I remember a legend about a young lass, possibly a princess, imprisoned in a cave and a prince attempts to rescue her. I think he fails after refusing some kind of a challenge involving a sword. If my memory is correct, the prince was Sir Galahad and the cave was near Hadrian's Wall. - J Anderson, Houghton-le-Spring.

The story you mention concerns Dunstanburgh Castle on the Northumberland coast. According to legend, a secret cavern lies beneath the castle ruins where a beautiful young maiden lies in a deep sleep, the result of spell cast on her by an evil wizard. One wild stormy night, many centuries ago, a young knight, Sir Guy the Seeker, came looking for shelter at Dunstanburgh and was approached by the wizard who presented him with a challenge.

"Sir Knight! Sir Knight! If your heart be right, And your nerves be firm and true.

Sir Knight! Sir Knight, a beauty bright In durance waits for you."

Guy accepted the challenge and the wizard escorted him along a dark winding stairway. Eventually, they reached a great door bolted shut with a venomous snake. The fearless wizard removed the snake, opened the door and revealed a huge darkened hall. At the far end lay the beautiful young maiden, sleeping in a tomb of crystal guarded by two ugly skeletal figures. According to a poem, the skeleton on the right held a falchion and the one on the left held a horn.

The wizard explained that the girl's fate depended on whether he chose the horn or the sword. Sir Guy chose to blow the horn, but he fell into an immediate sleep and awoke to find himself caught once more in the storm outside the castle. He would spend the rest of his life searching for the secret cave where the girl lay sleeping. His search was in vain, and the unhappy knight would die a remorseful man. Upon his death, his ghost would continue the search.

I think you may have confused this legend with another concerning King Arthur and the Knights of The Round Table. In that legend, they are said to lie sleeping in a cave below Sewingshields Crag on Hadrian's Wall. A shepherd stumbled upon the slumbering party after dropping a ball of wool into the cave entrance. He sounded a bugle that almost awakens the knights and sends the terrified shepherd scuttling to the surface. Like Sir Guy, he also spends the rest of his life trying to remember the location.

Published: 22/04/2002

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