That´s the million-dollar question. And it´s also the question Queen Guinevere told the lecherous knight to find the right answer for if he wanted to save his life in The Wife of Bath Tale from The Canterbury Tales. An ugly old woman was ready to tell him the difficult answer on condition that he promised to do whatever she asked him to. The knight, caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, accepted the deal.You had to continue the story at that thorny turning-point, let´s see what you have come up with (just a few have grasped the nettle though...).
" Eventually the knight offered the hag his rough hand. When she got it, she decided to do a surprising thing: she cast a spell on it, and converted it into a smooth, sensitive hand typical of a handsome prince. After doing that, the woman disappeared. Confused and puzzled, the young knight tried to discover what that meant. He was thinking about it when he met a beautiful maiden. Her name was Clara, and the knight asked her for help. She also didn´t know what that meant, but she liked his hand a lot.
Therefore, after three hours thinking about that mysterious riddle, he reached a conclusion: women prefer sensitive men (a metaphor of how his new hand was) rather than ferocious and barbaric men (how his hand was previously). As a consequence, he ran quickly to tell that answer to the queen. She said that it was right, and from then on, he lived in peace and harmony". (Alberto S.)
"The woman told him that the knight had to steal the queen´s crown. He said: "But that violates many laws, I´ll lose my life!" The woman said that he had promised to do whatever she asked him to do. The knight, furious and scared, stole the queen´s crown and put it on the old woman´s head. She transformed into a beautiful lady and said: "What a woman wants is beauty", and she disappeared (...)". (Alexandra D.)
"Finally the old ugly woman told the young knight what a woman liked most. The young knight told King Arthur the answer the old woman had told him. The king couldn´t believe it, then he ordered his servants to call all the ladies that were in his castle, then the young man whispered the answer to each one of them. The king saw that when the young man told them, the women gasped in admiration. The ladies told the king that he knew the answer. the king saved the knight´s life. Then after a long time he reached the highest rank in his army. One day in battle the young man died and he took the answer to The Underworld. The ladies couldn´t tell the king the answer because if they told anyone they would suffer a spell that would take their lives away". (Cristian F. A very poetic way of dodging the issue, Cristian.)
"(...) On the way home, the knight met a beautiful woman that was crying in the middle of the road, (...) she was alone in the world. (...) The warrior fell in love with her and a few months later they got married, the knight forgot about the queen´s question. Then, a week before the day he had to answer that question he was calmed because he had found the true love. The day of "the answer" he went to the palace with his wife, and answered: "Love, your majesty, we all need love, men and women". When he turned back, he realized that the beautiful young woman was reality the old ugly woman, she was a witch. The queen ordered the detention of both of them and accused them of witchcraft". (George B.)
"(...) Nobody told him the answer, so he was sure he was going to die. However he was still trying to get it. He travelled all over the kingdom trying to find someone who knew the answer, until he found a girl who told him that the answer was "love".
He was confused. All the time looking for the answer and it was love?! He went to the queen´s palace and told her the answer. When she heard it, she started laughing. It was the most stupid answer she had heard in all her life. Finally, the knight died. Nobody ever discovered the right answer". (Irene M.)
"(...) The day after, they both went to the royal palace and answered the queen´s question correctly. [but what was it??] In exchange, the old and ugly woman asked to marry the young knight. He, sadly, remembered his promise and ended up marrying her. She said she could become a very beautiful woman, but he had to tell her to care for him. But the knight didn´t trust her, so he ignored her words. One day he got a high feve, which at that time could be mortal. Even so, he refused his wife´s help. (...) She decided to disobey his husband and prepared a magic potion and gave it to the knight. At the very moment that he had the potion as his last chance to survive, the old and ugly woman transformed into a gorgeous blonde young girl who later explained it was a spell a witch had cast on her because she was jealous of her beauty. The knight survived and they both lived happily". (Óscar R.)
"'If you want to know the answer to that question, you´ll have to live a day like a woman!`, so she threw some magic dust at him. All turned grey, he, or maybe I should say she, wanted to vomit, she felt very strange and when the dust vanished the 24 women appeared again.
They treated him as one more of them, and learned that being a woman was not easy. He had to stand discrimination and do all the chores. After one day, the old woman appeared again. he was transformed into a knight and he returned to see the queen. When he saw her, he answered:
"What a woman wants most? One thing men have had for a long time. Respect". (Álvaro C.)
Great work!
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