"The Fight for the
Queen"
After many weeks of sorrow, I had overheard some people saying that the
quest for the Holy Graal had been completed! I could not believe
my ears! Which work quite well if I might add.
I was standing in the stable outside of the Round Table meeting place
when I saw that a few Knights had returned from this journey! I
was so overjoyed to see some of my horse friends again! There was
much
happiness coming through the window from the Round Table room because
of the Knights' return. Queen Guenevere took it upon herself to
prepare
a large feast for this joyous occasion.
There were twenty-four Knights who were present at this feast. I
will only tell you the names of a few of them because the others are
not particularly important in this story. Sir Gawaine, Sir
Patrise, Sir Pinel le Savage and Sir Mador were among those at the
feast.
Sir Gawaine! How happy I was that he returned! I cannot say
the same about Sir Pinel though. He hated Sir Gawaine.
I soon smelt the most delicious smells coming from the Round Table
room. Of course, Queen Guenevere had just brought in the
food! I had drawn very close to the window by this time.
Everyone seemed so happy and they all looked like they were having a
good time.
I noticed however, that Sir Pinel had put something either in or on the
apples that were on the table. Oh how I wanted an apple...
The evening took a terrible turn shortly afterwards. Sir Patrise
had
eaten an apple and he fell down dead! Then I knew that Sir Pinel
had tampered with the apples in a most evil way! I know for
certain that he had meant for Sir Gawaine to eat the fruit, because,
just like me, Sir Gawaine loves to eat fruit and always takes a serving
of fruit at every meal.
All the Knights jumped to their feet with their swords drawn. The
room became completely silent.
After a few moments, Sir Gawaine spoke. “My Queen, you served
this poisoned fruit for me to eat because everyone knows how much I
love
it.
Therefore, the event that just took place is your fault!”
Sir Mador leapt to his feet and yelled, “Madam, it is your fault for
the death of my cousin Sir Patrise!” How badly I wished that I
could communicate with them, since I had seen Sir Pinel tamper with the
fruit. The Queen began sobbing.
It is custom to settle grievances with a battle. King Arthur knew
that since he was King, he could not fight on
behalf of her, for that would not be the fair and just thing to
do. A King cannot take sides. He knew that his wife was
innocent, but he still had to find
someone else who believed her to be innocent to fight for her honor.
King Arthur asked the Knights in the room, “Is there anyone here who
will fight on
behalf of the Queen?”
Nobody moved or spoke. Sir Mador took this opportunity to mention
the punishment that the queen should have to endure should no one
choose to fight for her, or if someone were to fight and lose.
He said to my master, “My King, set a day for this battle to take place
and we shall burn the Queen at the stake if no champion can defend her.”
By this point, my master was so upset and worried. He set a time
for the battle to take place. It would be held three days from
the day this evil event had occurred.
- - - - -
Three days had passed, and it was time for the battle. All of the
Knights had ridden out to a hill that overlooked an open meadow down
below. I figured that this was where we were going to watch the
battle and the battle would occur in the meadow. The Queen was
there. She looked so sick and pale. She was still crying
and shaking. I felt so terrible for her and worried for her fate.
Sir Mador was already down in the meadow and was prepared for
battle. All the Knights and horses waited anxiously above, for we
saw nobody there to battle for the Queen.
After several painfully long moments passed, we all heard hooves
beating fast from behind us. Finally! It was a brave Knight
who had come to do battle for the Queen! Nobody knew who this
masked mystery Knight was. He stayed covered and rode a horse
that none of us recognized. Shortly after his arrival, the battle
began!
Sir Mador and the mystery Knight began jousting each other. I
never liked jousting. It often ends with an innocent horse’s
death. We do what we are supposed to, though. Whether or
not our
master is right, our loyalty remains.
It was a fierce battle that lasted for several hours. The sky
started turning darker. Shields and swords broke into pieces left
and right.
Finally, the mystery Knight had knocked Sir Mador off his horse!
Sir Mador fell to the ground with a loud thud.
My master and I rode towards Sir Mador. He was bruised and
bleeding, but still alive! Sir Mador confessed that the Queen’s
innocence had been proved because he had lost. King Arthur
granted Sir Mador life, as long as he publicly proclaimed that he
had slandered the Queen and he also had to swear to never speak ill of
her
again. Sir Mador accepted my master’s gracious gift.
King Arthur and I then traveled towards the mystery Knight. King
Arthur
thanked the Knight and so did the Queen. Since I can’t speak, I
nudged
him with my nose to say thank you.
King Arthur then asked the mystery Knight, “Will you please take off
your helmet and reveal yourself to us?”
The mystery Knight then took off his helmet and it was none other than
Sir Lancelot!
_________
Author’s Note: I retold the story “The Fight for the Queen.” This
was my favorite story that I got to read for my storybook. I had
never heard about this story in the King Arthur tales out of the ones
that I have heard before. It is very interesting and
action-packed. I had some trouble with the length of the
story. It
was extremely hard for me to keep within the 1,000 word limit,
especially since the original story was almost 3,000 words! I had
to cut out a big section of the story where the Queen goes and talks to
a man named Sir Bors. They talked about Sir Lancelot’s
disappearance and she asks Sir Bors for help. I think this would
have been a good part to have in the story because it shows how afraid
and in need of somebody’s help that the Queen was. It shows a
side that nobody really gets to ever see of the Queen. I also
would have liked to have gone into more detail about the battle between
Sir Mador and Sir Lancelot. The original story gives a much
better detailed picture of how the battle went. I also had some
trouble with bringing in all these new characters that nobody has heard
of before. I wish that they had been mentioned somewhere else
before in my storybook until the last story, but I did what I could to
describe them and their relationships with other people.
Bibliography Information-
Story Title: "The Fight for the Queen"
Book Title: "King Arthur Tales of the Round Table"
Book Author: Andrew Lang
Year Published: 1902
Web Source: "The
Fight for the Queen"
Image Information:
Title: Sir Mador fights Sir Lancelot
Web Source: Arthurian
Legends Illustrated