: The Legend of King Arthur


: It was a cold night in Britain during the times known as the Middle Ages. Uther, a nobleman, paced anxiously in his home.  He had just learned that there might be a plot to kill Arthur, his beloved son.   It was a well known rumor that someday Arthur might be king. Uther thought about how he might go about saving baby Arthur and remembered his friend Merlin the magician.  He immediately sent for Merlin and within minutes his good friend appeared.  After Uther had explained his predicament, Merlin assured him that he would hide Arthur from the plot which would turn into a war. Merlin took care of Arthur for his friend Uther and hid the boy so that he wouldn’t get killed.  When Uther died, Merlin knew that he was now fully responsible for taking care of Arthur.


: Soon Merlin felt that Arthur needed to be with another family.  He knew that he couldn't return the baby to Uther after Uther was killed in the plot. So he put Arthur up for adoption.  He was still a baby. His new father had a son named Kay who was older than Arthur. As time passed, Arthur learned that Kay loved to be in tournaments. To Kay’s delight, the town crier came one day and cheerfully announced that there would be a tournament in London soon.  Kay immediately ran to tell Arthur the good news. Arthur was excited for his brother, and he couldn’t wait for the tournament so that he could watch Kay compete. The family left for London the next day.


: Arthur waved to strangers from the carriage on their way into town.  He was relieved when they finally reached their destination.  After Arthur and his family had put up their tent, they went to watch Kay in the tournament.  Then Kay realized that he had forgotten his sword.  Arthur knew that it was Kay's lucky sword, so with hearing this Arthur ran back to the tent to get Kay's sword.  He stumbled along the way and stopped when he noticed the sword in the stone again in the churchyard. Then he noticed writing on the stone: Whoever shall pull this sword from this stone shall be the rightful King


: Arthur thought nothing as he stood on the stone and pulled.  To his amazement it came right out.  But then Arthur scratched his head and wondered why they'd make it so easy to pull the sword out.   Arthur granted the inscription a hoax and continued to look for Kay's sword. He put the jeweled sword back in the stone and continued his run to retrieve Kay’s weapon.  He came back to the tournament and breathlessly handed Kay his sword.     The next day Arthur returned to the churchyard to see the sword again.  To his surprise, there was a tournament there.   He arrived just in time to hear Merlin read aloud to the audience the inscription on the stone.  Strong knights pushed to the front of the line to take their turn.     With hearing this, Arthur got in line to try. Everyone laughed when he stepped up to take his turn.  They thought that it was a stupid idea to have a young boy try to pull out the sword.  However, Merlin stood silent and unnoticed to everyone as he eagerly watched Arthur.  Despite the laughter, Arthur effortlessly pulled the sword from the stone.  No one believed it and made Arthur pull the sword numerous other times.  Then they all agreed that Arthur was the real king, even though they didn't exactly want a little boy running their country.  With this, Merlin, who had the idea to elect king this way in the first place, graciously stepped up and crowned Arthur the rightful king.


: In the years to come, the people gladly accepted Arthur as their King.  He also made a promise to make England a better place.  Everyone loved Arthur, who grew up to make a great king.  Soon, Arthur also became a well known knight.  He protected his country in many battles, which made him an even more liked king.  Later in his life he broke his sword and the 'Lady of the Lake' gave him a new sword named 'Excalibar'.