To Tennyson we owe the most nearly perfect version of the story that dates back to a dim and legendary England. What verse more beautiful than his to tell of chivalry? "Then, in the boyhood of the year, Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere Rode thro' the coverts of the deer, With blissful treble ringing clear. She seem'd a part of joyous Spring: A gown of grass-green silk she wore, Buckled with golden clasps before; A light-green tuft of plumes she bore Closed in a golden ring." In beauty and dignity and human interest Tennyson gives us the great world of Arthurian legend in its most perfect form. Malory's _Morte Darthur_ was not Tennyson's only source for the stories of his Idylls. The adventures of Geraint he took from the _Mabinogion_, a collection of mediæval Welsh tales translated with great charm and accuracy by Lady Charlotte Guest, and published in 1838. Also, though to a very limited extent, he drew some of his incidents from the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth and the other early writers of chronicles. The great panorama of stories that we group together under the title of _King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table_, when they are told in prose, are usually taken from Malory's book, the _Morte Darthur_, condensed in size, for Malory was frequently verbose, and related in more modern English. In this volume we have used as a basis the version prepared by Sir James Knowles, which is an abridgment of Malory's work as it was printed by Caxton, with a few additions from Geoffrey of Monmouth and other sources. To this we have added the story of Sir Gawain and the Maid with the Narrow Sleeves, which comes originally from the poem of _Perceval_ by Chrétien de Troies. The stories seem naturally to group themselves into four divisions, The Coming of Arthur and the Founding of the Round Table, The Adventures of the Champions of the Round Table, Sir Galahad and the Quest of the Holy Grail, and The Passing of Arthur. Into these come all the great characters of the legends and all the surpassing adventures of the king and his knights. The story of how a half-barbarous British Chieftain became the greatest king of mediæval chivalry is a romance in itself. To him poets and chroniclers of all lands added one valorous knight after another, one amazing adventure on top of another, until the result was the greatest collection of legends that have gathered about any king in history. The story of the origin and growth of these world-famous legends is told in a most delightful book, _The Arthur of the English Poets_, by Howard Maynadier, and those who wish to get the historical background of King Arthur should turn to its pages.