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Romeo and Juliet

Task: If you were to write your own ending for the classic play Romeo and Juliet how will you end the story?

Sequence markers

Sequence markers in English are a certain group of items, mainly adverbs and preposition phrases, that link sentences together into a larger unit of discourse. These linguistic items go by various names, e.g. conjuncts, sentence adverbials, connectives, linking devices, among others.

Sequence markers can signal how to interpret the relationship between sentences in a number of different ways.

For example:

1. They can indicate chronological order, or order of importance (e.g. first … secondly … thirdly; to begin with …. next … to conclude).
2. They can add to or reinforce what has already been said (e.g. furthermore; in addition; what is more).
3. They can indicate that two propositions have equal status (likewise; similarly).
4. They can indicate cause-result relationships (e.g. consequently; so; as a result).
5. They can indicate that a given proposition contradicts an earlier one (e.g. conversely; on the contrary;by way of contrast).
6. They can indicate concession (e.g. nevertheless; in any case; for all that; all the same).

7. Sometimes a distinction is made between internal and external sequencers, i.e. the use of these markers to indicate ‘real world’ events (external), or ‘rhetorical organisation’ (internal). For example, First of all …. then …. finally can indicate chronological sequence (external), or order of importance (internal).

SEQUENCE MARKERS ACTIVITY

Answer the following, leave your answers in the comment box.

1. My sister was in the dentist’s office for ten minutes. ______, I sat in the waiting room with an old magazine in my hands. ( First, Meanwhile, Later )
2. An hour passed but there was no sign of Mike. ______, we decided to go home. ( Until, Before, Finally )
3. We bumped into Salsa during our trip to Lang Island. A few weeks ______, we met him again ( after, then, later )
4. The teacher had trouble telling the twins apart. ______ she realized one had a mole above her lips. ( Subsequently, Finally, Meanwhile )
5. The men went to a nearby restaurant for breakfast. ______, they drove off towards the Penang Bridge ( After, Afterwards, Meanwhile )
6. The football coach announced, “Today, we will begin practicing for the coming match.” ______ he added, “Let’s warm up first.” ( Then, After, Eventually )
7. ______, heat the oil in the frying pan. Then put in all the marinated chicken pieces. ( Before, After, First )
8. Many customers bought the delicious chicken pies. ______ all the pies were sold out. ( Eventually, Afterwards, Next )
9. Many people wanted to buy the tickets. ______ a while, the queue was quite long. ( Before, After, Finally )
10. Zulina will be back in fifteen minutes. ______, make yourself at home. ( Later, Subsequently, Meanwhile )

SOUND DEVICES

SOUND DEVICES USED IN POETRY

 A List of Definitions

Sound devices are resources used by poets to convey and reinforce the meaning or experience of poetry through the skillful use of sound.  After all, poets are trying to use a concentrated blend of sound and imagery to create an emotional response.  The words and their order should evoke images, and the words themselves have sounds, which can reinforce or otherwise clarify those images.  All in all, the poet is trying to get you, the reader, to sense a particular thing, and the use of sound devices are some of the poet’s tools.

These definitions, by the way, come by way of the Glossary of Poetic Terms, which can be found on the Internet at http://shoga.wwa.com/~rgs/glossary.html

ACCENT

The rhythmically significant stress in the articulation of words, giving some syllables more relative prominence than others. In words of two or more syllables, one syllable is almost invariably stressed more strongly than the other syllables. Words of one syllable may be either stressed or unstressed, depending on the context in which they are used, but connective one-syllable words like, and, but, or, to, etc., are generally unstressed. The words in a line of poetry are usually arranged so the accents occur at regular intervals, with the meter defined by the placement of the accents within the foot. Accent should not be construed as emphasis.

Sidelight: Two degrees of accent are natural to many multisyllabic English words, designated as primary and secondary.

Sidelight: When a syllable is accented, it tends to be raised in pitch and lengthened. Any or a combination of stress/pitch/length can be a metrical accent.

Sidelight: When the full accent falls on a vowel, as in PO-tion, that vowel is called a long vowel; when it falls on an articulation or consonant, as in POR-tion, the preceding vowel is a short vowel.

ALLITERATION

Also called head rhyme or initial rhyme, the repetition of the initial sounds (usually consonants) of stressed syllables in neighboring words or at short intervals within a line or passage, usually at word beginnings, as in “wild and woolly” or the line from the poem, Darkness Lost:

From somewhere far beyond, the flag of fate’s caprice unfurled,

Sidelight: The sounds of alliteration produce a gratifying effect to the ear and can also serve as a subtle connection or emphasis of key words in the line, but should not “call attention” to themselves by strained usage.

ASSONANCE

The relatively close juxtaposition of the same or similar vowel sounds, but with different end consonants in a line or passage, thus a vowel rhyme, as in the words, date and fade.

CONSONANCE

A pleasing combination of sounds; sounds in agreement with tone. Also, the repetition of the same end consonants of words such as boat and night within or at the end of a line, or the words, cool and soul, as used by Emily Dickinson in the third stanza of He Fumbles at your Spirit.

CACOPHONY (cack-AH-fun-ee)

Discordant sounds in the jarring juxtaposition of harsh letters or syllables, sometimes inadvertent, but often deliberately used in poetry for effect, as in the opening line of Fences:

Crawling, sprawling, breaching spokes of stone,

Sidelight: Sound devices are important to poetic effects; to create sounds appropriate to the content, the poet may sometimes prefer to achieve a cacophonous effect instead of the more commonly sought-for euphony. The use of words with the consonants b, k and p, for example, produce harsher sounds than the soft f and v or the liquid l, m and n.

DISSONANCE

A mingling or union of harsh, inharmonious sounds that are grating to the ear.

EUPHONY (YOO-fuh-nee)

Harmony or beauty of sound that provides a pleasing effect to the ear, usually sought-for in poetry for effect. It is achieved not only by the selection of individual word-sounds, but also by their relationship in the repetition, proximity, and flow of sound patterns.

Sidelight: Vowel sounds are generally more pleasing to the ear than the consonants, so a line with a higher ratio of vowel sounds will produce a more agreeable effect; also, the long vowels in words like moon and fate are more melodious than the short vowels in cat and bed.

INTERNAL RHYME

Also called middle rhyme, a rhyme occurring within the line, as in the poem, The Matador:

His childhood fraught with lessons taught by want and misery

METER

A measure of rhythmic quantity, the organized succession of groups of syllables at basically regular intervals in a line of poetry, according to definite metrical patterns. In classic Greek and Latin versification, meter depended on the way long and short syllables were arranged to succeed one another, but in English the distinction is between accented and unaccented syllables. The unit of meter is the foot. Metrical lines are named for the constituent foot and for the number of feet in the line: monometer (1), dimeter (2), trimeter (3), tetrameter (4), pentameter (5), hexameter (6), heptameter (7) and octameter (8); thus, a line containing five iambic feet, for example, would be called iambic pentameter. Rarely does a metrical line exceed six feet.

Sidelight: In the composition of verse, poets sometimes make deviations from the systematic metrical patterns. This is often desirable because (1) variations will avoid the mechanical “te-dum, te-dum” monotony of a too-regular rhythm and (2) changes in the metrical pattern are an effective way to emphasize or reinforce meaning in the content. These variations are introduced by substituting different feet at places within a line. (Poets can also employ a caesura, use run-on lines and vary the degrees of accent by skillful word selection to modify the rhythmic pattern, a process called modulation. Accents heightened by semantic emphasis also provide diversity.) A proficient writer of poetry, therefore, is not a slave to the dictates of metrics, but neither should the poet stray so far from the meter as to lose the musical value or emotional potential of rhythmical repetition. Of course, in modern free verse, meter has become either irregular or non-existent.

MODULATION

In poetry, the harmonious use of language relative to the variations of stress and pitch.

Sidelight: Modulation is a process by which the stress values of accents can be increased or decreased within a fixed metrical pattern.

NEAR RHYME

Also called slant rhyme, off rhyme, imperfect rhyme or half rhyme, a rhyme in which the sounds are similar, but not exact, as in home and come or close and lose.

Sidelight: Due to changes in pronunciation, some near rhymes in modern English were perfect rhymes when they were originally written in old English.

ONOMATOPOEIA (ahn-uh-mah-tuh-PEE-uh)

Strictly speaking, the formation or use of words which imitate sounds, like whispering, clang and sizzle, but the term is generally expanded to refer to any word whose sound is suggestive of its meaning.

Sidelight: Because sound is an important part of poetry, the use of onomatopoeia is another subtle weapon in the poet’s arsenal for the transfer of sense impressions through imagery.

Sidelight: Though impossible to prove, some philologists (linguistic scientists) believe that all language originated through the onomatopoeic formation of words.

PHONETIC SYMBOLISM

Sound suggestiveness; the association of particular word-sounds with common areas of meaning so that other words of similar sounds come to be associated with those meanings. It is also called sound symbolism.

Sidelight: An example of word sounds in English with a common area of meaning is a group beginning with gl, all having reference to light, which include:gleam, glare, glitter, glimmer, glint, glisten, glossy and glow.

RESONANCE

The quality of richness or variety of sounds in poetic texture, as in Milton’s

. . . and the thunder . . . ceases now
To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep.

RHYME

In the specific sense, a type of echoing which utilizes a correspondence of sound in the final accented vowels and all that follows of two or more words, but the preceding consonant sounds must differ, as in the words, bear and care. In a poetic sense, however, rhyme refers to a close similarity of sound as well as an exact correspondence; it includes the agreement of vowel sounds in assonance and the repetition of consonant sounds in consonance and alliteration. Differences as well as identity in sound echoes between words contribute to the euphonic effect, stimulate intellectual appreciation, provide a powerful mnemonic device, and serve to unify a poem. Terms like near rhyme, half rhyme, and perfect rhyme function to distinguish between the types of rhyme without prejudicial intent and should not be interpreted as expressions of value. Usually, but not always, rhymes occur at the ends of lines.

Sidelight: Originally rime, the spelling was changed due to the influence of its popular, but erroneous, association with the Latin word, rhythmus. Many purists continue to use rime as the proper spelling of the word.

Sidelight: Early examples of English poetry used alliterative verse instead of rhyme. The use of rhyme in the end words of verse originally arose to compensate for the sometimes unsatisfactory quality of rhythm within the lines; variations in the patterns of rhyme schemes then became functional in defining diverse stanza forms, such as, ottava rima, rhyme royal, terza rima, the Spenserian stanza and others. Rhyme schemes are also significant factors in the definitions of whole poems, such as ballade, limerick, rondeau, sonnet, triolet and villanelle.

 

RHYTHM

An essential of all poetry, the regular or progressive pattern of recurrent accents in the flow of a poem as determined by the arses and theses of the metrical feet, i.e., the rise and fall of stress. The measure of rhythmic quantity is the meter.

Sidelight: A rhythmic pattern in which the stress falls on the final syllable of each foot, as in the iamb or anapest, is called a rising or ascending rhythm; a rhythmic pattern with the stress occurring on the first syllable of each foot, as in the dactyl or trochee, is a falling or descending rhythm.

Sidelight: From an easy lilt to the rough cadence of a primitive chant, rhythm is the organization of sound patterns the poet has created for pleasurable reading.

ADVERBS OF TIME

Adverbs of time tell us when an action happened, but also for how long, and how often. Adverbs of time are invariable. They are extremely common in English. Adverbs of time have standard positions in a sentence depending on what the adverb of time is telling us.

1. ADVERBS THAT TELL US WHEN

Adverbs that tell us when are usually placed at the end of the sentence.

EXAMPLES

• Goldilocks went to the Bears’ house yesterday.
• I’m going to tidy my room tomorrow.
• I saw Sally today.
• I will call you later.
• I have to leave now.
• I saw that movie last year.

Putting an adverb that tells us when at the end of a sentence is a neutral position, but these adverbs can be put in other positions to give a different emphasis. All adverbs that tell us when can be placed at the beginning of the sentence to emphasize the time element. Some can also be put before the main verb in formal writing, while others cannot occupy that position.

EXAMPLES

• Later Goldilocks ate some porridge. (the time is important)
• Goldilocks later ate some porridge. (this is more formal, like a policeman’s report)
• Goldilocks ate some porridge later. (this is neutral, no particular emphasis)

2. ADVERBS THAT TELL US FOR HOW LONG

Adverbs that tell us for how long are also usually placed at the end of the sentence.

EXAMPLES

• She stayed in the Bears’ house all day.
• My mother lived in France for a year.
• I have been going to this school since 1996.

In these adverbial phrases that tell us for how long, for is always followed by an expression of duration, while since is always followed by an expression of a point in time.

EXAMPLES

• I stayed in Switzerland for three days.
• I am going on vacation for a week.
• I have been riding horses for several years.
• The French monarchy lasted for several centuries.
• I have not seen you since Monday.
• Jim has been working here since 1997.
• There has not been a more exciting discovery since last century.

3. ADVERBS THAT TELL US HOW OFTEN

Adverbs that tell us how often express the frequency of an action. They are usually placed before the main verb but after auxiliary verbs (such as be, have, may, & must). The only exception is when the main verb is “to be”, in which case the adverb goes after the main verb.

EXAMPLES

• I often eat vegetarian food.
• He never drinks milk.
• You must always fasten your seat belt.
• I am seldom late.
• He rarely lies.

Many adverbs that express frequency can also be placed at either the beginning or the end of the sentence, although some cannot be. When they are placed in these alternate positions, the meaning of the adverb is much stronger.

Adverb that can be used in two positions	Stronger position	Weaker position
frequently	I visit France frequently.	I frequently visit France.
generally	Generally, I don’t like spicy foods.	I generally don’t like spicy foods.
normally	I listen to classical music normally.	I normally listen to classical music.
occasionally	I go to the opera occasionally.	I occasionally go to the opera.
often	Often, I jog in the morning.	I often jog in the morning.
regularly	I come to this museum regularly.	I regularly come to this museum.
sometimes	I get up very early sometimes.	I sometimes get up very early.
usually	I enjoy being with children usually.	I usually enjoy being with children.

Some other adverbs that tell us how often express the exact number of times an action happens or happened. These adverbs are usually placed at the end of the sentence.

EXAMPLES

• This magazine is published monthly.
• He visits his mother once a week.
• I work five days a week.
• I saw the movie seven times.

4. USING YET

Yet is used in questions and in negative sentences to indicate that something that has not happened or may not have happened but is expected to happen. It is placed at the end of the sentence or after not.

EXAMPLES

• Have you finished your work yet? (= simple request for information)
• No, not yet. (= simple negative answer)
• They haven’t met him yet. (= simple negative statement)
• Haven’t you finished yet? (= expressing surprise)

5. USING STILL

Still expresses continuity. In positive sentences it is placed before the main verb and after auxiliary verbs such as be, have, might, will. If the main verb is to be, then place still after it rather than before. In questions, still goes before the main verb.

EXAMPLES

• She is still waiting for you.
• Jim might still want some.
• Do you still work for the BBC?
• Are you still here?
• I am still hungry.

6. ORDER OF ADVERBS OF TIME

If you need to use more than one adverb of time in a sentence, use them in this order: 1: how long 2: how often 3: when

EXAMPLES

• 1 + 2 : I work (1) for five hours (2) every day
• 2 + 3 : The magazine was published (2) weekly (3) last year.
• 1 + 3 : I was abroad (1) for two months (3) last year.
• 1 + 2 + 3 : She worked in a hospital (1) for two days (2) every week (3) last year.

ADVERBS OF PLACE

ADVERBS OF PLACE

Adverbs of place tell us where something happens. Adverbs of place are usually placed after the main verb or after the clause that they modify. Adverbs of place do not modify adjectives or other adverbs. Some examples of adverbs of place: here, everywhere, outside, away, around.

EXAMPLES

• John looked around but he couldn’t see the monkey.
• I searched everywhere I could think of.
• I’m going back to school.
• Come in!
• They built a house nearby.
• She took the child outside.

1. HERE AND THERE

Here and there are common adverbs of place. They give a location relative to the speaker. With verbs of movement, here means “towards or with the speaker” and there means “away from, or not with the speaker”.

Sentence	Meaning
Come here!	Come towards me.
The table is in here.	Come with me; we will go see it together.
Put it there.	Put it in a place away from me.
The table is in there.	Go in; you can see it by yourself.

Here and there are combined with prepositions to make many common adverbial phrases.

EXAMPLES

• What are you doing up there?
• Come over here and look at what I found!
• The baby is hiding down there under the table.
• I wonder how my driver’s license got stuck under here.

Here and there are placed at the beginning of the sentence in exclamations or when emphasis is needed. They are followed by the verb if the subject is a noun or by a pronoun if the subject is a pronoun.

EXAMPLES

• Here comes the bus!
• There goes the bell!
• There it is!
• Here they are!

2. ADVERBS OF PLACE THAT ARE ALSO PREPOSITIONS

Many adverbs of place can also be used as prepositions. When used as prepositions, they must be followed by a noun.

Word	Used as an adverb of place, modifying a verb	Used as a preposition
around	The marble rolled around in my hand.	I am wearing a necklace around my neck.
behind	Hurry! You are getting behind.	Let’s hide behind the shed.
down	Mary fell down.	John made his way carefully down the cliff.
in	We decided to drop in on Jake.	I dropped the letter in the mailbox.
off	Let’s get off at the next stop.	The wind blew the flowers off the tree.
on	We rode on for several more hours.	Please put the books on the table.
over	He turned over and went back to sleep.	I think I will hang the picture over my bed.

3. ADVERBS OF PLACE ENDING IN -WHERE

Adverbs of place that end in -where express the idea of location without specifying a specific location or direction.

EXAMPLES

• I would like to go somewhere warm for my vacation.
• Is there anywhere I can find a perfect plate of spaghetti around here?
• I have nowhere to go.
• I keep running in to Sally everywhere!

4. ADVERBS OF PLACE ENDING IN -WARDS

Adverbs of place that end in -wards express movement in a particular direction.

EXAMPLES

• Cats don’t usually walk backwards.
• The ship sailed westwards.
• The balloon drifted upwards.
• We will keep walking homewards until we arrive.

Be careful: Towards is a preposition, not an adverb, so it is always followed by a noun or a pronoun.

EXAMPLES

• He walked towards the car.
• She ran towards me.

5. ADVERBS OF PLACE EXPRESSING BOTH MOVEMENT & LOCATION

Some adverbs of place express both movement & location at the same time.

EXAMPLES

• The child went indoors.
• He lived and worked abroad.
• Water always flows downhill.
• The wind pushed us sideways.

THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN

All the world’s a stage

“All the world’s a stage” is the phrase that begins a monologue from William Shakespeare‘s As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques in Act II Scene VII. The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play, and catalogues the seven stages of a man’s life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, Pantalone and old age, facing imminent death. It is one of Shakespeare’s most frequently quoted passages.

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

World as a stage

The comparison of the world to a stage and people to actors long predated Shakespeare. Richard Edwardes‘s play Damon and Pythias, written in the year Shakespeare was born, contains the lines, “Pythagoras said that this world was like a stage / Whereon many play their parts; the lookers-on, the sage”. When it was founded in 1599 Shakespeare’s own theatre, The Globe, may have used the motto Totus mundus agit histrionem (All the world plays the actor), the Latin text of which is derived from a 12th-century treatise. Ultimately the words derive from quod fere totus mundus exercet histrionem (because almost the whole world are actors) attributed to Petronius, a phrase which had wide circulation in England at the time.

In his own earlier work, The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare also had one of his main characters, Antonio, comparing the world to a stage:

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;

A stage where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.

— Act I, Scene I

In his work The Praise of Folly, first printed in 1511, Renaissance humanist Erasmus asks, “For what else is the life of man but a kind of play in which men in various costumes perform until the director motions them off the stage.”

Ages of man

Likewise the division of human life into a series of ages was a commonplace of art and literature, which Shakespeare would have expected his audiences to recognize. The number of ages varied: three and four being the most common among ancient writers such as Aristotle. The concept of seven ages derives from medieval philosophy, which constructed groups of seven, as in the seven deadly sins, for theological reasons. The seven ages model dates from the 12th century. King Henry V had a tapestry illustrating the seven ages of man.

According to T. W. Baldwin, Shakespeare’s version of the concept of the ages of man is based primarily upon Palingenius‘ book Zodiacus Vitae, a school text he would have studied at the Stratford Grammar School, which also enumerates stages of human life. He also takes elements from Ovid and other sources known to him.

Question: What roles can I perform that will make a difference in my life? (leave your answer in the comment box)

The Story of Beowulf

King Hrothgar, the ruler of the Danes, is troubled by the rampages of a demon named Grendel. Every night, Grendel attacks King Hrothgar’s wealthy mead-hall, Heorot, killing Danish warriors and sometimes even eating them.

Hrothgar was a great warrior in his time, but now he’s an old king and can’t seem to protect his people. Fortunately, a young Geat warrior named Beowulf travels to Heorot Hall from his own lands overseas to lend a helping hand—literally.

After explaining that he owes Hrothgar a favor because Hrothgar helped out his father, Beowulf offers to fight Grendel himself. King Hrothgar gratefully accepts his offer. The next time Grendel attacks Heorot Hall, Beowulf is waiting for him. Choosing to fight Grendel in hand-to-hand combat, Beowulf wrestles the demon into submission and eventually tears off his arm at the shoulder. Mortally wounded, Grendel flees into the wilderness and dies. Beowulf, Hrothgar, and their followers throw a wild party to celebrate. Hrothgar also gives Beowulf many presents and treasures to reward him for his heroic defeat of the demon.

Unfortunately, Grendel has an overprotective mother who decides to avenge her son. While all the warriors are sleeping off the party, she attacks Heorot Hall. But when the warriors wake up, she panics and flees back to her lair, a cave underneath a nearby lake.

Beowulf, his Geatish warriors, and some of Hrothgar’s Danish warriors track her there. Beowulf dives into the lake and finds the cave, where he takes on Grendel’s mother in another one-on-one battle. Seizing a nearby sword from Grendel’s mother’s stash of treasure, he slays her, even though her poisonous demon blood melts the blade. When Beowulf returns to the surface, carrying the sword hilt and Grendel’s severed head, the Danish warriors have given him up for dead, but his own Geatish followers are still waiting patiently. When everyone sees that Beowulf has survived this second challenge, there’s even more partying and gift-giving.

Finally, the Geats take their leave of the Danes; Beowulf says goodbye to King Hrothgar and sails back to Geatland, where he is a lord in the court of King Hygelac. Eventually, Hygelac and all his relatives are killed in different blood-feuds, and Beowulf becomes the King of the Geats. Beowulf reigns as king for fifty years, protecting the Geats from all the other tribes around them, especially the Swedes. He is an honorable and heroic warrior-king, rewarding his loyal thanes (warrior lords) and taking care of his people.

But one day, Beowulf finally meets his match: a dragon, woken by a thief stealing a goblet, begins attacking the Geats, burning villages and slaughtering people. Beowulf takes a group of eleven trusty warriors, plus the thief who knows where the dragon’s lair is, to the barrow for a final showdown with the monster. When they see the dragon, all but one of the warriors flee in terror. Only one man, Wiglaf, remains at Beowulf’s side. With Wiglaf’s help and encouragement, Beowulf is able to defeat the dragon, but he is mortally wounded in the process.

After Beowulf’s death, the Geats build an enormous funeral pyre for him, heaped with treasures. Once the pyre has burned down, they spend ten days building an enormous barrow (a large mound of earth filled with treasure) as a monument to their lost king.

Question:  Who among our present superheroes would you liken Beowulf to? Why? (Leave your answer in the comment box)

King Arthur – The Legend

Arthur was the first born son of King Uther Pendragon and heir to the throne. However these were very troubled times and Merlin, a wise magician, advised that the baby Arthur should be raised in a secret place and that none should know his true identity.

As Merlin feared, when King Uther died there was great conflict over who should be the next king. Merlin used his magic to set a sword in a stone. Written on the sword, in letters of gold,  were these words: “Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone is the rightwise born king of all England.” Of course all the contenders for the throne took their turn at trying to draw the sword, but none could succeed. Arthur, quite by chance, withdrew the sword for another to use in a tournament. Following this he became King.

He gathered Knights around him and fought back against the Saxons who, since the Romans left Britain, were slowly but surely taking the country over. After many great battles and a huge victory at Mount Badon the Saxons’ advance was halted.

Arthur’s base was at a place called Camelot. Here he built a strong castle. His knights met at a Round Table. They carried out acts of chivalry such as rescuing damsels in distress and fought against strange beasts. They also searched for a lost treasure, which they believed would cure all ills – this was the ‘Quest for the Holy Grail’.

Under the guidance of Merlin, Arthur had obtained a magical sword from The Lady Of The Lake. This sword was called ‘Excalibur” and with this weapon he vanquished many foes.

Queen Guinevere, Arthur’s beautiful wife brought romance to the story while his equally beautiful half sister Morgan le Fay added a dark side.

Unfortunately, as peace settled over the country things turned sour within the court of Camelot and civil war broke out. In the final battle at Camlan both Arthur and Mordred, Arthur’s traitorous nephew, were mortally wounded. Arthur was set upon a boat and floated down river to the isle of Avalon. Here his wounds were treated by three mysterious maidens. His body was never found and many say that he rests under a hill with all his knights – ready to ride forth and save the country again.

Now, find out how this story developed.

Question: What does it take to be a great man? (leave your answer in the comment box)