for a night and the following morning "a great giant came out of the wood, picked Egil up and tucked him under his arm." Carle in medieval Arthurian romance Yvain, the Knight of the Lion Lord of the animals Before Sir Yvain can approach the fountain which the Knight of the Fountain defends, in Chretien de Troyes' 12th-century Arthurian romance Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, he must pass a giant churl, a herdsman, who is in command of all the animals of the forest. In a Middle English version of this story, Sir Colgrievance relates to Queen Guinevere the story of his own encounter with this giant: 'The woodland was full of leopards, lions, bears and wild bulls, roaring and bellowing! Trying to escape, I came upon a clearing; and here stood the ugliest man I have ever seen! He held a club in his hand, his head was the size of an ox's and his hair hung to his waist. His ears were like an elephant's, his face was flat with a nose like a cat's and his eyebrows were like thorn bushes! And his clothes were peculiar; they were not made of wool, but neither were they made of linen! 'What are you, my friend?' I asked. 'I am a man,' he replied. 'I have never seen one like you before!' 'I look after the animals. I am master of them all.' Harpin of the mountain Later in the romance, Sir Yvain, having heard this story from Sir Colgrievance, follows the same route, encounters the same giant herdsman and arrives at a fountain that appears to have similar properties to the Lake of Nemi, whose ancient customs Sir J G Frazer described in The Golden Bough. Here, Sir Yvain becomes the Knight of the Fountain by defeating the fountain's incumbent and, after many adventures, arrives at a castle owned by a lord whose wife is Sir Gawain's sister. Sir Gawain's nephews have been captured by a giant: "The geant was bath large and lang And bare a levore of yren ful strang; Tharwith he bet tham bitterly..." 'If you want your sons back,' he cried, 'then deliver to me your daughter so that I can give her to my foulest sex-starved scullions to do with as they want. She will no longer be a virgin when they have finished with her!' Sir Perceval of Galles The only