King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table

In the Christian culture of the text, the opposite of acting virtuously is acting sinfully. The text depicts the characters’ sinfulness as momentary losses of control that make even the best men act irrationally. The most common sins are pride, greed, and wrath. Pride manifests in the knights’ eagerness to go on adventures for adventure’s sake rather than to go on adventures for the purpose of doing good. Prideful eagerness makes men oblivious to the true nature of situations, such as when Pellinore ignores his long-lost daughter’s cries in favor of his quest to find Nimue, or when Sir Melyas chooses the excitingly dangerous path on the godly quest for the Grail. Anger also makes knights lose sight of their goals, such as when Arthur’s anger makes him “[wait] for nothing” (216) to attack Castle Tarn Wathelyne, even though “devil’s work” is obviously about the place. By giving into these momentary sinful impulses, the knights bring harm both to themselves and those around them. The text shows that sin attacks even the king and his best knights, so they must always stay alert to changes in their behavior.

The text describes the thirst for revenge—tied to the sin of wrath—as an uncontrollable urge that possesses a person. After Gareth’s death, “it seemed now that Gawain was mad” (364) with bloodlust for Launcelot, as the noble man keeps fighting with Launcelot even after receiving fatal wounds. Gawain only realizes he “[has] been mad of late” (367) on his deathbed once his mind clears and he sees the damage his anger wrought. In another moment of revenge, Sir Lionel “seemed like one possessed of a devil, so filled with evil hate and madness was he” (304) after Bors leaves him to save a woman. Lionel refuses to hear his brother’s pleas for mercy and even kills a monk who shields Bors. Naciens symbolically and visually banishes Lionel’s rage-fueled actions with “a cold blast of wind” (305). Naciens’s holiness overpowers Lionel’s temporary sins, bringing the man back to his senses.

Even minor sins, when indulged, grow beyond a character’s control. The narrative shows an extreme version of sins snowballing upon one another through Logres’s quick downfall. Launcelot begins only thinking about his love for Guinevere, and for not “forswear[ing] all such thoughts” (311), his desires fester and grow into outwardly sinful action. Other sinners—Elaine, Mordred, and Agravain—latch onto this wrongdoing and manipulate it, causing many other characters to indulge in sins themselves. Arthur starts to act increasingly violent without heeding rational advice, Gawain becomes riddled with anger, and many knights of the realm side with Mordred’s rebellion of “lawless rule” (368). Launcelot’s small moment of weakness spreads and compounds into the total division and complete annihilation of Logres. Although the realm is destined to fall, the story shows that it is the prevalence of sin that catalyzes its descent into darkness.

Arthurian stories, though they have a longstanding literary tradition in Britain and across Europe, are not based on a real king, his real knights, or a real magical realm. The tales of the book rather create a fantastical national lore about a united, sacred British realm to infuse Britain’s real history with legendary tales of excellence and honor. Green first establishes Arthur and Logres as the saviors of a chaotic, divided Britain. In the timeline of the text, Britain falls into darkness because the “civilized” Romans succumb to the “barbarian” Saxons—real events from Britain’s ancient history. By banishing the Saxons and incorporating the Celtic lands of Wales, Cornwall, and Scotland into his realm, Arthur brings Britain into a “brief period of light set like a star of Heaven in the midst of the Dark Ages” (93). The stories of the knights’ great deeds show how they “bring that glory and that peace throughout all [the] holy kingdom of Logres” (231) during Arthur’s lifetime. Logres’s total annihilation by the end of the book situates this holy realm firmly in the mythological past, but its legend persists even within the text as a real-world beacon of Britain’s potential brilliance and a spot of pride for modern Britons.

Arthur’s knights become iconic, exaggerated figures of British virtue that illustrate the nation’s greatness that has been lost to time. The text describes Arthur’s knights not only as the best in Britain but the best “in the world” (367). The Knights of the Round Table have an amplified sense of honor, duty to the realm, and bravery that distinguishes them from knights of other nations. In many parts of the text, the third-person narrator explains that “[i]t would need many books to tell of every adventure that befell during [Arthur’s] reign” (93). These statements expand the knights’ renown beyond the scope of the text, implying that the true extent of their fame cannot even be spoken. The text also explains that the perfection of knighthood, Galahad, could only arrive under the conditions of Arthur’s reign and similarly with the Holy Grail—another mythological symbol of the highest earthly honor. The text amplifies the knights’ achievements and abilities to once-in-a-lifetime proportions, seemingly establishing Arthur’s reign as the best Britain has ever had or ever will. Without the same value placed on the knights’ concepts of virtue and chivalry, Green describes the subsequent historical periods as being full of darkness and quarrels.  

The text promises a potential return to the glory of Logres in the future—with Arthur, Merlin, and the knights all returning from their enchanted slumber—if the reader and the people of their time are willing to behave right. Merlin prophesizes that “the Circle of Logres shall again be formed upon the earth” (71), and Arthur will “come again to save his land” (382). The text suggests if the reader wants to see Arthur in their lifetime, they must behave as a Knight of the Round Table would—with honor, piety, bravery, and virtuousness. The Epilogue shows that this legendary history was threatening to real-world leaders because it proved they were not the true rulers of Britain. By retelling these mythic stories of heroism for a new, modern audience, Green illustrates the potential of Britain’s greatness as a “land of peace and righteousness and of true Christian living” (382) if only the reader will heed the examples in the mythological stories.