 | Title: The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf Author: Gerald Morris Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pages: 213 Synopsis: (from the publisher) Her castle under siege by an evil knight who keeps beheading all her would-be rescuers, Lady Lynet realizes that the only way to get help is to get it herself. So one night she slips away and strikes out for King Arthur's court, where she hopes to find a gallant knight to vanquish the Knight of the Red Lands and free her castle. Instead, she finds an odd dwarf named Roger and a scruffy kitchen hand named Beaumains. As the three unlikely companions return to Lynet's castle, they face suprising adventures, including encounters with the uncanny Squire Terence, his master, Sir Gawain, and the majestic sorceress Morgan. And somewhere along the way, Lynet discovers that people can be much more than they seem. . |
It
should be said first off that this is one of my all-time favorite books ever. I’ve
read it so much my hardcover edition
is falling apart. My first wobbly try at screenplay writing was adapting this
book. So you probably shouldn’t pay attention to anything I have to say about
it. Just go read it for yourself. Preferably in the much better cover of the
newer editions.
Spoilers,
etc…
This
is a retelling of the slightly less well-known Malory story of Beaumains, the
alias of Gawain’s brother Gareth. It is more popular with Arthurian authors,
however, so this is one I’ve read a couple versions of (most recently Sarah
Zettel’s barely-there rendition, seen in my review of Under Camelot’s Banner).
Morris’s twist is adding the character of Gaheris, another of the Orkney
brothers, to the story in the form of the dwarf that accompanies Beaumains.
This, by the way, is the big reveal at the end of the story, so act surprised
later. Morris has also chosen to tell the tale not from an original character’s
perspective this time, but from a side character, Lynet the enchantress.
The
Plot
Morris
begins with a medieval-style “Last time on The Squire’s Tales…” intro, recapping
the events of the final chapters of The
Squire, His Knight and His Lady and relating the aftermath of Lancelot’s
defeat at the hands of “Sir Wozzell” (aka Terence, Gawain’s squire). Gareth,
Gawain’s youngest brother who is obsessed with Lancelot, makes a foolish vow
that his name will never be heard in Camelot again until he has restored
Lancelot’s honor and leaves court. Gaheris, the second oldest Orkney brother,
expresses concern about Gareth’s safety, but Gawain brushes him off. So Gaheris
follows Gareth alone, and later Gawain changes his mind and follows
them—without Terence, for once. A disheveled young man soon appears at Camelot
asking for a job as a kitchen boy. Morris doesn’t even bother to conceal that
this is Gareth, poorly disguised by a beard. However, only Sir Kai recognizes
him. Kai mocks Gareth by giving him the name “Beaumains” (Pretty Hands) but
doesn’t reveal his secret. We are left to wonder what has happened to Gaheris
and Gawain.
Meanwhile
in Cornwall, two sisters are living under siege by the Knight of the Red Lands,
a brutish but skilled knight who wants to marry the beautiful elder sister
Lyonesse. Plainer, feistier, and smarter than her sister, Lynet has grown tired
of watching knights fail to rescue them. She sneaks of out her castle with the
idea of going to Camelot for help. Lost on the way, she runs into a mysterious
dwarf named Roger who agrees to guide her to Camelot. The pair immediately
begin a round of witty banter, which in Gerald Morris’s established style should
mean they’re attracted to each other.
At
Camelot, Lynet and Roger part ways. Lynet is taken in by some familiar faces: Terence
and his love Eileen. They help her get an audience with King Arthur and the
Round Table. Lynet describes her plight, but is reluctant to give her name as
her father fought in a rebellion against Arthur and she believes Arthur will
refuse to help the daughter of an enemy. Instead, the opposite happens: Arthur
begins to refuse her help because she won’t give her name, but Beaumains steps
in and asks to take on the task. Lynet, highly insulted by this “kitchen
knave”’s audacity, mocks him and storms out only to discover Beaumains has
followed her. They meet up with Roger by coincidence and he reluctantly agrees
to take them back to Cornwall since neither Lynet nor Beaumains knows the way.
On
the way, Beaumains gets into several fights with random knights, some more
intelligent than others. Lynet is tutored in herblore by a mischievous faery
friend of Terence’s and told she has great potential to learn magic. She also
develops a crush on Beaumains/Gareth, to the torment of Roger (Gaheris, cursed
to be a dwarf except for a few hours on certain nights), who has fallen in love
with her himself.
They reach Lynet’s home, Gareth defeats the Knight of the Red Lands and immediately falls hard for Lyonesse. This pains Lynet and infuriates Gaheris, who can’t stand to see the woman he loves cast aside by someone who doesn’t appreciate her. However, Lyonesse perversely plays hard to get and refuses Gareth’s advances, so Gareth and Roger/Gaheris leave. Lynet is taken to the Other World for her final and most extensive tutoring in magic by Morgan le Fay, where she also discovers that she has fallen out of love with Gareth. She returns to the World of Men in time to discover Lyonesse has had Roger imprisoned in order to learn more about Beaumains. Gareth shows up again, and is this time welcomed in now that Lyonesse has discovered Beaumains is Prince Gareth of Orkney.
Lyonesse
and Gareth agree to meet in his room after everyone else is asleep to sex it
up, but they’re not very subtle as both Lynet and Roger/Gaheris overhear the
plan. This is the last straw for Gaheris, and it also happens to be a night
when he’s human again. He borrows some armor and confronts Gareth while he and
Lyonesse are naked in bed. Lynet hears the commotion and comes running. Gaheris
and Gareth fight, and while Gaheris manages to wound Gareth in a way that
ensures he won’t be having sex for awhile, Gaheris’s wounds are fatal. Lynet
drags him back to her own room and uses a healing potion given to her by Morgan
on him before he dies. Gaheris then realizes his curse is broken and explains:
he was put under a dwarf-spell by an enchantress for being rude to her, and
could only break it when he learned to truly honor a woman. He and Lynet
confess their love for one another, much to Gaheris’s surprise as he believed
Lynet still loved Gareth.
Then
comes the problem of what to do next. Gaheris has to leave or there might be
suspicion he was behind the midnight attack. In looking for a place to conceal
him the lovers come across Lancelot, of all people, who has been hiding nearby
in the forest as a simple woodcutter. Gaheris stays the night with him.
The
next day Gawain arrives, searching for Gaheris and Gareth. Gareth attacks him,
mistakenly believing Gawain has been telling people he is a better knight than
Lancelot. Lynet thinks fast and bullshitty and tells Gareth that the mysterious
attacker the previous night was Sir Wozzell, Defeater of Lancelot (Gareth never
saw Gaheris’s face and was dumb enough not to recognize his own brother’s voice
taunting him with things only his brothers would know). Having “defeated” “Sir
Wozzell”, Gareth has fulfilled his vow to restore Lancelot’s honor in a way his
simple mind can understand.
Gareth
marries Lyonesse, Gaheris marries Lynet. The latter pair move north to become
the stewards of Orkney having discovered the paths they were meant to be on.
The
Characters
Lynet:
If you thought Eileen from the last book was a spitfire, she has nothing on
Lynet. Eileen never reaches for weapons when crossed. Lynet isn’t a trained
fighter but she has a temper and a tendency to grab whatever weapon is
available when she loses it. While blessed with good sense and a razor wit,
Lynet isn’t immune to the charms of a handsome man and spends a lot of the middle
of the book crushing on Gareth and being completely blind to his faults. She
takes to magic well but according to Morgan will never be a particularly
powerful enchantress, as she is too attached to the human world and is weakened
further by deep love (this, by the way, is why Morgause is so powerful: she
loves no one and spends all her time studying magic). Lynet and Gaheris are
well matched in this series: both are witty and not particularly interested in
power or glory, while Lynet’s hot temper is balanced by Gaheris’s friendly
unflappability.
Gaheris:
In this book we are introduced to two of Gawain’s brothers. Gaheris, as the
second son in this version, has been nominally head of the Orkney family in the
seven years Gawain was gone on his quest for the Green Knight. In that time he
has matured considerably off-screen, from the moron first mentioned in The Squire’s Tale to a man fairly
comfortable with who he is, with a strong sense of family loyalty. In this
story he finally comes into his own. He knows he shouldn’t be a knight. He’s really
bad at fighting. What he hasn’t figured out until this book is what he wants to
do instead. For awhile he enjoys being a dwarf because there are no expectations
to meet. Then he runs into Lynet, and realizes there are upsides to being human
he hadn’t thought of.
Gaheris
has a sharper wit than Gawain. He also seems to have a thing for grammar, a
characteristic I love. He is very realistic but tends to underestimate his own
value. This causes some problems when he refuses to pursue Lynet because he
thinks she wouldn’t be interested, but instead ends up hurting her every time
he tries to leave or push her away. Eventually with the help of Lynet and
Lancelot he discovers his true calling in life. He has also learned a similar
lesson to Gawain’s in The Squire’s Tale:
not all ladies are simpering damsels in distress. In defending Lynet’s honor
against the fickle Gareth, he is able to break the dwarf-curse and regain human
form permanently. As a bit of trivia, he is the sixth person to hold the title
“Sir Wozzell” that we know of. You can never have too many.
Gareth:
There seems to be a thing with Morris’s four Orkney brothers. Of two major
traits, intelligence and good at fighting, each one has a different mix.
Gawain, the eldest, is intelligent and good at fighting. Gaheris is intelligent
but bad at fighting. Agrivaine is an idiot and bad at fighting. So that leaves
Gareth, the youngest, to be an idiot but good at fighting. He is worse than
Lancelot used to be, because at least Lancelot saved all his foolish devotion
for one woman. Gareth bounces to whatever woman is prettiest within a certain
radius. While an excellent fighter—he bests Kai—he is shown to be no match for
Gawain, or presumably his hero Lancelot. Oh, yeah, and his worship of Lancelot
is kind of pathetic. His buried mommy issues over Morgause leaving when he was
young might account for it. Here’s hoping Gaheris permanently castrated him
because the idea of Gareth and Lyonesse reproducing is nauseating.
Lyonesse:
Lynet’s selfish and cruel but gorgeous elder sister. She only cares that the
knight she marries be famous and preferably titled. She is also skilled at
manipulation of suitors and after capturing Gareth’s attention she toys with
him in order to buy time until she finds out he is a prince and the brother of
Gawain. After that she is all over him.
Morgan
le Fay: This is the most time we have spent with Morgan so far in the series.
We get a better sense of her human side as she teaches Lynet sorcery. It seems
that even though she gets along with Gawain she has less interest or affection
for her other three nephews. It appears she is sometimes tasked with the job of
training enchantresses newly come into their power.
Lancelot:
He pops up as the mysterious woodcutter who saves both Lynet and Roger. He
reveals that after his humiliation at the hands of “Sir Wozzell”, he had
intended to shut himself away from the world as punishment. However, he has discovered
that there is much more honor to be gained from simple hard work than by
following the latest trends and being called the best fighter in the land. Probably
to Story’s dismay, this is where we start liking Lancelot. No longer the
thoughtless robot just going through the motions, he now has reason to look for
real meaning in his life.
Kai:
He recognizes Beaumains as Gareth but chooses to let Gareth continue his
charade, giving him his mocking nickname to keep people from asking what his
real name is. Rather considerate of the seneschal, in his own way. He also
convinces Arthur to allow Beaumains/Gareth to take on the challenge of killing
the Knight of the Red Lands. He teases Gareth and Lynet, but Gareth pays him
back once he is in armor again by defeating him in a joust. Kai takes this in
stride; like most people who are confident in their own skill, he is not
concerned if beaten when trying to make a point.
Arthur:
Here he is briefly seen as a just king who is not a pushover even for damsels
in distress, as he is about to refuse to help Lynet when she won’t give her
name.
Gawain:
He gets a cameo at the very end. He and Gaheris adore each other, especially
now that Gaheris has really come into his own. It is also a little odd to see
Terence and Gawain separated when they are such a package deal in the first two
books. It seems that now that Terence is secretly a knight himself they are
much more independent and can function separately or together as the situation
demands. It is interesting to see Terence through other characters’ eyes; while
Terence tends to downplay his own abilities, everyone else with a brain stem
notices that there is something extraordinary, or at least unusual, about
Gawain’s quiet squire.
Sir
Dinadan and Sir Griflet make cameo appearances early on in the book, and Mark,
Tristram, Iseult, Tor and Palomides are mentioned. Morgause’s relationship with
her sons is explored in hindsight, including the detail that Agrivaine and
Gareth still mourn her while Gaheris and Gawain are relieved she is gone.
Overall
This is the Beauty and the Beast story I didn’t get with Morris’s version of
the Loathly Lady. Of course I’m going to love it to death. These are also some
of my favorite characters, particularly Gaheris. They are just so funny, and
loveable despite their flaws and mistakes. There is just enough of our previous
beloved characters to reassure us that they are not gone for good, they’ve just
faded to the background to make room for others’ stories.
Five
stars.
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