Introduction

Espine (Hawthorn) is preserved in two manuscripts: (i) S and (ii) B: MS Paris, BNF, fr. 1553. They relate a broadly similar version of the tale, but our translation is taken from the version in S (Tobin's edition is based on B).

At the outset of the story, the hero and heroine are young children at court, the boy being the son of the king and a concubine and the girl the daughter of the queen by a previous marriage. From the start there is a close affection between them, which, as they grow up, develops into adolescent love. One day the queen finds them lying on the boy's bed together, kissing, and thereafter they are separated and watched closely. The youth is dubbed a knight, and when a maiden comes to court and states that on the eve of the feast of St John (June 24) more adventures occur at the Hawthorn Ford than anywhere else, the king's son, not having found any suitable adventures since being dubbed a knight, is determined to take up the implied challenge in order to test himself. On the appropriate evening he leaves, despite his father's efforts to stop him, and his beloved goes and sits under a fruit tree to pray for his safekeeping. She is then magically transported to the ford, and when he recognises her, the youth joyfully embraces her. A knight arrives on a white horse with red ears. He and the youth joust and the youth wins the horse, which he presents to his beloved. Two other knights appear and the youth defeats one of them. The other knight tells him that the horse he has won does not need feeding as long as its bridle is left on. He also jousts with the youth to enhance his renown, but the beloved steps in and all three knights disappear. Back at court the couple are married. One day the wife removes the bridle and the horse promptly disappears.

The portrayal of love in this lay is unusual in its scope, in that it starts with innocent childhood affection, develops into adult love and is tested first by enforced separation, then reinforced by chivalric deeds, before eventually ending in marriage.