Launcelot finds Guenever easily; she hasn’t been living as an incognito nun, just as a nun. He strides into her cloister, and when she sees him she faints! The nuns with Guenever help her back up. “Oh, thanks,” she says. … Continue reading →
Hey, remember Sir Launcelot? Remember how he’s been conspicuously absent for the last few chapters? Turns out he’s been chilling in Benwick this whole time. He got the letter from Sir Gawaine but assumed it was just Gawaine being a … Continue reading →
“Sire!” calls Bedivere, as the magic barge’s gangplank retracts all by itself and Arthur, up on deck, lies down with his head in Morgan’s lap. “Sire! What will happen to me? I’m the last Knight of the Round Table!” “You’re … Continue reading →
“Well, darn,” says Sir Lucan. “C’mon, let’s get the king’s body out of here,” says Sir Bedivere. “Those looters are going to be coming through here soon.” Lucan and Bedivere pick up Arthur, and did I mention before that Lucan … Continue reading →
It’s a tense scene, with both Arthur’s group and Mordred’s group expecting the other to double-cross. Naturally things go south; the catalyst here is a snake biting a knight’s ankle. This knight (Malory doesn’t specify if he’s one of Arthur’s … Continue reading →
On the eve of this planned joust/battle with Mordred, Arthur dream[s] a wonderful dream. He’s in a chair on a scaffold! It gets better. The scaffold is all connected to this big wheel assembly, and it’s slowly turning. As it … Continue reading →
Mordred’s still working on getting Guenever out of her tower when a messenger brings him word: Arthur, Gawaine, and their troops are landing at Dover. Mordred’s okay with this, though, because he has the common people on his side. Apparently … Continue reading →
We cut back to England and flash back to just after Arthur and Gawaine sail away with their sixty thousand troops. Mordred, Guenever, and all the other survivors of Book XX stand on the dock and watch them go. “Well, … Continue reading →
This book is a bloodbath. Literally dozens of characters, some of whom we’ve seen many times over the course of Le Morte D’Arthur, are cut down during Launcelot’s two big knight-massacres. So, okay, first there’s the big fight over Guenever. … Continue reading →
“Alas,” says Arthur, “that ever this unhappy war was begun.” Nevertheless Arthur does not go home, as Launcelot suggests! Instead the siege goes on for three weeks more, with no activity to speak of, until one morning Sir Gawaine feels … Continue reading →
