"This girdle, lords," said she, "is made for the most part of mine own hair, which, while I was yet in the world, I loved full well."
CONTENTS
[INTRODUCTION]
[THE COMING OF ARTHUR AND THE FOUNDING OF THE ROUND TABLE]
[I. Merlin Foretells the Birth of Arthur]
[II. The Crowning of Arthur and the Sword Excalibur]
[III. Arthur Drives the Saxons from His Realm]
[IV. The King's Many and Great Adventures]
[V. Sir Balin Fights with His Brother, Sir Balan]
[VI. The Marriage of Arthur and Guinevere and the Founding of the Round Table]
[VII. The Adventure of Arthur and Sir Accolon of Gaul]
[VIII. Arthur is Crowned Emperor at Rome]
[IX. Sir Gawain and the Maid with the Narrow Sleeves]
[THE CHAMPIONS OF THE ROUND TABLE]
[X. The Adventures of Sir Lancelot]
[XI. The Adventures of Sir Beaumains or Sir Gareth]
[XII. The Adventures of Sir Tristram]
[SIR GALAHAD AND THE QUEST OF THE HOLY GRAIL]
[XIII. The Knights Go to Seek the Grail]
[THE PASSING OF ARTHUR]
[XIV. Sir Lancelot and the Fair Elaine]
[XV. The War Between Arthur and Lancelot and the Passing of Arthur]
INTRODUCTION
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table! What magic is in the words! How they carry us straight to the days of chivalry, to the witchcraft of Merlin, to the wonderful deeds of Lancelot and Perceval and Galahad, to the Quest for the Holy Grail, to all that "glorious company, the flower of men," as Tennyson has called the king and his companions! Down through the ages the stories have come to us, one of the few great romances which, like the tales of Homer, are as fresh and vivid to-day as when men first recited them in court and camp and cottage. Other great kings and paladins are lost in the dim shadows of long-past centuries, but Arthur still reigns in Camelot and his knights still ride forth to seek the Grail.
"No little thing shall be
The gentle music of the bygone years,
Long past to us with all their hopes and fears."
So wrote the poet William Morris in The Earthly Paradise. And surely it is no small debt of gratitude we owe the troubadours and chroniclers and poets who through many centuries have sung of Arthur and his champions, each adding to the song the gifts of his own imagination, so building from simple folk-tales one of the most magnificent and moving stories in all literature.