Morte d’Arthur is by far one of the more depressing Arthurian tales. All the heartache felt by Arthur, Lancelot, Guenevere, and the other knights made this tale one of the most emotional stories of the kingdom of Camelot and also my favorite. Arthur’s character is very interesting in this story, as he seems almost flawed and more human, which is a refreshing contrast to most Arthurian legends in which the king is portrayed as close to saint-like. The most interesting aspect of the story to me was the fact that inside, Arthur was aware of the affair that was going on between Lancelot and his queen Guenevere. The fact that he knew about their trist made him seem childish to me when he made the decision to put Guenevere to death. Arthur was worried about his reputation and made the decision to punish her purely out of fear of what his knights would think of him. The King Arthur I knew from previous tales would not have cared what his subjects thought about him, and would have handled the situation in a gentler more cunning way. His decision on the matter brought down his entire kingdom and split his loyal knights into two factions, thus causing a civil war and the unneccesarry deaths of those closest to him.
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