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    The Beheading Game: An Arthurian Tale
    The Beheading Game: An Arthurian Tale
    The Beheading Game: An Arthurian Tale
    Ebook100 pages1 hour

    The Beheading Game: An Arthurian Tale

    By Barak Bassman

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    Sir Carados, a handsome and powerful young knight of King Arthur’s court, has spent his life effortlessly progressing from triumph to triumph until the day he foolishly accepts a challenge from a mysterious giant who has barged into Camelot’s Christmas celebration: to deliver an axe blow to the giant’s head now and then meekly submit to the giant’s return blow in exactly one year. But when Carados watches the decapitated giant stand back up after being struck with an axe and mount its severed head back on its body, he knows he is doomed to die in a year’s time and must undergo a series of adventures to test whether he will have the strength and courage to keep his oath to submit to the reciprocal blow.

    But unlike Sir Gawain in the famous poem about his encounter with the Green Knight, it is far from clear that Carados will maintain his honor and resist the temptation to flee from his impending fate. As he struggles with the sudden futility of his soon to be cut short life, Carados slides into greater depths of violence and cruelty.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBarak Bassman
    Release dateApr 30, 2021
    ISBN9781951744717
    The Beheading Game: An Arthurian Tale
    Author

    Barak Bassman

    Barak A. Bassman received a B.A. in Classics from Grinnell College and a law degree from the New York University School of Law. He practices law in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with his wife and two children. He is the author of Elegy of the Minotaur and Repentance: A Tale of Demons in Old Jewish Poland.

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      Book preview

      The Beheading Game - Barak Bassman

      The Beheading Game:

      An Arthurian Tale

      by

      Barak A. Bassman

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

      THE BEHEADING GAME: AN ARTHURIAN TALE

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you’re reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

      Copyright © 2021 Barak A. Bassman. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the author and publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

      The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

      Cover designed by Telemachus Press, LLC

      Cover art Public Domain

      Published by Telemachus Press, LLC, at Smashwords

      7652 Sawmill Road

      Suite 304

      Dublin, Ohio 43016

      http://www.telemachuspress.com

      ISBN: 978-1-951744-71-7 (eBook)

      ISBN: 978-1-951744-72-4 (Paperback)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2021908380

      Version 2021.04.26

      Table of Contents

      I. The Challenge

      II. The Drowning of Sorrows

      III. The Knight Errant

      IV. The Sorceress in the Tower

      V. Otherworlds

      VI. Shame and Dishonor

      VII. Robber Baron

      VIII. The Quest for the Holy Grail

      IX. The Return of Morgan le Fay

      The Beheading Game:

      An Arthurian Tale

      I. The Challenge

      It was during the Christmas festival that Sir Carados took the oath that would ruin his life. Before then, he had been fortune’s darling: the handsome and dashing only son of a powerful lord, he had jousted so well at a tournament earlier that year that no less a worthy than Sir Lancelot had made him a knight. Triumph had followed triumph, and his greatest worry was which ravishing, highborn maiden to pick as his bride.

      And thus the young Sir Carados was not surprised when he was invited to King Arthur’s court for the Christmas festival. He rode straight from his father’s castle to Camelot, whistling merrily through the gently falling snowflakes. When he arrived, Arthur greeted him like a long-lost brother and sat him in a place of honor in the sumptuous hall.

      But then everything changed on Christmas Eve. After spending the day hunting in the forest, Carados greedily sniffed the fresh boar meat cooking on the spits. His stomach twisted painfully with hunger, and the hunger in turn made him irritable and impatient.

      Yet he now discovered a custom of King Arthur that had long been the bane of Camelot’s knights: During festivals, when he had gathered his court in full force, Arthur would not permit anyone to eat until he saw or heard about some worthy marvel. The starving and ill-humored knights had been known more than once to stage fake wonders or tell wild, extravagant lies to satisfy this ridiculous royal caprice.

      This Christmas Eve, however, required no such underhanded trickery. As the sun was setting and reddish light reflected through the windows onto the ladies’ silk gowns, there was suddenly a loud commotion—sounds of futile protest and indignant yelling from outside the hall, followed by loud, plodding hoofbeats on the stone pavement. A couple of minutes later the doors to the hall burst open and in rode a massive horse, which was as big as three of the chargers typically ridden by Arthur’s knights. Even more remarkable was the rider: He was as tall and as wide as two men put together, and his bare head almost touched the high ceiling. His red hair and beard fell messily down below his shoulders, and he wore a dark green cloak over a dark green hauberk. But he bore no shield or lance or sword; his only weapon was an enormous axe belted to his hip.

      The knights and ladies in the hall fell silent. For several minutes the giant sat smug and mute atop his horse, calmly looking down at the glittering court of Camelot.

      Finally, King Arthur stood up and forced a smile. He greeted the strange knight in Christ’s name and offered him blessings and good tidings.

      The giant did not reply.

      Arthur offered to stable his horse, invited him to join the feast, and suggested he could hear Christmas Mass that midnight in the Church of St. Stephen.

      The giant still did not reply.

      After a lengthy pause—during which Carados acutely felt the sharpness of his hunger pangs—Arthur asked if there was any favor that the stranger wished to request of him; if it was within his power, and would bring no shame or dishonor, the king would gladly grant the giant his heart’s desire.

      Now the giant spoke at last: I do have a favor to ask, Your Majesty. I wish to test the worthiness of your knights.

      As long as your challenge involves no base conduct, King Arthur said, go ahead and state your terms. The finest knights in my kingdom are gathered here tonight.

      The giant smirked, dismounted, and then raised his axe over his head.

      Assembled knights, he began, hear my challenge: I ask one of you to take this axe from my hands. I will then kneel before you, and you may strike one blow. I will not flinch or run or resist in any way. And then, one year from today, in this very same place, you will kneel before me and permit me to strike one blow in return upon your head. Who shall accept my challenge?

      Carados thought: Once the challenge was accepted and the axe was swung, Arthur would finally let everyone eat, as this was surely a worthy marvel. He twitched with excitement at the thought of tearing at the succulent, roasting meat with his teeth.

      But no champion stepped forward. Each of the famous knights assembled in that hall—Lancelot, Gawain, Bors, Hector, Tristan, Palamedes—stared at his feet and appeared to try to fade into the tapestries on the walls.

      Carados could not understand why no one would grab the axe and sever that arrogant head from its hulking body. Spurred on by sharp pinpricks of hunger, he felt angrier and angrier at the cowardly knights around him. Had they no sense of honor? What did they fear? After all, many of them had vanquished giants who had fought against them. What was so terrifying about this giant who apparently wished to be cut down like a sheep for the slaughter?

      Losing his patience, he shoved his way forward, and shouted out: Give me the axe and

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