The Arthuriad 2:4
The Courtship of Uthor Part 4
Greetings gentle sentients!
This week’s installment brings the tale of Uthor’s courtship to a close. It’s a different take on the legend but to my mind at the risk of sounding prideful is a more sound if not more moral take. I would love to
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Then suddenly there was a great commotion outside of the King’s field of vision. Uthor looked up. He could see the short twisted figure of Efnysien looming over him, gloating at this reversal of their fortunes. Uthor felt weak and though he tried to reach for his sword, his dazed mind could not command his body to grasp the hilt of the blade. Suddenly, a dim figure charged Efnysien. Uthor could barely see the figure out of the corner of his eye, and forced himself to rise to his knees in order to see who had saved him. It was Gorlois. The baron was bleeding from a great wound in his thigh, but he charged Efnysein with the fury of a wild auroch. They met and clashed right where Uthor stood, swords crossing and recrossing as stroke was met with counterstroke. Uthor forced himself to his feet as the two fought, trying to prepare himself to charge in and aid his courageous vassal. Gorlois was the better swordsman of the two-second only to King Uthor himself, but the wound in his thigh must have been a greater hurt than he had realized. In an effort to turn away from one of the fast, desperate strokes of Efnysien, Gorlois slipped on the blood that oozed from his thigh and falling caught the sword of Efnysien full in his side. Even from a distance, a battle hardened man like Uthor knew that the blow was a mortal one.
With a yell of regal fury, he charged Efnysien. There was no artistry in the charge, but the mad recklessness of the king’s anger caught Efnysien off guard. Even cunning men who fight like foxes eventually have moments where their battle wisdom avails them not at all, and this is what happened to Efnysien the bastard. Uthor rammed Calibrandor through the thick iron breastplate of the Cymric chieftain with such force that the tip of the blade stuck out from his back a full span. Efnysien toppled to the ground and lay there lifeless like a log, and Uthor weak from his injuries fell to his knees and remained there in the bloodstained cobbles of the court until Sir Aldruic came and helped his lord gain his feet again.
When the surviving commanders saw that their lord lay vanquished, the fighting spirit departed from them, and they surrendered to Uthor and his forces. Uthor promised them that they would be held for ransom and treated with the dignity that was meet and proper for men of their station. A full forty of the flower of Cymric nobility had been brought low by the blades of Uthor’s knights. When Demos and Ulvian the battle commanders of Gorlois saw that their Lord had been slain, they began a lamentation that was taken up by all who were present. Even Uthor mourned his courageous vassal, who after all had died saving his life.
A portion of the king’s force stayed to man the citadel and prevent any hostile forces from retaking it. The remainder of the army returned to Tintagel by way of the Reman road in order to bring the doleful news to Ygraine of her husband’s having departed from this world. Uthor to his surprise found himself in a state of woe and agitation, and he was constantly trying to work out how he would explain the circumstances that had occurred on the battlefield to Ygraine. There was a deeper hope that the king did not yet allow himself to entertain.
When they returned to the castle, Ygraine was there to greet them, her face twisted slightly by worry. When she saw no sign of her husband her face fell, and she came to stand before Arthur’s steed asking an explanation of him.
“He fell defending me in battle with that cur Efnysien, milady.”
“I see.”
The king continued. “I am truly sorry for your loss, milady. Your lord was a courageous man and a loyal servant to the crown.” He found himself wishing that he had something more personal and heartfelt to say. His words had been true, but Uthor walked away from that conversation thinking that that was not what Ygraine desired to hear right now.
Ygraine spoke in a faint, wavering voice. “I thank you, my lord, for your kind words. If you will excuse your handmaiden, though, I wish to retire. My steward Guri will see to the needs of you and your men.”
And with that she left leaning on the arm of her devoted handmaiden, which was the only sign of weakness she betrayed during that entire encounter. Uthor and his commanders stayed in the castle for a few days more to ensure that the defenses were running smoothly and that no further threat could be discerned from the Cymric borders. During that time Uthor was a stable rock and bolstered the spirits of many of Gorlois’s former retainers despite the fact that he was still in a great deal of pain from his injuries. This was noticed by Ygraine and it both charmed and saddened her as it was exactly the sort of behavior that her husband would have used to encourage their people after they had suffered a great loss. Uthor for his part grew more and more attracted to the sweet and gentle soul of the queen, though his courtesy and delicacy kept him from acting on these feelings that kept surging up from a deep pit of his soul. Never in his life had his tough battle hardened heart melt in the face of a woman’s gentle aching grief than it did in those early days when the wound of Gorlois’s loss is still fresh.
The two of them did not see much of each other aside from brief encounters at mealtimes. But it was during those conversations over meals of roast mutton and boiled cod that Ygraine realized that Uthor was a man of great intelligence, sensitive spirit, and perceptive wit. When Uthor left the castle a few days later after having ensured that the defenses were in order, Ygraine was shocked to realize that she missed him greatly.
A few months after the breaking of the siege, and after a council meeting in which her steward and other advisors encouraged her to marry a man of noble birth in order to aid her in ruling the kingdom, Ygraine took the courageous step of writing a letter to Uthor that she instructed her handmaiden Alicen to deliver to the court of the king. This letter outlined in short the passion Ygraine felt for the King, a description of what she saw as the king’s admirable qualities, and the desire she felt to unite herself in marriage to her liege lord.
Uthor needless to say was charmed by this missive which was an accurate reflection of his own desires which he had concealed out of courtesy, and it provided him further insight into the predictions of Myrdwin which had previously been dark and obscure to him. He wrote a letter and delivered it to Alicen, handmaiden of the baroness, for her to take back to her mistress. The letter thanked Ygraine for her courtesy and informed the baroness that the king was not opposed to marrying her himself, for he thought that she was a passing sweet and good woman and would make a fine queen of the realm. However, the king in his wisdom advised that they wait to marry until the end of the war with Vortregan, by which time Ygraine would have completed the required term of mourning for her deceased husband.
They did not have long to wait, for in two years Vortregan was slain at the battle of Londinium, and this brought an end to the war between the brothers. The outcome of the war saddened Uthor some, for he had long hoped that a reconciliation with his former steward might be possible. But on the whole there was much jubilation in the land when that long and devastating war was brought to an end, and even Uthor was caught up in the merriment of his subjects. It was around this time that Claudin son of Gorlois was elevated to the rank of baron of Tintagel in his father’s place along with his wife the lady Kahenna the Fair.
Six months after the end of the war in the summer of the year 525 A.C. Uthor announced to his barons and subjects in a great assembly at Carleon of his intention to marry the lady Ygraine. This was a decision that met with great acclaim among his subjects, for they had long been desirous that their lord and sovereign should take him a wife and sire him a son in order that the fair and just rule of Aurelian’s line might be continued. Thus, the merriment of the land was doubled and from the north to the south all was at peace and the common folk even those of the poorest stations found their souls at peace and their burden lightened because of the happiness and prosperity of their lord and country which they saw themselves as fellow partakers of.
There was a great feast that Autumn in the royal palace at Carleon to which the barons of all the hundred cantrevs were invited. A full seventy of the barons made the journey to the capital and renewed their fealty to Uthor on that occasion and brought him rich gifts as rich as those they had brought to the capital when he had been crowned king in the church of his fathers. After the ceremony there was a feast in the hall of the citadel, and there was a similar feast of equal magnitude in the square before the castle for the common folk and burghers of the city and its surrounding environs. That great feast marked the beginning of the high point of Uthor’s reign, and from this point until the rebellion of the young barons in 538 there was peace in the land.
Hope you guys enjoyed the ending to this chapter/episode. (I’m still undecided what I’m going to call the discrete units of this narrative. Please leave suggestions in the comments.)
The Brothers Krynn I want your guy’s opinion. Do I need more insight into Uthor’s feelings for Ygraine in the narrative itself, or do you think I do a good job of showing and not telling?
Next week I’m going to release a two parter detailing the birth of Arthus and the death of Uthor. Beyond that, I have nothing planned in terms of posting. I’m either going to start drafting my take on the sword in the stone or a short Arthurian episode of my own invention where it will be explained how Myrdwin and Balise knew of the grail.
Til we meet again gentle wanderer’s Farewell!
Yours,
Noah