Sir Gawain And The Wife Of Bath Chaucer's Tale of the Wife of Bath, the lead tale of the so-called "marriage group", is a Gawain story standing amongst the latter versions of a group of analogues which in the main incorporate two chief motifs, viz., that of the Transformed Hag (Loathly Lady) and that of the hero's fate depending upon his answer to a baffling problem. There is perhaps a third motif common to all, that of the hero's being tested for some quality of which he himself is unaware. I call it a Gawain story because of its close parallels with the well-known Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell and the Ballad of the Marriage of Sir Gawain, and because six of the nin