When will men finally learn?

[Stonepounder]

Stumbled across this link searching for something else. Fascinating (and entertaining) read.
Full story at link. This story was also recounted in a slightly different form in The Canterbury Tales in The Wife of Bath's Tale for you English Lit geeks out there.

http://www.chivalrynow.net/articles1/gawain.htm

Gawain & Gender Relationships

One of the most fascinating stories to arise from Arthurian literature regarding gender relationships has to be The Marriage of Sir Gawain. Here we find incredible insight that would not fully be appreciated in Western culture for centuries after it was written.

Let me preface this article by acknowledging the important part that women played throughout the Arthurian genre. While the stories primarily concern themselves with battles or other challenges to knightly prowess, women often appear, sometimes nameless, to guide a knight to his next adventure, clue him in on a problem's resolution, or test his virtue. It has been speculated that these convenient damsels evolved from earlier stories, where goddesses provided much the same purpose.

The inference is that men have much to learn from women about life and nature and our own purpose in the scheme of things. When we devalue or reject their intuitive knowledge, or ignore their intellectual capabilities, which are considerable, we do so at our own peril, and at the peril of the world we live in.

On with the story:
King Arthur, while hunting in a forest one day, is accosted by a powerful knight who threatens to kill him. The king dissuades the knight, but only after committing himself to a quest. If, within a year’s time, he finds the answer to a particular question, they both part their ways in peace. If he does not, he must willingly surrender himself to the knight for execution.

The question he had to find the answer to was this: "What do women most desire?"

[BigmanPigman]

1. R-E-S-P-E-C-T

[Stonepounder]

2. Yep. But my OP is more fun to read.

[betsuni]

3. K&R