United States

• The Knights of King Arthur

IS SORCERY AND ILLUSION MORE POWERFUL THAN THIS NOBLE SWORD? When Uther Pendragon seduces the bride of the Duke of Cornwall, Arthur is conceived. Eighteen years later the young squire, Arthur, accidentally slips the enchanted sword, Excalibur, from the stone in which it was imbedded [sic] at Uther's death. Proclaimed the boy king, he sets out to unite the land, with Merlin as his mystic counsellor. Victory follows victory. Arthur woos and marries the beautiful Guenevere. He forms the fellowship of the Round Table, whose ideals are exemplified by the loyal Lancelot. But the golden age of chivalry becomes tarnished. The Brotherhood degenerates into drunken squabbles, and Lancelot is charged as Guenevere's lover. Beneath Camelot, whose walls are a dragon's coils, Merlin succumbs to necromancy, becoming frozen in a diamond hard mist. Morgana now twists Merlin's magic to her own ambition. In the guise of Guenevere she sleeps with Arthur. When she later bears his son, Mordred, he is to be raised for one purpose: to assassinate his father and claim the throne