Reading Notes: King Arthur, Part B

   The story in the second part of this unit that I have chosen to focus my reading notes on is "Sir Galahad and the White Knight."

The story begins by telling the reader of Sir Galahad, who is shieldless and rides for 4 days with no "adventure" until he gets to White Abbey. He asks if he can sleep there that evening and he is welcomed. 

He begins to have a conversation with the brethren of White Abbey. He finds out that there is a shield in this Abbey. Being shieldless, he decides he will look for it. Except this shield has one caveat, unless he is the worthiest knight in the world, the person who hangs the shield around their neck will die. Sir Galahad meets this challenge with confidence and claims that he is indeed the worthiest knight in the world. 

A squire finds the shield and takes it from a mysterious knight who gives them no information on his identity. The night tells him that no man shall bear this shield, and to save it fro Sir Galahad.  He brings it back to the Abbey and gives it to Sir Galahad.

Sir Galahad was overjoyed to have the shield and the monks were happy to see him when he arrived back, they assumed he would die after bearing the shield. 

They then thought to continue testing his strengths, they bring him to a churchyard where there was a time that any man who heard a specific noise would be driven mad or lose his strength. They lifted the stone and the noise was made by a foul figure who was seen in the likeness of a man, but Sir Galahad took no heed of him. He instead said that they should move him from the churchyard because he is a false Christian man, and they do. 

Sir Galahad kept doing great things for the people of White Abbey. He eventually needed to leave this town, so he did. The people he left behind proclaimed him to be the best knight in the world. ut Sir Lancelot and Sir Percivale came to this town looking for him, and he escaped them. 

(W.E.F. Britten - The Early Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Sir Galahad (1901), Source: Wikimedia)

Bibliography: 

"King Arthur: Sir Galahad and the White Knight"

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