had returned to life as her final gift to him. Arthurian/British legend In her capacity as a quest-bringer, the loathly lady can be found in the literature of the Holy Grail, including Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, and the Welsh Romance Peredur son of Efrawg associated with the Mabinogion. The best known treatment is in "The Wife of Bath's Tale", in which a knight, told that he can choose whether his bride is to be ugly yet faithful, or beautiful yet false, frees the lady from the form entirely by allowing her to choose for herself. A variation on this story is attached to Sir Gawain in the related romances The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle and The Marriage of Sir Gawain. Another version of the motif is the Child ballad "King Henry". In this ballad, the king must appease the loathly lady as she demands increasing tribute from him. The next morning, he is surprised as she transforms into a beautiful woman. Norse tradition The loathly lady also appears in the Old Norse Hrólfr Kraki's saga where Hróarr's brother Helgi was visited one Yule by an ugly being while he was in his hunting house. No person in the entire kingdom allowed the being to enter the house, except Helgi. Later, the thing asked to sleep in his bed. Unwillingly he agreed, and as the thing got into the bed, it turned into an elvish woman, who was clad in silk and who was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He raped her, and made her pregnant with a daughter named Skuld. Helgi forgot the woman and a couple of days after the date had passed, he was visited by the woman, who had Skuld in her arms. The daughter would later marry Hjörvarðr, Hrólfr Kraki's killer. This tradition is also present in the Northumbrian tale The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh. Similar to this tale, is that of Hjálmþés saga ok Ölvis. "The Wife of Bath's Tale" The tale told by The Wife of Bath in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is one of the most prominent examples of the loathly lady motif. The story begins during the rule of King Arthur over the Isle of Britain. It was a time when the people of the Isle of Britain were terrorized by friars who raped women.