The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights

The Legends Of King Arthur And His
Knights
by James Knowles

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Title: The Legends Of King Arthur And His Knights
Author: James Knowles
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Language: English
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The Legends of KING ARTHUR and his KNIGHTS
Sir James Knowles
Illustrated by Lancelot Speed
TO ALFRED TENNYSON, D.C.L. POET LAUREATE
THIS ATTEMPT AT A POPULAR VERSION OF THE ARTHUR LEGENDS IS BY
HIS PERMISSION DEDICATED AS A TRIBUTE OF THE SINCEREST AND
WARMEST RESPECT

1862

PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION
The Publishers have asked me to authorise a new edition, in my own name, of this little
book--now long out of print--which was written by me thirty-five years ago under the
initials J.T.K.
In acceding to their request I wish to say that the book as now published is merely a
word-for-word reprint of my early effort to help to popularise the Arthur legends.
It is little else than an abridgment of Sir Thomas Malory's version of them as printed by
Caxton--with a few additions from Geoffrey of Monmouth and other sources--and an
endeavour to arrange the many tales into a more or less consecutive story.
The chief pleasure which came to me from it was, and is, that it began for me a long and
intimate acquaintance with Lord Tennyson, to whom, by his permission, I Dedicated it
before I was personally known to him.
JAMES KNOWLES.

Addendum by Lady Knowles
In response to a widely expressed wish for a fresh edition of this little book--now for
some years out of print--a new and ninth edition has been prepared.
In his preface my husband says that the intimacy with Lord Tennyson to which it led was
the chief pleasure the book brought him. I have been asked to furnish a few more
particulars on this point that may be generally interesting, and feel that I cannot do better
than give some extracts from a letter written by himself to a friend in July 1896.
"DEAR ----,
"I am so very glad you approve of my little effort to popularise the Arthur Legends.
Tennyson had written his first four 'Idylls of the King' before my book appeared, which
was in 1861. Indeed, it was in consequence of the first four Idylls that I sought and
obtained, while yet a stranger to him, leave to dedicate my venture to him. He was
extremely kind about it--declared 'it ought to go through forty editions'--and when I came
to know him personally talked very frequently about it and Arthur with me, and made
constant use of it when he at length yielded to my perpetual urgency and took up again
his forsaken project of treating the whole subject of King Arthur.
"He discussed and rediscussed at any amount of length the way in which this could now
be done--and the Symbolism, which had from his earliest time haunted him as the inner
meaning to be given to it, brought him back to the Poem in its changed shape of separate

pictures.
"He used often to say that it was entirely my doing that he revived his old plan, and added,
'I know more about Arthur than any other man in England, and I think you know next
most.' It would amuse you to see in what intimate detail he used to consult with me--and
often with my little book in front of us--over the various tales, and when I wrote an article
(in the shape of a long letter) in the Spectator of January 1870 he asked to reprint it, and
published it with the collected Idylls.
"For years, while his boys were at school and college, I acted as his confidential friend in
business and many other matters, and I suppose he told me more about himself and his
life than any other man now living knows."
ISABEL KNOWLES.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
The Finding of Merlin--The Fight of the Dragons--The Giants' Dance--The Prophecies of
Merlin and the Birth of Arthur--Uther attacks the Saxons--The Death of Uther
CHAPTER II
Merlin's Advice to the Archbishop--The Miracle of the Sword and Stone--The
Coronation of King Arthur--The Opposition of the Six Kings--The Sword Excalibur--The
Defeat of the Six Kings--The War with the Eleven Kings
CHAPTER III
The Adventure of the Questing Beast--The