This thread discusses the Content article: The prize after the grail.

Really well done! Your tale is briskly paced, original, and filled with little details that really flesh out the setting and characters. I particularly enjoyed the bit about the peasant's arrowhead being used as a lance tip. Though the story lacks traditional "action" (aside from a club getting split in twain), my attention was never drawn elsewhere and I was entertained throughout the read.

As for your prose, it's very functional and descriptive when necessary, but not overly so. For example, you never get carried away with bogging down the story by describing the number of floor boards at the inn. I'll admit there were moments when I felt a sentence or two could have been trimmed or tweaked for a more fluid, poetic presentation, but that's negligible compared to the overall enjoyability of your story (and a matter of my personal taste). This is truly something to be proud of, and an excellent example to prove that waiting 'till the last minute isn't always a bad thing ! Bravo, good Sir! Bravo!

I confess that I am a little frustrated with it. There were actually three separate stories I tried to tell there. The first is the reflective trip home, the second is the cleansing of the corruption, and the third was his wife's reception.
I honestly could have written a short story about each of those but instead I tried to combine them all into one. Really forced me to cut out a lot of things and then forced a bunch of things together. Also felt like the story was kind of willy nilly with no real defining line behind it. I do like each of the three story plots individually, I'll probably give them justice later.

Still I'm glad you enjoyed it. Proves my college theory too, that I write better when I have no time to analyze it. I always got better grades on the projects I rushed.
It is good to hear comments so that I can write even better next time!

SoV,
Nice piece of writing.
It suffered a little from the fact that you wrote it in haste.
However, I really enjoyed it.


Sir Guy

Just read it and loved it! You hit a topic that also goes untouched, what happens to knights who don't become hermits? Through and through, I enjoyed it!

Yes, moderaters, I am posting in an older discussion because I think that this story deserves some compliments.

Well, I am glad you enjoyed it. I still think it is more than a little rough but in retrospect I do think it is rather a decent story. A rather calm almost victorious one.