Introduction

Preserved in only one manuscript (S), Doon is set in both Britain (mainly Scotland) and France. At 286 lines, this lay is one of the shortest in the collection.

A beautiful maiden lives surrounded by female companions in the Chastel des Puceles (Castle of Maidens) in Daneborc (Edinburgh). Seeing marriage as a form of servitude, she refuses to marry and comes up with a plan to keep any suitors at bay. Thinking it to be an impossible task, she states that if she were to take a husband it would only be a man who could ride from Southampton to Edinburgh in one day. Surprisingly, some of her suitors succeed in this challenge, but no marriage takes place for she kills them during the night as they lie exhausted in the bed she has prepared for them. The challenge comes to the attention of a knight from Brittany, and thanks to his horse, Baiart, and his own wits, he not only completes the ride but also survives the attempt to kill him while he sleeps. He also overcomes a second, unexpected challenge: to ride in one day as far as a swan can fly. The maiden has no option but to marry him. However, after three days, he announces that he is returning to his own land and that she is pregnant with a son. He leaves a gold ring for the boy, telling his wife to send him, when he is fully grown, to the King of France to be raised and educated by him. The boy becomes the most valiant knight in France and eventually jousts with his father at a tournament, inflicting on him his first ever defeat. Doon recognises his son through the ring on his finger and they return to Britain, where husband and wife live happily ever after.

We are not told why Doon takes deserts his wife, but he may have felt that she had wronged him by the imposition of a second test of his suitability as a husband. Once more, there are numerous realistic elements in the story, but other aspects suggest the world of the supernatural.