Stories For Sleep: The Birth Of King Arthur

Hello friend,

This is a guided meditation and reading to help you drift off into sleep.

Before we begin,

Take a moment to settle comfortably in your bed in whatever position feels right to you.

The day is over,

It's time to rest.

Close your eyes and take three deep breaths.

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Breathing in and breathing out one last time.

Breathing in and a big sigh out.

Before we begin the reading,

Bring your attention to your head as it lies gently.

Feel the muscles in your face relax as you leave the day behind.

Notice your eyes resting,

Closed and at peace.

Notice the back of your head as it presses against the pillow,

Becoming heavy with sleep.

Scan down your neck and feel your shoulders relax as they too become heavy with sleep.

Scan down your right arm and feel it slowly relax.

Scan down your left arm as it too becomes heavy.

Moving down the front of your body,

You feel your chest relax and then your stomach,

The top of your back relaxes,

The middle of your back relaxes and your lower back relaxes.

Your attention moves all the way down your right leg,

The muscles relax.

Your attention moves all the way down your left leg as those muscles too relax.

Your feet grow heavy,

Your whole is at ease and at rest and ready for sleep.

Our reading tonight comes from the Mort Dardar of Sir Thomas Mallory,

Written in the latter part of the 15th century.

This is perhaps the most well-known version of the Arthurian legends today,

And it is the one on which many modern retellings are based.

Tonight,

We will begin with the meeting of Arthur's parents,

King Uther and the Lady Egrane.

How Uther Pendragon,

God the noble conqueror,

King Arthur,

Hid betheth in the days of Uther Pendragon when he was king of all England and so reigned,

For there was a mighty duke in Cornwall that held war against him long time,

And the duke was called the Duke of Tintagel.

And so be manes,

King Uther sent for this duke,

Charging him to bring his wife with him,

For she was called a fair lady and a passing whiz,

And her name was called Egrane.

So when the duke and his wife were coming unto the king by the manes of great lordes,

They were recorded both.

The king liked and loved this lady well,

And he made them great chair Uther measure,

And desired to have lee in behair,

For she was a passing godwoman and would not assent unto the king.

And then she told the duke her husband,

And said,

I suppose that we were sent for that he should be dishonored were for husband.

I counsel you that we depart from hence soddenly,

That we may read all night unto Arona custom,

And in likewise as she said.

So they departed,

That neither the king nor none of his counsel were war of their departing.

O so soon as king Uther knew of their departing,

So suddenly he was wonderly wroth.

Then he called to him his prairie counsel,

And told them of the sudden departing of the duke and his wife.

Then they avisit the king to send forth the duke and his wife be a great charge,

And if he will not come at your summons,

Then may ye do your best.

Then have ye cause to make nichte ware upon him.

So that was done,

And the messengers had their answer,

And that was this.

Shortly,

That neither he nor his wife would come at him.

Then was the king wonderly wroth,

And then the king sent him plain word again,

And bade him be ready,

And store for him,

And garnish him,

For within forty days he would fetch him out of the biggest castle that he had.

When the duke had this warning,

And on he went,

And furnished and garnished two strong castles of his,

Of the which the one Hich Tintagil,

And the other castle Hich Tarabil,

Saw his wife,

Dami Grane,

He put in the castle of Tintagil,

And himself he put in the castle of Tarabil,

The which had many issues and posterities out.

Then in all haste came Uther with a greater host,

And laid a sage about the castle of Tarabil,

And there he picked many pavilions,

And there was great ware made on both the parties,

And much a people slain.

Then for pure anger,

And for greater love of fairy Grane,

The king Uther fell sick.

So came to the king Uther Sir Ulbius,

A knigh,

And asked the king why he was sick.

He shall tell thee,

Said the king,

I am sick for anger,

And for love of fairy Grane,

That he may not be whole.

Well my lord,

Said Sir Ulbius,

He shall seek Merlin,

And he shall do your remedy,

And your heart shall be pleasant.

So Ulbius departed,

And by aventure he met Merlin in a beggar's array,

And there Merlin asked Ulbius whom he sought,

And he said he had little ado to tell him.

Well,

Said Merlin,

He know whom thou seekest,

For thou seekest Merlin,

Therefore seek no further for he am I,

And if king Uther will well reward me,

And be sworn unto me to fulfill my desire,

Thou shall pay his honor and profit,

For he shall cause him to have all his desire.

All this will he undertake,

Said Ulbius,

That there shall be nothing reasonable,

And thou shalt have thee desire.

Well,

Said Merlin,

He shall have his intent and seer,

And therefore,

Said Merlin,

Read on your way,

For he will not be long behinder.

Then Ulbius was glad,

And rode on more than a pass,

Till that he came to king Uther Pendragon,

And told him he had met with Merlin.

Where is he?

Said the king.

Seer,

Said Ulbius,

He will not dwell long.

Fair withal,

Ulbius was war when Merlin stood at the porch of the pavilion's door,

And then Merlin was bound to come to the king.

When king Uther saw him,

He said he was welcome.

Seer,

Said Merlin,

I know all your heart every day,

So ye will be sworn unto me,

As ye be a true king anoint to fulfill my desire,

Ye shall have desire.

Then the king was sworn before evangelists.

Seer,

Said Merlin,

This is my desire,

The first night that ye shall be a grain,

Ye shall get a child on her,

And one that is born,

That shall be delivered to me,

For to nourish there as ye will have it,

For it shall be your worship,

And the child is availed,

As meek it as the child is worth.

Seer,

Said Merlin,

This is my desire,

The first night that ye shall be a grain,

Ye shall get a child on her,

And one that is born,

That shall be delivered to me,

For to nourish there as ye will have it,

For it shall be your worship,

And the child is availed,

As meek it as the child is worth.

Ye will well,

Said the king,

As thou wilt have it.

Now mark ye ready,

Said Merlin,

This night ye shall lay with the grain in the castle of Tintagel,

And ye shall be like the duke,

Her husband.

Now mark ye ready,

Said Merlin,

This night ye shall lay with the grain in the castle of Tintagel,

And ye shall be like the duke,

Her husband.

Ulpheus shall be like Sir Brastus,

A kniecht of the dukers,

And Eve will be like a kniecht that heicht Sir Iordanus,

A kniecht of the dukers.

But we,

Ye mark not many questions with her nor her men,

But say ye are diseased,

And so he yow to bed,

And raise a knot on the morn till ye come to yow,

For the castle of Tintagel is but ten mere hence.

So this was done,

As they devised,

But the duke of Tintagel,

A spade whom the king rode from the siege of Tarbion,

And therefore that kniecht he issued out of the castle at a posturn,

For to have distressed the king's host,

And so thorough his own issue the duke himself was slain,

Or ere the king come at the castle of Tintagel.

So after the death of the duke,

King Uther lay with the gráine more than three hours after his death,

And begot on her that kniecht Arthur,

And ordey came,

Merlin come to the king,

And bade him make him ready,

And so he kissed the laddy i gráine,

And departed in all haste.

The lady heard tell of the duke,

Her husband,

And be o'er record he was dead,

Or ever King Uther come to her.

Then she merveled who that michte be that lay with her in likeness of her lord.

So she mourned bravely,

And held her pace.

Then all the barons be one assent,

Pray to the king of accord,

That wix the laddy i gráine and him,

The king of him lave,

For fain would he have been accorded with her.

So the king put all the throst in Ulpheus to entreat between them,

So bade he entreat they.

At the last the king and she met together.

Now will we do well,

Said Ulpheus.

Our king is a lusty kniecht and weaveless,

And the laddy i gráine is a passing fair laddie.

It were great joy unto us,

That he mighte plays the king to make her his queen.

Unto that they all well accorded,

And maved it to the king.

Like a lusty kniecht he assented thereto with good weave,

And so in all the haste they were married in a mourning with great mirth and joy.

And king Lot of Lothian and of Orkney,

Fain wedded Margo that was Gawaine's mother,

And king Dentres of the land of Gar-Lot wedded Elayne.

All this was done at the request of king Uther,

And the third sister,

Morgan the fai,

Was put to school in a nunnery,

And there she learned so much that she was a great clerk of necromancy.

And after she was wedded to king Uriant of the land of Gor that was there to Waines,

The blanche man his father,

Than queen i gráine waxed a dairy greater and greater,

So it befell.

After,

Within half the year,

As king Uther lay by his queen,

He asked her be the faith she owed to him whose was the child within her body.

Then was she so rebashed to give answer.

Dismay ye not,

Said the king,

But tell me the truth,

And he shall love you the better be the faith of my body.

Seer,

Says she,

He shall tell you the truth.

The same nich that my lord was dead,

The hour of his death,

As his kniches record,

There came into my castle of Tintagel a man like my lord in spretch and in countenance,

And two kniches with him,

And like as of his two kniches,

Varsias and Iordance,

And so he went unto bed with him as he ought to do with my lord,

And the same nich as Iorance were unto God,

This child was begotten upon me.

That is truth,

Said the king,

As ye say,

For it was I meself that came in the likeness,

And therefore dismay ye not,

For I am father to the child,

And now he told her all of the cause,

How it was be Merlin's council.

Then the queen made great joy when she knew how was the father of her child.

Soon come Merlin unto the king,

And said,

Seer,

Ye must purvey you for the nourishing of your child.

As thou would,

Said the king,

Be it.

Well,

Said Merlin,

Eek now a lord of yours in this land,

That is a passing true man and a faithful,

And he shall have the nourishing of your child,

And his name is Seer Ector,

And he is a lord of the fair love of the lord in many berths in England and Wales,

And this lord,

Seer Ector,

Let him be sent forth,

Forth to come and speak with you,

And to see him yourself,

As he loveth you,

And that he will put his own child to nourishing to another one,

And his name is Seer Ector,

And he is a lord of fair love of the lord in many berths in England and Wales,

And this lord,

Seer Ector,

Let him be sent forth,

Forth to come and speak with you,

And to see him yourself,

As he loveth you,

That he will put his own child to nourishing to another,

And that his wife nourish yours,

And when the child is born,

Let it be delivered to me at yonder Prithee Posterne on Christendom,

So like as Merlin devised it was done,

And when Seer Ector was come,

He made a fiance to the king,

Forth to nourish the child like as the king desired,

And there the king granted Seer Ector great rewardeth,

Then when the laddie was delivered,

The king came on knifed and tore laddies to take the child,

Bound in a cloth of gold,

And that ye deliver him to what poor man ye met at the Posterne Yard of the Caston,

So the child was delivered unto Merlin,

And so he barred forth unto Seer Ector,

And made a holy man to christen him,

And named him Arthur,

And so Seer Ector's wife nourished him with her own pop,

Then within two years,

King Uther fell sick of a great malady,

And in the mean a wheeler,

His enemies usurped it upon him,

And did a great battle upon his men,

And slim many of his people.

Seer said Merlin,

Ye men o'er lee so as ye do,

For ye must to the field,

Though ye are eed on an horsely turf,

For ye shall never have the better of your enemies,

But if your person be there,

And then shall ye have the victory.

So it was done as Merlin had devised,

And they carried the king forth on a horse litter,

With a great host toward his enemies,

And at St Albans there met with the king a great host of the north,

And a bad day.

Seer Dorpheus and Seer Blastius did great deeds of arms,

And King Uther's men overcome the northern battle,

And slew many people,

And put the remnant to fleet,

And then the king returned unto London,

And made great a joy of his victory,

And then he fell passing sore sack,

So that three a day,

And three a night he was speechless.

Wherefore all the barons made great sorrow,

And asked Merlin what counsel were best.

There is no other remedy,

Said Merlin,

But God will have his will,

But loke all barons,

They before King Uther to mourn,

And God and ye shall mock him to spake.

So on the morn,

All the barons with Merlin came to fore the king,

Then Merlin said aloud unto King Uther,

Seer,

Shall your son Arthur be king after your death of this wrath with all the Apertinals?

Then Uther Pendragon tormented him,

And said in herring of them all,

He gave him God's blessing,

And mine,

And bid him pray for me soul,

And righteously and worshipfully that he claim the crown upon forfeiture of me blessing,

And therewith he yielded up the ghost,

And then was he entered as longed to a king,

Wherefore the queen very grain not great sorrow,

And now the barons good night and good rest.