In the Court of King Arthur

by Samuel E. Lowe

King Arthur, who held sway in Camelot with his Knights of the Round Table, was supposedly a king of Britain hundreds of years ago. Most of the stories about him are probably not historically true, but there was perhaps a real king named Arthur, or with a name very much like Arthur, who ruled somewhere in the island of Britain about the sixth century. Among the romantic spires and towers of Camelot, King Arthur held court with his queen, Guinevere. According to tradition, he received mortal wounds in battling with the invading Saxons, and was carried magically to fairyland to be brought back to health and life. Excalibur was the name of King Arthur's sword--in fact, it was the name of two of his swords. One of these tremendous weapons Arthur pulled from the stone in which it was imbedded, after all other knights had failed. This showed that Arthur was the proper king. The other Excalibur was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake--she reached her hand above the water, as told in the story, and gave the sword to the king. When Arthur was dying, he sent one of his Knights of the Round Table, Sir Bedivere, to throw the sword back into the lake from which he had received it. The Knights of the Round Table were so called because they customarily sat about a huge marble table, circular in shape. Some say that thirteen knights could sit around that table; others say that as many as a hundred and fifty could find places there. There sat Sir Galahad, who would one day see the Holy Grail. Sir Gawain was there, nephew of King Arthur. Sir Percivale, too, was to see the Holy Grail. Sir Lancelot--Lancelot of the Lake, who was raised by that same Lady of the Lake who gave Arthur his sword--was the most famous of the Knights of the Round Table. He loved Queen Guinevere. All the knights were sworn to uphold the laws of chivalry--to go to the aid of anyone in distress, to protect women and children, to fight honorably, to be pious and loyal to their king.

Genres: Arthurian, History

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1918

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

For a tale published in 1918 this was an easy read with fairly fast pacing, despite some of the weird sentence structure that made me double back a few times.

It's a short book about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Sir Galahad is the main focus of the story, but many other characters come into play. While the search for the Holy Grail was indeed the predominant focus, it mostly felt like an overarching backdrop. When you get right down to it, I would say this book is about the Knights and their adventures. It has the feel of a strongly collected group of short stories more than a full novel.

[Carissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Great easy read about King Arthur and Sir Galahad's worthy search for the Holy Grail.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a fun and simple read of Arthurian legend during what I would assume to be the high middle ages. We follow the story of young Allan, on his years long quest to find the holy grail. Although the search for the holy grail seems to be the ultimate goal, the book feels more like a meandering collection of short stories. We get to experience snippets of the raucous and titilating life of a knight In the Court of King Arthur. see what i did there ;D

I think the setting simply doesn't suit my tastes, unfortunately. There were some fun bits, but a lot of it was wholly uninteresting to me. If you are a fan of knights and nobility and honour and piety, then this is the story for you.

Note, this was written over a hundred years ago. I get that there were no expectations to subvert and not much by way of deep, complex characters.

Allan is truly the alpha male of all alpha males and morphs into the gigachad Sir Galahad. Need him to fix me badly.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very easy read I’m assuming it was made for younger readers as the story is more of a quick tale of Galahad’s search for the Holy Grail not slot of the other Drama that is usually associated with Arthur .
If you’re a kid at heart and like Arthurian tales you’ll like this one

[Elle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Narrated by Otis Gray as part of the Daily Book Club Podcast.

[Ansie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic stories.