Synopsis
"King Arthur and King Cornwall" occurs in a damaged section of the Percy Folio; about half of each page was ripped out to start fires. As such, the ballad is missing about half of its content, though some of the missing material can be deduced from context. Apparently after bragging about the excellence of his famed Round Table, King Arthur is told by Guinevere that another king has an even better one. Arthur and his company leave their kingdom (here Brittany rather than Great Britain) in disguise searching for this king, and eventually come to Cornwall, where the resident monarch offends them with a series of boasts about his magical items, the child he fathered on Guinevere, and Arthur's comparative mediocrity. All go off to bed, and the Knights of the Round Table make a series of vows against Cornwall's boasts, such as Gawain's declaration that he will make off with Cornwall's daughter.
Arthur's men discover Cornwall has sent a seven-headed monster, a sprite named Burlow Beanie, to spy on them. Sir Bredbeddle, the Green Knight, wages a long battle against him with a sword from Cologne, a Milanese knife, a Danish axe, and finally a sacred page which gives him the upper hand. As a test of his control over the creature, he orders him to fetch a horse. Though Burlow Beanie obeys, he rebels when another knight, Marramile, tries to control him, and the Green Knight is called in to help. A missing section likely described Arthur's men taking possession of Cornwall's other magical objects and learning the secret of their use from the sprite. The remaining text describes Arthur beheading King Cornwall with his own sword; the final missing half page likely described his triumph.
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