Book Four- The Candle In The Wind

King Arthur fears disaster from the very beginning of this book. His son Mordred is out to pay him back for a terrible childhood and the jealous Agravaine has his back. They decide to tell the king that Lancelot and Guenever have been having an affair so that he can no longer deny it and will have to banish Lancelot and burn Guenever at the stake. King Arthur tells the two men that they must first prove their accusation and they oblige and set to work at it as soon as the king leaves for his hunting trip the next week. They end up cornering the two lovers in a room together as they are about to get intimate and Lancelot is forced to barricade the door against an army of men and escape. He has to return a week later to save Guenever from being burned at the stake and kills many of the Round Table knights in the process. Two of the knights which were killed during the battle were Gareth and Gaheris and this leads to a need for vengeance in Gawaine who had been on Lancelots side up until that point. In the end Lancelot is banished from the castle and Guenever is accepted back into the court with her good name forever tarnished. King Arthur and Gawaine set out for revenge against Lancelot still though and surround his castle. While King Arthur is after Lancelot, Mordred sets to work back at the castle trying to proclaim himself as the new king. Lancelot eventually delivers a fatal blow to Gawaines head and is forced to return to England to keep Mordred from the throne. The book ends as King Arthur is telling his life story to a young page, Thomas Malory, so that his legend may one day be remembered.

This was by far my most favorite book of them all. It seemed to do a great job of summing everything up. The ending leaves you pondering over many questions that King Arthur poses. Luckily for us we live in a democracy and do not struggle with the concept of might as much as they did back then. We do however, still have problems identifying just when our laws begin to cross over unseen lines and this book will make you see and consider those. All in all King Arthur improved many problems in that civilization and put his best foot forward to get as much fixed as possible.