Aastha Kumar

Loathly Lady
And as thou hast seen me loathsome, bestial, horrible at first and beautiful at last, so is the
sovereignty; for seldom it is gained without battles and conflicts; but at last to anyone it is beautiful
and goodly.
- The Adventures of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedon 1

Chivalry and Romance are two words associated with Knights and so in the times of Arthurian
Romances, King Arthurs Knights were depicted to be chivalric, respectable and responsible. But in
Chaucers Wife of Bath, the wifes tale is about the transformation of a lusty and uncourtly knight
using the theme of the Loathly Lady. This was a common theme amongst Arthurian Romances
where a loathly lady accompanies or helps the knight in his quest. This results in the asking of a
sexual favour like kiss or marriage by the loathly lady of the knight. The Wife of Baths tale follows a
similar pattern but with some alterations from the original conventions. The Wedding of Sir Gawain
and Dame Ragnelle is a similar tale and the wifes tale is an allusion to it with Chaucers own
diversions. This is the feminine version of modern popular culture characters like Beautys Beast or
the Frog Prince.
The transformed hag or the loathly lady as a motif is an elaborate one. The image of a loathly lady is,
as the name suggests, an awful representation of a woman. This lady is shown to be ugly, foul, old and
beastly. There is an air of magic associated with them and the shape-shifting ability is always present
which makes them into beautiful women. The tales constantly remind the readers of the ugliness of
the old hag which reinforces the image. Thomas Hahn, in his Introduction to Sir Gawain and Dame
Ragnelle, discusses the figure of Dame Ragnelle as follows: Her double role - both Beauty and the
Beast - endows her with a deep ambiguity, enmeshing both attraction and revulsion, fatal danger and
1 Echtra mac nechach Muigmedon: The Adventures of Sons of Eochaid
Mugmedon. Ed. And transl. Whitley Stokes. Pp. 190-207. Rvue Celtique. 1903.
1

life-giving knowledge; such worrisome duplicity often attaches itself to women (and to femininity
generally) in popular romance, and throughout Western culture. 2 Thomas Hahn is right in making
this statement as femininity is regarded as dangerous and beastly throughout history. The
description of Dame Ragnelle in The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle is:
Her face was red, her nose snotid withalle,
Her mouithe wide, her teethe yallowe overe alle,
With blerid eyen gretter then a balle;
Her mouith was not to lak;
Her teethe hing overe her lippes..(Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, 331)
This hideous woman with fat lips, yellow teeth and red face is an image of a brute. Since ancient
times, there has always been an association of women with the monstrous as seen in the example of
Medusa. She is literally depicted as a monster who has snakes instead of hair and a gaze that can turn
anyone who looks at her into stone. Another example of this is Duessa who is half-serpent and halfwoman. In The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle the figure of the loathly lady or the old
hag is ghastly due to the ladys low estate (Hahn, Thomas. Introduction.) The Loathly Lady doesnt
belong to the nobility in that form which is a cause for her lack of manners and beauty. The lack
takes away from her actual figure and positions her in the stereotypical image. It renders her to be
socially embarrassing for Sir Gawain at the wedding feast when She ete as moche as vj. that ther
wore, That mervaylyd many a man (Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, 605) Similarly, in Allisouns
Tale the loathly lady lacks manners and also, beauty and wealth. This is because of their low position
in society and not because of inherent wildness. Therefore, its the lack that characterises the
figure of the loathly lady. The central role of the hag ensures her role as the leader of the sexual
pursuit. It is the old hag who asks for a sexual favour which the knight has to agree to which makes
him the hunter hunted. In Susan Carters essay Coupling the Beastly Bride and the Hunter
2 Web Source: http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/hahn-sir-gawain-wedding-of-sir-gawain-anddame-ragnelle-introduction
2

Hunted: What Lies behind Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" she states that the hag in her forest-side
locus, is a hunter who knows her prey's predilection (336) This helps in elucidating the idea of the
hunter hunted in the setting of a forest- syde (Wife of Bath, 990, pp. 72) This liminal space or locus
is where the knight finds the loathly lady and the answer to his question. The space where the loathly
lady resides is outside both the court and the forest. She is in a position of power as the knight is at
her mercy in this space. She is aware of her maistrie or mastery over him and uses it for her own
good. His hubris is used by the old hag to attract him towards her. The forest represents the wildness
in the hag while the court is political, sophisticated society of the knight. The hag lies in between of
these two spheres as she is larger than both. The royal court, seat of patriarchal power,
counterbalances the wilderness setting.(Carter, 330) The knight who belongs to the court is attracted
towards the dance of faeries but on a closer look, the dancing women vanish an instead an old hag
materialises on the grene (Wife of Bath, 998, pp. 72). This green represents the hag as a hunter and
the knight as a helpless prey. There is also an allusion to Goddess Diana when the loathly lady is
associated with forest. The personification makes her a divine figure in spite of her unpleasant looks.
Another recurring theme in both the tales is of sovereignty. This is reiterated through the figure of the
loathly lady. In some older Irish tales, the loathly lady represents the sovereignty of Ireland. While
this tradition is disregarded by Chaucer making the tale a question of gender, he still includes the
aspect of sovereignty but, through women. The focus of Arthurian Romances is not on the heroism of
the knights but instead on the aspect of heterosexual love. The main question asked is What do
women most desire? and the knight is provided with the answer by the old hag. The answer
invariably is sovereignty. Here, as in the Arthurian Legends, the sovereignty is not over Ireland but
over the beau or knight in their relationship. Therefore, the loathly lady is also called the Sovranty
Hag. Even in the Wife of Baths prologue, Valerie and Theofraste or the book of wikked wyves
read by Jankyn is a book which tells the tale of women like Eve, Dianyre, Clytemnestra, Xantippa
who are considered to be deceitful and wicked. They are beastly in their control of their husbands or
lovers. Through the example of these women, Allisoun herself comes into focus as a wife who wants
maistrie over her husband. The pillow sermon in Allisouns tale is a moral lecture on gentilesse

by the old hag in order to educate the knight and bring about a moralistic transformation. Women are
made out to be controlling, secretive and deceitful who manipulate men for their wealth and sexual
favours. The loathly lady in marrying the knight forces him to consummate their marriage but in
answering his question she grants him political dominion through sovereignty. The Wife of Bath
seems gives autonomy to women in her tale when Queen Guinevere asks King Arthur not to kill the
knight who raped a maiden. The Court of Love is given more power over King Arthurs court. The
loathly hag seems to hold power over the knight, but in reality, it is still the stereotypical image of
women which shines through. Even the Wife of Bath herself who talks about control and maisterie
just wants to be good. The belief that sovereignty is the ultimate desire of women was a popular
idea during 14th Century which Chaucers writing clearly reflects.
While both the tales Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle and Wife of Bath, follow similar
patterns and motifs, some overt as well as subtle differences are evident. In the former, Sir Gawain is
an upstanding and honourable Knight who volunteers to find out the answer out of his love for King
Arthur while in the latter, the knight is presented as a lusty becheler (Wife of Bath, 883, pp. 69) who
rapes an innocent maiden which is against the honour of knights. Both the knights go on a similar
quest and have to find out the answer to the question of what do women desire the most. Once
married, the honourable Sir Gawain wills himself to consummate his marriage out of his duty towards
King Arthur and turns to find the most beautiful woman in front of him. In Wife of Bath, it is different
as the loathly lady has to give the knight a long sermon (often called the pillow sermon) in order for
him to look at her and consummate their marriage. The transformation of the lady only happens after
she is granted sovereignty by the knight unlike in the Wedding of Sir Gawain. The difference is in
both the tales is also apparent through the questions that are posed by the loathly lady on their
wedding night. Both the knights are reluctant to consummate their marriages. In Wedding of Sir
Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, Ragnelle gives him a choice of having her to be beautiful in day but ugly
by night or ugly in day and beautiful in night, while in. the Wife of Bath the knight has to choose
between having his wife old, ugly and faithful to him or young, fair and perhaps lascivious. This is a
major alteration done by the Wife of Bath or Chaucer as it makes the question about public and

private shame. In giving this choice to the rapist knight, the hag ensures that mastery comes above
love. Hence, sovereignty again becomes important in the political realm in the tales. The tale of Sir
Gawain includes the aspect of magic and enchantment in the form of the past of Dame Ragnelle. The
cursing and the transformation is magical and belongs to the world of fairies but in Chaucer as Aaron
Steinberg points in The Wife of Bath's Tale and Her Fantasy of Fulfilment Wife actually draws
attention away from enchantment and toward the real world: her listeners are pointedly told that
superstition has been driven out and that fairies do not exist in England. (190) The world of fairies is
completely disassociated with reality. She starts by eradicating the aspect of the step-mothers curse
from her tale which tones down on the supernatural element. The transformation is shapeshifting of
the old hag which is magical but as the Wife keeps the focus on real-world issues of poverty, gentility,
nobility and age there is a reminder of her voice singing through. In the Loathly Lady, there is a
representation of Allisoun herself. Through this character in her tale, Allisoun is describing her selfperception and fulfilling her desires. The physical transformation of the lady from an old, ugly woman
to a fair and young woman epitomises Allisouns desire to be young and beautiful again. She accepts
that she is old and not fair anymore. The want for mastery and sovereignty is pure Allisoun as is
clearly seen in the prologue too.
The Loathly Lady represents a duplicity of beauty and the beast in her appearance. Chaucers loathly
lady is presented by the Wife of Bath and therefore there are a lot of layers that have to be peeled
through to understand her. A masculine adventure is chronicled by a female using the myth of a
loathly lady or a feminine figure helping in this adventure. In both Sir Gawains and Wife of Baths
tales, there is gendering of the bestial in form of the old hag. The use of genre of Arthurian Romances
helps the Wife of Bath in stating her wishes for herself through this character. The loathly lady motif
contains in itself the power of myth and magic but through her focus on reality and her own desires as
well as experiences, she alters her tale accordingly. Through the legacy of magic and myth, these tales
reinstate the idea of compliance and sovereignty in marriage.

Bibliography

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