thank you, you are a true gentleman!

The king of the land was distraught. Unlucky in love, he became angry and called two of his most reliable knights. The one, Conan, was to be thrown into the dungeon. His friend, knight Gawain, had to find the answer to the king's question throughout the land. The question was; what do women desire. Conan would be killed on the fort-night if no answer came. The king wanted a reasonable and true answer.

Gawain traveled hill and dale asking women the question, "what do women desire". Many of the women said "more riches", "a bigger home", "more clothes". Gawain knew that these somehow would not suit the king. He knew he had little time left and sat in the town square, distraught. An old gentleman came to Gawain and told him that he should ask the old hag in the dale since she was as wise as she was ugly. Gawain at first thought that he would never consider to do that, but with his friend's life in the balance, he slowly, then more quickly, and finally ran to the old hag's cottage.

Knocking on the door, the hag opened and Gawain was quickly reminded, in case he had forgotten, of how ugly and filthy the old hag was. He recovered his wits, told her of the king's order on the life of his friend if he did not come back with the answer that would suit the king. Gawain then asked her the question, "what do women desire?"

The old had responded, "I have the answer that the king would be content with, but you first must keep a promise to me, although I will not require it until after your friend is safe and you return to me".

Gawain agreed, thinking more about the answer she would give rather than what he had just promised. "This is your answer to the king," she began, "women want sovereignty over themselves."

Gawain arrived back to the king and gave him the answer to the riddle. "Oh king, the answer to what women desire is this: they want sovereignty over themselves."

At first frowning and mulling over the answer, the king finally decided that it was the true answer. The king let Gawain's friend, Conan, out of the dungeon.

Gawain's happiness was short-lived because he knew, being chivalrous, he needed to return to the hag and do what ever she asked of him as his promise indicated. He returned and the old Had screeches in delight. "My requirement of you is this; You must marry me on the morrow."

Shocked, but unwilling to go back on his promise, he married her the next day. On their wedding night, the old hag asked Gawain, "My dear husband, I give you a choice; either I can remain an old hag but remain faithful, or I can change into a beautiful maiden and be unfaithful. What is your desire?"

Gawain wasn't sure of either and neither sounded appealing. Then the wise knight remembered her answer to the king, and he responded thus, " Oh hag, I am your caring husband, I will in kindness, let you make that decision for yourself."

The hag, pleasantly surprised, answered, "Because you have given me sovereignty over myself, I will choose both, but neither." She continued, "I choose to be the beautiful maiden AND stay faithful to you...you see, I had a spell put on me that no man would be able to break unless he was unselfish and had responded to my request of sovereignty. She changed before his eyes to a beautiful maiden.

The moral of the story is when men love a good woman that loves them, they will receive their heart's desire.

Re-written by Exceptional12 from an old Celtic story