Stories For Sleep: The Birth Of King Arthur (Speech Only)

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.

Breathing in and a big sigh out.

Before we begin the reading,

Bring your attention to your head as it lies gently on the pillow.

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.

Feel your shoulders relax as they too become heavy with sleep.

Feel your right arm and feel it slowly relax.

Feel your left arm as it too becomes heavy.

Feel 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 body is at ease and at rest and ready for sleep.

Our reading tonight comes from the Morte d'Arthur 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 Ygraine.

Ygraine How Uther Pendragon got the noble conqueror,

King Arthur.

It befell in the days of Uther Pendragon,

When he was king of all England,

And so reigned,

That 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 man as King Uther sent for the 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 Ygraine.

So when the duke and his wife were coming unto the king,

Be the menes of great lordes,

They were accorded both.

The king liked and loved this lady well,

And he made them great chair out of measure,

And desired to have lee in the hair,

For she was a passing god woman,

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.

Wherefore,

Husband,

I counsel you,

That we depart from hence ordinly,

That we may read all night unto our own custom.

And in likewise,

As she said,

So they departed,

That neither the king,

Nor none of his counsel,

Were war of their departing.

Oh,

So soon as King Uther knew of their departing,

So suddenly,

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 avised the king to send forth the duke and his wife,

Be a great charge,

And if they will not come at your summons,

Then may ye do your best,

Then have ye cause to make to make nichte ware upon him.

So that was done,

And the messengers had their unswerth,

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 to 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 hath.

When the duke had this warning,

And on he went,

And furnished,

And garnished,

Two strong castles of his,

Of the which the one hith Tintagil,

And the other castle hith Tarbil,

And the other castle hith Tarbil,

So his wife,

Dame Greine,

He put in the castle of Tintagil,

And himself he put in the castle of Tarbil,

The which had many issues and posternas oot.

Then in all a haste came Uther with a greater host,

And laid a sage aboot the castle of Tarbil,

And there he pitched many pavilons,

And there was great ware made on both the parties,

And much a papil slain.

Then for pure anger,

And for great a love of fairy Greine,

The king Uther fell sick.

So came to the king Uther Sir Ulpheus,

A noble knicht,

And asked of the king why he was sick.

Ye shall tell thee,

Said the king,

I am sick for anger,

And for love of fairy Greine,

That he may not be whole.

Well,

My lord,

Said Sir Ulpheus,

Ye shall take myrtle,

And he shall do your remedy,

That your heart shall be pleased.

So Ulpheus departed,

And,

By aventure,

He met Merlin in a beggar's array,

And there Merlin asked Ulpheus whom he sought,

And he said he had little ado to tell him.

Well,

Said Merlin,

I know whom thou seekest,

For thou seekest Merlin.

Therefore,

Seek no further,

For ye am he.

And if king Uther will well reward me,

And be sworn unto me to fulfil my desire,

Thou shalt pay his honour and profit more than mine,

For ye shall cause him to have all his desire.

All this will ye undertake,

Said Ulpheus,

That there shall be nothing reasonable,

But thou shalt have thee desire.

Well,

Said Merlin,

He shall have his intent and desire,

And therefore,

Said Merlin,

Read on your way,

For he will not be long behind us.

Then Ulpheus 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.

Sir,

Said Ulpheus,

He will not dwell long.

Fair withal,

Ulpheus was war where 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.

Sir,

Said Merlin,

I know all your heart every day,

So ye will be sworn unto me,

As ye be a true king anointed.

To fulfill me desire,

Ye shall have your desire.

Then the king was sworn upon the four evangelists.

Sir,

Said Merlin,

This is me desire.

The first night that ye shall lay thee green,

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 avail,

As meek as the child is worth.

Sir,

Said Merlin,

This is me desire.

The first night that ye shall lay thee green,

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 avail,

As meek as the child is worth.

Ye will well,

Said the king,

As thou wilt have it.

Now make ye ready,

Said Merlin,

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

And ye shall be like the duke,

Her husband.

Now make ye ready,

Said Merlin,

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

And ye shall be like the duke,

Her husband.

Ulphius shall be like Sir Brastus,

A kniecht of the dukers,

And ye will be like a kniecht that hecht Sir Iordanus,

A kniecht of the dukers.

But wait,

Ye make not many questions with her nor her men,

But say ye are disazed,

And so hee yow to bed,

And raise a knot on the morn,

Till ye come to yow,

For the castle of Tintagel is but ten myr hence.

So this was done,

As they devised.

But the duke of Tintagel,

A spade whom the king rode from the sage of Tarbil,

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

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 grain more than three hours after his death,

And begot on her that kniecht Arthur,

And,

Or day come,

Merlin come to the king,

And bade him make him ready,

And so he kissed the laddie ye grain,

And departed in all haste.

But when the laddie heard tell of the duke,

Her husband,

And be o'er record he was dead,

Or ever King Uther come to her,

Then she mirveled who that kniecht be that lay with her in leagueness of her lord.

So she mourned privily,

And held her pace.

Then all the barons be one assent,

Pray to the king of accord,

Betwixt the laddie ye grain,

And him.

The king gath him leave,

For fain would he have been accorded with her.

So the king put all the trust in Ulphius to entreat between them.

So bade he entreat they,

At the last the king and she met together.

Now will we do well,

Said Ulphius,

Our king is a lusty kniecht and weaveless,

And my laddie ye grain is a passing fair laddie,

It wear great joy unto us,

And it might applaise the king to make her his queen.

Unto that they all well accorded,

And maved it to the king,

And anon lay a lusty kniecht,

Her assented thereto with good will,

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

And king Lot of Laodhean and of Orkney,

Fain wedded Margo,

That was Gawainer's mother,

And king Dentres of the land of Garlot wedded Eleina.

All this was done at the request of king Uther,

And the third sister Morgan le Fay 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 Urian of the land of Gorr,

That was there Uwain's leblanche man's father.

Then queenie grain waxed daily greater and greater,

So it befell after within half a year as king Uther lay by his quain,

He asked her be the faith she ought 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,

Said she,

He shall tell you the truth.

The same nich thought my lord was dead,

The whore of his death,

As his kniches record.

There came into me custom of Tintagel a man like my lord in sprech and in countenance,

And two kniches with him,

In likeness of his two kniches,

Barsias and Jordans.

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

And the same nich as he shall answer unto god,

This child was begotten upon me.

That is truth,

Said the king,

As ye say,

As ye say,

For it was I meself that come 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 wilt,

Said the king,

By 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 fair love lord in many perthes in England and Wales.

And this lord,

Seer Ector,

Led him besent forth,

Forth to come and speak with you,

And to seer him yourself,

As he loveth you,

And that he will put his own child to nourishing to another woman.

And his name is Seer Ector,

And he is a lord of fair love lord in many perthes in England and Wales.

And this lord,

Seer Ector,

Led him besent forth,

Forth to come and speak with you,

And to seer him yourself,

As he loveth you,

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

And that his wife nourish yours.

And when the child is born,

Let it be delivered to me at yonder privy postern on Christend.

So like as Merlin devised,

It was done.

And when Seer Ector was gone,

He made 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 commanded two kniftes and two laddies to take the child bound in a cloth of gold,

And that ye deliver him to what poor man ye met at the postern yad of the castern.

So the child was delivered unto Merlin,

And so he barreth forth unto Seer Ector,

And made an 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 meaner wheeler,

His enemies usurped upon him,

And did a great battle upon his men,

And slew many of his people.

Seer,

Said Merlin,

Ye may no lie so as ye do,

For ye must to the field,

Though ye reed on an hoarsely tarp,

For ye shall never have the better of your enemies,

But if your person be there,

Then then shall ye have the victory.

So it was done,

As Merlin had devised,

And they carried the king forth on an hoarsely tarp,

With a great host toward his enemies,

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

And of that day Seer Ulpheus and Seer Glastius did great deeds of arms,

And King Uther's men overcame 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 sick,

So that three days and three nights 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 lo,

Ye all barons,

Be before King Uther to-morn,

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 days of this realm with all the Aperton house?

Then Uther Pendragon torn at 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 interred as longed to a king,

Wherefore the queen fair Igraine made great sorrow,

And all the barons.

Good night,

And good rest.