avventure e leggende… – Il Trovalibri

Chapter 5 – English legends
“I want to go to Cornwall,” Maurizio tells Fabio. “I read a book about King Arthur.”
“Who is King Arthur?” asks Fabio.
Maurizio explains. “Understanding the legend of King Arthur is fundamental to understanding English literature.”
Fabio yawns (=sbadiglia) , “That is pretty boring, Maurizio.”
Maurizio is shocked
“Mauri, I don’t care what people did a thousand years ago. I don’t like literature I like pop music, game boys and girls.”
Maurizio is silent. He thinks for a moment. “The legend of King Arthur is about love, Fabio. Arthur had girl troubles, too.”
“Mauri, I don’t care about Arthur’s girl troubles. I care about my girl troubles. I want to meet a girl.”
Maurizio smiles, “Don’t worry about Ingrid. She’ll be okay.”
“Who cares about Ingrid?” asks Fabio. “Not me. One chick (here=ragazza, pollastra) is like another for Fabio.”
“That’s lucky,” smiles Maurizio.” She’s probably met some boy in Ireland and I bet (=scommetto) she is having a great time.”
Maurizio wants to talk about King Arthur and he launches into the story…

The Legend of King Arthur – According to tradition Arthur was born in Tintagel castle in Cornwall. Arthur was trained to be a knight. He learned noble manners and he learned to fight. He had no idea who his father was or that he was born to be king of Great Britain. By the time Arthur was fifteen years old Britain was in complete chaos. The nobles prayed to God to choose a king and God sent a sign.A sword appeared. The sword was in a stone and on the stone there were these words:

“Whoever can take this sword from the stone is the rightful king of England.”

Arthur was still a boy, but he pulled the sword out of the stone and became King of England. Arthur soon conquered all of Britain. He was the rightful king. Arthur built a round table to symbolise the equality of the brotherhood (nobody can sit at the top of a round table). Only the noblest, bravest knights could become Knights of the Round Table. The knights loved their king. While the knights were loyal, Britain was strong. Then, the noblest and most faithful of the knights, Lancelot, fell in love with King Arthur’s wife, Guenevere. For many years Lancelot and Guenevere resisted their desire because it was unlawfu.
The Round Table was strong and the knights departed on their greatest adventure – the search for the Holy Grail (a holy relic from Christ’s Last Supper with his disciples). In the end, Lancelot and Guenevere’s love caused a war between Arthur and Lancelot that divided Britain and split the round table. Arthur’s illegitimate son, Mordred, tried to take the throne. Lancelot returned to fight for his king. Together they defeated Mordred, but Arthur died in the battle, in a war that destroyed the kingdom. According to legend Arthur’s corpse rests at Glastonbury and hippies, new-agers and various other groups consider Glastonbury a magic place. Every year hundreds of thousand young people arrive in Glastonbury to listen to popular bands at the Glastonbury Festival.