King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table facts for kids
1953 edition
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| Author | Roger Lancelyn Green |
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| Illustrator | Lotte Reiniger |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Arthurian legend |
| Publisher | Puffin Books |
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Publication date
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1953 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 355 |
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table is a retelling of the Arthurian legends, principally Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, by Roger Lancelyn Green. It was intended for a child audience. It was first published by Puffin Books in 1953 and has since been reprinted many times. In 2008 it was reissued in the Puffin Classics series with an introduction by David Almond (the award-winning author of Clay, Skellig, Kit's Wilderness and The Fire-Eaters), and the original illustrations by Lotte Reiniger.
Composition
Green set out to weave together the many legends surrounding King Arthur into a single narrative. Thinking that Malory's work was more of a loose collection of separate stories. Green attempted to tell a cohesive story with beginning, middle and end. He drew from many other medieval sources, but mainly Malory, particularly so in the last section of the book.
Synopsis
Uther Pendragon, king of Britons, and defender of Britain against the Saxons and has died. On Christmas Day, Merlin the magician gathers many knights outside a church. a sword, stuck fast to an anvil, in turn on top of a marble stone, appears. No knight can remove the sword from the anvil.
After many years, the young Arthur, secretly the son of Uther Pendragon, pulls the sword out of the stone. He becomes king. With Merlin, he constructs a round table, at which only the best knights of England may sit. More and more knights come to join the brotherhood of the Round Table, and each has his own adventures.
Eventually, the holy knight Galahad, the son of Sir Lancelot, comes to Arthur's court. With his coming, all the knights ride throughout Europe in search of the Holy Grail of Jesus Christ. Only five knights see the Grail; Sir Lancelot, Sir Percival, Sir Bors de Gaunnes, Sir Galahad and Sir Gawain.
After the Grail is found, the last battle of the Knights of the Round Table is fought. In this battle many knights die and with them King Arthur, sir Gawain, who is Arthur's nephew and Mordred, the wicked son of king Arthur and his half-sister Morgana le Fay. King Arthur is taken away to Avalon, a secret island after he is terribly wounded by Mordred while he was making the final stab with his sword to kill Mordred.
