Dame Ragnelle
The ugliest woman in England, who knows what women most desire, and marries Gawain for it.
Arthur must answer a riddle within a year on pain of death: what is it that women most desire? Ragnelle knows, and will sell the answer for one price — marriage to Gawain, who agrees without hesitation to save his king. The answer is sovereignty: to have rule over themselves and over men. On the wedding night she turns beautiful, and offers Gawain a choice: fair by day and foul by night, or the reverse. He gives the choice back to her. That is the correct answer, and it breaks the enchantment entirely.
Where Dame Ragnelle appears
Dame Ragnelle appears in a single episode. A short arc is a fact about the figure, not a gap in the record.
- 1Dame Ragnelle and the sovereignty riddle
the riddle, the marriage, and the choice given back
Quoted
“Whate wemen desyren moste, in good faye, my lyf els shold I lese”
Syr Gawayne — the Madden romances, the riddle (Sir Gromer's demand)“We desyren of men, aboue alle maner thyng, to haue the soveraynté, withoute lesyng, of alle, bothe hyghe and lowe”
Syr Gawayne — the Madden romances, the answer