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May 12, 1523
Dear Diary,
Oh how in love I am! My beautiful love, Dorigen, has just accepted my hand in marriage! We are betrothed and I am absolutely ecstatic. I cannot express how ardently I love this woman. She is so stunning. I have never seen such a face and dare I say I will never see such beauty as she. I have vowed to be fair and true to her for all my days, even when I must depart from her gracious presence. I have never been this happy in all my days!
Sincerely,
Arviragus
May 30, 1524
Dear Diary,
I am feeling very ill on this day, my friend. You see, I have just broken the news to Dorigen that I must depart across the sea. How blissful this past year has been! I am fully distraught at the thought of leaving my dear Dorigen, but I am called by my duty as a knight of the kingdom to seek glory and honor in arms! I have to go, but I have vowed to return just as soon as my tasks are accomplished. I only pray now that Dorigen will not weep for me, but that her days will be filled with friendship and happiness as she awaits my return. The day when we are reunited will be glorious!
Sincerely,
Arviragus
July 9, 1524
Dear Diary,
I have made it across the waters! I now seek to accomplish what I have set out to do as quickly as possible so that I can return to my love once more. I have a tournament in just two months' time, and I must spend every waking minute until then training for it. I must win!
Sincerely,
Arviragus
September 31, 1524
Dear Diary,
I am so pleased to inform you that I have won! The kingdom has claimed a righteous victory on this day for me and my comrades have taken the top prize in the tournament. I was the jousting champion, not to brag, and I am very proud of my accomplishments. Oh, how I cannot wait to be reunited with Dorigen and inform her of the news! She will be so proud of me as she is always so supportive. I love her dearly. In one week's time I will set sail back across the seas so that I may arrive at home before the year's end!
Sincerely,
Arviragus
November 13, 1524
Dear Diary,
I made it safely across the waters without mishap, and I was reunited with my love! But, to my dismay, as we embraced she disclosed to me something truly horrific. This was something I had never in my wildest dreams imagined she would ever say. You see, while in my absence, this pitiful squire man apparently confessed his love for Dorigen. She told him that she was already madly in love with me, but he would not leave her alone. In an effort to be rid of his nuisances, she told him that when the rocks at the bottom of the cliff from which I sailed away were covered up, which would never happen for they are very visible even at high tide, she would be with him. She, knowing this would never happen, did not give this man another thought until one day he came back to her and told her to look over the cliff. The rocks were gone, and she had made him a promise. I do not know what to do, diary. She promised him, but she is my one true love! How can I lose her now when she was so close to me only moments ago? This is truly the worst day of my life.
Sincerely,
Arviragus
November 14, 1524
Dear Diary,
After careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that she must be with the squire. She has made a promise and I do not take those lightly. Though it pains me more than anything in the world has ever pained me, I must let her go to him. I pray now that by some miracle he does not make her follow through on her word, for I do not know if I can bear to spend another day without her by my side.
Sincerely,
Arviragus
November 15, 1524
Dear Diary,
It happened! I sent her off to him but she has returned to me! According to Dorigen, the squire knew he could not keep her away from me. She was too distraught and although she wanted to honor her promise, he knew she would be miserable for all her days. Oh, glorious day! I have sent a letter to the squire to thank him for his generosity, and I only hope that he can find a love of his own now. But for now and all of my days, I have Dorigen. I am perfectly and completely happy.
Sincerely,
Arviragus
Author's Note:
Hello reader! This is the loose retelling of the Canterbury tale titled "The Promise of Dorigen." The original tale is written from from a third person point of view, but is mainly focused on Dorigen's story. There is almost no information about how Arviragus is feeling throughout the whole story, so I really took some liberties with this. We knew that he went overseas to win honor for the kingdom, so I took that to mean some sort of knightly competition, but it could have been something completely different. We also have no real indication of how he is feeling when he finds out what is going on with the squire, whom I chose not to name in my re-telling even though he has a name in the original, which I thought was odd. I wanted to dig into the reasons that he felt he needed to let Dorigen honor her promise. In the original tale there is a whole magical element that I did not acknowledge here. There is magician whom the squire uses to cover the rocks to make Dorigen honor her promise. The magician has a price, and when the squire let Dorigen off the hook because of how much she loved Arviragus, the magician conceded his price. At the end of the tale, the question of "which man was the most generous." I always thought the answer was Arviragus, which is part of the reason I wanted to focus on him. When re-writing this tale I initially toyed around with the idea of doing a gender swap, but ended up wanting to write from Arviragus' point of view instead. I thought the element of the diary was a fun way to implement his side of the story into the tale. I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you have fun reading it!
Bibliography:
The Franklin's Tale: The Promise of Dorigen
The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908)