King Arthurs Knights

King Arthur's Knights, by Henry
Gilbert,

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Illustrated by Walter Crane
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Title: King Arthur's Knights The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls
Author: Henry Gilbert

Release Date: August 25, 2007 [eBook #22396]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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KING ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS:
The Tales Re-Told for Boys & Girls
by
HENRY GILBERT.
With Illustrations in Color by Walter Crane

Thomas Nelson and Sons New York, Edinburgh, London Toronto, And
Paris

In tholdè dayès of the King Arthour, Of which that Britons speken
great honour, All was this land fulfilled of faery.
The Canterbury Tales.

Printed in the United States of America

PREFACE
This book is an attempt to tell some of the stories of King Arthur and
his Knights in a way which will be interesting to every boy and girl
who loves adventures.
Although tales of these old British heroes have been published before

in a form intended for young people, it is believed that they have never
been related quite in the same spirit nor from the same point of view;
and it is hoped that the book will fill a place hitherto vacant in the
hearts of all boys and girls.
No doubt many of you, my young readers, have at some time or
another taken down the Morte D'Arthur from your father's bookshelves
and read a few pages of it here and there. But I doubt if any of you have
ever gone very far in the volume. You found generally, I think, that it
was written in a puzzling, old-fashioned language, that though it spoke
of many interesting things, and seemed that it ought to be well worth
reading, yet somehow it was tedious and dry.
In the tales as I have retold them for you, I hope you will not find any
of these faults. Besides writing them in simple language, I have chosen
only those episodes which I know would appeal to you. I have added or
altered here and there, for in places it struck me that there was just
wanting a word or two to make you feel the magic that was everywhere
abroad in those days. It seemed to me that some mysterious adventure
might easily be waiting in the ruined and deserted Roman town on the
desolate moor, or even just round the mossy trunk of the next oak in the
forest-drive, through which the knight was riding; or that any fair lady
or questing dog which he might meet could turn out to be a wizard
seeking to work woe upon him. Nevertheless, I was always sure that in
those bright days when the world was young, whatever evil power
might get the mastery for a little while, the knight's courage, humility,
and faith would win through every peril at the end.
In this book, besides reading of wonderful adventures and brave
fighting, you will learn just what sort of man a perfect knight was
required to be in the chivalrous times when men wore armour and rode
on errantry. The duties of a 'good and faithful knight' were quite simple,
but they were often very hard to perform. They were--to protect the
distressed, to speak the truth, to keep his word to all, to be courteous
and gentle to women, to defend right against might, and to do or say
nothing that should sully the fair name of Christian knighthood.
Although, therefore, these stories of King Arthur and his men treat of

knights and their ladies, of magical trolls and wonder-working wizards,
and it might seem for that reason that they can have little or nothing in
common with life of the present day, it will be seen that the spirit in
which they are told conveys something which every boy can learn.
Indeed, the great and simple lesson of chivalry which the tales of King
Arthur teach is, in a few words, to merit 'the fine old name of
gentleman.'
The history of King Arthur and his Knights is contained in two books,
one being the Morte D'Arthur, written by Sir Thomas Malory, the other
being the Mabinogion, a collection of old Welsh stories, first translated
by Lady Charlotte Guest in