Part 1
The Knight of
The Sparrow Hawk

 Part 2
Sir Geraint
& The Knight
of the
Sparrow Hawk

 Part 3
Sir Geraint
& Lady Enid

Part 4
Geraint & Enid
In the
Land of the
Evil Earl

 Part 5
Encounter
with the
Little King

 Part 6
The Three
Giants


Back to Soul-Mates and Divine Relationship


Only Love Counts: Part 6

Sir Geraint and the Three Giants

What does it take in a person's life to put down the physical so the spiritual may rise and the love energy may be taken on up to the heart chakra and beyond? Extreme measures might be necessary. Sometimes it takes a near death experience. For many people, even this is not enough, for they cannot break through to the light, and the light cannot break through to them. Although they cannot love God, they can love someone near and dear to them, and this is one way to love God. And when that much-loved person is threatened, when Enid is threatened, then Geraint's love that nearly destroyed him becomes his salvation.

Chakra 4, Geraint's heart chakra, begins to open, and we see a man who is far more fearless going into battle against twelve knights and three giants than he is going into the unconditional love energy of chakra 4. Built into this part of the story is the archetypal symbol of the mind disincarnate - a decapitated head. This means the body is cut off, the physical is sublimated to the spiritual, and this also symbolizes the rise of the energy of immortality through pingala into chakras 4 and 5. Also symbolized in this story is the lightning path of shushumna from the throat at chakra 5 to the top of the head at chakra 7, outlined by the lightning strike of a sword and the cleaving into of an Earl.

Geraint must quickly ascend to Enid's level of love or else he stands some chance of losing her. As it is, she has much to forgive and forget, and this is Enid's personal trial involving unconditional love. Shakespeare said the course of true love never did run smooth. Maybe he was thinking of Geraint and Enid when he wrote that. Their story of love, widely popular throughout the ages, preceded his life by about 400 years.

Sir Geraint and the Three Giants

After leaving King Arthur's encampment, Geraint and Enid travel for some time until they come to a thick, dark and dismal forest, where they hear someone crying out in mourning. In a glade of the forest they see a lady and two horses and a knight lying dead on the ground and covered with blood. "What happened?" Geraint inquires of the lady. "Three giants came out of the woods upon us and killed him," the lady says. "Which way did they go?" asks Geraint. "Down that path," the lady says, pointing and weeping. Geraint tells Enid he will ride after them and for her to stay with the lady, and Enid tries to stop him by reminding him of his newly healed wounds and of his own weakness. But Geraint pays no attention to her and rides off in pursuit the giants. After awhile he sees them walking along side by side, each wearing a huge body-piece of armor and each carrying a huge club girded with iron.

Geraint charges upon them and runs one of them straight through with his lance. He withdraws it and runs it straight another one. Before he can withdraw this time, the third giant smashes him a terrible blow with his club, and Geraint's shield and helmet are split and his armor is beaten off his shoulder. Geraint falls to his knees, all his newly healed wounds bursting open and bleeding. He recovers, rushes the giant, swings his sword and cuts the giant's head clean off. Then Geraint, leaving the three where they lie, mounts his horse and rides back to Enid and the lady, saying, "Lady---," but stops, sways from side to side, and falls lifeless from his horse onto the ground.

Enid runs to him and puts his head in her lap. She thinks he is dead, because his face is completely white. In grief she raises her voice and cries loud and shrill. In that forest not far away is the Earl of Limours, who hears Enid cry and goes to see with his knights what lady is crying. They gallop forward and find Enid and the lady and two dead knights. The Earl of Limours says to Enid, "What has happened here?" Enid tells him of the three giants who have killed the only man she will ever love. The other lady says the same. "Which way did they go?" asks the Earl, and both Enid and the lady point to the path. The Earl and his knights ride after the giants and come upon them all lying dead. "That was a strong knight to have killed these three giants, " says the Earl.

They return to the forest glade and examine the knights. One of them is dead, but the other one is not completely dead. So the dead one they bury and the other one they take to the castle and also both ladies. The Earl's castle is very large and beautiful. Inside the castle the physicians come to examine Geraint, and the leech comes to bleed him. They all determine he is not totally dead but very near to it. The Earl suggests the ladies go change clothes, and one of them does but Enid refuses. She stays beside Geraint. The Earl tells her, "Go change clothes. You are very beautiful and you will be even more attractive to me if you will wear nice clothes. Your lord is going to die, and when he is dead I will marry you and bestow myself and my castle and all my lands upon you." But Enid only weeps and says, "I don't know what to do, for I am very lonely. If my lord dies I will never be happy again as long as I live." "Take heart, pretty one," says the Earl. "I cannot take heart," replies Enid.

Then the Earl gives orders that a feast be made ready, and when it is ready he says to Enid, "Come sit beside me and eat." She says, "I will not eat and I will not sit at table unless my lord sits with me." The Earl laughs and says, "Lady, you are foolish, for your knight will never sit and eat again, for he is dead, or else just now dying." This causes Enid to cry very bitterly. The Earl says, "Come sit by me, and I will have your knight brought to the table, also." He has his servants bring Geraint to the table on a bier, and they lay him beside the table. He takes Enid's hand and leads her to the table and compels her to sit by him. But she refuses to eat. He offers her wine and she refuses to drink. "Drink this wine. It will help you forget." "I will not drink," says Enid, "until my husband arises and drinks with me." This makes the Earl very angry and pops her on her ear.

Now Enid feels the loneliness of her life at its extreme, and she thinks the Earl would never dare hit her if Geraint were alive and well. She cries out loudly, she shrieks aloud.

Geraint this whole time has been recovering and lying quietly listening to everything around him. He hears Enid refuse to eat and drink and he hears her shriek with pain when the Earl hits her. The eyes of his soul open and he realizes how crazy and blind he has been this whole time and how faithful Enid has been, how beautiful her love is for him. Then rage and shame flame up like a fire within him, and he feels the strength of ten men come into him. He grabs the sword beside him and the shield and leaps up, all white and smeared with blood, frightening everyone because he looks like a dead man just come to life. He runs over beside the Earl and cries out, "Would you dare to hit my wife?" and hits him on the head with all his strength, splitting the Earl right down the middle to his chest, the blade of the sword stopped only by the oaken table into which it cuts. Everyone clears the room except for Geraint and Enid and the dead man sitting dreadfully in his chair.

Enid says to Geraint, "Oh, my husband, are you dead or alive?" Geraint replies, "Beloved, I am alive and well. Let us make haste to escape this place while we can. Where are our horses?" Enid leads Geraint to the horses, but only one horse can be found. Geraint mounts his horse and reaches his hand to Enid and lifts her up from the ground and places her on the horse behind him. She wraps her arms around his body, like shakti wrapped around lingam, and he feels her arms with great joy and delight. Once more on the path of love, they ride away hastily and no one dares stop them because they believe it is the living riding with the dead. Just as they depart, a small group of horsemen rides toward them, and it is the Little King, come to help Geraint. "I heard you were in trouble," he says. "I am come to help you." Geraint thanks him and tells him there is no need, they have escaped their troubles, and they ride forward with the Little King.

As they ride Geraint turns his head and looks at Enid and sees how thin and colorless she is because of the hardships of his anger and his injustices to her, and he turns his head away and bows his head. After awhile he lifts his head and says to her, "Lady, can you forgive me?" "I do forgive you," says Enid, "but I will never forget." Geraint is dismayed and asks her, "Do you still love me in spite of all I have done? I have made your life a misery because I believed my life to be a misery. But I want you to know that even though it seemed I cared not at all for you, I loved you deeply, more than I ever thought possible." Enid is heartened by his words and says, "Well then, we must start anew and begin again, for if we have love, it is the only thing that matters. Only love counts," she tells him and he turns and kisses her full upon the lips as they ride at long last toward Camelot.

Claire Watson
Shield Guide