1. Various sources present different versions of Arthur's birth, but each version is alike in that it involves the supernatural. Compare the legends that surround the birth of Arthur with stories about the births of other heroes, such as Moses, Hercules, and Perseus.

2. There is some disagreement about the use of horses in warfare during Arthur's time. Clancy argues that Arthur must have used horses effectively, while other historians such as Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson take the opposite position. Research the development of the use of the horse for military purposes, paying special notice to the effect caused by the invention of the stirrup.

3. Compare one of the poems in Tennyson's Idylls of the King (18591885) with its source in the writings of Malory; Tennyson's The Fair Maid of Astolat" is especially good for this purpose. How does Tennyson adapt his source in...