N I G H T B R I N G E R . S E
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FOREST
- Forest of Adventures
The forest near Cardigan, mentioned by Chrétien, where Arthur’s held his annual hunt for the white stag. The thirteenth-century Lancelot do Lac says that a false report was circulated that Lancelot had been killed in the Forest; this report caused the death of Lancelot’s friend, Galehaut. Another Forest of Adventures, also called Arroy, is mentioned by Malory.
- Forest of Brambles
Forest de l'Espinoie
A wood by the city of Caranges in Scotland. Gawain, his father Lot, and his brothers Agravain, Gaheris, and Gareth crossed it on the way to fight Saxons in Arestel.
- Forest of Misadventures
A dangerous forest along the Devil’s Road. Arthur’s Duke Galescalain of Clarence transversed the forest on his way to the Valley of No Return.
- Forest of No Return
Forest Sans Retour
A wood called the Perilous Forest until Guinebal (Lancelot’s uncle) fell in love with a local lady and created the Magic Dance, which trapped all passers-by. The lady, called the Wise Lady of the Forest of No Return, was the mother of Agraveil and aunt of Elinadas, two knights in Arthur’s service. The forest was also called the Lost Forest.
- Forest of Serpents
A British forest abundant in snakes. It contained the Giant’s Tower and the Spring of Healing, where Palamedes defeated Sir Atamas and rescued Gawain. In another adventure in the forest, Perceval saved a maiden from Sagremor and the Ugly Hero.
- Forest of Shadows
The home of the Red Knight slain by Perceval.
- Forest of the Boiling Well
It was later known as Galahad's Fountain, boiling constantly. Sir Lancelot's grandfather, King Lancelot, had a great and honorable love for his cousin's beautiful, saintly wife. The cousin, a duke, misconstrued the relationship. As King Lancelot was on his way home through the Perilous Forest, he stopped to drink at a fountain. Here his cousin, the duke, ambushed him and cut off his head, which fell into the fountain. The fountain started to boil and scalded the duke's hand when he tried to remove the head. The duke and his men buried the king near the fountain. As they were entering their castle, a stone fell from the roof and killed them.
King Lancelot's widow erected a tomb. The tomb bled every day in several places, at the hour of the murder. Two lions fought fiercely over a stag near the tomb. They wounded each other grievously, but the drops of blood from the tomb healed them. Henceforth, they guarded the tomb, taking turns to hunt their food. A hermitage, also, was either near this site already or was built nearby in the years between King Lancelot and his more famous grandson.
When Sir Lancelot came to the well, having been directed by his grandfather in a dream, he killed the lions, retrieved his grandfather's head, opened the tomb, and, with the help of the hermit, reburied the body, with the head, at the front of the altar, where King Lancelot's wife was buried. Because Sir Lancelot was not pure, however, the water continued to boil. Only when Galahad arrived did the water cease boiling; the fountain was thereafter called 'Galahad's Fountain'.
Malory omits the above history, but describes Galahad's coming to the place. Galahad departed from the "Abbey of King Mordrains"
"and so came into a perilous forest where he found the well the which boileth with great waves. ... And as soon as Galahad set his hand thereto it ceased, so that it brent no more, and the heat departed. For that it brent it was a sign of lechery, the which was that time much used. But that heat might not abide his pure virginity. And this was taken in the country for a miracle. And so ever after was it called Galahad's well."
Because Malory's work seems largely a summarization, that Malory recounts Galahad's visit to the boiling well immediately after his visit to Mordrain's abbey does not necessarily mean they are in the same region. The Vulgate tells us that Lancelot lost his way while returning from this forest to Le Tertre Deuee and saw the white stag conducted by four lions. This appears to place the "Forest of the Boiling Well", the castle of Le Tertre Deuee, the abbey of La Petite Aumosne, and possibly King Vagor's Isle Estrange in the general vicinity of Carteloise Forest in southern Scotland.
- Forest of the Pine
A wood where Arthur hunted.
- Forest of the Three Perils
A forest in Gorre visited by Lancelot during his quest to rescue Guinevere from Meleagant.
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