The Faerie Queene
How Britomart fought with Six Knights
So in the chapter before (which I have not included in this reading diary, but the name of which is Sir Guyon), Lady Britomart, who is pretending to be a guy, joined Prince Arthur and Sir Guyon in their misadventures. But they get separated at the very beginning of this chapter. I found Britomart's reaction to be really weird -- when all three of them see a lady running away from the forest they encounter with a creeper hot on her trail, Arthur and Guyon both act like normal people and run to save the lady. Britomart, on the other hand, does nothing of the sort, and stands where she is for awhile, wondering if Guyon and Arthur will come back. After a few minutes of wainting, she just up and leaves (okay, Britomart), setting off in the direction her, Arthur, and Guyon, were originally traveling.
I guess here's where it starts to get interesting. After a while of traveling, she happens upon a castle, in front of which six knights are fighting one. The reason for their fighting is this: the one knight is fighting for his lady, and the six knights are fighting for the lady of the castle's honor. However, it's a pretty lose-lose situation: if the lone knight loses, he has to give up his lady and join the six knights. If he wins, he 'gets' to marry the lady of the castle. After hearing this, Britomart intervenes with her (I didn't mention this before) magical lance that unseats anyone who comes across it. And she ends up defeating four of the knights, with the other two conceding to her.
Then they all go inside the castle as friends. Or something like that.
Britomart in the Castle Joyous
So the name of this castle is 'Joyous', and it's pretty awesome in terms of its splendor. There's gold and fine silk everywhere, and it's gorgeous. Anyways, the six knights figure that she's going to marry the lady of the house, since she defeated them. But the reason Britomart, who is actually a princess, decided to cross-dress as a knight is that Merlin's magical mirror™showed her that a renown knight named Artegall would become her husband. And she's determined to find the guy because she's curious about him. Aside from that, she couldn't really marry the lady. For all the pro-gay marriage I am, it's simply impossible to disguise the fact that Britomart was a woman, and when the lady of the castle realized that her husband was actually a wife, I'm pretty sure Britomart would be kicked out. Anyways, Britomart meets the lady of the house, whose name is Maelcasta. And since all romances created during this time are like this, Maelcasta falls in love at first sight (which I believe is impossible). Apparently, as beautiful as she is as a woman, she makes a super hot guy as well. Well, because of her looks, Maelcasta is determined to have her. Her solution? Jump the guy's bones in the middle of the night (crudely put, but true). Britomart ends up waking up before this happens and fighting the six knights who have been called upon by Maelcasta. Pissed that she gets attacked, she decides to leave with the other knight.
How Britomart Walked Through Fire; What Britomart Saw in the Enchanted Chamber; How Britomart Rescued a Fair Lady from an Enchanter
This chapter is pretty interesting. Britomart meets a knight named Scudamor, whose lady is stuck in the castle of the forest they're in. Even though the knight has tried, he cannot rescue the lady, since the castle is magical and doesn't allow people to go through even the front door. However, it lets Britomart through for some reason, and she enters the first room of the castle. The door that leads deeper into the castle says 'be bold', so she goes through it. Through this door, she goes into another room, and goes to the door on the other side. It's locked, and it says 'be not too bold'. So she hides herself, and the door opens eventually. But instead of being empty, the entrance brings forth a weird assortment of characters (some gods but mostly personified emotions), that march three times around the room and then go. After that strange march, she tries to open the door, but to no avail. When the door opens again later the next day, she sneaks in basically using camouflage, and enters the room, where the wicked enchanter (and owner of the castle) is holding Scudamor's lady. In conclusion, she rescues the girl, traps the knight in his own castle, and escapes. Unfortunately, Scudamor, believing Britomart had died, already left.
The Golden Girdle
This chapter is pretty entertaining, let me tell you. It's the last day of the tournament where all the knights around the country gather to prove themselves. The tournament lasts three days, and on each a winner is declared. So for the first part of the tournament, the knights of the tournament are, I quote 'beaten and chased about all day til evening' by a strange and mysterious knight, who they call the Savage Knight. (In reality, he's Artegall, but no one knows that.) The visual that came to my mind was cartoon-like, in that I could imagine all the knights in a pen trying to get away from this weird-looking, scary knight who was kicking all their butts. Well he was, until Britomart shows up and kicks his butt (since she has an unbeatable spear), and proceeds to win the last day of the tournament. Because Britomart defeats Artegall so easily, he's pissed and wants revenge. He gets his revenge in the second to last chapter of the unit...or at least tries to.
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