Reading Diary B: King Arthur

I finished reading the second half of the King Arthur unit for this reading diary. The story shifted from being all about King Arthur and his adventures to various Knights of his. Most of the stories revolved around the Knights' quest for the Holy Grail. I kept some notes on my favorites below.

The Adventure of Sir Percivale

I think Sir Percivale may be my favorite character so far within the King Arthur unit. He seems to have good morals and fights for others throughout this story. He first rides to confront a Knight that has stolen a great steed of a yeoman. He rode hard and fast on a horse not suitable for battle but was ultimately beaten by the Knight and could not catch him. Then, at the end of the story, he joins a battle with a great serpent and a lion. He decided to help the lion because he thought him to be the more "natural beast". It was amusing that the lion took fancy of him and acted like a regular housecat thereafter and even slept with Percivale.

The End of Arthur

I liked this because it wrapped up the entire story in a way that wasn't to crazy or hard to understand. Merlin's vision of King Arthur dying a noble death on the battlefield came true and it was neat to see a little passage from the beginning of the unit come back and come true. Also, the fact that when King Arthur had the Knight throw Excalibur back into the water that the hand (I presume the same one from which he took it from in the first place) shot out of the water to take it back beneath the surface was a very cool visual.

King Arthur retrieving Excalibur from the hand in the water (Wikipedia Commons).