strong, that even the modern reader, wandering with Launcelot and
Tristram in a world of wonders, meets a giant without surprise, and
feels at home in an enchanted castle.

When Arthur is finally established on his throne, the knights of the
Round Table begin their wonderful career of adventure and gallantry.
With them the reader roams over a vague and unreal land called Britain
or Cornwall, in full armor, the ever ready lance in rest. At almost
every turn a knight is met who offers combat, and each detail of the
conflict--the rush of the horses, the breaking of lances, the final
hand-to-hand with swords--is described with a minuteness which only the
military enthusiasm of the Middle Ages could thoroughly appreciate.
Sometimes our hero meets a damsel who tells a tale of wrong, and leads
the knight to champion her cause; again, he encounters some old
companion in arms, breaks a lance upon him by way of friendly
salutation, and wanders with him in search of adventures, inquiring of
a chance peasant or dwarf, of a wrong to be avenged, or a danger to be
incurred. The reader attends tournaments, of which every blow and every
fall are chronicled. He becomes familiar with the respective merits and
prowess of a hundred different champions. He learns the laws of
judicial combat, and the intricate rules of the chivalric code. With
imagination aroused and sympathies excited he enters a life of
alternate combat and love, almost real in the consistency of its
improbability. Three gallant knights, Sir Gawaine, Sir Marhaus, and Sir
Uwaine set out together in search of adventures.

At the last they cam in to a grete forest that was named the
countreye and foreste of Arroy and the countrey of straunge
auentures. In this countrey, said syr Marhaus cam neuer knyghte syn
it was crystened, but he fonde straunge auentures, and soo they