The Story of King Arthur and His Knights

“Whoso Smiteth This Shield / Doeth So At His Peril.”

In the book, several knights hang shields with this kind of message near them. In this passage, Sir Myles, the newly-knighted Sir Griflet, and Arthur strike the shield and fight the Sable Knight, who turns out to be Sir Pellinore. The White Knight, Sir Pellias, also invites duels with a similar shield sign (133). This demonstrates how shields have several functions—they are not only used to disguise knights, identify knights, and protect knights, but they are also used to challenge knights to action and to symbolize a knight’s honor.

“I will forget that I am a king and I will cherish the thought of this lady and will serve her faithfully as a good knight may serve his chosen dame.”

This passage characterizes Arthur’s courtship of Guinevere. He adheres to the codes of courtly love; even though he is the ruler of all of Britain, he places his beloved in a position above him. Courtly love treats romantic love as a kind of religious fervor.

“And in the centre of that lake there hath for some time been seen the appearance as of a woman’s arm—exceedingly beautiful and clad in white samite, and the hand of this arm holdeth a sword of such exceeding excellence and beauty that no eye hath ever beheld its like. And the name of this sword is Excalibur.”

Here, Merlin describes the sword Excalibur to Arthur. The image of a woman holding the sword above the surface of the lake has become iconic, and is included in many pieces of visual art, including Pyle’s illustrations. For example, a disembodied hand holding a sword often appears in tarot decks, many of which are Arthurian themed, showing the enduring and pervasive nature of this mystical image, as well as the Arthurian myth as a whole.

“Spanish armor, very cunningly wrought and all inlaid with gold, And the like of that armor was hardly to be found in all of the land. The juppon and the several trappings of the armor were all of satin and white as milk. And the shield was white and altogether without emblazonment or device of any sort.”

This passage describes the armor that Arthur borrows from the merchant Ralph. The unmarked shield hides Arthur’s identity, which develops the theme of identity and disguise. This armor allows Arthur to court Guinevere without revealing his identity; she learns that her gardener’s assistant is a knight, but her father is the one who reveals that her champion is the King of Britain. Here, white also indicates Arthur’s morality and purity of heart.

“And the little birds they sang all gayly in the hedge-rows and the leafy thickets as though they would burst their tiny throats with singing, and cock crowded, strong and lusty, from the farm croft, and all was so blithe and comely that the young King, with the visor of his helmet uplifted to the refreshment of the gentle breeze, would sometimes carol joyously in his journeying.”

This is a description of Arthur riding on a summer’s day, which develops the theme of green spaces and courtly spaces. Between the well-populated castles and the dark, frightening forests are rural areas. These are examples of the pastoral, or elevation of natural beauty, literary device. The pastoral is included in many chivalric romances, celebrating simplicity and humble, honest living over the excesses of life at court.

“And not one of those knights wist who he was, nor that he was the great King whose servant they, soothly, were.”

Here, Gawaine, Ewaine, Geraint, and Pellias are ordered by Guinevere to serve her gardener’s assistant, who is Arthur in disguise. While Guinevere knows Arthur is secretly a knight, she does not know that the knights he defeated in combat and sent to serve her are in fact already in his service as he is their king. The layers of knowing and not knowing here develop the theme of identity and disguise.

“At this season of the year it is exceedingly pleasant to be a-field among the nut-trees with hawk and hound, or to travel abroad in the yellow world, whether it be a-horse or a-foot.”

This is the narrator’s description of a pleasant day in autumn. As a compliment to the summer’s day discussed above (123), this pastoral moment is full of peace and beauty. The green spaces of the Arthurian world can be imposing and labyrinthine, such as the many forests, but there are also green spaces that are inviting and rejuvenating. This develops the theme of green spaces and courtly spaces as complex yet opposing environments.

“This island of Avalon was a very strange, wonderful land, such as was not to be seen anywhere else in all the world. For it was like a Paradise for beauty, being covered all over with diverse gardens of flowers, intermingled with plantations of fair trees, some bearing fruit and others all a-bloom with blossoms [...] somewhiles it would be all covered over with a mist of enchantment like to silver, so that no eyes could behold it unless they were fay.”

Many Arthurian legends include the island of Avalon. Avalon is often characterized as a beautiful faerie land with elements of the pastoral combined with elements of magic. Avalon is also considered a female space; in Pyle’s version, humans must obtain permission from Queen Morgana le Fay to enter Avalon. Many Arthurian stories depict Arthur going into Avalon at the end of his life.

“For it would be impossible that both thou and he could live in the same world and each of ye know so much cunning of magic.”

Morgana says this to Vivien when suggesting a way for Vivien to learn all of Merlin’s magic. This foreshadows that Merlin will be imprisoned by Vivien after teaching her all of his magic. Morgana aids Vivien partly because Merlin did not teach Morgana all of his magic. Many Arthurian romances are about magic leaving the world; this passage speaks to intentionally limiting magic, or the limitations of magic.

“So came the Feast of Pentecost, and King Arthur sat at the table with a great many noble and lordly folk and several kings and queens. Now as they all sat at that feast, their spirits greatly expanded with mirth and good cheer, there suddenly came into the hall a very beautiful young damsel [...] dressed all in flame-colored satin.”

This is a classic example of the feast trope, or motif, in Arthurian literature. Vivien, in “flame-colored” clothes, interrupts the feast with a contest involving a magic ring. This is the beginning of the end for Merlin—the ring is enchanted so that he will fall in love with Vivien. Quests often begin with someone interrupting a feast in Arthuriana, as feasts allow for many witnesses to an event or challenge; this trope is so common that it is joked about in medieval grail stories by anonymous authors.

“At last they overtook the hart and found that it was embushed in a very thick and tangled part of the forest [...] in a little they perceived that they were lost in the mazes of the woodland and wist not where they were.”

Here, Accalon and Arthur travel from a benevolent green space into the imposing forest. Hunting is one method for enjoying the pastoral in Arthurian legends, but it is also an inciting force for quests that begin in darker green spaces. Both gentle rural spaces and mysterious forests contrast with courtly, or urban, spaces.

“At this, King Arthur was very much astonished that they should know him.”

The narrator describes Arthur’s confusion when he arrives at a ship crewed by fay. The fay are aware of Arthur’s identity because they are part of Morgana’s plot against Arthur. This moment stands in contrast to the many moments where the identity of Arthur (and other knights) is unknown, developing the theme of identity and disguise.

“Damsel, meseems I should know thy face [...] she was one of those who had beguiled King Arthur into the ship the night before.”

In this passage, Arthur remembers one of the fay from the ship when he becomes Domas’s prisoner. While knights hide their faces behind helmets many times in the novel, fay and other damsels do not have this option. Therefore, the identities of women are generally more well-known than those of men, due to their faces being exposed. This develops the theme of identity and disguise, suggesting that gender plays a role in the individual’s ability to conceal or reveal themselves.

“Sir Accalon bled not at all because of the sheath of Excalibur which he wore at his side.”

Due to Morgana’s scheming, Accalon fights with Excalibur against Arthur. Arthur, meanwhile, fights with a duplicate that Morgana made, without magical powers. At the end of Book 2, Part 1, Morgana is only able to steal Excalibur’s sheath, which protects Accalon in this passage. That Arthur overcomes Accalon while fighting against his own enchanted sword indicates his inherent worth and abilities. 

“Now because King Arthur was blinded with his own blood he did not know Sir Accalon.”

In the events leading up to this passage, Arthur and Accalon fight while dressed in the armor of Domas and Ontzlake, respectively. For most of the fight, their helmets hide their identities. However, at the end of the fight, when their helmets come off, Arthur’s blood obscures Accalon’s identity. This develops the theme of identity and disguise by adding layers of obscurity and suggesting that violence plays a role in a person’s ability to recognize friend from foe.

“Now that necklace which the Lady of the Lake had hung about the neck of Sir Pellias possessed such a virtue that whosoever wore it was beloved of all those who looked upon him.”

Here, it is Pellias’s chivalrous treatment of Nymue, the Lady of the Lake, that causes her to give him the magic necklace. He aids her across a river while she is disguised as an old woman, demonstrating the covenant that the knights recite at the Round Table—to help all in need. Only after he assists her does Nymue reveal her fay beauty, which surpasses the beauty of humans.

“Thou art not fit for to be dealt with as beseemeth a tried knight. Wherefore, should I encounter thee, thy overthrow must be of such a sort as may shame any belted knight who weareth golden spurs.”

In this passage, Pellias discusses chivalric behavior. The code of conduct for chivalric knights includes not attacking unarmed opponents. After declaring that Adresack, the Red Knight, lacks chivalry, Pellias—lacking a sword or spear—knocks Adresack out with a stone, demonstrating his own knightly prowess.

“And when Sir Gawaine and Sir Ewaine saw the shields of the two, they immediately knew that they were Sir Brandiles and Sir Mador de la Porte.”

In contrast to the many examples of knights with unmarked shields, or knights wearing armor with other people’s heraldry, this is a moment of recognition. Gawaine and Ewaine get reliable information from the shields of their comrades-in-arms. This develops the theme of identity and disguise; armor, when worn by its owner and bearing the emblems or devices of the owner, can aid in identification.

“Lady, I am not that one whom thou supposed me to be, but another. For, behold! I have thine enemy’s armor upon my body, wherefore thou mayest see that I have overcome him.”

Both Pellias and Gawaine wear the Red Knight’s armor (the armor of Adresack). In this passage, Gawaine reveals that he is not either of the previous wearers of the armor by removing his helmet and showing his face to Lady Ettard. This develops the theme of identity and disguise—Gawaine initially used the armor as a disguise, but willingly reveals his identity. The transfer of the red armor also mirrors the transfer of Ettard’s manipulation and magically induced passion via the enchanted necklace.

“Go, and fetch me hither the garb of a black friar, for I would fain go unto the castle of Grantmesnle in disguise”

After Gawaine uses the red armor to get close to Lady Ettard, Pellias confronts them in disguise as a friar. This disguise allows him to infiltrate Ettard’s feast for Gawaine and get Nymue’s magical necklace back from Ettard. Disguise as a means to remedy a wrong (loaning Ettard the necklace in the first place) further complicates the theme of identity and disguise, suggesting that concealed identity has both moral and immoral purposes.

“He removed the helmet from the head of the fallen knight and beheld that he was very young and comely [...] ‘Who art thou?’ And the knight said, ‘I am called Sir Alardin of the Isles.’”

In this passage, Gawaine defeats another knight who seeks the white deer and white hound. Gawaine decides that he is the only knight who can pursue that adventure, and battles anyone else who wants to investigate the animals and their human companions. Eventually, Gawaine discovers that the animals were given to their human owners by Vivien to cause chaos. This is another example of how helmets can hide the identities of knights.

“So Boisenard brought armor, without device, and clad the King in that armor; and they two rode forth together, and no one wist that they had left the castle.”

Here, Arthur prepares to ride with his favorite squire in disguise. Putting Arthur in armor that does not indicate his identity reflects Pyle’s switching of characters in his revision of the traditional Gawaine story—the poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” has Gawain face the knight that Arthur faces in Pyle’s version.

“It seemed to all the Court that, in the rich robes which she wore, she was ten times more ugly than she was before.”

Like Pellias aiding the Lady of the Lake in the disguise of an old woman, Gawaine agrees to marry an ugly old woman. This passage comes right before their wedding, indicating how clothes cannot improve the woman’s looks. However, it turns out that the ugly old woman is actually a beautiful fay under a spell, and Gawaine breaks the spell by marrying her. Both Pellias and Gawaine demonstrate chivalry by helping women who are in need, despite how they look.