for social ideology. Geoffrey Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale and John Gower's Tale of Florent are the better known of the English Loathly Lady tales, but The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, the balladic versions - the Marriage of Sir Gawain and King Henry (and even Thomas of Erceldoune)-all use shape-shifting female flesh to convey ideas about the nature of women, about heterosexual relations, and about national identity.

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