The story of the Loathly Lady has been told in several different ways. Such examples of these stories are The Wife of Bath by Geoffrey Chaucer, King Arthur Meets a Really Ugly Woman by Hahn, and Steeleye Span’s King Henry. In all three instances, the Loathly Lady is a woman who is exceptionally ugly in appearance. In the Wife of Bath, it was said that “There can no man imagine an uglier creature.” and in Hahn’s tale, “She was the ugliest creature that a man ever saw.”
In the case of the Wife of Bath, a knight commits rape and is sentenced to death by the Queen. His only way out is to correctly answer the question, “what do all women desire the most?” (Chaucer, 2019) He runs into the Loathly Lady, who gives him the correct answer in exchange for his hand in marriage. “Alas and woe is me!... Take all my goods and let my body go.” He marries the Loathly Lady and had to consummate their marriage. The knight was extremely reluctant. “Thou art so loathsome, and so old also, and moreover descended from such low born lineage, that little wonder is though I toss and twist about.” (Chaucer, 2019) She offers him a choice of whether or not he’d prefer “to have me ugly and old until I die, and be to you a true, humble wife, and never displease you in all my life, or else you will have me young and fair, and take your chances of the crowd, that shall be at your house because of me, or in some other place as it may well be.” (Chaucer, 2019) The knight gives up and says that the choice is up to the Loathly Lady, which she considers an affirmation of her mastery over him. She then turns into a beautiful young woman.
The Loathly Lady in King Arthur Meets a Really Ugly Woman asks King Arthur to find her a knight to wed-- Gawain. She says if King Arthur doesn’t make Gawain marry her, he will die. King Arthur returns to Carlisle, and tells Gawain the problem. Gawain says he will marry her “I shall wed her and wed her again, even if she be a fiend… Otherwise I wouldn’t be your friend. You are my honoured king and have done me good many times. Therefore, I hesitate not to save your life, my lord. It is my duty.” (Breeden, 2019) In this case, Gawain marries the Loathly Lady out of loyalty to his king, and she gives him the kindness of turning into a beautiful lady.
In Span’s King Henry, the Loathly Lady asks King Henry for food, for more food, a drink, a bed. Then she asks him to lay next to her naked and for him to take her as his bride. King Henry did so, but the next morning “then the night as gone and the day was come and the sun shone through the hall, the fairest lady that was ever seen lay between him and the wall.”
In all three, the men had to overcome their revulsion and lay with all renditions of the Loathly Lady. The Loathly Lady always starts out as a disgusting woman, and in the end, becomes a beautiful woman after they lay with her. It is believed that the actions of the male are “heroic” because of the fact that they have to overcome the great obstacle of sleeping with an ugly woman in order to save someone’s life.
Breeden, D. (2019). The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell Translated by David Breee. Retrieved from http://www.lone-star.net/mall/literature/gawain.htm
Chaucer, G. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.b-g.k12.ky.us/userfiles/1049/The-Wife-of-Bath-s-Tale%20text.pdf
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