{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/mart/mart026.htm","path":"neu/mart/mart026.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/mart/mart026.htm","text":"CHAPTER XXVII\nHow all the children were sent for that were born on\nMay-day, and how Mordred was saved.\nTHEN King Arthur let send for all the children born on May-day,\nbegotten of lords and born of ladies; for Merlin told King Arthur\nthat he that should destroy him should be born on May-day,\nwherefore he sent for them all, upon pain of death; and so there\nwere found many lords' sons, and all were sent unto the king, and\nso was Mordred sent by King Lot's wife, and all were put in a\nship to the sea, and some were four weeks old, and some less.\nAnd so by fortune the ship drave unto a castle, and was all to-\nriven, and destroyed the most part, save that Mordred was cast\nup, and a good man found him, and nourished him till he <48>was\nfourteen year old, and then he brought him to the court, as it\nrehearseth afterward, toward the end of the Death of Arthur. So\nmany lords and barons of this realm were displeased, for their\nchildren were so lost, and many put the wite on Merlin more than\non Arthur; so what for dread and for love, they held their peace.\nBut when the messenger came to King Rience, then was he wood out\nof measure, and purveyed him for a great host, as it rehearseth\nafter in the book of Balin le Savage, that followeth next after,\nhow by adventure Balin gat the sword.\nExplicit liber primus. Incipit liber secundus","title":"Le Morte d'Arthur BOOK I CHAPTER XXVII","type":"page"}