Summary

Chapter 1

The reader meets an unnamed 40-year-old warrior who has been wounded in battle. He is lying in a bed, attended by monk physicians. His great sword lies next to him and it gives him great comfort to have it near. He is recovering from a wound to his groin and side and drifts in and out of consciousness.

His first dream is a memory. The warrior recalls when he was a young man and had approached Ambrosius the King as he sat next to a brazier. The King had only been crowned for three days, but already, the man recalls, he looked regal. The King greeted him, calling him Artos. The boy, Artos, had approached and asked for his freedom. The King agrees to give him his freedom, make him the Duke of Britain, and to grant him 100 hundred mounted men to...