King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

in London, when, suddenly, upon a certain day,

d full twenty thousand with them-and they have sworn by a great oath, Lord, to slay thee, ere this ye

commanded them vehemently to go and build him straightway in the furthest west of his lands a great and strong castle, where he might fly for refuge and escape t

up above the ground than all their work was overwhelmed and broken down by night invisibly, no man perceiving how, or by whom, or what. And the same thing happening again, and yet again, a

that nothing but the blood of a youth born without mortal father, smeared on the foundations of the castle, could avail to make it stand. Messengers were therefore sent forthwith through all the land to find, if it were possible, such

in; another, that his birth and parentage were known by no man; a third, that the foul fiend alone was

than he asked in a loud voice, for w

ek out a man that had no human father, and to spri

Merlin, "to come before me, an

t commanded the magicians to come and si

blood for a cement to it, as if that would avail; but tell me now rather what there is below t

an to fear, and made no answer

d to dig deep down into the ground till t

pool discovered far beneat

ng, "Command this pool to be drained, and at the bottom shall be found two dragons, great and huge, which now are sleeping, but which at night awake and fight and t

forthwith drained; and surely at the bottom of it did they presen

rink of the pool till night

breath. But the white dragon had the advantage, and chased the other to the end of the lake. And he, for grief at his flight, turned back upon his foe,

im what it meant. Whereat he, bursting into tears, cried out

e valleys shall run blood; cities shall be burned, and churches laid in ruins; till at length the oppressed shall turn for a season and prevail against the strangers. For a Boar of Cornwall shall arise and rend them, and trample their necks beneath his feet. The island

heir father, and didst bring the Saxon heathens to the land. Aurelius and Uther are even now upon thee to revenge their father's murder; and the b

s sins, said nothing in reply. Only he hasted the builders of hi

d came before the tower which the usurper had built. Then, crying out to all his knights, "Avenge ye on him who hath ruined Britain and slain my father and your king!" he rushed with many thousands at the castle walls. But, being driven back again and yet a

he Saxons, and, defeating them in many places, weakened t

here by the treachery of Hengist. For when in former times Hengist had made a solemn truce with Vortigern, to meet in peace and settle terms, whereby himself and all his Saxons should depart

sorrow, and he cast about in his mind how to make a worthy tomb

aid Merlin, "with an everlasting monument, send for the Giants' Dance which is in Killaraus, a mountain; in Ireland; for there is a structure of stone there which none of this age could raise w

, "How is it possible to remove such vast stones from so great a

thest coast of Africa, and placed them in Ireland while they lived in that country: and their design was to make baths in them, for use in time of grievous illness. For if they washed

the number of 15,000 men, and came to Ireland. There Gillomanius, the king, withstood them fiercely, and not till after a great battle could they approach the Giants' Dance, the sight of which filled them with joy and admiratio

feast of Pentecost with royal pomp; and in the midst of all the clergy and the people, Merlin raised up the s

e," and stands, as all men know, upon t

as slain by poison at Winchester, and was

t the end whereof was a cloud of fire shaped like a dragon, from whose mouth went out two

loud voice: "O mighty loss! O stricken Britain! Alas! the great prince is gone from us. Aurelius Ambrosius is dead, whose death will be ours also, unless God help us. Haste, therefore, noble Uther, to destroy the enemy; the victory sh

, and caused two dragons to be made in gold, in likeness of the dragon he had seen in the star. One of these he gave to Winchester Ca

many other earls and barons, Gorlo?s, Duke of Cornwall, and his wife Igerna, who was the most famous beauty in all Britain. And soon thereafter, Gorlo?s being slain in battle, Uther determined to make Igerna his own wife. But in order to do this, and enable him to come to her-for she was shut up in the high castle of Tintagil, on

in came to the castle on a certain day, and said, "Sir, t

ng doubting, said,

child. His name is Sir Ector, and he hath fair possessions both in England and in Wales. When, therefore, the child is born

And the child being delivered thus to Merlin, who himself took the guise of a poor man, was carried by him to a holy priest and christened by the name of Arthur, and then was taken to S

l into a greater rage than his weakness could bear, and commanded all his nobles to come before him, that he might upbraid them for their cowardice. And when he had sharply and hotly rebuked them, he swore that he himself, nigh u

r, left the gates wide open. But Uther straightway commanding his men to assault the town, they did so without loss of time, and had already reached the gates, when the Saxons, repenting too late of their haughty pride,

s litter by himself, and said, with a laughing and merry face, "They called me the half-dead king, and so indeed I was; but v

by now so grown, that his knights and barons kept him from the adventure. Whereat the enemy took courage, and left no

he was wont to drink daily; and so, on the very next day, he was taken with the pains of death, as were al

the king's will before he died, for he was by this time speechless. "Sirs, there is no remedy," said Merlin,

edside of the king; and Merlin said aloud to Uther, "Lord, shal

God's blessing and mine be upon him. I bid him pray for my soul, and also that

people, and bewailed the king; and carrying his body to the convent of Ambr