King Arthur’s Knights

Henry Gilbert set out in 1911 to hand the Round Table to children without thinning it out. Working from Malory’s Morte D’Arthur and the Welsh Mabinogion, he chose thirteen tales and told them straight through: the death of Uther Pendragon, the sword in the stone, the winning of Excalibur, Balin’s dolorous stroke, and the Grail quest that brings Galahad to court. Lancelot, Tristram, Geraint and Perceval each get their own adventures, and the book runs on to Mordred’s rebellion and Arthur’s last battle. The language is plain, but Gilbert kept the weight of the material: what a knight owes, and what follows when he fails. The first edition carried sixteen colour plates by Walter Crane. It remains a sensible doorway into Arthurian legend.