ABSTRACT
King Arthur canters into a forest clearing accompanied by his trusty squire. An imposing knight in black blocks his path. In the ensuing duel this Black Knight charges again and again, swinging ponderously, but the agile Arthur dodges and parries. Finally, with a surprise downstroke, the king lops off his opponent’s left arm. A red geyser spurts from a black shoulder. Considering the dispute resolved, Arthur orders the loser to stand aside, but the assumption is taken as an affront. ‘Tis but a scratch!’ the knight shouts indignantly, looking at the void where his arm once was. Fans of the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) know how the story ends. 1 The Black Knight charges the king, loses his right arm to Excalibur – ‘a flesh wound’, he says – and then each of his legs. At last, the knight calls the fight a draw, but even then, as Arthur and his squire, Patsy, trot off into the woods, the head on a limbless torso taunts them as ‘yellow bastards’ and threatens to bite off their legs.
