Stories of the Days of King Arthur

The tales of King Arthur have endured for fifteen centuries because they speak to something permanent in the human heart: the longing for a just king, loyal knights, and a world where magic and morality intertwine. This 1882 collection gathers the essential Arthurian legends, Merlin's mysterious rise, the founding of the Round Table, the great quests and battles, into a single volume designed for young readers. Charles Henry Hanson tells these stories with Victorian elegance, balancing the wonder of Merlin's prophecies against the brutal political intrigue surrounding Vortigern's usurpation and the Saxon invasions that would ultimately consume Camelot. Here too are Arthur's continental campaigns, the Quest of the Holy Grail, and the tragic unraveling of everything the Round Table built. The prose carries the formal cadence of its era while preserving the moral complexity beneath the surface, loyalty tested, destiny fulfilled, chivalry both honored and betrayed. For readers who first encountered Camelot through Lloyd Alexander or Mary Stewart, these are the older, stranger tales that seeded their imagination.