Sir Gawain rides for a long time without any adventures. He meets Sir Ector and learns that most of the knights have been having similar bad luck; there is no word of Galahad, Launcelot, Percival, or Bors. Ector and Gawain come to an abandoned chapel, where they fall asleep. Gawain has a vision of a fair meadow, a hayrack, two white bulls and one white except for a black spot, and many black bulls which leave the meadow and grow lean. The three white bulls are tied by ropes. Sir Ector dreams that he and Launcelot leap from a chair onto two horses; Launcelot falls from his horse and then, clothed in a knotted coat and riding on an ass, stops at a well to drink from it, but the water sinks away from him. Ector rides on and comes to a rich man's house where there is a wedding, but he is turned away.
Then, awakening, Ector and Gawain see a hand holding a bridle and bearing a candle into the chapel. A voice calls them knights full of "evil faith and poor belief" and tells them "these two things" have failed them. They go to find a hermit who can interpret these signs and on the way encounter a knight who offers battle. Gawain fights and accidentally kills the man — a fellow Round Table knight, Sir Ywain. Ector and Gawain bury him, then go on to the hermit.
