Reading Notes: King Arthur, Part A

  The story in the first part of this unit that I have chosen to focus my reading notes on is "The Drawing of the Sword."

The story starts by setting the scene for a chaotic country due to the lack of a king, after the death of Uther Pendragon: "there was none to bring the evildoer to justice."

To solve this, they brought in Merlin the magician. He deliberated with the Archbishop and after their meeting, they saw a large stone with a sword in the churchyard with the message: "Whoso pulleth out this sword is right of birth King of England." Many knights tried to pull this sword from the stone but were unsuccessful in their efforts. After watching many knights fail to pull the sword, the Archbishop decided that two knights were to watch over this sword. They proclaimed that every man had the right to try and pull the sword. 

Then the story shifts away from the sword and turns to describe a tournament on New Year's Day. Many knights came from all over for this tournament: including Arthur. When entering the tournament, Kay, foster-brother of Arthur, asked Arthur to go fetch his sword for him from the house. Arthur obliged, but when he went to the house, the door was locked. He did his best to get in but could not, everyone was at the tournament. Arthur decided to fetch the sword from the churchyard for Kay, not knowing the significance of pulling the sword. 

He seized the handle of the sword and was able to draw it out easily, thinking nothing of the importance of drawing it. He brought it to Sir Kay, who immediately knew it wasn't his own. He showed the sword to his father, Sir Ector, who knew it was the sword from the churchyard. They discussed for a little bit who drew it, and Sir Ector informed Arthur that he was the king because he drew the sword. 

They then went back to the churchyard and Arthur put the sword back in, both Sir Ector and Sir Kay tried to draw it out, both failing. But when Arthur went to pull it out again, he did it with ease, Sir Ector and Sir Kay kneeled before him. Arthur asked them why they were doing such a thing, surprised. 

Sir Ector told Arthur that he was never his father and he was brought to him by Merlin and that he was instead the son of Uther Pendragon. Arthur cried at this revelation because he loved both Sir Ector and Sir Kay. He promised them positions if he were to become king. 

They told the Archbishop of this revelation of the new king, and on the Twelfth Day, the Knights and Barons came again to test their ability to pull the sword. All failed again, except Arthur. Many knights were angered by this because they thought Arthur's blood to be no better than their own, so they decided to wait until Candlemas when more knights would be present. When this time came, the common people who were present saw Arthur draw the sword and they cried with one voice that he was their king. Men of all classes kneeled before Arthur, and Arthur was made a knight then he swore to be a true king and do his lords and commons justice. 



(Arthur-Pyle How Arthur drew forth ye sword by Howard Pyle (1903), Source: Wikimedia)


Bibliography: 

"King Arthur: The Drawing of the Sword"

Story source: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1902).

Comments

Popular Posts