The Adventures of Sir Gawain the True

by Gerald Morris, Aaron Renier (Illustrator)

Overview

"An ingeniously integrated retelling of Gawain and the Green Knight . . . Worthy reading for all budding squires and damsels." —Kirkus Reviews(starred review)
 
In the third installment in the Knights' Tales series, Gerald Morris tells the laugh-out-loud tale of King Arthur's most celebrated knight and nephew, Sir Gawain, and the Green Knight. With lively illustrations by Aaron Renier, Morris creates a captivating and comical medieval world that teems with humor and wonder.
 
This chapter book is sure to set young readers on another rollicking and hilarious Arthurian adventure!
 
"Broad humor, graced with lively language will have readers laughing along with this boisterous Arthurian adventure." —Yellow Brick Road
 
Praise for The Knights' Tales series
 
"With his quirky sense of myth and legend and tongue-in-cheek humor, [Morris] brings to life the court of King Arthur and his knights." —Curled Up with a Good Kid's Book
 
"The book's brevity and humor make it accessible to reluctant readers, and it is a fantastic read-aloud." —School Library Journal
 
"This trim novel, with simple vocabulary and brief, witty chapters, is an ideal fit for early readers . . . but fans of the legendary characters may find particular delight in this irreverent and unabashedly silly exploration of Arthur's court and his most influential knight." —The Bulletin
 
"This is often quite funny, and just exciting enough to capture the attention of budding young Arthur-philes." —Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547573847
Publisher:	HMH Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	12/15/2020
Series:	The Knights' Tales , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	131
Lexile:	770L (what's this?)
File size:	48 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 Months to 11 Years

About the Author

When Gerald Morris was in fifth grade he loved Greek and Norse mythology and before long was retelling the stories to his younger sister and then to neighborhood kids. He began carrying a notebook in which he kept some of the details related to the different stories. The joy he found in retelling those myths continued when he discovered other stories. According to Gerald Morris, "I never lost my love of retelling the old stories. When I found Arthurian literature, years later, I knew at once that I wanted to retell those grand tales. So I pulled out my notebook . . . I retell the tales, peopling them with characters that I at least find easier to recognize, and let the magic of the Arthurian tradition go where it will." Gerald Morris lives in Wausau, Wisconsin, with his wife and their three children. In addition to writing he serves as a minister in a church.Aaron Renier was born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and attended art school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He's drawn comics as far back as he can remember. He lives in Chicago, where he has found a very vibrant and supportive community of cartoonists. Renier is the recipient of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for Talent Deserving Wider Recognition, and received a nomination for best Children's Album in 2005.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1

Sir Gawain the Undefeated

Now, everyone who knows anything at all about
knights knows that they used to dress in metal
suits and bash each other off their horses with
pointy sticks called lances. This only makes sense,
of course. Anyone who happened to have a metal
suit, a horse, and a pointy stick would do the same.
 Some may have also heard that knights fought
dragons as well, often to rescue damsels. (Damsels
are what they used to call women. Don’t ask why;
they just did.) This is less sensible, because—Well,
really now! What would a dragon want with a
damsel? Still, if a dragon did for some reason
make off with one, then it would be perfectly reasonable
for a knight to rescue her.
 But what many do not realize is that, at least in
King Arthur’s court, knights were also expected to
be courteous and respectful. The king was very
clear about this: He wanted no bullies at his
Round Table. In fact, he said that courtesy was
even more important than wearing metal suits
and bashing people from horses. Not surprisingly,
this notion took a while to sink in. Knights who
had spent their whole lives learning swordsmanship
and pointy-stick-bashing did not always see
how something else could be more important.
Indeed, King Arthur had reigned for several years
before he felt that his knights were starting to get
the idea.
 During those early years, the most celebrated
of King Arthur’s knights was his nephew Sir Gawain.
Sir Gawain had won so many tournaments—
which is what knights called the contests
where they did all that bashing—that he was
called Sir Gawain the Undefeated. One day, as Sir
Gawain the Undefeated was riding through a forest,
he heard a loud scream and a ferocious roar.
Sir Gawain urged his horse forward and soon
came upon a huge black lizard that was holding
a damsel in one scaly, knobby claw.
 “Whatever does a dragon want with a damsel?”
wondered Sir Gawain. The idea seemed absurd to
him as well.
 But Sir Gawain did not have time for philosophical
questions, because at that moment the
dragon roared again, sending a ball of fire into the
air, and the damsel screamed. Sir Gawain
charged. It was a fierce battle, which took quite a
long time, and an onlooker would doubtless have
found it gripping to watch. For some reason,
though, secondhand blow-by-blow accounts of
battles are not nearly so interesting as the things
themselves, so it won’t hurt anything to skip
ahead here. What matters is that when the fight
was over, the dragon lay dead at Sir Gawain’s feet.
 “Hooray!” shouted Sir Gawain triumphantly. “I
won again!”
 “Oh, thank you, Sir Knight!” cried the damsel.
“You saved my life!”
 “Yes, I suppose I did,” agreed Sir Gawain. “By the
way, do you have any idea why the dragon captured
you?”
 “What difference does that make?” the damsel
replied. “He was an evil creature.”
 “Just wondering,” Sir Gawain said.
 “What matters is that you saved me, Sir
Knight,” the damsel repeated.
  “Not Sir Knight,” Sir Gawain corrected. “I’m Sir
Gawain. Sir Gawain the Undefeated.”
 “I’m ever so grateful to you, Sir Gawain.”
 “Yes, I suppose you are,” Sir Gawain replied. He
turned back to the dragon’s corpse and gazed at it
with satisfaction. “It was quite a fight, wasn’t it?
Did you see how the lizard tried to get behind me
but I reversed my lance? A very tricky bit of
lancemanship, let me tell you!”
 “Er, quite,” said the damsel.
 “And how, when it shifted to my weak side, I
tossed my sword to my left hand? Not everyone
can do that, you know.”
 “Very clever of you, I’m sure.” The damsel’s
smile was smaller now. “Sir Gawain, to thank you
for your service, I would like to give you a gift:
this green sash.” The woman began to remove a
gleaming strip of green silk from her waist. “Wear
this as a reminder of your victory, and—”
  “Oh, I shan’t forget this victory,” Sir Gawain said.
 “But this is a special sash. As long as you wear
it—”
 “I really don’t have a place for a sash,” Sir Gawain
said. “Why don’t you keep it?”
 “Oh,” the damsel said. “Well . . . if you wish. But
I want to thank you somehow. Perhaps it would
be enough if I gave you a kiss on the cheek, just
to—”
 “I say!” interrupted Sir Gawain. “You don’t think
that just because I saved your life we’re, you
know, in love or something, do you?”
 “What?”
 “Because a lot of girls might think that, but
really I would have saved any damsel. It didn’t
have to be you. Besides, I’m not looking for a lady
of my own right now.”
 “A lady of your own? ” gasped the damsel. “I never
said—”
 “Nothing personal, of course,” Sir Gawain
said hurriedly. “I’m sure you’ll
make a very nice lady for someone
someday. It’s just that I’m not in the market
for romance at the moment.”
 “Of all the . . . All I wanted to do was
show you my gratitude!”
 Suddenly remembering King Arthur’s
lectures on courtesy, Sir Gawain bowed
and said, “You’re very welcome,” then
turned his horse and rode away. He was
already thinking about how he would tell
the tale of his great victory once he got back to the
Round Table.
 The story was a success. Sir Gawain held the
court spellbound as he recounted his defeat of the
horrible dragon, even during the duller bits when
he described his lancemanship. But when he told
about his conversation with the damsel after the
battle, King Arthur sat up.
 “Do you mean to say, Gawain,” the king asked,
“that the lady tried to give you a token of thanks
and you refused it?”
 “Well, yes.”
 “So then she asked if she could give you one
kiss on the cheek, and you turned that down as
well?”
 “I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea, you
see.”
 “And I gather that you told her your name but
never asked for hers?”
 Sir Gawain blinked. The king was right. He had
no idea who the lady was.
 “And then,” King Arthur concluded, “you rode
away, leaving her alone, on foot, in the forest?”
 For a moment, Sir Gawain was silent. “I didn’t
think about that,” he admitted, frowning. “That
wasn’t . . . wasn’t my best choice, was it?”
 King Arthur shook his head.
 “I did say ‘You’re welcome,’” Sir Gawain said.
“‘Very welcome,’ I think.”
 King Arthur covered his eyes with his hands.
Sometimes in those early days he wondered what
it would take to prove to his knights that courtesy
was as important as courage.

Table of Contents

Contents

CHAPTER 1

Sir Gawain the Undefeated 1

CHAPTER 2

The Green Knight 11

CHAPTER 3

Spinagras the Dwarf 22

CHAPTER 4

Gologras’s Castle 35

CHAPTER 5

Sir Gologras the Unconquered 45

CHAPTER 6

A Fairly Useless Tournament 55

CHAPTER 7

Sir Gawain the Once Defeated

67

CHAPTER 8

Saying Goodbye 82

CHAPTER 9

Sir Bredbaddle the Huntsman 92

CHAPTER 10

Sir Gawain the True 105

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"An ingeniously integrated retelling of Gawain and the Green Knight and other episodes from the Arthurian canon. Worthy reading for all budding squires and damsels."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great

"Rejoice, fans of the Squire’s Tales, Morris is finally bringing his terrific recastings of Arthurian legend to a younger audience...More, please."—Kirkus, starred review

"The art catches the tone of the writing in the often-amusing ink drawings. A promising series debut for young readers."—Booklist

"The book's brevity and humor make it accessible to reluctant readers, and it is a fantastic read-aloud."—School Library Journal

"This trim novel, with simple vocabulary and brief, witty chapters, is an ideal fit for early readers...but fans of the legendary characters may find particular delight in this irreverent and unabashedly silly exploration of Arthur's court and his most influential knight."—The Bulletin

The Adventures of Sir Givret the Short

"...sure to please young readers enamored with medieval derring-do."—School Library Journal

 

The Adventures of Sir Gawain The True

"Broad humor, graced with lively language will have readers laughing along with this boisterous Arthurian adventure."—Yellow Brick Road

Editorial Reviews

"An ingeniously integrated retelling of Gawain and the Green Knight and other episodes from the Arthurian canon. Worthy reading for all budding squires and damsels."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great

"Rejoice, fans of the Squire’s Tales, Morris is finally bringing his terrific recastings of Arthurian legend to a younger audience...More, please."—Kirkus, starred review

"The art catches the tone of the writing in the often-amusing ink drawings. A promising series debut for young readers."—Booklist

"The book's brevity and humor make it accessible to reluctant readers, and it is a fantastic read-aloud."—School Library Journal

"This trim novel, with simple vocabulary and brief, witty chapters, is an ideal fit for early readers...but fans of the legendary characters may find particular delight in this irreverent and unabashedly silly exploration of Arthur's court and his most influential knight."—The Bulletin


The Adventures of Sir Givret the Short

"...sure to please young readers enamored with medieval derring-do."—School Library Journal   The Adventures of Sir Gawain The True "Broad humor, graced with lively language will have readers laughing along with this boisterous Arthurian adventure."—Yellow Brick Road —

From the Publisher