Sigmund and Fatima

Ìta Sigmùndus dùx | Faramùndi progènies ìbat...
"Thus departed captain Sigmund, of Faramund's house..."

Sigmund, of Faramund's house, departed from the royal palace almost that same night. He traveled lightly, with a horse, a carriage and his companion the witch Fatima¹ - fair and amorous beyond measure. The two traveled and skirmished (pugnaverint) with Merwin on multiple occasions, told in stories aplenty², and finally cornered the princess in Burdigala³'s bright walls. Under the shade of dusk, the two parties encamped upon the mighty bastion⁴ and stood one against the other, preparing for the duel that was to ensue the following day. The battle cries reverbered around the ruined walls⁴, until all were asleep and the fires were unlit. The day after, ides februariae⁵, the princess and the captain were face to face, and here is how they stood.

Merwin was fair-skinned, a scar on the chin of the maid, fiery⁶ hair combed in a messy braid, protruding from the leaf-colored hood. She had a leather-pad vest, packed with knives and compartments for meat and for tools and for bait. A quiver of black fabric held the huntress's sharp silver arrows; bright boots and tights of darkgreen were paired with a skirt to the knees. The cape of the hood was as long, if not longer, and had a few pockets for spare.⁷

Sigmund was taller, and stronger, but slower compared to his foe, covered in plated armor from head to toe, a scramasax⁸ in his left hand, a nasal helm surrounding his noble face: a beardless chin, white teeth in an expression of war, a long pendulous moustache, austere blue eyes and a cascade of blonde hair, reaching his shoulders. His broad shoulders and muscular arms were encased in iron.

Unappointed arbiter of the fight, Fatima sat on a rock in the field between the two. The woman wore a long black silken dress, decorated by floral motifs, stopping at the ankles and revealing a pair of babouches in leather. The sorceress's face was surrounded by a thin veil, running around her head and covering her features and hair. Her amber eyes were noble and her ungloved hands⁹ were well curated, the nails sharp as daggers.¹⁰

Sigmund and Merwin faced each other, beginning to approach each other in circular motion - both going left to mantain equal distance.¹¹ Then the knight took a step forward, and stated his name and house - the huntress did the same.¹¹ And then they threw themselves at each other, in close-quarters combat, the huntress evading every hit and the knight's armor absorbing them. After first wearing him out, Merwin took a few steps backwards and aimed her bow, but Sigmund charged towards her and she leapt at him with the dagger.

Sigmund raised the scramasax⁸ and took a swing at the leaping huntress, attacking her left arm but narrowly missing - only making a small cut in her sleeve. Merwin landed on the knight's back and jimped off of it, and in the time that it took him to turn around, she plucked an arrow out of the quiver for her bow, but something struck her arm where the cut was, making the huntress drop it.

Fatima, entranced by the duel and worried about the knight, had acted upon instinct and had launched a spell. "Why, you, woman of torment!" Merwin pointed and roared at the African sorceress, then turning the target of her anger to the son of Mars¹² who was charging her in that very moment.

¹ Of all the main characters in the Valiant, the witch Fatima (referred in fragments of the original as simply "saga" or "Mora", never by name) is the one we have the least certainties about. The running theory is that she was either a later addition, inspired by the witch Melissa or similar traditional characters, - this theory would be supported by absence of references to her in abbot John's notes - or a character inserted to take on part of the role played by Actalus, who's believed to have had a much bigger part in the original story. Another theory identifies Fatima as a figure inspired by Dihya, the diviner, an Algerian queen from the same time period, with her muslim background being added in later sources.
² We have no record of the stories mentioned here, but the sentence "in historias centum" (in a hundred stories) is present in most versions of the Valiant we have. It is only imaginable that this refers to a greater mythos underlying to the original poem.
²ᵃ If they were half as spicy as the Valiant is, I would've loved to read them (From Steve's Iphone)
³ Today Bordeaux, chief town of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (France)
⁴ Presumably a lost crown of walls around the city, or another temporary tower of which we have nothing left
⁵ 14th of February
⁶ As mentioned in the notes, we don't have a clear idea of what Merwin's hair color originally was - them being red is simply one of the more popular choices.
⁷ Typical hunting attire for the time
⁸ Early medieval short sword
⁹ The detail, which in sparse Latin and Sicilian versions is turned into an attribute ("amanica" in Latin, "sguantata" in Sicilian, both meaning 'ungloved') is most likely specified due to Fatima's status as sorceress and needing free hands to cast spells.
¹⁰ Whilst Merwin and Sigmund's description comes from latin fragments of the poem, Fatima's was in line with her appearance in Sicilian puppet shows.
¹¹ Scholars are using tatters of the Valiant and inspired works's text to piece out likely components of the Frankish trial by combat around this time.
¹² Sigmund's epithet throughout the Valiant, other than knight, due to his being warlike.