Arthurian Legend Quotes

“Listen -- strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”
― Michael Palin

“He felt in his heart cruelty and cowardice, the things which made him brave and kind.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“And so, perhaps, the truth winds somewhere between the road to Glastonbury, Isle of the Priests, and the road to Avalon, lost forever in the mists of the Summer Sea.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“I am nothing, yes; I am air and darkness, a word, a promise. I watch in the crystal and I wait in the hollow hills. But out there in the light I have a young king and a bright sword to do my work for me, and build what will stand when my name is only a word for forgotten songs and outworn wisdom, and when your name, Morgause, is only a hissing in the dark.”
― Mary Stewart, The Hollow Hills

“The Queen of Air and Darkness tilted back her head and laughed. A more ghastly sound I hope never to hear. ‘Do you think I care about these trifles?’
‘Murder is no trifle, woman,’ Arthur said.
‘No? How many men have you killed, Great King? How many have you slain without cause? How many did you cut down that you might have spared? How many died because you in your battle-rage would not heed their pleas for mercy?’
The High King opened his mouth to speak, but could make no answer.”
― Stephen R. Lawhead, Arthur

“No, don't draw away from me. Whatever else I am, I am your son - your most wretched son. If you do not hate me, try to love me a little, Father; it is lonely never to have been loved, only devoured.”
― Rosemary Sutcliff - Sword at Sunset

“I have neither talent or taste for kingship, cousin. I am a warrior, and to dwell always in one place and live at court would weary me to death!”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“A priestess of Avalon does not lie. But I am cast out of Avalon, and for this, and unless it is all to be for nothing, I must lie, and lie well and quickly”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“At least Morgan is honest! Artor thought as he forced his tired lips to smile. She refuses to eat at my table because she is my enemy. How many of my guests pretend?”
― M K Hume, Dragon's Child

“You hate him worse than me, you viper,’ he whispered as the stimulant cleared his brain.
‘Aye, lord, but here’s the oddity of it - I love him too.’ Morgan replied, her eyes void of all emotion.”
― M K Hume, Dragon's Child

“The Lady smiled, close-mouthed. "You magicked for Arthur himself, Merlin. The Human part of you has always loved Arthur.”
― Anne Eliot Crompton, Merlin's Harp

“Stop, Morgian. Your wiles cannot avail you now.’ He turned to the High King and said, ‘The hurt this woman has done me, I readily forgive. It is for the harm that she has caused others that she is to be judged.”
― Stephen R. Lawhead, Arthur

“Arthur thought it better to make sure that the scattered Saxon forces could not re-form, at least while he came south for his father's burial."
"He is young,"she said, "for such a charge."
I smiled. "But ready for it, and more than able. Believe me, it was like seeing a young falcon take to the air, or a swan to the water.”
― Mary Stewart, The Last Enchantment

“...and then the threw the sword as far into the water as he might; and there came an arm and a hand above the water and met it, and caught it, and so shook it thrice and brandished, and then vanished away the hand with the sword in the water.”
― Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur

“How peaceful to be a tree! Trees had only to grow. Trees had no hearts to confuse and complicate things. Trees could not love kings and still disobey them.”
― Kiersten White

“Mordred ever seemed to burn.”
― Kiersten White, The Guinevere Deception

“From that day on they lived together as equals, united by their great love for each other.”
― Warwick Deeping, Uther and Igraine / Love Among the Ruins / The Slanderers

“Ready to burst, she spoke first. "You cannot be angry with me for saving him."
Arthur sighed. "I can, and I am. And I am not. I am glad Sir Tristan is alive. He is very precious to me. But I cannot risk you.”
― Kiersten White, The Guinevere Deception

“The slow discovery of the seventh sense, by which both men and women contrive to ride the waves of a world in which there is war, adultery, compromise, fear, stultification and hypocrisy—this discovery is not a matter for triumph... And at this stage we begin to forget that there ever was a time when we lacked the seventh sense. We begin to forget, as we go stolidly balancing along, that there could have been a time when we were young bodies flaming with the impetus of life. It is hardly consoling to remember such a feeling, and so it deadens in our minds.

But there was a time when each of us stood naked before the world, confronting life as a serious problem with which we were intimately and passionately concerned. There was a time when it was of vital interest to us to find out whether there was a God or not... Further back, there were times when we wondered with all our souls what the world was, what love was, what we were ourselves.

All these problems and feelings fade away when we get the seventh sense. Middle-aged people can balance between believing in God and breaking all the commandments, without difficulty. The seventh sense, indeed, slowly kills all the other ones, so that at last there is no trouble about the commandments. We cannot see any more, or feel, or hear about them. The bodies which we loved, the truths which we sought, the Gods whom we questioned: we are deaf and blind to them now, safely and automatically
balancing along toward the inevitable grave, under the protection of our last sense.”
― T.H. White, CliffsNotes on White's the Once and Future King

“Wait for me." It was the same farewell as always. "Wait for me. I shall come back."
And as ever, I made the same reply.
"What else have I to do but wait for you? I shall be here, when you come again.”
― Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave

“Outside the window the thin moon stood upright in a deep sky, like the paring of a finger-nail for magic, and against the sky the weather vane of the carrion crow with arrow in mouth pointed it's arrow to the south”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“[P]ray thee Pilgrim for the noble souls of Artur and Gwenhwyfawr, united once more here in peace. First King of all Great Britain. First faithful servant of the Vicar of Christ and Universal Church. Let all men who seek rule, be measured according to thy virtue.”
― Thomas Pride, Mercia

“Uther était jeune enfant encore, lorsque la nouvelle du sac de Rome par les Goths parvint en Bretagne. Pour certains, et même pour la plupart de ses compatriotes, la Ville n’était qu’un maître lointain, surtout pourvoyeur d’impôts et de corvées. Pour d’autres par contre, Rome représentait la présence vivante d’une grandeur touchant au cosmique, une source jaillissante de civilisation qui soudain s’était tarie.Dans les vertes campagnes de l’île, bien entendu, cela ne changea rien de prime abord à la vie quotidienne, ou si peu. Certes, les quelques légions s’en étaient allées sur le continent défendre ce qu’il restait de la cité impériale, mais l’alternance des saisons ne s’en trouvait pas perturbée pour autant, pas plus que celle des moissons. Dans les villes, les vieilles familles tentaient de grappiller le pouvoir abandonné par ceux qui gouvernaient jusqu’alors au nom des distants et faibles césars, et se livraient à d’insidieuses luttes d’influence.”
― Alex Nikolavitch, Trois coracles cinglaient vers le couchant

“Peut-être la civilisation était-elle destinée à crouler ? Rome comptait plus de mille années sur son calendrier et, dévorée par la sénilité, elle s’effondrait peu à peu sous son propre poids. Tenter de la sauver ne faisait, semblait-il, qu’ajouter au chaos. Tenter de la relever n’était qu’une farce bouffonne à laquelle seuls des fous comme lui se prêtaient encore sans se rendre compte de leur ridicule. Uther se vit comme un homme qui essayait de contenir le débordement d’un fleuve à mains nues. Mais si futile que puisse sembler sa tentative, elle valait mieux que l’inaction, que rester à l’écart en assistant au saccage. Cela, oui, demeurait au-dessus de ses forces.”
― Alex Nikolavitch, Trois coracles cinglaient vers le couchant

“Ambrosius arrêta son interlocuteur d’un geste agacé.« As-tu déjà contemplé Rome de tes propres yeux ? L’un d’entre vous a-t-il même jamais approché la Ville ? D’ici, à vous entendre, vous l’imaginez comme une cité céleste toute de marbre, mais en réalité il n’y a plus que des ruines là-bas, tenant tout juste debout. Si par habitude l’on y entretient encore quelques palais, tant bien que mal, et qu’on les empêche de s’effondrer une fois pour toutes, les grands édifices du temps de sa splendeur blanchissent peu à peu tels des os laissés au soleil. Les maisons où l’on vit encore sont comme les vôtres, bâties de chaux et de torchis, ou de brique pour les plus luxueuses. Tout au plus plaque-t-on parfois un stuc sur leurs façades et leurs murs en espérant vainement faire illusion. Il ne subsiste de Rome qu’un fantôme s’accrochant aux marais des miasmes desquels elle avait jailli plus d’un millénaire auparavant.”
― Alex Nikolavitch, Trois coracles cinglaient vers le couchant

“...a good soldier should ride into Paradise bearing the soul of the woman he loved.”
― Warwick Deeping, Uther and Igraine

“And when she, too, goes back to her mother, cheeks blooming fresh with wild roaming, her mother weeps and begs her to stay close, stay safe-for the girl is hers, her gift, her treasure, her payment, all she has-but the girl feels her growing strength; she must run, she must climb, she must test her power.”
― Nicola Griffith, Spear

“Peretur rode now through lands abandoned by people and sharp with the scent of vinegar where apples, unpicked, had fallen and rotted in the grass.”
― Nicola Griffith, Spear

“She swayed with Bony, loose and lithe as the river, while the bandit knight bore down on like a red tide.”
― Nicola Griffith, Spear

“You can't all be the greatest knight in England."

"Why not?" Gawain smiled suddenly. "It makes for better stories that way.”
― Gerald Morris, The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady