THE SCENE: The chivalric conception of King Arthur is challenged in the following passage, which approvingly describes the terrifying swath of destruction that his army spread across Europe.
THE TEXT: Then in time, Arthur turned his attention to Tuscany,
Trampled and took those turreted towns,
Walloped down walls and wounded knights,
Toppling towers and tormenting the locals.
He made worthy widows wail with sorrow,
Weeping and howling they wrung their hands.
And everywhere in his wake he wasted through war
Their wealth and their houses, and awoke their woe.
They spurred on, spread out, spared very little,
Plied violence without pity, despoiled the vines,
Spent without censure what was saved or stored
Then sped to Spoleto with their countless spears.
Reports of him sprang from Spain to Prussia,
And they spoke in bitter terms of his exorbitant excesses.
Then to Viterbo the valiant man veered on his mount,
And advisedly in that vale allowed his men victuals
Or Vernage and other vintages, and baked venison,
With a view to loitering in the viscount’s land.
And soon the vanguard were unsaddling their steeds
And resting in Vertennon’s vale of many vines.
There the Sovereign was ensconced, consoled in his heart,
Waiting to see if any senators sent word,
Reveling and carousing with rich wine,
This true royal with his Round Table,
Among mirth and melody and many kinds of pleasures;
Nowhere on earth was humankind as happy.
– The Alliterative Morte D’Arthur, 15th Century AD
