Then the knight arose and went forth to Mass, and afterward dinner was
served, and he sat and spake with the ladies all day. But the lord of
the castle rode ever over the land chasing the wild boar, that fled
through the thickets, slaying the best of his hounds and breaking their
backs in sunder; till at last he was so weary he might run no longer,
but made for a hole in a mound by a rock. He got the mound at his back
and faced the hounds, whetting his white tusks and foaming at the mouth.
The huntsmen stood aloof, fearing to draw nigh him; so many of them had
been already wounded that they were loth to be torn with his tusks, so
fierce he was and mad with rage. At length the lord himself came up, and
saw the beast at bay, and the men standing aloof. Then quickly he sprang
to the ground and drew out a bright blade, and waded through the stream
to the boar.
When the beast was ware of the knight with weapon in hand, he set up his
bristles and snorted loudly, and many feared for their lord lest he
should be slain. Then the boar leapt upon the knight so that beast and
man were one atop of the other in the water; but the boar had the worst
of it, for the man had marked, even as he sprang, and set the point of
his brand to the beast’s chest, and drove it up to the hilt, so that the
heart was split in twain, and the boar fell snarling, and was swept down
by the water to where a hundred hounds seized on him, and the men drew
him to shore for the dogs to slay.
Then was there loud blowing of horns and baying of hounds, the huntsmen
smote off the boar’s head, and hung the carcase by the four feet to a
stout pole, and so went on their way homewards. The head they bore
before the lord himself, who had slain the beast at the ford by force of
his strong hand.
It seemed him o’er long ere he saw Sir Gawain in the hall, and he blew a
blast on his horn to let all men know that he was come again to take his
part in the covenant. And when he saw Gawain the lord laughed aloud, and
bade them call the ladies and the household together, and he showed them
the game, and told them the tale, how they had hunted the wild boar
through the woods, and of his length and breadth and height; and Sir
Gawain commended his deeds and praised him for his valour, well proven,
for so mighty a beast had he never seen before.