Giants

The Giants of the Round Valley are the grey man’s vassals, a community whose hostility makes Peredur’s passage through their territory a test of survival. Their defeat does more than end a fight: they submit to Arthur, embrace Christianity, and remain in the valley under his authority.

Settlement and Lordship

The giants inhabit black houses of uncouth workmanship set in the wooded heart of the Round Valley. They belong to the grey man, whom Peredur encounters at a castle in the valley; the grey man is larger than any man Peredur has seen. The settlement’s appearance and its armed population make the valley seem organized around the lord’s power rather than open hospitality.

At the castle, the grey man’s daughter tells Peredur that the people in the black houses are giants and that they will rise against him the next day and kill him. Her warning establishes the danger before the confrontation begins. She also reveals that she loves Peredur, and she and an aged woman try to secure his safety by asking the grey man to accept a pledge that he will keep what he has seen there secret.

Battle with Peredur

The grey man refuses to spare Peredur on the strength of such a pledge. Peredur therefore faces the giants’ host in the meadow, fighting through the day. By evening he has slain one-third of the force without being wounded. The women look on from the castle battlements and twice appeal for mercy, but the grey man continues to refuse while the battle is still going against his people.

Peredur then kills the grey man’s two sons, the young pages he had seen at the castle. Only after their deaths does the grey man yield. He asks the maiden to seek mercy for him and for the surviving vassals, turning the encounter from an attempted slaughter into a surrender. Peredur grants it on terms: the grey man and his people must do homage to Arthur and tell him that Arthur’s vassal Peredur defeated them.

Submission and Settlement

Peredur adds that the giants must receive baptism. He also asks that Arthur grant the valley to the maiden and her heirs. The grey man accepts the conditions, saying that no Christian had previously left the valley alive. He and his company go to Arthur’s court, do homage, and are baptized; Arthur then grants the valley to the grey man and his company to hold under him. Peredur’s proposed grant to the maiden thus gives way in the recorded settlement to the grey man’s tenure under Arthur.

The episode defines the giants through a sharp change in their relation to Arthur’s order: first a hostile host ruled by a lord who refuses mercy, then defeated survivors who accept homage and baptism. Peredur’s own vow not to speak to a Christian remains unbroken in the episode’s account. The valley’s danger is resolved not by destroying its inhabitants, but by making their community answer to Arthur.