Knights of the Round Table

the myth strictly speaking differs from the fairy story in that it personifies the forces and manifestations of nature aurora awakening the sleeping world with her shafts of light ceres presiding over the harvests of golden grain jove hurling the dreadful thunderbolts and narcissus living in the beautiful blossom which bears his name few children will accept these stories as absolute statements of fact nor need they be so presented whatever this personification of the universal elements may have meant to the ancient greeks to us it is purely imaginary it is the fairyland of nature children love to make-believe and their own personifications of the forces of nature while spontaneous and vivid are a part of their imaginative world a part of their make-believe so mythological stories are never accepted by them upon the literal plane of the true nature story nor should they ever be so presented when stories of the ancient gods and goddesses are told they may be very briefly outlined as the imaginative stories of an ancient race this will give them their true place without in the least detracting from their charm the child who is made familiar with the old mythology by means of stories and verse holds the key of understanding to the countless allusions of the world's best literature he may not comprehend the deeper meaning nor understand that they were the religion of an ancient people but when in his later reading of some masterpiece of poetry or prose he finds an allusion to phaeton to apollo or to neptune he will experience the same delight that comes to one who meets an old playfellow in a foreign land the hero tale as the child creates a world of fancy and when left to himself lives within it so marvellous deeds and achievements are to him as the daily breath of our own lives he imagines himself the hero of such wonderful and impossible adventures that when he is told of phaeton and his mad ride he accepts it with the same calm appreciation which is accorded the imaginings of his own creative moods the slaying of the gorgon is fully in harmony with his own future plans not that he believes in these hero tales literally or comprehends their deeper significance but they fit in so perfectly with his normal habit of creative fancy that they seem to him as his very own, and he loves them.

the hero tale appeals as strongly to the child as does the myth probably more strongly to the boy indeed the myth and hero tale are often one for greek and norse mythology abound in heroes and heroic adventures and the lad who paused breathlessly over the thrilling experiences of a captain kidd would find equal delight in the story of the wooden horse and the fall of troy were it told him in a manner suited to his age and understanding the story of arion returning victorious from the great musical contest and threatened by the mutinous seamen of his vessel stirs any boy to enthusiasm as do the adventures of perseus who helped by minerva and mercury slew the gorgon medusa in another field there are the merry tales of robin hood the outlaw beloved of boys with his host of adventurous followers and the chivalrous deeds of king arthur and his knights of the round table stories of the knights appeal to universal boyhood well do i remember a story hour in which the compact body of the audience was fringed all about with boys under whose arms were shoe-blacking kits or bundles of newspapers they dodged in for a story and out again for a customer but with one voice they demanded it was not a request give us a night story give us a night story boys can be kept from reading worthless fiction if books and stories of the right sort are placed in their hands and the surest way to make these attractive is to give them the contents or a part of the contents in story form first make the stories vivid, give them plenty of life and action, and Captain Kidd or Bunko Bill will pale before King Arthur and Ulysses.

The younger children will listen with greatest delight to stories of imaginary heroes, such as abound in folklore and myth, Jack the Giant Killer easily leading in favour, as has been proven by statistics.

children demand definite aims swift action prompt reward of the good and punishment of the evil they do not understand complex motives nor the slow working out of nature's retribution this comes with later years the story-teller must choose her subjects in accordance with the age of the child the world of fancy gradually gives way before the world of fact and there comes a time when the heroes of the myth and the fairy-tale are received with a certain degree of scorn they are outgrown At this period, the boy and girl demand heroes of flesh and blood, men who do and dare especially appeal to them.

They touch an ever-broadening circle.

to follow this circle and select stories which fit its circumference should be the aim of mother and teacher here as everywhere in teaching the spontaneous interests furnish the key for selection The range of hero tales is wide.

Among them are the mythological and folklore tales previously suggested, the legendary hero tales which are partly fact and partly fancy, such as the Knights of the Round Table, Robin Hood, and most of the medieval stories, and Bible stories, among which there are a host of heroic characters whose moral heroism should be made the dominant note.

There are also the heroes who have travelled, explored and dared in the interests of science and those who have endured hardship and privation in order to carry civilisation to the dark corners of the globe.

So take the tale up if you can, and pass it on to maiden man, that it may grow like living grain, both beautiful and true.

Malcolm Guite on Galahad and the Grail, his magnificent first volume of four, poetically retelling the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, now.

My name is Todd Warner, and this is the Evangelization Culture Podcast from Word on Fire.

Malcolm Guite is a poet, scholar, and life fellow of Girton College, Cambridge.

Yes.

We've long known this from the liturgies and hymns of the church.

So Malcolm, the prelude which opened this podcast segments, which I read, and which opens the book of Galahad and the Grail, while it's lyrical and inviting, it tells of a duty, almost a compulsion or a need to tell the tales of Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, the Holy Grail.

Does the true poet, to your way of thinking as you are, have a duty to tell a story, to preserve a tradition, to remind man of just who man is?

a good point.

I didn't even think about that scene when he showed him the Knights of the Round Table.

But it was in his dining

room.

Something here.

whether it be the Knights of the Round Table, whether this be your ancestors, whether this be some sort of a group that you've gathered together to help you with a very challenging process of closing something out, the final piece of the puzzle you may have consulted, you may have looked for, This can also be the LBRP.

Before me, Rafael.

Behind me, Gabriel.

The nutcrackers were feverishly tearing the cones apart from the seed, working the tops of the trees.

The pines reminded him of the wind-blown trees that the Knights of the Round Table, according to Tennyson, looked for among the crags.

I know not of what these fine medieval gentlemen sought, but think that whitebarks are one of the loveliest trees in the Cascades.

They are also one of the most overlooked, losing out to the big trees below which grab all the attention and far more of the visitors.

Absolutely.

Um, And Knights of the Round Table also, that was Robert Taylor instead.

Yeah, I know.

I remember.

I think we did it.

I'm really trying to think.

Well, we also didn't really do epics, but we did bring up Knights of the Round Table.

Right.