Similes…Get Your Similes Here, Metaphors, too!
If you are the type of person who judges poetry by the number of similes that can be found, then consider this manna from heaven. Comparisons made the use of like or as are plentiful, but then so are the direct comparisons. Especially when the ballad gets to the part where King Arthur first sets eyes on Dame Ragnelle. A lesser person might consider it metaphorical overload. For others, this is what good poetry is all about:
“Her cheeks were as broad as a woman's hips.
He back was as curved as a lute.
…
Her breasts would have been a load for a horse.
Like a barrel was she made.”
And that is just a mere tiny excerpt.
But First…Arthur has a Problem
Before Arthur first sets sights on the woman as described above, however, he has a strange interlude which has left him out of sorts. So out of sorts that it is impossible for any of his knights—or anyone else, for that matter—not to see Arthur is an unusual state:
“His heart was very heavy,
And in this heaviness he stayed
So long that his knights marveled.”
Part II: King Arthur meets an "ugly" woman
No, that’s not rudeness; that is actually how some translations of the ballad title the second part. This is the part where the similes and metaphor come fast and furious. And once the specifics have run their course, it is time for the capper:
“She had ugliness to spare.”
So, yeah, it may be not be politically correct, but let it be stated that King Arthur meets a really, really ugly woman. And therein lies the whole point.
Gawain the Good…the Really, Really Good
See, here’s the deal: the strange interlude that opens this story leads to Arthur acting really…well, like a big baby, to be honest. “Oh, Gawain, poor me…the only way to escape my fate of certain death is marry this ugly woman. Oh, what am I to do?” That is a paraphrase, of course, but pretty much hits the mark. As always, however, Gawain comes through in the clinch. He’s the Mr. October of the Round Table as he proves once again:
“Is that all?
I shall wed her and wed her again,
Even if she be a fiend.
Even were she as foul as Beelzebub”
Arise and Insult, Balladeer!
Just in case one may have forgotten: the story is like the opposite of the rock star/model dichotomy. In this case it is he who is the looker and she who looks like death warmed over. Poor Gawain! As the marriage ceremony draws near, the balladeer suddenly turns into an Arthurian version of Rodney Dangerfield except he’s the one giving no respect:
“And her lips
Lay like lumps on her chin.
No one had ever seen
A neck like that. She was ugly!
I swear, no one would marry her
For any reason!”
One can almost picture the balladeer tugging at the neck of his tunic, making his eyes go all googly and shaking his head at this point as he holds for laughter.
