King Arthur's Knights

About the book

Henry Gilbert reshapes stories of Arthur and his knights in language intended to make their adventures accessible to children. Quests, mysterious encounters, contests, and enchantments give the narrative its forward movement, while loyalty and courage provide the terms on which characters are judged. The author's preface openly acknowledges selection and alteration rather than claiming to reproduce Malory unchanged. That distinction matters: this is a later storyteller's version of the legendary material, with its own emphasis on wonder and moral example. Readers encounter a world in which a meeting in the forest may become a test whose significance only gradually appears. The larger story also allows the splendour of the Round Table to stand beside the strains that threaten its bonds.

• Adventure and testing
• Loyalty
• Legendary kingship

Why read it

For a readable route into Arthurian stories that preserves their atmosphere of uncertain encounters and consequential promises.

Arthurian tales retold for young readers by Henry Gilbert · English