King Arthurs Knights | Page 2

1838. I have selected thirteen tales from the
number which these two books contain; but there are many more,
equally as interesting, which remain.
Little is known about Sir Thomas Malory, who lived in the fifteenth
century. We only learn that he was a Welshman, a man of heroic mind
who, as an old writer relates, 'from his youth, greatly shone in the gifts
of mind and body.' Though much busied with cares of state, his
favourite recreation was said to be the reading of history, and in this
pursuit 'he made selections from various authors concerning the valour
and the victories of the most renowned King Arthur of the Britons.' We
know, further, that these selections or tales were translated mostly from
poems about Arthur written by old French poets in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, and that Sir Thomas Malory finished his translation
in the ninth year of King Edward the Fourth (1469). This, of course,
was before printing was introduced into England, but no doubt many
written copies were made of the book, so as to enable the stories to be
read to the lords and ladies and other rich people who would desire to
hear about the flower of kings and chivalry, the great King Arthur.
When, in 1477, Caxton set up his printing press at Westminster, the
Morte D'Arthur was one of the books which then saw the light of day.
The Mabinogion, which contains other tales about King Arthur, is a
collection of old Welsh romances. Though our earliest collection of
them is to be found in a manuscript written in the thirteenth or
fourteenth century, some of them are probably as old as the time when

Welshmen clothed themselves in the skins of the beaver and the bear,
and used stone for their tools and weapons.
It may be that, when you get older, you will go back to the two books I
have mentioned, and you will find them so fascinating that you will be
impatient of any other book which pretends to tell you the same tales.
But until that time arrives, I hope you will find the stories as I have told
them quite interesting and exciting.
HENRY GILBERT.
June 1911.

CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. HOW ARTHUR WAS MADE KING AND WON HIS KINGDOM 1
II. SIR BALIN AND THE STROKE DOLOROUS 32
III. HOW LANCELOT WAS MADE A KNIGHT. THE FOUR
WITCH QUEENS, AND THE ADVENTURES AT THE CHAPEL
PERILOUS 52
IV. THE KNIGHT OF THE KITCHEN 72
V. HOW SIR TRISTRAM KEPT HIS WORD 101
VI. THE DEEDS OF SIR GERAINT 131
VII. HOW SIR PERCEVAL WAS TAUGHT CHIVALRY, AND
ENDED THE EVIL WROUGHT BY SIR BALIN'S DOLOROUS
STROKE 164
VIII. HOW SIR OWEN WON THE EARLDOM OF THE FOUNTAIN
194

IX. OF SIR LANCELOT AND THE FAIR MAID OF ASTOLAT 229
X. HOW THE THREE GOOD KNIGHTS ACHIEVED THE HOLY
GRAAL 250
XI. OF THE PLOTS OF SIR MORDRED; AND HOW SIR
LANCELOT SAVED THE QUEEN 278
XII. OF SIR GAWAINE'S HATRED, AND THE WAR WITH SIR
LANCELOT 307
XIII. OF THE REBELLION OF MORDRED AND THE DEATH OF
KING ARTHUR 333

KING ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS

I
HOW ARTHUR WAS MADE KING AND WON HIS KINGDOM
In the hall of his Roman palace at London, King Uther, Pendragon of
the Island of Britain, lay dying. He had been long sick with a wasting
disease, and forced to lie in his bed, gnawing his beard with wrath at
his weakness, while the pagan Saxons ravened up and down the fair
broad lands, leaving in their tracks the smoking ruin of broken towns
and desolated villages, where mothers lay dead beside their children on
the hearths, fair churches stood pillaged and desecrated, and priests and
nuns wandered in the wilds.
At length, when the pagans, bold and insolent, had ventured near
London, the king had been able to bear his shame and anguish no
longer. He had put himself, in a litter, at the head of his army, and
meeting the fierce, brave pagans at Verulam (now called St. Albans) he
had, in a battle day-long and stubborn, forced them at length to fly with
heavy slaughter.

That was three days ago, and since then he had lain in his bed as still as
if he were dead; and beside him sat the wise wizard Merlin, white with
great age, and in his eyes the calmness of deep learning.
It was the third night when the king suddenly awoke from his stupor
and clutched the hand of Merlin.
'I have dreamed!' he said in a low shaken voice. 'I have seen two
dragons fighting--one white, the other red. First the white dragon got
the mastery, and clawed with iron talons the red one's crest, and drove
him hither and thither