The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend

Sir Lancelot, lover of Guinevere and the greatest of all of Arthur’s knights, rides out into the world with his nephew, Sir Lionel, seeking adventures. They come to an apple tree in the middle of a field. While Lancelot sleeps, Sir Lionel challenges a powerful knight named Sir Tarquin, before whom three other knights are fleeing. Sir Tarquin defeats Lionel and carries him off with the other knights to prison.

Inspired by Lancelot’s example, Sir Ector also rides out in search of adventures and discovers Tarquin’s prison. After fighting Tarquin, Ector is also defeated and thrown into prison, where he reunites with Lionel.

Meanwhile, four queens (one of whom is Morgan le Fay) come upon Lancelot, still sleeping under the apple tree. Morgan casts a spell on Lancelot, and the four queens take him to the Castle Chariot, where they give him an ultimatum: either choose one of them for his lover or remain their prisoner until death. Lancelot chooses to remain a prisoner but later is visited by the daughter of King Bagdemagus, who offers him a plan of escape. Before Lancelot escapes, Bagdemagus’s daughter tells him to ride 10 miles to an abbey and wait for her and her father there.

Lancelot escape Castle Chariot but then becomes lost in a forest with no roads and wanders until nightfall. Finding a red tent, Lancelot sleeps there until the owner of the tent, a knight named Belleus, returns and confuses Lancelot for his lover. Belleus’s kiss wakes Lancelot, and the two fight. Belleus is defeated, but after receiving an explanation Lancelot feels remorse for injuring him and treats his wounds. Belleus’s lover arrives and learns of what has happened. She asks Lancelot if, as compensation for the mistreatment he received, Belleus may have the opportunity of joining Arthur’s Round Table court. Lancelot agrees.

The next morning Lancelot arrives at the abbey where Bagdemagus’s daughter is waiting. Shortly after, King Bagdemagus himself appears, and Lancelot informs him of the trick Morgan and the other wicked queens played on him (Lancelot).

A great tournament takes place at the abbey some days later, and the King of North Wales and his knights contest with King Bagdemagus and his knights. Among the knights accompanying the King of North Wales are Sir Marhalt, Sir Gahalantine, and Sir Mordred (the son of Arthur and his half-sister Morgause). Lancelot defeats all three knights and wins the tournament for King Bagdemagus; he then rides off in search of Sir Lionel.

In a field, Lancelot meets a lady who takes him to the castle of Sir Tarquin. When Lancelot meets him, Tarquin is holding captive Sir Gaheris, knight of the Round Table and brother of Sir Gawain (both sons of Morgause and her husband, King Lot). After Lancelot and Tarquin have fought each other for two hours, Tarquin suggests a truce, but before yielding Lancelot learns that Tarquin harbors a vendetta against Lancelot, who killed Tarquin’s brother years ago. Lancelot reveals his identity, and Tarquin affirms that now their fight will be to the death. After several more hours of fighting, Lancelot kills Tarquin and, setting Gaheris free, asks Gaheris to free the other prisoners. The group then rides after Lancelot.

Lancelot, riding with the lady who led him to Tarquin’s castle, kills a wicked knight named Sir Peris, who was known to kidnap and rape women; this fulfills Lancelot’s obligation to the woman. When she suggests that now he must find a wife, Lancelot asserts that he will never marry.

At a bridge, Lancelot is accosted by a porter who tries to kill him. Lancelot kills the porter in self-defense and enters a village where the inhabitants are wary of his presence. Two giants burst out of the castle and fight with Lancelot, but Lancelot defeats them both. A crowd of women from the village praise Lancelot as their rescuer, explaining that the giants had kept them prisoners for many years. When Lancelot inquires, he learns that the village is Tintagel, the birthplace of Igraine, Arthur’s mother.

Lancelot has many adventures. One night, while staying in a castle owned by a charitable old lady, Lancelot wakes to find three knights pursuing Sir Kay. Judging this to be an unfair fight, Lancelot springs into action and fights on behalf of Kay, defeating all three knights easily and forcing them to return to Camelot and surrender to Guinevere. Kay realizes that his savior is Lancelot and thanks him. In the morning, Lancelot leaves but switches armor with Kay (so that now he rides in Kay’s armor and Kay will ride in his). This, Kay observes, was done kindly so as to give Kay more protection.

Lancelot, wearing Sir Kay’s armor, rides across a bridge where he is spotted by three knights—Sir Gawter, Sir Gilmer, and Sir Raynolde—who suppose him to be Kay until they challenge him and realize he is stronger than Kay. Lancelot defeats all three and declares they must surrender to Guinevere and say that it was Kay who bested them. When the knights ask their vanquisher’s true identity, Lancelot is silent.

In a dark forest, a dog sniffing a trail leads Lancelot to an ancient castle. The dog stops at the body of a dead knight, and a lady comes out of the castle to explain to Lancelot that the dead knight’s name is Sir Gilbert and that he was her husband. Lancelot wishes her comfort.

Back in the forest, Lancelot is approached by another lady who begs his help in treating her brother, Sir Meliot (a member of the Round Table); Meliot lies wounded after a fight with Sir Gilbert, whose wife the lady claims is a witch. Only a piece of magic cloth and a sword at the Perilous Chapel can heal Meliot. Lancelot agrees to help.

When Lancelot arrives at the Perilous Chapel, 30 massive warriors appear guarding the entrance, but Lancelot, though frightened, moves unharmed through the crowd clinging to his shield; the warriors let him pass. Once inside, Lancelot finds the cloth and sword needed to heal Meliot and takes them. When he tries to leave with these items, the 30 warriors threaten to kill Lancelot, but Lancelot defies them and again they let him through without incident.

On his way back to Meliot, Lancelot encounters a lady, Hallewes the Sorceress, who warns Lancelot he will die if he does not relinquish the sword from the Perilous Chapel. Lancelot is not intimidated by her threats and refuses to give up the sword. The woman congratulates Lancelot and then demands that he kiss her. Lancelot again refuses. Then Hallewes reveals that she was testing Lancelot, hoping to ensnare him because of her jealous love for him and her spite toward the woman to whom he is devoted (Guinevere); however, Lancelot passed the test. He rides on, but Hallewes lingers at the place of their meeting for two weeks, pining after Lancelot until she dies. Lancelot, meanwhile, returns to Meliot and heals him with the items from the Perilous Chapel.

Some time later, a woman whose falcon is caught in a tree appeals to Lancelot. The woman says her husband, Sir Phelot, will kill her if he finds out about the falcon. Lancelot removes his armor, puts aside his sword, and rescues the falcon, but when he climbs down the tree, Phelot is standing there: It was a trick that Phelot planned to catch Lancelot without his armor or sword. Phelot attacks the unarmed Lancelot, but Lancelot, thinking quickly, breaks off a branch from the tree and uses brute strength to subdue Phelot, whose sword he steals. Lancelot kills Phelot and leaves the widowed woman at the tree.

Later, in a valley, Lancelot comes across a knight, sword drawn, chasing a woman. They are a married couple, and the husband, Sir Pedivere, believes his wife to be unfaithful and is about to kill her when Lancelot intervenes. The man points and makes Lancelot turn and look. While Lancelot’s head is turned, Pedivere cuts off his wife’s head. Lancelot is outraged and makes Pedivere surrender himself to Guinevere with his wife’s corpse tied to him. Guinevere, when she learns what has happened, sends the guilty man to the pope in Rome, still with his wife’s corpse tied to him. The pope pardons the man, who becomes a monk for the rest of his life.