Nine Sorceresses of Gloucester

The Nine Sorceresses of Gloucester are a group of nine whose conquest and devastation of the surrounding country make them a regional threat in Peredur’s adventures. Their encounter with him turns an attack on the Countess of the Fountain’s last defended dwelling into an uneasy compact: Peredur demands an end to their harm, and one sorceress gives her pledge before taking him to the group’s palace.

Identity and Reach

The group is identified as nine sorceresses from Gloucester, accompanied by their father and mother. Their power is described through its consequences: they have conquered and laid waste to all the country except the Countess of the Fountain’s single remaining dwelling. The passage gives no individual names for the nine or account of how their conquest began; instead, their collective identity and the threatened state of the land establish the stakes of Peredur’s intervention.

The Attack on the Countess’s Dwelling

Peredur arrives at a castle where a tall, stately lady receives him. After the meal, she warns that the sorceresses and their parents are present and that those inside will be killed unless they escape before daybreak. Peredur elects to remain and offer help. At dawn, a dreadful outcry wakes him: a sorceress has overtaken a watchman, who cries out, and Peredur rushes to meet her in only his vest and doublet, with his sword about his neck. He strikes her on the head, flattening her helmet and headpiece against it.

The sorceress recognizes him as Peredur son of Evrawc and says that destiny foretold she would suffer harm from him. Her response shifts the encounter from combat to negotiation. She offers a horse and armour and proposes that he accompany her to learn chivalry and the use of arms. Peredur grants mercy only on condition that she swear never again to injure the Countess’s dominions; he takes surety of her pledge, making the safety of the threatened territory the explicit price of her reprieve.

The Palace and Peredur’s Departure

With the Countess’s permission, Peredur goes with the sorceress to the palace of the sorceresses. He remains there for three weeks, then chooses a horse and arms and continues on his way. The account does not say whether he receives instruction during that stay or describe the other sorceresses’ response to the agreement. What it does establish is a striking reversal: after their assault leaves the Countess’s household facing imminent destruction, one of the sorceresses becomes Peredur’s escort and the source of equipment for his onward journey.

Narrative Role

The Nine Sorceresses function first as a collective force of territorial devastation, defined by the lone dwelling that has not fallen. Their encounter with Peredur introduces a more complicated relation than simple defeat: he protects the Countess’s household, but the immediate outcome is a sworn restraint and a three-week stay at the sorceresses’ palace, not a narrated destruction of the group. The episode thus links Peredur’s readiness to fight with a demand for accountable conduct, while leaving the wider fate of the nine unstated.