Hello, and welcome to Story Nory. This is Johnna, and I'm back with another episode of Child Rowland.

In a recent episode of Story Nory, we told you the story of Child Rowland, a son of King Arthur, who rescued his two elder brothers and his sister from the King of the Elves.

It's a very old story that is mentioned in the play King Lear by William Shakespeare, when his character Edgar says,

Child Rowland to the dark tower came. His word was still.

Fee-fye-fow-fum. I smell the blood of a British man.

And the poet Robert Browning wrote a poem called Child Rowland to the dark tower came.

The word Child with an E on the end means the son of a noble who is yet to win his spurs as a knight.

The tale does not actually tell us how old Rowland is, but we do know that he is the youngest of the children.

The traditional story ends with Rowland defeating the Elfin King in a sword fight and rescuing his siblings.

We wondered what happened next to the children of King Arthur. Tradition doesn't tell us.

So we decided to use a little imagination to fill out some of the blanks.

The four children of Arthur departed from the dark castle. They had three horses between them.

Ellen, who had arrived at the castle by the King's Elfin Magic, did not have her own mount.

She sat sideways behind Rowland on his pelfry. A pelfry is a kind of aristocratic horse used in the M.A.

It does not trope, but ambles with a long, smooth step.

The way home led them along a high pass between two crooked mountains.

Dark clouds hung not far above them, threatening a cold, drenching of rain.

Ellen hung onto Rowland's belt, made of metal chain that was wrapped twice around his scrawny waist.

Their fathers heavy sword Excalibur hung from the same belt inside a scabbard, studded with jewels.

On his left arm, he carried a battered shield filled with dents, the marks of their fathers' many battles and encounters.

Under the mud, grime and blood spatters, it still bore the family symbol of a dragon.

Rowland was even younger and more puny than his father Arthur had been when he first drew the sword from the stone.

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