“Just a flesh wound” – the inspiration behind Monty Python’s Black Knight?

This post contains spoilers for King Arthur vs Devil Kitty. And for Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

John Cleese’s Black Knight is surely the best remembered character from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As Arthur lops his limbs off one-by-one, the knight is reduced to a torso who declares the battle “a draw”.

When I first read the 15th Century Prose Merlin and came across the story of “Arthur and the Devil Cat” (AKA the Cath Palug), I couldn’t believe how bizarre this story was, or how...