Stories of King Arthur Illustrated

ISBN 0804901678! Stories of King Arthur - Illustrated. Retold by Blanche Winder. Copyright C 1968 by Airmont Publishing Company. King Arthur was the hero-chief of ancient Britain, about whom stories were told and songs were sung from the fifth century to the fifteenth, when Sir Thomas Malory wrote his great book La Mortre D’Arthur. But Malory’s book does not contain all the tales; and many of those related in this volume are taken directly from other and earlier sources. It is seems strange to read of magnificent feasts and tournaments in connection with an ancient British chief, we must remember that most of the poems and stories were composed in the days of chivalry, and give us pictures of that period. A curious fact is that exactly the same tales were told in Brittany as in Wales; and Broeiliande, in the former country, is supposed to be the enchanted forest in which Merlin is now imprisoned. Many places, too, claim to be in the real Avalon, the lovely island to which Arthur was taken after his last battle, and from which legend says he will one day come again. Indeed, there seems to be no end to the Arthur stories, which are contained literally in hundreds of books in English, French and other European libraries.