his folk came. He was not
there but one night, that a fair knight came to him; he told tiding to
Arthur the king, he said that there was arrived a monster, westward
from Spain; a fiend well loathsome; and in Britanny was busy to harm.
By the seaside the land he wasted wide--now it hight Mount Saint
Michel--the land he possesseth every part.--"Lord king," quoth the
knight, "in sooth I make known to thee right here, he hath taken away
thy relative, with great strength, a nobly born woman, Howel's
daughter choice, who was named Helen, noblest of maidens. To the mount
he carried her, noblest of maidens; now full a fortnight the fiend
hath holden her there right; we know not in life whether he have her
not to wife. All the men that he seizeth, he maketh to him for meat,
cattle, horses, and the sheep, goats, and the swine eke; all this land
he will destroy, unless thou allay our care, the land and this people;
in thee is our need." Yet said the knight to the monarch: "Seest thou,
lord, the mount, and the great wood, wherein the fiend dwelleth that
destroyeth this people? We have fought with him well many times; by
sea and by land this folk he destroyed; our ships he sank, the folk he
all drowned, those that fought on the land, those he down laid. We
have driven (suffered) that so long, that we let him alone, to act how
so he will, after his will, the knights of this land dare not with him
any more fight."

Arthur heard this, noblest of all kings; he called to him the Earl
Kay, who was his steward and his relative; Beduer eke to him he
called, he who was the king's cup-bearer. He bade them forth-right be
all ready at midnight, with all their weapons, to go with the king, so
that no man under Christ should know of their journey, except Arthur
the king, and the two knights with him, and their six swains, brave
men and active; and the knight that counselled it to the king should
lead them. At the midnight, when men were asleep, Arthur forth him
went, noblest of all kings. Before rode their guide, until it was
daylight; they alighted from their steeds, and righted their weeds.
Then saw they not far a great fire smoke, upon a hill, surrounded by
the sea-flood; and another hill there was most high; the sea by it
flowed full nigh, thereupon they saw a fire that was mickle and most
strong. The knights then doubted, to whether of the two they might go,
that the giant were not aware of the king's movement. Then Arthur the
bold took hi