The youth of King Arthur 👑

Long ago, King Uther Pendragon ruled Britain. According to legend, King Pendragon had been at war with the Duke of Tintagel for years, until they made peace by holding a great reconciliation party of the great lords of the land. The Duke of Tintagel came accompanied by his wife, the Duchess Igraine.

Uther Pandragon by Arthur Pyle

But when Uther Pendragon and the Duchess Igraine met, the king fell madly in love with her. He was so madly in love that he asked the court magician, Merlin the Enchanter, to cast a spell. The spell was to make Igraine believe that Uther was her true husband. And it worked so well that they were united and from their union was born a son named Arthur.

But since this was not allowed to be known in the kingdom and Igraine died shortly after the birth, Arthur was entrusted to Merlin the magician, who took him to a secret place and took care of him and his education until he was sixteen years old.

As a teenager, Arthur was sent to a knight named Sir Hector to learn to fight and lead men. He became the squire of Keu, Hector’s son, who treated him roughly and made fun of the fact that Arthur had no parents.

After all these years, King Uther died without leaving an official descendant to rule the country. So Merlin the magician, convinced by a group of knights, organized an event to choose a new king. The challenge would be to free a magic sword, called Excalibur, by removing it from the iron anvil in which it was imprisoned, as if welded.

Many tried to remove it, but none could. Keu, Arthur’s knight, could not do it either and told Arthur to try his luck, so he could laugh at him.

To everyone’s surprise, Arthur pulled the sword out effortlessly.

Marshall, H. E. (Henrietta Elizabeth), 1867-1941

However, most of the knights did not accept Arthur’s appointment as the new king, and Merlin had to come to his defense by confessing that he was in fact the only legitimate descendant of King Uther. Many of the knights, including Keu, changed their minds and knelt down in gratitude.

To ensure that Arthur would never again be troubled by knights who did not accept his appointment, Merlin decided to create the famous round table, composed of knights loyal to the new king. And thanks to this, for a long time, the kingdom knew peace and prosperity.

And the knights of the round table had many exciting adventures that we will relate here very soon.

The romance of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. Abridged from Malory’s Morte d’Arthur by Alfred W. Pollard. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. Published 1920 by Macmillan in New York