King Arthurs Knights | Page 2

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 into holes and crannies of the rocks. And then the red one took heart, and with a fury that was marvellous to see, he drove and tore the white dragon full terribly, and anon the white one crawled away sore wounded. And the red dragon walked up and down in the place of his triumph, and grew proud, and fought smaller