time,
he noted that his ring was not on his hand. He quickly sought the dwarf
and obliged him to surrender the magic ring. No sooner was it on his
finger than his armor changed color, and he was able to avoid a
threatened pursuit, as all were in search of the Yellow Knight.
A
ring having magic power to protect the wearer from danger appears in
the mediaeval romance of Sir Eglamore. The tale appears to have been
known to Shakespeare, to judge from the line: "What think'st thou of
the fair Sir Eglamore," which occurs in Two Gentlemen of Verona. This
ring was given to the gallant knight by his lady love : *°
Then
said Arnada, that sweete thing "Have here of me a gold ring With a
precyous stone ; Where-soe you bee on water or Land And this ring upon
your hand Nothing may you slone." 41
Sometimes
the virtues of the ring are conceived in a poetic spirit and are
associated intimately with the giver, as we find in the romance of
Ywaine and Gawin. Here the stone set in the ring given by Ywaine
protects the wearer from imprisonment, illness, loss of blood, and
danger in battle, but the lady tells her lover that this virtue exists
in the ring "while you it have and think on me," that is, only so long
as his love endures.42
40 Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, ed. by John W. Hales and Frederick J. Furnivall, London, 1868, Vol. II, p. 363.
41 Slay.
42 Ritson, " Ancient English Medical Romances," London, 1802, vol. I, p. 65.
