1. MEDIEVAL LEGENDS

2. INTRODUCTION For my Castle and Conquests project, I had to think really hard about what to do. At first I wanted to build a castle but thought that lots of people would do that. Then I wanted to do about toilets and the sewage system in a castle but I could not find enough information to do a good project. Of all the things we have learned, Legends have been the best so far, so I have decided to look at different Legends because they are fun to read. I am going to look at two legends from medieval times and one from more modern times and see how they compare.

3. WHAT IS A LEGEND? A Legend is a traditional story that are passed on person to person about an important events in our history. The stories are based on true events but have ‘mythical qualities’.

4. THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR Arthur was the son of King Uther Pendragon and heir to the throne. However, as times were dangerous Merlin, a wise magician, told the king that baby Arthur should be raised in a secret place and that no one should know who he really was. As Merlin predicted, when the King died there was fighting over who should be the next king. Merlin used his magic to set a sword in a stone. Written on the sword, in letters of gold was “whoso pulleth this sword of this stone is the rightwise born king of all England." All the people who wanted the throne took a turn trying to pull the sword, but no one could do it. When Arthur came up for his turn he quite easily pulled out the sword. He did not mean to do it he was getting it for someone else to use so everyone was very surprised. Following this he became King.

5. THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR CONTINUED. He gathered Knights around him and fought against the Saxons who were taking the country over. After many great battles the Saxons' advance was halted. Arthur's castle was at Camelot. His knights met at a Round Table. They carried out acts of goodness such as rescuing damsels in distress. They also searched for a lost treasure, which they believed would cure illnesses - this was the ‘Quest for the Holy Grail’. Lots of people think that the sword in the stone is Excalibur but this is not true. Arthur was given a magical sword from The Lady Of The Lake. This sword was called 'Excalibur" and with this weapon he defeated many enemies. The legend of king Arthur is perhaps the most famous legend so that is why I am including it in my project. I think that King Arthur was not crowned king by pulling a sword from a stone but it is a really good story and is my favorite legend.

6. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON St George was a knight and travelled to Libya where in a village a hermit told him that living by a lake was a dragon. The people had been giving sheep to the dragon to make it happy but when they ran out of sheep the dragon wanted a young maiden everyday. Now the only one left was the king of Egypt’s daughter and they needed a knight to kill the dragon. The king had promised his daughter’s hand to the knight who saved her. When George heard this he set off to the lake. When he got there, the dragon rushed out off his cave. George tried to stab the dragon with his spear but it’s scales were so hard the spear broke and knocked George of his horse. George then got out his sword and stabbed the dragon under the wing where there were no scales. This did not kill the dragon instantly it took a bit of time. Weeks later he married the princes.

7. The legend of St George and the dragon is a very famous medieval legend. I don’t think this is true but I think St George might have killed something big, in those days the dragon was used to represent the devil. St George is now the patron Saint of England even though he is originally from Turkey. The reason he is the patron saint is because of his association with England and the heroics he proved to have. St George’s day is every year on the 23 April. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON

8. THE LOCH NESS MONSTER The Loch Ness Monster is the legend that is more modern in my project to see the differences between the medieval legends and modern legends. I chose this legend as it takes place at Loch Ness which is over looked by Castle Urquhart, which is where Anthony Shields saw ‘Nessy’ in 1977. Some people claim to have seen it. I think that it could be a big fish but it might have been a story to scare the children and then they will keep out of the water. The word loch is Scottish for lake. Many people have claimed to have seen The Loch Ness Monster but the first one was when Saint Columba saved a swimmer from getting eaten in 565 AD. When a road was made next to loch ness more sightings were reported for example one family claimed to have seen it walk on its flippers right in front of his car. The Loch Ness monster is sighted in the Loch Ness so (the clue is in the name) if you want to have a look that’s were to go. There have been lots of photographs and films of The Loch Ness Monster but most are false. I am not sure if this legend is true or not but I would like to visit Loch Ness to see if I can Nessy myself.

9. CONCLUSION I have enjoyed doing this project because I have learnt a lot and got to have fun writing about the legends. I prefer medieval legends and my favorite is about King Arthur because of the sword in the stone and the knights of the round table. Medieval legends are more adventurous and exciting. I don’t like modern legends as much because people try to prove that the mystery is fake using modern technology and this spoils all of the fun. In older legends we don’t know if they are true because they didn’t have cameras but now we have cameras so we have more evidence.