The Great Book of King Arthur by John Matthews

Author:John Matthews [Matthews, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-04-04T12:00:00+00:00

SURELY IT IS time to eat,’ he cried.

King Arthur frowned. ‘How often must I remind you,’ he said, ‘that I will not sit down to eat until we have seen or heard of some adventure.’

Kay shook his head and went to listen to the conversations of the knights and to interrupt them with caustic comments of his own. But as the day drew on, until it was well past noon, King Arthur called to Sir Gawain and ordered him to have horses saddled and armour prepared. ‘It seems we shall wait forever for something to happen. Let us go forth in search of adventure for ourselves.’

Gawain did as he was bid, and soon the whole company were setting forth, following the ancient track deep into the mighty forest of Broceliande, where everyone knew that all kinds of adventures were to be found.

After a while, the king reined in and listened. ‘I hear a voice raised in a cry for help,’ he said. ‘I shall try this adventure alone.’

‘Let me come with you,’ begged Gawain. But the king shook his head and rode off alone amid the trees, following a narrow pathway until he reached a riverbank. There he saw a fine mill, at the door of which stood a woman tearing her hair and screaming for help as loudly as she might.

‘What troubles you,’ demanded the king.

‘Ah, sir,’ she cried. ‘A terrible beast has come down from the mountain and is eating all the grain in the mill!’

‘Stand aside,’ said King Arthur, and he dismounted and looked into the mill. There he saw the strangest creature he had ever seen. Large as a bull it was, or larger, with not two horns, but five! Its eyes were huge and glowing, and its feet were the size of flat irons. It was covered all over in coarse red hair and had long yellow teeth, with which it was eating its way through mounds of grain.

King Arthur stared at the creature in amazement, but he drew his sword and, putting his shield before him, advanced upon the beast. It completely ignored him however and continued eating. Then the king decided it looked fiercer than it truly was and gave it a hefty whack across the rump with the flat of his sword.

The beast continued to ignore him, so the king circled around it and gave it a prod in the shoulder with his sword. Still it did not move or even raise its head. So, King Arthur sheathed his sword and laid down his shield and grabbed it by the largest of its great horns and tried to wrestle it away from the grain.

Despite his considerable strength the king could not move the beast a fraction. But when he went to let go of its horns in order to give it a blow with his fist between the eyes, he found, to his dismay, that his hands were stuck fast, and that no amount of pulling and wrenching could move them at

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