title: The Death of King Arthur: A New Verse Translation
author:  Simon Armitage 
description: [T]ake heart, brave literary warriors. Norton has...just published a paperback edition of Simon Armitages spectacular translation of <em>The Death of King Arthur</em>. The celebrated British writer renders this anonymous poem into modern English lines that command your full allegiance.<br /> - <strong>Ron Charles, <em>Washington Post</em></strong>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/00004.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/00005.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Table of Contents
  
  Prologue
  
  Chapter One
  
  Chapter Two
  
  Chapter Three
  
  Chapter Four
  
  Chapter Five
  
  Chapter Six
  
  Chapter Seven
  
  Chapter Eight
  
  Chapter Nine
  
  Chapter Ten
  
  Chapter Eleven
  
  Chapter Twelve
  
  Chapter Thirteen
  
  Chapter Fourteen
  
  Chapter Fifteen
  
  Chapter Sixteen
  
  Chapter Seventeen
  
  Chapter Eighteen
  
  Epilogue
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Prologue
  
  Kirkoswald Castle
  
  East of Eden Barony
  
  England, Late Spring, 1219 A.D.
  
  Your father has died.
  
  
  Grief battered Sir Garin Swein and knotted his stomach. He held the fragile
  parchment his mother had sent to him in the Holy Land, his gaze locked on one
  line. Exhaustion and agonizing pain of the deep wound across his chest, made
  the furor of emotions much harder to defeat. Slowly, he refolded the letter
  and returned it to his pouch.
  
  Garin rode toward the gates of Kirkoswald Castle, trying to sort through the
  riot within him.
  
  I am home.
  
  For fou