![]() ![]() Torrent’s squires were very upset when they learned that they couldn’t accompany their master on this journey to fight with this giant. And I’ll not take a single step backwards when I meet him, even if he turns out to be stronger than Samson, or anyone like that.’ ‘Don’t worry about his eye, you won’t be able to reach it. ‘By Mary, it’s a pity that he still has his sight. He’s truly evil, he’s torn down all my forests and destroyed all my castles in that country, so that not a single stone stands upon another any more.’ ‘A mile into the Aegean Sea lies an isle where a giant lives. ‘If I knew where this adversary was, I’d be there in an instant!’ ‘If you’ll control yourself with my daughter, keep good faith and test yourself…’ The king was beside himself with grief and rage. ‘Against any man, anywhere!’ replied Torrent. But do you dare, for my daughter’s sake, to take on a battle alone, all by yourself?’ ‘Before seven years have passed you’ll have your answer. ![]() ‘By dear Mary, if I proved myself to be so, would you let me marry her?’ ‘You’ll have to pay for her in deeds of arms, be sure of that! By God, you’ll have to win her if you want her, however invincible you may think you are!’ When Torrent had explained: ‘Are you telling me that you love my daughter?’ exclaimed the king. ‘So may I prosper,’ replied Torrent, ‘but I need to take on another challenge before I should be made a knight.’ And he swore by the King of Heaven that he had had pleasant and perhaps prophetic dreams in his chamber at night. Her father, and many other knights, were amazed at how well he could ride a horse and the king said to him one day: ‘Torrent, why is it that you despise these fine knights so much that you won’t accept the order of knighthood yourself?’ Through his skill in fighting on horseback with a lance he knocked to the ground every knight who faced him. And for the love of this dear lady he took on many adventures, far and near. When Torrent saw her, he fell so much in love with her that his father’s lands meant nothing to him in comparison. The king had a daughter who was as white as the foam that is blown by the wind from the sea, a very worthy young lady whose name was Desonelle. ![]() The young man was so brave in battle that the king gave Torrent the revenue of an earldom, with forests, fields and pastures to match. The King of Portugal is happy to take Torrent into his retinue. By the time this young man was eighteen years old he was well tested in combat and could defeat a knight in battle, and even a king.īut now death arrives and takes his father, for God is mightier than all of us. Once he had married and settled down with a wife, he had a son, the fairest in all the land, and this boy’s name was Torrent. In Portugal, that wealthy land, there once lived an earl who was very courteous and a fine warrior. Before I finish, you will have heard of all the deeds of a doughty knight who figures highly in romance, as men of letters will tell you. If you will listen for a moment everybody, you’ll hear – through all this noise even! – of a valiant warrior, the most battle-hardened man who has ever lived. and brynge vs owt off Dedly synne – God, who is worthy, bold and holds heaven and Earth in his hands – water, wind and every field – deliver us from deadly sin and give us the grace to go to heaven when we die and to be in your service forever.Similarities with Sir Eglamour of Artois point to the tale being broadly contemporary with that English romance – dating it, therefore, to the fourteenth century – and that both are based upon a common antecedent, now lost.Īvailable also to view/download in PDF and DOCX The story is found in Manchester, Chetham’s Library MS Chetham 8009, dating to the fifteenth century. But it must also be acknowledged that Torrent of Portyngale reasonates equally as strongly with the story of Sir Isumbras and the legend of Saint Eustace, particularly as Torrent’s two children, like those of Eustace and Sir Isumbras, are taken by animals before beginning new lives. In the Welsh Arthurian tale How Culhwch won Olwen, the giant Ysbaddaden sends Culhwch off on a series of impossible tasks in order to win his daughter’s hand in marriage. Like Sir Eglamour, he is sent off on a number of impossible quests to kill giants and dragons by the jealous father of the maiden he loves, in order to win her hand in marriage. Like King Arthur and Sir Eglamour of Artois, Torrent of Portugal is a giant-killer. The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawainįourteenth-century Middle English Chetham’s Library, Manchester MS Chetham 8009 A fourteenth-century Middle English verse romance. ![]()
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