King Arthur Legends; Please Help I'm Desperate!?

Question

Hi everyone I need your help BADLY! In two weeks am going to start my junior year of high school and junior English classes is British lit., which will start with early writing and works its way up through the Romantics. I love Shakespeare and find him easy to understand and everything after him is written in, mostly, plain English. The only thing that really concerns me is our first unit; The King Arthur Legend. The closest I've come to these until I got the school year reading list is "Spamalot". I tried to read some of it to give myself enough background knowledge but it's SO CONFUSSING! I'm not asking anyone to do my homework all I'm asking for is for some incredibly kind person to give me a brief summary of the story (key facts), a list of the main characters and I'll do the rest myself. I just need HELP! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving my GPA.

Answer 1

John Steinbeck (yes, *the* John Steinbeck) began re-writing Le Morte de Arthur before he died. He never finished, but he *nearly* did so. This is the best serious King Arthur book available, and easy to read - but the final "chapters" are not present. http://www.amazon.com/Acts-King-Arthur-Noble-Knights/dp/0374523789

Pyle is, presumably, the standard educational work, so that answer was good. http://www.amazon.com/Story-Arthur-Knights-Signet-Classics/dp/0451530241/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-2632535-8790447?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186552030&sr=1-1 . At only 400 or so paperback-sized pages, you should be able to finish this before school starts.

The number of characters in Mallory's Le Morte is astounding. It is a very long work, but there are literally hundreds of characters.

Here's the very brief list http://www.camelot-revisited.com/Malory_s_people/malory_s_people.html

Here is just a *sampling* of some of the major characters

Arthur - pulls sword from stone, becomes king, organizes the round table of knights, killed by his bastard incestuous son Mordred

Lancelot - hereafter Lance, French, most dangerous knight (except for his bastard son Galahad), boinking the king's wife, Guenevere, ends up in a big battle against Arthur (hereafter Art) and the English knights of the round table (hereafter KotRT) when he finds out. Lance kills Gawaine's brothers Gareth and Gaheris trying to rescue Gwen from execution.

Guinevere - hereafter Gwen, fake blond, wife of Arthur, her father (Leodegrance of Lyonesse) gave Art the round table as a wedding present, boinks Lance behind Art's back, many knights killed trying to save her from her execution (it's treason to cheat on the king) including two of Lot's kids, Gareth and Gaheris, Gawaine's brothers.

Tristram - hereafter doofus, a Cornish knight, 2nd most dangerous (after Lance). Cornish knights have a reputation of being pansies, so doofus has to kick a lot of butt before everybody is afraid of him instead of laughing at him. Drinks a love potion while transporting the betrothed of his uncle and king, Mark. Starts boinking Isoulde (the betrothed mentioned before), (which, as mentioned, is treason). Mark tries to kill him dishonorably. Eventually, doofus and Isoulde are separated (I can't remember why). Like the Greek myth, white sails mean they can be together, black not. Guess which color...

Lamorak - hereafter Lame-O, 3rd most dangerous knight, son of King Pellinore (a very valiant knight in his own right). Even tho Lame-O is young, he is possibly the strongest knight. Lance expects him to become the top knight, but before he does he kills Lot of Orkney. Lot's kids (cousins of Art) ratpack him (dishonorable) and kill him. Pellinore gets the same (if I remember correctly). Lot's kids continue to hate all the Pellinore kids, but I don't think they get them.

Kay - hereafter Kay, Art's seneschal and his foster-brother. (Noble fostering, not orphan-fostering). Kay starts out as the fiercest knight in Art's gang, but after becoming seneschal his battle with bookkeeping reduces him to a real live wiener (not to mention a whiner).

Sir Breunis sans Pitie - herafter butthole, runs around kidnapping ladies to rape (although most of the knights do that) and killing Arts KotRT whenever he gets them at a significant disadvantage. Despite being cowardly at every opportunity, he turns out to be dangerous in a fair fight.

Gawaine - hereafter geek, Art's nephew, called "the golden-tongued" because he thought he was smooth with the ladies. One of the most dangerous KotRT, oldest son of Lot.

Mordred - hereafter darth, Art's son by his half-sister Morgan le Fay, cousin of Gawain and his brothers. Art ordered all the infants of his age killed (ala Moses and Jesus) but missed him. Darth later returns to usurp Art's throne (while he's in France trying to get Lance for boinking Gwen). He also tries to do Gwen, but she draws the line at her husband's son. He ends up causing a war that destroys the KotRT and he and Art kill each other at the same time.

Gareth - hereafter Gareth, the only (nearly) respectable KotRT. Kay named him Beaumains (pretty hands), earning his dislike, and Gareth eventually became one of the most dangerous of the knights. IMHO, he was definitely the most noble.

Galahad - Lance's illegitimate son, raised by nuns, able to kick anyone's butt because God is on his side. Kills lots of people because God is on his side. Kills one suicidal dude who asked to be killed because God is on his side. Finds the Holy Grail.

Bors - has an illegitimate kid but manages to turn his life around, become celibate and be there at the end when Galahad gets the Holy Grail. Lance's brother.

Owaine - cousin of Gareth and company, marries Enid, does pretty good in both the combat and honor departments, except that he likes his chow and he uses his wife as bait.

Enid - behind every great man is a woman prodding him to do better, even if it puts him in danger of death.

That's enough for now. Any more particulars I will be glad to answer as well as I can remember. Just e-mail me.

Jim, www life-after-harry-potter com

Answer 2

Other people have already given you a lot of info, but this website is a great resource about Arthurian legends: http://www.arthurian-legend.com/.
You could also check out some of the movies that have been made of the story to gain a basic knowledge. I like the Disney version of the Sword in the Stone. There are many differences between it and the books, but it will give you a basic idea of Arthur's early life. You could also try some of the more recent novelizations of the Arthur story. My personal favorite is The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It is rather lengthy, but I didn't find it confusing at all, and it is very detailed. There are also many older versions of the story that are quite short that may help you out, such as the Romances of Chretien de Troyes. The Penguin edition is easy to read and will give you a feel for the basics of the legend. I hope some of that helps you. It's a really great story once you get into it. Good luck!

Answer 3

The final factor this nation demands correct now's yet another set of reactionary monarchists on horseback rampaging around the geographical region. What we fairly want is a homegrown Spartacus and a Rosa Luxemburg.

Answer 4

There are many collections of British myths. Go to your library and get out a simple one written in modern English. You will at least have an accessible outline of the stories.

Answer 5

John Steinbeck has an uncompleted version of King Arthur and his Knights which is easy to read.

Answer 6

Read 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', and Howard Pyles 'Story of King Arthur and his Knights.' The library should have them and two weeks is plenty of time to read them.

Answer 7

i can't help you more than Jim just did, i just had to comment on his summary IT WAS GREAT.
145am and i am laughing my but off
he's pretty much accurate and gives the basic details of if all with a great comic flair.
just had to let it be known.
thanks for the laugh JIM