3 books to know King Arthur. Thomas Malory

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      LEODOGRAN, THE KING of Cameliard,

      Had one fair daughter, and none other child;

      And she was the fairest of all flesh on earth,

      Guinevere, and in her his one delight.

      For many a petty king ere Arthur came

      Ruled in this isle, and ever waging war

      Each upon other, wasted all the land;

      And still from time to time the heathen host

      Swarmed overseas, and harried what was left.

      And so there grew great tracts of wilderness,

      Wherein the beast was ever more and more,

      But man was less and less, till Arthur came.

      For first Aurelius lived and fought and died,

      And after him King Uther fought and died,

      But either failed to make the kingdom one.

      And after these King Arthur for a space,

      And through the puissance of his Table Round,

      Drew all their petty princedoms under him.

      Their king and head, and made a realm, and reigned.

      And thus the land of Cameliard was waste,

      Thick with wet woods, and many a beast therein,

      And none or few to scare or chase the beast;

      So that wild dog, and wolf and boar and bear

      Came night and day, and rooted in the fields,

      And wallowed in the gardens of the King.

      And ever and anon the wolf would steal

      The children and devour, but now and then,

      Her own brood lost or dead, lent her fierce teat

      To human sucklings; and the children, housed

      In her foul den, there at their meat would growl,

      And mock their foster mother on four feet,

      Till, straightened, they grew up to wolf-like men,

      Worse than the wolves. And King Leodogran

      Groaned for the Roman legions here again,

      And Caesar's eagle: then his brother king,

      Urien, assailed him: last a heathen horde,

      Reddening the sun with smoke and earth with blood,

      And on the spike that split the mother's heart

      Spitting the child, brake on him, till, amazed,

      He knew not whither he should turn for aid.

      But—for he heard of Arthur newly crowned,

      Though not without an uproar made by those

      Who cried, 'He is not Uther's son'—the King

      Sent to him, saying, 'Arise, and help us thou!

      For here between the man and beast we die.'

      And Arthur yet had done no deed of arms,

      But heard the call, and came: and Guinevere

      Stood by the castle walls to watch him pass;

      But since he neither wore on helm or shield

      The golden symbol of his kinglihood,

      But rode a simple knight among his knights,

      And many of these in richer arms than he,

      She saw him not, or marked not, if she saw,

      One among many, though his face was bare.

      But Arthur, looking downward as he past,

      Felt the light of her eyes into his life

      Smite on the sudden, yet СКАЧАТЬ