Yniol frankly admits in the tale that he was in the wrong in the
quarrel with his nephew. The poet, however, gives him the right, as
is natural. The combat is exactly followed in the Idyll, as is
Geraint's insistence in carrying his bride to Court in her faded
silks. Geraint, however, leaves Court with Enid, not because of the
scandal about Lancelot, but to do his duty in his own country. He
becomes indolent and uxorious, and Enid deplores his weakness, and
awakes his suspicions, thus:-


And one morning in the summer time they were upon their couch, and
Geraint lay upon the edge of it. And Enid was without sleep in the
apartment which had windows of glass. And the sun shone upon the
couch. And the clothes had slipped from off his arms and his breast,
and he was asleep. Then she gazed upon the marvellous beauty of his
appearance, and she said, "Alas, and am I the cause that these arms
and this breast have lost their glory and the warlike fame which they
once so richly enjoyed!" And as she said this, the tears dropped
from her eyes, and they fell upon his breast. And the tears she
shed, and the words she had spoken, awoke him; and another thing
contributed to awaken him, and that was the idea that it was not in
thinking of him that she spoke thus, but that it was because she
loved some other man more than him, and that she wished for other
society, and thereupon Geraint was troubled in his mind, and he
called his squire; and when he came to him, "Go quickly," said he,
"and prepare my horse and my arms, and make them ready. And do thou
arise," said he to Enid, "and apparel thyself; and cause thy horse to
be accoutred, and clothe thee in the worst riding-dress that thou
hast in thy possession. And evil betide me," said he, "if thou
returnest here until thou knowest whether I have lost my strength so