either he can have an old, unattractive, yet loyal wife or a young and beautiful wife that will be unfaithful to him. The knight decides to let his wife choose, and she transforms instead into a wife both beautiful and loyal, because he gave her the sovereignty to choose. See also Hag Hercules at the crossroads King Henry (song) Perchta Pig-faced women Sheela na gig The Frog Prince Women in the Middle Ages Bibliography Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer. London, J. Cape and the Medicine Society, 1928. Claridge, Alexandra. “‘of Bath’: A Middle English Idiomatic Epithet”. Notes and Queries 67:3 (Sept. 2020), 338–340. Gould, Karen and Jane L. Ball. "The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer." Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature, January. Passmore, S. Elizabeth and Susan Carter. The English "Loathly Lady" Tales : Boundaries, Traditions, Motifs. Kalamazoo, Mich. : Medieval Institute Publications, c2007. References External links The Loathly Lady at the Camelot Project The Loathly Lady at Jones' Celtic Encyclopedia Arthurian characters European folklore characters Celtic mythology Curses Fictional shapeshifters Germanic mythology Medieval literature Mythological archetypes Shapeshifting Female stock characters Ugliness Witchcraft in folklore and mythology