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 Siege of York — The Battles of Celidon Forest and Badon Hill — King Arthur drives the Saxons from the Realm — The Embassy from Rome — The King rescues Merlin — The Knight of the Fountain - [CHAPTER IV]
King Arthur conquers Ireland and Norway — Slays the Giant of St. Michael’s Mount and conquers Gaul — King Ryence’s Insolent Message — The Damsel and the Sword — The Lady of the Lake — The Adventures of Sir Balin - [CHAPTER V]
Sir Balin kills Sir Lancear — The Sullen Knight — The Knight Invisible is killed — Sir Balin smites the Dolorous Stroke, and fights with his brother Sir Balan - [CHAPTER VI]
The Marriage of King Arthur and Guinevere — The Coronation of the Queen — The Founding of the Round Table — The Quest of the White Hart — The Adventures of Sir Gawain — The Quest of the White Hound — Sir Tor kills Abellius — The Adventures of Sir Pellinore — The Death of Sir Hantzlake — Merlin saves King Arthur - [CHAPTER VII]
King Arthur and Sir Accolon of Gaul are entrapped by Sir Damas — They fight each other through Enchantment of Queen Morgan le Fay — Sir Damas is compelled to surrender all his Lands to Sir Outzlake his Brother their Rightful Owner — Queen Morgan essays to kill King Arthur with a Magic Garment — Her Damsel is compelled to wear it and is thereby burned to Cinders - [CHAPTER VIII]
A Second Embassy from Rome — King Arthur’s Answer — The Emperor assembles his Armies — King Arthur slays the Emperor — Sir Gawain and Sir Prianius — The Lombards are defeated — King Arthur crowned at Rome - [CHAPTER IX]
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot — He and his Cousin Sir Lionel set forth — The Four Witch-Queens — King Bagdemagus — Sir Lancelot slays Sir Turquine and delivers his Captive Knights — The Foul Knight — Sir Gaunter attacks Sir Lancelot — The Four Knights — Sir Lancelot comes to the Chapel Perilous — Ellawes the Sorceress — The Lady and the Falcon — Sir Bedivere and the Dead Lady - [CHAPTER X]
Beaumains is made a Kitchen Page by Sir Key — He claims the Adventure of the Damsel Linet — He fights with Sir Lancelot and is knighted by him in his True Name of Gareth — Is flouted by the Damsel Linet — But overthrows all Knights he meets and sends them to King Arthur’s Court — He delivers the Lady Lyones from the Knight of the Redlands — The Tournament before Castle Perilous — Marriage of Sir Gareth and the Lady Lyones - [CHAPTER XI]
The Adventures of Sir Tristram — His Stepmother — He is knighted — Fights with Sir Marhaus — Sir Palomedes and La Belle Isault — Sir Bleoberis and Sir Segwarides — Sir Tristram’s Quest — His Return — The Castle Pluere — Sir Brewnor is slain — Sir Kay Hedius — La Belle Isault’s Hound — Sir Dinedan refuses to fight — Sir Pellinore follows Sir Tristram — Sir Brewse-without-pity — The Tournament at the Maiden’s Castle — Sir Palomedes and Sir Tristram - [CHAPTER XII]
Merlin is bewitched by a Damsel of the Lady of the Lake — Galahad knighted by Sir Lancelot — The Perilous Seat — The Marvellous Sword — Sir Galahad in the Perilous Seat — The Sangreal — The Knights vow themselves to its Quest — The Shield of the White Knight — The Fiend of the Tomb — Sir Galahad at the Maiden’s Castle — The Sick Knight and the Sangreal — Sir Lancelot declared unworthy to find the Holy Vessel — Sir Percival seeks Sir Galahad — The Black Steed — Sir Bors and the Hermit — Sir Pridan le Noir — Sir Lionel’s Anger — He meets Sir Percival — The ship “Faith” — Sir Galahad and Earl Hernox — The Leprous Lady — Sir Galahad discloses himself to Sir Lancelot — They part — The Blind King Evelake — Sir Galahad finds the Sangreal — His Death - [CHAPTER XIII]
The Queen quarrels with Sir Lancelot — She is accused of Murder — Her Champion proves her innocence — The Tourney at Camelot — Sir Lancelot in the Tourney — Sir Baldwin the Knight-Hermit — Elaine, the Maid of Astolat, seeks for Sir Lancelot — She tends his Wounds — Her Death — The Queen and Sir Lancelot are reconciled - [CHAPTER XIV]
Sir Lancelot attacked by Sir Agravaine, Sir Modred, and thirteen other Knights — He slays them all but Sir Modred — He leaves the Court — Sir Modred accuses him to the King — The Queen condemned to be burnt — Her rescue by Sir Lancelot and flight with him — The War between Sir Lancelot and the King — The Enmity of Sir Gawain — The Usurpation of Sir Modred — The Queen retires to a Nunnery — Sir Lancelot goes on Pilgrimage — The Battle of Barham Downs — Sir Bedivere and the Sword Excalibur — The Death of King Arthur
ILLUSTRATOR’S NOTE
f scenes from the Legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table many lovely pictures have been painted, showing much diversity of figures and surroundings, some being definitely sixth-century British or Saxon, as in Blair Leighton’s fine painting of the dead Elaine; others—for example, Watts’ Sir Galahad—show knight and charger in fifteenth-century armour; while the warriors of Burne Jones wear strangely impracticable armour of some mystic period. Each of these painters was free to follow his own conception, putting the figures into whatever period most appealed to his imagination; for he was not illustrating the actual tales written by Sir Thomas Malory, otherwise he would have found himself face to face with a difficulty.
King Arthur and his knights fought, endured, and toiled in the sixth century, when the Saxons were overrunning Britain; but their achievements were not chronicled by Sir Thomas Malory until late in the fifteenth century.
Sir Thomas, as Froissart has done before him, described the habits of life, the dresses, weapons, and armour that his own eyes looked upon in the every-day scenes about him, regardless of the fact that almost every detail mentioned was something like a thousand years too late.