Summary and Analysis Book 8: The Death of King Arthur:

The Day of Destiny

Bookmark this page

Mordred makes himself King of England and incestuously claims Guinevere as his wife.
Guinevere escapes to the Tower of London. The Bishop of Canterbury reproaches
Mordred for his usurpation and would-be incest, and when Mordred tries to kill him, he
flees and becomes a hermit. Mordred wins many Englishmen to his side, then meets
Arthur at Dover but is forced to retreat from him.

In this battle Gawain is mortally wounded. As he dies he admits to Arthur that if it were
not for his insane pride in insisting on unjust revenge, Launcelot would be here now to
save the kingdom; then he writes Launcelot, begging him to come help Arthur and also
to pray at his tomb. Then, bleeding from the wound he got originally from Launcelot —
with the fated sword of Balyn — Gawain dies.

Arthur meets Mordred again at the battle of Bareon Down and again puts him to flight.
They meet next at Salisbury Plain, and there, with all who loved Launcelot fighting on
Mordred's side, they prepare for what is to be their last battle. The night before the
battle, Arthur dreams he is on the Wheel of Fortune, sitting on a throne and dressed in
the richest gold that can be made:

And the kynge thought there was undir hym, farre from hym, an hydeous depe blak
watir, and therein was all maner of serpentis and wormes and wylde bestis fowle and
orryble. And suddeynly the kyrige thought that the whyle turned upso-downe, and he
felle anionge the serpentis, and every beste toke hym by it lynnue. And than the kynge
cryed as he lay in hys bed, "Helpe! Helpe!"

After the prophetic dream he has another. Gawain and a number of ladies come to him
to warn him against fighting in the morning for if Arthur fights, he will die; if he waits for a
month, Launcelot will be here to help him. Then Gawain and the ladies vanish.

Arthur asks a truce, and the two armies meet on the field to set terms. An adder
appears, a knight unthinkingly draws his sword to kill it, and the two armies are at war.
At the end of the day, Mordred is the only man of his army left standing, and Arthur has
only two knights, Sir Lucan and Sir Bedivere. Against Sir Lucan's advice, Arthur fights
Mordred and kills him, but he gets his own death wound as he does it. Lucan and
Bedivere bear him to a chapel. Robbers overrun the battlefield stealing the gear of dead
knights, killing any that have life left in them.

Arthur is dying and cannot be moved to safety. And so he sends Bedivere to throw
Excalibur into the lake nearby, then return and tell what he has seen. Bedivere hides the
sword under a tree, thinking it too precious to throw away, then returns and says he has
obeyed. "What did you see?" Arthur asks. Bedivere says he saw only waves and winds.
Arthur sends him twice more, and the last time Bedivere does as he has been
commanded. A hand catches the sword and brandishes it three times.

Then at Arthur's command, Bedivere carries the king to the waterside, where a barge
awaits him and some ladies in black hoods. Bedivere puts Arthur in the barge and he is
borne away to Avilon, perhaps to heal his wounds, perhaps to die. Bedivere wanders
through a forest until he comes to where a hermit is kneeling over a fresh grave. It is the
grave of a man brought to him at midnight by ladies in black. Whether or not the body is
really that of Arthur, no one knows. Some say Arthur still lives, and some say riot.

SUMMARY 2

Mordred makes himself King of England and takes Guinevere as his wife. He then forces a battle with Sir
Gawain, who is mortally wounded in the battle. Arthur meets Mordred again at the battle of Bareon
Down, and the two men prepare for what will be their last battle.

Arthur has a dream telling him that if he fights Mordred that day, he will die, but if he can stall the battle
another month, Lancelot will be able to come and help him. When Arthur tries to draw a truce with
Mordred and his army, a snake comes by and one of Mordred's men draws his sword to kill it. This
action sets the two armies to war.

By the end of the battle, Mordred is the only man standing from his army, and Arthur has himself, Sir
Lucan, and Sir Bedivere. Against Lucan's advice, Arthur fights Mordred and kills him, but Arthur sustains
his own death wound in the process.

Arthur is dying and can't be moved safely, so he asks Sir Bedivere to throw Excalibur into the lake. At
first, Bedivere merely hides the sword, because he believes it to be too precious to throw away, but he
eventually obeys Arthur's orders and throws the sword into the water. Arthur asks Bedivere what he
saw when he did so, and Bedivere reports that a hand caught the sword and brandished it three times.

Arthur then commands Bedivere to take him to the water, where a barge is waiting. Arthur is borne on
the barge to Avalon. Bedivere then takes to wandering the woods and eventually stumbles upon a
hermit mourning at a grave. It is unclear to both Bedivere and the reader whether or not the grave is
that of King Arthur, and whether or not Arthur still lives.

Read more on Brainly.ph - https://brainly.ph/question/791206#readmore

Conflict
Love Triangle, Vengeful Nephews, and Lots of Drama
Arthur's goal after establishing the Round Table is to have unity amongst his knights,
and to command the loyalty and respect of the best knights in the world. Unfortunately,
Artie, that's a bit of a pipe dream. Launcelot's love for Gwenyvere obviously conflicts
with this goal, and the blood feud between the families of Lot and Pellynore splits the
Round Table in two.

Complication
Caught in the Act!
Launcelot's affair with Gwenyvere has been going on for a long time, but it's not until
now that Aggravayne and Mordred decide to do something about it. This really throws a
wrench in things, because now Arthur can't just sit back and ignore it. It forces the
knights in court to take sides,(something that the feud between the families of Pellynore
and Lot has already sort of done) so battle-lines form quickly. Launcelot's rescue of
Gwenyvere, who's about to be burned at the stake, leaves things unresolved, though.
The affair has ended, but nobody has really been punished.

Climax
Arthur at War
All right, all right, he's been in several wars. But this one's special, we swear. He goes
to war with Launcelot, of all people. Of course the only possible reason a king would go
to war with his favorite knight is a woman. So this war is the inevitable end of Launcelot
and Gwenyvere's affair. Arthur can't ignore what Launcelot has done; he has to punish
the guy somehow. And Launcelot can't help fighting with Arthur once he invades his
lands.

Suspense
Uh Oh, a Coup
The war with Launcelot is still going on, but now Mordred's set himself up as King of
England, while Arthur's off, fighting over his Queen. Will Arthur be able to re-claim his
lands from Mordred? Will Gwenyvere allow herself to be married to England's new
ruler?

Denouement
Death and Reconciliation
Gawain's reconciliation with Launcelot symbolizes the end of the feuding between
Arthur's Knights, resolving that tension. Unfortunately, though, Arthur is not able to re-
claim his lands from Mordred without dying.

Conclusion
A Love Triangle Loses a Side. (Or Two. Or three.) England
loses a king.
With Arthur dead at the hands of Mordred, Launcelot and Gwenyvere's affair is really at
an end. Both of them have now devoted themselves to God. Launcelot's burial of
Gwenyvere's body at Arthur's side signals his final ceding of Gwenyvere to the King in
death, which is something he refused to do in life. And so ends the reign of Arthur.

The saddest thing about is that it never comes from your enemies. It comes from your friends and your
loved ones. The Day of Destiny ; written by Sir Thomas Malory, a historical and legendary story of King
Arthur. Malory did not invent the stories in this collection while he was imprisoned in the early 1450's
and completed in 1470's. He translated and compiled Arthurian stories that already existed in 13th
century French prose (the so called Old French Vulgate romances) together with at least one from
Middle English sources (the Alliterative Morte Arhture and the Stanzaic Morte Arthur) to create the
whole chapter of Le Morte d'Arthur.

The story does not just tell something about the adventures of King Arthur to be the righteous king of
England but also involves some of the most controversial issues in the European Monarchy's history:
Betrayal ,Loyalty, Revenge(Vengeance), Identity, and Love. Nowadays this types of problem are actually
happening not just in literature and stories but also in our personal lives. For example King Arthur was
betrayed by his wife with one of his knight and by his illegitimate son for power,in real life this is
honestly happening. Wife betrays her husband or husband betrays his wife for some personal reason
may be and someone who's close to us secretly plans evil ( may be not that evil) to us in order to attain
power or what ever they want that we ourselves have. Another one was when King Arthur luckily had
loyal servants like Sir Lucan and Sir Bedivere who are willing to risk their lives to protect and serve their
king . Nowadays it is quite hard to find loyal and genuine friends for they are like four-leaf clovers, lucky
to have but hard to find. Next up when Sir Gawaine wanted to avenge his brothers' death caused by Sir
Launcelot and because of Si Gawaine's eagerness to revenge , it was a twist of his destiny and killed by
Sir Launcelot instead. In real life situation, this is really happening. When someone did something that
makes us feel bad about it , we want to plot revenge for that but the best thing we can to is to repay
their bad deeds with kindness or just let our God do something about it. Another thing was when Sir
Mordred proclaimed himself the new King of England and announces the false death letters of King
Arthur in a battle. In reality we do things good or bad whatever we think is right not knowing that we
are hurting other people's feelings. To prevent that we just have to be patient and solemnly wait for
God's destiny for us. Lastly was when Queen Guinevere and Sir Launcelot had a secret love affair .
Yes,love is beautiful but it could also put you into trouble( i'm just reflecting it to le morte d'Arthur,i am
not a racist).

Literature is not just a writing on a piece of paper , but serves as the mirror of today's events and
happenings. As today's preserver we should learn to love and appreciate every piece of literature's
precious stories and life lessons for it serves as our guidance and mirror for every happenings in our
lives. :)

Read more on Brainly.ph - https://brainly.ph/question/630944#readmore

The characters of the day of destiny are :

King Arthur - the king of england

queen guinevere - the wife of king arthur

mordred - the eligitimate son of the king and queen

sir lancelot - the mistresss of queen guinevere

sir gawain - the brother of the two knights who died

Read more on Brainly.ph - https://brainly.ph/question/383856#readmore