Sir Gawain and The Perilous Bed

“ Love is extravagant, in the price, it is willing to pay, the hardship it is willing to endure, and the strength it is willing to spend. Love never thinks in terms of “how little”, but always in terms of “how much”. Love gives, love knows, and love last…”
-Unknown

Of all the knights who sat at Arthur’s round table, no one was more devout than Gawain, King Arthur’s nephew. And yet by the same token, no one was more inclined toward the adventurous life than Gawain, even insisting that an adventure need be had or one on hand before they broke bread. It was Arthur who stated that each man should enter the forest where footprints from another had not soiled the virgin landscape. In other words, follow your own path.

Gawain was not sure how it happened but it did, he fell madly in love with the Lady of the House of Marvels who despite her beauty, never married as no one could survive a night in that house… her ancestral home of which she wouldn’t live without. Now the burden lay on Gawain.

In Arthurian legend, the Perilous Bed is the enchanted bed that jerks up and down, to and fro as it tries to catapult its inhabitants to the floor. All the while deadly spears and ferocious beast assault the sleeper. It is Gawain who finally defeats the bed.

The story of the Perilous Bed teaches that only the brave steeped in humility stay the night, earning the right to share in this human relationship of love… to be at the ready when one meets the ultimate desire of the noble heart. We’ve been shaping our character through time and space… a hero’s adventure, thus our reaction to the perils of this bed posed in mindfulness and fortitude for we know that it is our fear that creates the bed and to conquer our fear is to conquer the false sense of what we think we are to whom we really are.

This is the inner comfort that the bed affords after we have stayed the course, traversed its mass, climbed its mountains, and descended its valleys. So in defeating the bed, endurance and patience win out,

©jc2018-9

*Images provided by Pixsabay.