threat

The episode sets physical danger against an abuse of authority. The giants attack without cause, and Geraint answers them through force; at the Earl of Limours’s court, however, danger comes from someone who presents himself as a benefactor. His offer of rank and marriage does not make Enid’s refusal effective: he still tries to compel her compliance. The contrast makes the rescue more than a victory over the attackers on the road. Geraint’s return to action follows Enid’s steadfast refusal to treat him as dead, and his recognition that she had been right marks a change in their strained understanding. The sequence turns apparent defeat into renewed partnership, while showing that honorable assistance requires more than the appearance of generosity.