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STRUCTURE Résumé en anglais Prologue : A·nne of B·ritain
On the magic Isle of Avalon, the fairy folk –
elves, pixies and imps – are celebrating the return of their
Queen. She tells them the wonderful story of King Arthur and the
Knights of the Round Table.
Chapter I : The W·izard M·erlin
The story begins when the devil, wishing to create
a human in his own image, defiles a pure young girl named Melissandre.
She has a son, Merlin, who can already speak at birth, and she is
counseled by her confessor, Blaise, who, by baptizing the child,
bestows on him benevolent powers which cancel out those given by Satan.
The child defends his mother during the case
brought against her for debauchery and giving birth to a child with no
father. After the case she retires to a convent with her son.
Chapter II : V·ortigern the usurper
During this time in Britain, on the death of a
good king, a wicked seneschal named Vortigern, steals power by having
the king’s eldest son assassinated. The second son named
Uther,
still a child, flees and organises a revolt.
Fearing the return of Uther, Vortigern has a wall
built to protect his castle, but as soon as it’s built it
crumbles. The royal wise men advise him to sacrifice a child born of no
father and Vortigern sends out messengers in search of such a child
The messengers meet young Merlin, who approaches,
telling them he knows the reason for their visit. Merlin explains to
Vortigern that two dragons are lying beneath the wall.
The workmen dig below the wall and the two
dragons
awake, fight and kill each other. Merlin tells Vortigern that this
fight symbolises the future battle between himself and Uther, who has
raised an army to destroy him, which comes to pass!
Merlin returns to his forest to improve his
knowledge of magic.
Chapter III : U·ther P·endragon
On reaching adulthood, Merlin encounters love in
the shape of the Fairy Vivien, who will only respond to his love in
exchange for magic secrets. She builds him a fabulous castle at the
bottom of a lake. From now on she is known as the Lady of the Lake.
Uther has also grown up and sends his messengers
to ask Merlin to become his advisor. The latter accepts and asks Vivien
to confer on him the safekeeping of the sword Excalibur, of which she
is guardian, so Uther can repel his enemies and enlarge his kingdom.
After many long battles, Uther becomes an
uncontested king. His enemies swear allegiance and he invites them to
celebrations in his castle. But Uther falls in love with Igraine, wife
of one of his oldest enemies, Gorlois. The inappropriate attitude of
Uther with respect to Igraine makes Gorlois decide to leave with her.
Uther seizes the opportunity to resume his battles with a view to
winning Igraine. He asks Merlin to use his powers to help him find her.
Merlin accepts on condition that Uther gives him
the child which will be born of the union. Thanks to Merlin’s
magic formulae, Uther takes on the appearance of Gorlois and has no
difficulty in entering the castle housing Igraine. Only
Igraine’s
small daughter, Morgane, already possessing magical powers, realizes
the subterfuge.
The same night, Gorlois is killed in battle. In
the morning his
followers bring his body to Igraine, who then
wonders with whom she has spent the night.
To bring peace back to the kingdom, on the advice
of Merlin, Uther offers marriage to Igraine. Nine months later, Merlin
returns to demand his rights. Despite the pleas of Igraine, Uther can
do no other that give him the baby. Merlin confers the baby, named
Arthur, on the knight Ector, one of the most faithful in the kingdom.
Chapter IV : A·rthur and E·xcalibur
Fifteen years later, Uther dies and all assemble
at the call of the Archbishop Baldwin. In the absence of an heir,
Merlin retrieves the magic sword and thrusts it into a stone. Only the
man who can remove the sword from the stone can be the next king.
Numerous knights make the attempt but none
succeed
until Ector arrives, accompanied by his son Kay and by Arthur, who he
has raised for the past fifteen years. Wishing to find a sword for his
brother, Arthur pulls Excalibur out of the stone.
The knights doubt the royal qualities of Arthur
because of his youth but more particularly because of his unknown
origins. Merlin informs them that he has royal blood and, after some
reticence, they all accept him as their new king.
After his coronation, the evil Meleagant comes to
face Arthur demanding his submission. For his first battle, Arthur
beats the traitor king.
Chapter V : L·ancelot of the L·ake
During this time, in Brittany, king Ban is at war
with his neighbour Claude. The latter has managed to bribe king
Ban’s seneschal and Ban is forced to flee with his wife,
Queen
Helen, and their new-born baby, Lancelot.
Hiding in a forest close to a lake, Ban sees his
castle go up in flames and dies of melancholy. Helen, wishing to save
him, imprudently leaves her son close to the lake. Vivien, the Lady of
the Lake, steals the baby, takes him to the castle at the bottom of the
lake and raises him there for fifteen years.
Lancelot decides to leave in order to become a
knight at King Arthur’s court.
Chapter VI : A·rthur and the R·ound T·able
Arthur has become a man and, during his battles,
meets Guinevere, daughter of King Leodegrance. He falls in love and
decides he will marry her once peace has been restored.
We learn that Meleagant, who Arthur had previously
beaten, has kidnapped Guinevere. Everybody goes to seek her, including
Lancelot, who meets the dwarf Groadain who volunteers to help him as
long as he rides in a cart, considered too undignified for a knight.
Lancelot finally agrees and fights Meleagant to
save Guinevere and avenge his own honour. Arthur arrives, finds his
fiancée safe and discovers his best knight.
Lancelot discovers that the beautiful princess
with whom he has fallen in love, is the future queen of the
country…
During the preparation for the royal wedding,
Morgane, who has reproached him for many years for the death of her
father Gorlois, meets Merlin. After the wedding between Arthur and
Guinevere, king
Leodegrance, father of the bride, offers the king a round table
symbolising equality between all knights.
Arthur proposes that the adventures of the
knights
of the round table should be stored in writing so their memory can
remain forever.
PART TWO Chapter VII : P·ercival the W·elsh
The story continues with that of young Percival,
who lives in Wales, in ignorance of his origins, the knights and the
court.
He meets Lancelot, in his shining armour, and is
dazzled. Percival’s sister, Elaine, is also dazzled, but by
love.
Lancelot agrees to fight bearing her colours at the next tournament,
and Percival becomes his squire.
Lancelot accepts the hospitality of Elaine, who
uses a magic philtre to bewitch Lancelot and lie with him, making him
think she’s Guinevere. From this union is born Galahad, the
purest of the knights.
In Arthur’s castle, Agravaine, the
king’s nephew, publicly accuses Guinevere of infidelity with
Lancelot. Gawain, Agravaine’s brother, wishes to take her
defence
and fight him, but Arthur refuses this fratricidal battle.
Arthur asks which knight wishes to defend the
honour of Guinevere. Nobody volunteers except squire Percival, who
wishes to defend the honour of his knight. Arthur dubs him to allow him
to fight Agravaine, but Lancelot arrives at that moment and wins the
battle.
Chapter VIII : The B·eginning of the E·nd
A letter is brought from Elaine announcing her
suicide for love of Lancelot. Arthur, who seemed reassured about the
faithfulness of Guinevere, again begins to doubt her perfidity. He asks
Agravaine for irrefutable proof. He tells him that Guinevere is
planning to meet Lancelot that very night in the forest.
Arthur finds them asleep together. He thrusts
Excalibur between them and leaves. When they awake, the lovers flee,
Lancelot to Brittany and Guinevere to Arthur’s castle, who
has
her shut in a convent.
Chapter IX
: The D·ecline
and the Q·uest
Morgane visits her brother Arthur and bewitches
him. From their incestuous union is born Mordred, who Morgane raises to
hate his father.
In an attempt to save the kingdom from decline,
Merlin suggests that Arthur should reunite the knights of the round
table once more to announce the beginning of the quest for the Holy
Grail.
On this occasion, Galahad appears and sits in the
Perilous Seat which nobody dared approach for fear of disappearing
forever. They all leave in search of the sacred vase.
During this time, in the forest of Broceliande,
Vivien, still keen to obtain the magic secrets from Merlin, asks him
how to take possession of a man without him being able to escape.
Despite the baleful consequences of telling such a secret, for love of
her Merlin cannot stop himself from teaching Vivien this ultimate
formula, which will lead to his downfall.
Time passes and the knights are still seeking the
Holy Grail. Bors, Percival and Galahad meet up by chance and relate
their respective adventures to each other. They go to the castle of
Pelles, the Fisher King, who welcomes them. Each of them attempts to
approach the Grail. Only Galahad succeeds and becomes the Master of the
Grail.
Galahad takes the vase to Arthur who touches it
to his lips and returns to life …
Chapter X : The D·eath of A·rthur
Mordred has grown, still hating his father.
Morgane sends him to Arthur’s castle to provoke him and
attempt
to take power.
Arthur must take up arms again. He visits
Guinevere, who has retained the sword Excalibur, which she returns to
him.
The final battle is in preparation. The two
armies
meet to negotiate, but the presence of a viper sparks off the battle.
At the end of a bloody battle only Arthur,
Griflet
and Mordred remain. The latter pierces Arthur with a long lance and at
the same moment, Arthur mortally wounds him with Excalibur.
Before dying, Arthur asks Griflet to throw
Excalibur into the nearby Lake. After some hesitation, Griflet does so
and Vivien rises from the water to seize the magic sword.
When Griflet returns to Arthur, he has departed,
accompanied by the three fairies, Anne, Morgan and Vivien, to the Isle
of Avalon.
Griflet discovers on a rock the inscription
“Here lies
Arthur who was and will be king“…
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