Poet Simon Armitage traces the evolution of the Arthurian legend through the literature of the medieval age, revealing that King Arthur is not the great national hero he is usually considered to be. He is a fickle and transitory character who was appropriated by the Normans to justify their conquest; he was cuckolded when French writers began adapting the story; and it took Thomas Malory's masterpiece of English literature, Le Mort d'Arthur, to restore his dignity and reclaim him as the national hero known today