Andrew Lang

Tales of King Arthur and the Round Table Andrew Lang

The tales of King Arthur and his Knights are of Celtic origin. The Celts were the people who occupied Britain at the time when the history of the country opens... It is believed that King Arthur lived in the sixth century, just after the Romans withdrew from Britain... the stories came to be handed down from father to son, in Brittany (whose people are of the same family as the Welsh) as well as in Wales and England... [story-tellers altered the stories to suit their times down through the centuries] ...and so in their altered and historically inaccurate form they have reached us at the present day. ... Sir Thomas Malory obtained the material for his "Morte d'Arthur," which was written in 1470. This is the most famous of the early books of Arthurian legend, and it is from the "Morte d'Arthur" that most of the stories in this book are taken.... The language throughout has been modified with a view to making the legends more easy of study. - Summary by Book Introduction and david wales.