The Story of King Arthur and His Knights

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1903

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 1, Prologue-Part 1

Book 1, Part 2

Book 1, Part 3

Book 2, Foreword-Part 1

Book 2, Part 2

Book 2, Part 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Feasts and Food

Feasts are a common trope, or motif, in many chivalric romances, including Pyle’s Story of King Arthur and His Knights, providing moments where the rhythms of courtly life are disrupted or changed. One positive example of this is a feast celebrating Arthur and Guinevere’s marriage. King Leodegrance and Arthur are “exceedingly expanded with cheerfulness” (166) and the former asks the latter what he wants for a dowry. Merlin suggests the Round Table, and Leodegrance happily concedes. This can be contrasted with a negative example: the “very noble feast” (214) where Vivien slips a “sleeping-potion” (214) in Merlin’s wine. This feast leads to Merlin’s magical imprisonment by Vivien, which makes everyone at Arthur’s court unhappy. In both instances, feasts provide opportunities for characters to meet and interact, facilitating significant plot developments.

Feasts also mark the beginning of quests and moments of resolution. Pyle’s reframing of the traditional Gawaine story places Arthur at the feast with the knight who can survive beheading: in the hall of the knight’s castle, “a multitude of people gathered at a table spread for a feast” (364). It is here that he challenges Arthur, who begins his year-long search for the answer to a riddle. This can be contrasted with the feast at which Pellias regains Nymue’s magic necklace. Lady Ettard, who stole Nymue’s necklace from Pellias, holds a “very noble and splendid feast” (319) for Gawaine. In this moment, Pellias is able to sneak in, disguised as a friar, and regain possession of Nymue’s necklace, partially resolving the romantic conflict in Pellias’s part of the Book of the Three Worthies.

Courtly Love

Another trope, or motif, of chivalric romances is courtly love, most prominently featured in Book 1, Part 3: “The Winning of a Queen.” Arthur, as the model of knighthood, illustrates the classic courtly love behaviors, such as total dedication to one’s beloved. Arthur confesses that “my heart seems ever to be entirely filled with love for [Guinevere], and to such a degree that I think of her continually by day […] and likewise I dream of her many times at night” (103). Love is described as physically and emotionally overwhelming in the courtly love tradition, dating back to medieval French troubadours.

In his courtship of Guinevere, Arthur seeks to become her champion. Before even knowing his identity, Guinevere tells Arthur that she is “willing to take thee for my champion” (119) and gives him a token of courtly love: her pearl necklace. Crucially, these exchanges are defined by chastity and consent, which are essential to the courtly love tradition. As Guinevere’s champion, Arthur defeats other knights and sends them to serve her. This pleases not only Guinevere, but other damsels enjoy the jousts. For instance, when Arthur fights Geraint, “ladies who stood upon the balcony of the castle were exceedingly glad that they had beheld so noble an assay-at-arms at that which they had looked down upon” (129). The balcony imagery is key to understanding courtly love—women are placed on a pedestal and served by men in a kind of secular worship.

Colors

Colors are another motif in The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, and many characters wear a specific color of clothing or armor. For instance, when fighting Arthur, Sir Pellinore is “clad all in sable armor. And, likewise, all of his apparel and all the trappings of his horse were entirely of sable” (68). This black armor hides his identity and indicates his moral ambiguity, causing him to be identified only as the Sable Knight until Arthur is able to remove his helmet. Similarly, Pellias fights “a knight clad altogether in red” (265), who turns out to be Adresack, and “a knight clad altogether from head to foot in green armor” (279), who turns out to be Engamore. The colors again stand in for the identities of the knights hidden by their massive armor: the narrator refers to them as the “Red Knight” (265) and the “Green Knight” (279), respectively. These colors also emphasize Pyle’s exploration of disguise. In these instances, red indicates the role that Adresack’s armor plays in Pellias’s passionate romantic escapades, and Engamore’s green armor is an allusion to the Green Knight, the traditional foe in the beheading game.

This connection between identity and color is mirrored in the clothes of women throughout the novel. The Lady of the Lake, Nymue, is described by both the narrator and a hermit as “clad all in green” (85), emphasizing her connection to the natural world. Parcenet, a member of Lady Ettard’s court, is “clad entirely in azure” with a “blue ribbon” in her hair (252), a color meant to indicate her morality and chastity according to medieval standards. Colors are not only associated with individuals, but vibrant azure is also seen in the decorations that the town of Camelot puts out for Arthur and Guinevere’s wedding, when “all the world appeared to be alive with bright colors” (171). Here, a multitude of colors symbolize revelry.