The chap­ter titled “The Tale of Balen” describes a series of dra­mat­ic and mys­ti­cal events unfold­ing around Balen, an esteemed fig­ure, whose life is inter­twined with pro­found hope and impend­ing doom. As myth­i­cal as the first light of dawn, a series of events unfolds akin to waves dri­ven by the east wind, herald­ing both life and inevitable doom. Balen, exalt­ed by a fleet­ing joy, finds him­self in the pres­ence of a series of sig­nif­i­cant indi­vid­u­als, from a lady resem­bling a del­i­cate wind­flower, asso­ci­at­ed with the Lady of the Lake, to a malev­o­lent sor­cer­ess whose fate inter­twines with his own trag­ic past.

In an audi­ence with the king, the Lady of the Lake claims her reward for a pre­vi­ous­ly gift­ed sword, Excal­ibur, trig­ger­ing a chain of fate­ful events. Her request for Balen’s head or that of the lady who brought the sword, under­lines a deep-root­ed desire for a macabre form of jus­tice. Balen responds to this twist­ed demand by fac­ing a sor­cer­ess respon­si­ble for his moth­er’s death, ulti­mate­ly killing her. This act, although seek­ing to right past wrongs, casts a shad­ow over Balen’s hon­or in the eyes of the king, who admon­ish­es Balen for his impul­sive­ness and for car­ry­ing out vengeance in his pres­ence.

Despair and hon­or clash as Balen jus­ti­fies his actions by high­light­ing the sor­cer­ess’s evils, includ­ing the deaths of many inno­cents by her hand. Despite under­stand­ing Balen’s motives, the king sug­gests Balen’s leave, imply­ing a need for atone­ment. Before depart­ing, Balen tasks his squire with show­cas­ing the sor­cer­ess’s sev­ered head across Northum­ber­land as proof of her demise and his lib­er­a­tion from her dark influ­ence.

Balen then sets his sights on com­bat­ing King Ryons of North Wales, hop­ing to regain King Arthur’s favor and estab­lish peace. How­ev­er, unaware of the brew­ing storm, Sir Launce­or of Ire­land, dri­ven by pride and envy towards Balen, seeks per­mis­sion from Arthur to avenge the per­ceived dis­hon­or.

Mer­lin, a sage with deep insight, then reveals a com­plex web of deceit, mag­ic, and betray­al sur­round­ing the events. He elu­ci­dates the true nature of the damosel who brought Excal­ibur to Arthur’s court and her con­nec­tion to the sor­cer­ess, paint­ing a grim pic­ture of manip­u­la­tion aimed at Balen’s down­fall. Mer­lin’s nar­ra­tive weaves a trag­ic tale of manip­u­lat­ed des­tinies, reveal­ing the sor­cer­ess pro­vid­ed the mag­i­cal sword specif­i­cal­ly to pit the sib­lings against each oth­er, with Balen as an unin­tend­ed vic­tim caught in a mer­ci­less plot of vengeance and sor­cery, high­light­ing the inevitable clash between hon­or and the dark machi­na­tions of fate.