Arthurian Legend Quotes

“Listen -- strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”
― Michael Palin

“He felt in his heart cruelty and cowardice, the things which made him brave and kind.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“And so, perhaps, the truth winds somewhere between the road to Glastonbury, Isle of the Priests, and the road to Avalon, lost forever in the mists of the Summer Sea.”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“I am nothing, yes; I am air and darkness, a word, a promise. I watch in the crystal and I wait in the hollow hills. But out there in the light I have a young king and a bright sword to do my work for me, and build what will stand when my name is only a word for forgotten songs and outworn wisdom, and when your name, Morgause, is only a hissing in the dark.”
― Mary Stewart, The Hollow Hills

“The Queen of Air and Darkness tilted back her head and laughed. A more ghastly sound I hope never to hear. ‘Do you think I care about these trifles?’
‘Murder is no trifle, woman,’ Arthur said.
‘No? How many men have you killed, Great King? How many have you slain without cause? How many did you cut down that you might have spared? How many died because you in your battle-rage would not heed their pleas for mercy?’
The High King opened his mouth to speak, but could make no answer.”
― Stephen R. Lawhead, Arthur

“No, don't draw away from me. Whatever else I am, I am your son - your most wretched son. If you do not hate me, try to love me a little, Father; it is lonely never to have been loved, only devoured.”
― Rosemary Sutcliff - Sword at Sunset

“I have neither talent or taste for kingship, cousin. I am a warrior, and to dwell always in one place and live at court would weary me to death!”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“A priestess of Avalon does not lie. But I am cast out of Avalon, and for this, and unless it is all to be for nothing, I must lie, and lie well and quickly”
― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

“At least Morgan is honest! Artor thought as he forced his tired lips to smile. She refuses to eat at my table because she is my enemy. How many of my guests pretend?”
― M K Hume, Dragon's Child

“You hate him worse than me, you viper,’ he whispered as the stimulant cleared his brain.
‘Aye, lord, but here’s the oddity of it - I love him too.’ Morgan replied, her eyes void of all emotion.”
― M K Hume, Dragon's Child

“The Lady smiled, close-mouthed. "You magicked for Arthur himself, Merlin. The Human part of you has always loved Arthur.”
― Anne Eliot Crompton, Merlin's Harp

“Stop, Morgian. Your wiles cannot avail you now.’ He turned to the High King and said, ‘The hurt this woman has done me, I readily forgive. It is for the harm that she has caused others that she is to be judged.”
― Stephen R. Lawhead, Arthur

“Outside the window the thin moon stood upright in a deep sky, like the paring of a finger-nail for magic, and against the sky the weather vane of the carrion crow with arrow in mouth pointed it's arrow to the south”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“You make a good point,' Arthur said diplomatically. Unfortunately, I'm not actually in the market for good points, so--shut up and put your mustache on.'
...
'I made you a false mustache!' Arthur said, outraged. 'I did crafts for you! The least you can do is act grateful.'
'Thank you for my cat-hair mustache,' Gwen said, rolling her eyes. 'It's truly disgusting. I hope you washed it first.'
Arthur winked at her in a way he probably imagined was roguish and charming. 'I can guarantee you that I did not.”
― Lex Croucher, Gwen & Art Are Not in Love

“I will tell you something else, King, which may be a surprise for you. It will not happen for hundreds of years, but both of us are to come back. Do you know what is going to be written on your tombstone? Hic jacet Arthurus Rex quondam Rexque futurus. Do you remember your Latin? It means, the once and future king.’
‘I am to come back as well as you?’
‘Some say from the vale of Avilion.’
The King thought about it in silence. It was full night outside, and there was stillness in the bright pavilion. The sentries, moving on the grass, could not be heard.
‘I wonder,’ he said at last, ‘whether they will remember about our Table?”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“I am afraid for my Table. I am afraid of what is going to happen. I am afraid it was all wrong.’
‘Nonsense.’
‘When I started the Table, it was to stop anarchy. It was a channel for brute force, so that the people who had to use force could be made to do it in a useful way. But the whole thing was a mistake. No, don’t interrupt me. It was a mistake because the Table itself was founded on force. Right must be established by right: it can’t be established by Force Majeure. But that is what I have been trying to do. Now my sins are coming home to roost. Lancelot, I am afraid I have sown the whirlwind, and I shall reap the storm.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“She swayed with Bony, loose and lithe as the river, while the bandit knight bore down on like a red tide.”
― Nicola Griffith, Spear

“You can't all be the greatest knight in England."

"Why not?" Gawain smiled suddenly. "It makes for better stories that way.”
― Gerald Morris, The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady

“He seldom sat down, but strayed about with anxious movements, picking things up and setting them down without looking at them, walking to windows and looking out but seeing nothing.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“The Chevalier Mal Fet. What a romantic name! What does it mean?’
‘You could make it mean several things. The Ugly Knight would be one meaning, or the Knight Who Has Done Wrong.’
He did not tell her that it could also mean the Ill-Starred Knight – the Knight with a Curse on Him.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“Before Arthur had started his life's work, a man accusing the Queen of anything would have been executed out of hand. Now, because of his own work, he must be ready to burn his wife.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“Merlyn had not intended him for private happiness. He had been made for royal joys, for the fortunes of a nation.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“My King and my old friends, a word before I go. My sentence is to leave this fellowship, which I have served in all my life. It is to depart your country, and to be pursued with war. I stand then, for the last time, as the Queen’s champion. I stand to tell you, lady and madam, in the presence of all this court, that if any danger may threaten you in future, then’ one poor arm will come from France to defend you – and so let all remember.’
He kissed her fingers deliberately, turned stiffly, and began to pace in silence down the long length of the room. His future closed about him as he went.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“Now that she was dead, he had become her grave. She existed in him like the vampire. When he moved, when he blew his nose, he did it with her movement.”
― T.H. White, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Scared Even Me

“Thomas, my idea of those knights was a sort of candle, like these ones here. I have carried it for many years with a hand to shield it from the wind. It has flickered often. I am giving you the candle now – you won’t let it out?”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“The old King felt refreshed, clear—headed, almost ready to begin again.”
― T.H. White, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories That Scared Even Me

“But it was too late for another effort then. For that time it was his destiny to die, or, as some say, to be carried off to Avilion, where he could wait for better days. For that time it was Lancelot’s fate and Guenever’s to take the tonsure and the veil, while Mordred must be slain. The fate of this man or that man was less than a drop, although it was a sparkling one, in the great blue motion of the sunlit sea.

The cannons of his adversary were thundering in the tattered morning when the Majesty of England drew himself up to meet the future with a peaceful heart.

EXPLICIT LIBER REGIS QUONDAM REGISQUE FUTURI
THE BEGINNING”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“But he had never had a happiness of his own, never had himself: never since he was a little boy in the Forest Sauvage. It was not fair to steal away everything from him. They had made him like the blinded gold—finch they were speaking of, which was to pour out its song for man until it burst its heart, but always blind.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“The wheel is come full circle: I am here.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

“Finally there are the four boys in the high castle. Gawaine, who was the oldest of them and had the reddest hair, was fourteen; Gareth, who was the youngest and fairest, was nine; and they were all four quite wild. Gawaine was passionate; Agravaine was sulky; Gaheris was stupid; and Gareth was a dear. Their mother's character had two effects on them while they were small, the one good and the other bad. The good effect as that she was so selfish and cared so little for them that they were allowed to run wild, thus drawing a lot of niceness and reality out of the simple people in the village below. The bad effect was that, as she treated them like lap dogs when she did notice them, they behaved like lap dogs towards her. They adored her, and starved for her love.”
― T. H. White