Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair
by William Morris
1895


CHAPTER I.

OF THE KING OF OAKENREALM, AND HIS WIFE AND HIS CHILD.


Of old there was a land which was so much a woodland, that a
minstrel thereof said it that a squirrel might go from end
to end, and all about, from tree to tree, and never touch
the earth: therefore was that land called Oakenrealm.

The lord and king thereof was a stark man, and so great a
warrior that in his youth he took no delight in aught else
save battle and tourneys. But when he was hard on forty
years old, he came across a daughter of a certain lord, whom
he had vanquished, and his eyes bewrayed him into longing,
so that he gave back to the said lord the havings he had
conquered of him that he might lay the maiden in his kingly
bed. So he brought her home with him to Oakenrealm and
wedded her.

Tells the tale that he rued not his bargain, but loved her
so dearly that for a year round he wore no armour, save when
she bade him play in the tilt-yard for her desport and
pride.