The story in twelve scenes
The narrative spine, start to finish. If you want to be able to follow a conversation about Arthur, read these twelve and stop.
Almost entirely Malory, because Malory is the only author who tells the whole arc. Where the others disagree with him sharply, the episode page says so.
- 1StoryUther, Igraine, and the night at Tintagel
The king wants another man's wife, and a magician arranges it — for a fee.
- 2StoryThe sword in the stone
A boy nobody has heard of pulls a sword out of an anvil because his brother forgot his.
- 3StoryExcalibur and the Lady of the Lake
Arthur breaks the sword from the stone and is given a better one, on terms.
- 4StoryThe children of May Day
Told that a child born on May Day will destroy him, Arthur has every one of them set adrift.
- 5StoryBalin, and the Dolorous Stroke
A good knight, cornered and weaponless, grabs the nearest spear — and lays three kingdoms waste.
- 6StoryGuinevere, and the Table as a dowry
Arthur marries the woman he is warned about, and the Round Table arrives as her father's wedding gift.
- 7StoryMerlin and Nimue
The greatest seer in the world walks into the one future he could see most clearly.
- 8StoryThe Grail enters the hall
The vessel comes into Camelot in glory — and in the same chapter the king is grieving the vow it provoked.
- 9StoryThe ambush at the chamber door
Agravaine says out loud what the court has agreed not to know, and there is no way back.
- 10StoryThe rescue, and Gareth
Lancelot saves the queen from the fire and kills the two men he loved most, unarmed and unrecognised.
- 11StoryCamlann
A treaty is agreed. A knight is bitten by an adder and draws his sword to kill it. Both armies attack.
- 12StoryThe barge, and Avalon
A barge full of women in black hoods comes for the king — and one of them is the sister who spent the book trying to kill him.