In the 5th century (400- 500 AD), Britain was ruled by the High-King named Uther, who fell in love with Lady Igraine. They had a son together named Arthur.
Because this was a very dangerous time and also the time of many attacks by the Anglo Saxons, King Uther gave his son to a wizard Merlin, to keep him safe.
Merlin sent Arthur away to be raised in the countryside with his foster brother Kay. He never knew who his parents were.
When King Uther died, no one knew he had a son. Many people argued who will the next king be. Britain was in a bad place for there was no King and no ruler.
Suddenly, a mysterious stone appeared in the yard of
St. Paul's Cathedral in London. It had a message on it: Whoever will pull the sword out, will be the rightful king of Britain.
Years later, when Arthur was 15 years old, his foster
brother Kay, had his first knight's tournament. The
family went to London. Arthur forgot to take Kay's
sword, so went to look for one.
He found a sword in the stone and took it out easily. When people noticed the sword, everyone wanted to know who had pulled the sword out.
At first no one believed Arthur had done it. But later
Arthur was crowned to be the King, even if 11 local kings
would not agree and started a rebellion against Arthur.
Merlin helped Arthur to rule Britain. He took him
to the magic lake. The Lady of the Lake lived there
beneath the water. She gave Arthur a magic sword
called Excalibur. If you used Excalibur in a fight,
you would always defeat your opponent. If you had
the scabbard, you would always be protected from
being hurt.
Arthur led a big army against 11 rebels, fought many battles and won. The 11 kings agreed Arthur should be the High-King.
Arthur set up his Royal palace at Camelot.
When he was a bit older, he married a princess named Guinevere. She was the daughter of King Leo de grance of Cameliard. He gave Arthur and Guinevere a huge round table as a wedding present.
All the knights in the country wanted to be soldiers for their
King, but only the bravest were allowed to sit at the round
table. They were known as Knights of the Round Table.
They fought against the Saxons in many wars and finally defeated
them at the Battle of Mount Badon. Everyone was happy and
felt safe again.
Arthur decided to take his successful army even farther, to Europe. After a lot of fighting, the Roman Emperor agreed to give the western half of Europe to Arthur. The Knights of the Round Table had lots of adventures. Some rescued princesses, some fought dragons or bad knights and many of them went to look for a religious cup called the Holy Grail.
The best and the bravest of the Knights of the Round Table
was called Sir Lancelot. He came from Brittany in France and
was Arthur's best friend. He was also very handsome and
Guinevere fell in love with him. They would sneak away
from the palace and spend time together. Arthur had no idea what was going on.
Arthur's nephew Mordred was an evil man, who found
out what was going on between Guinevere and Lancelot
and told Arthur.
Lancelot ran away and Guinevere was taken to court to be burnt to death.
Lancelot rescued her and they escaped to Brittany in
France. Arthur took his big army to Brittany. He wanted to punish Lancelot and Guinevere.
Arthur left evil Mordred in charge, while he was away in Brittany. As Arthur had no children Mordred was going to inherit the kingdom when Arthur died. He could not wait and told everyone Arthur had been killed in Brittany. People believed him and he made himself the High-King of Britain.
Some people liked him because he had given away money. He even put together his own army.
Luckily, Arthur heard what was going on and returned back.
The armies of Arthur and Mordred fought at the Battle of Camlann. Unfortunately, Arthur did not have his Excalibur sword with him. His sister Morgan Le Fay stole it from him.
The battle was bad and few people were left alive at the end. Two of those were Arthur and Mordred. They fought each other in a single combat. Arthur killed Mordred but he was badly hurt himself.
Arthur knew he was going to die. He gave Excalibur to Sir
Bedivere. He told him to return it to the magical lake.
Bedivere pretended to do that, but he hid the sword under a
bush. Arthur asked him what happened when he threw the
Excalibur into the lake. Bedivere said it sank. Arthur knew
right away he was lying. He told him to go and do the job
properly. Bedivere threw the sword into the lake. He saw the
hand of Lady of the Lake came out of the water to catch it.
When Arthur was dying a magical boat appeared to take him to the Isle of Avalon, where his sword Excalibur was forged and Lady of the Lake lived.
Some believe that he died there soon afterwards; some say he went on a mysterious Island to heal his wounds.
Class Activites and Lesson
Lesson Plan:
2 hrs
- Watch the introductory video and briefly explain what the students will learn about.
- Read the story aloud or choose students to read and watch the videos included in the links whilst telling the story. There is a lot of information so watching the short videos in between will help to break up the history and hold students' attention.
- Once the story has been read and understood, move onto the class activities.
- Finish with showing a new movie trailer due for release which is based on the legend of King Arthur. May help students in understanding the tale and being able to relate to the story.
Objectives
- To learn about the legend of king Arthur.
- To look into some british history and geography.
- To discuss whether the legend is real, what parts could be real?
- To discuss what was important for the students from the legend.
- To discuss what the student's have learnt from the legend.
- What is a moral, fable, legend.
- What do the students think the legend tries to tell us/ what are the morals of the story?
- To learn vocabulary related to ancient britain
- To learn century years in english.
Movie Clip - recommend to students to watch film
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