![Arth tapestry2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Arth_tapestry2.jpg)
King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a
legendary
Legendary may refer to:
* Legend, a folklore genre
* Legendary (hagiography)
** Anjou Legendarium
* J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium
Film and television
* ''Legendary'' (film), a 2010 American sports drama film
* ''Legendary'', a 2013 film fea ...
king of
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the
Matter of Britain
The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...
.
In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a leader of the post-Roman
Britons
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...
in battles against
Saxon invaders of Britain in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. He appears in two early medieval historical sources, the ''
Annales Cambriae
The (Latin for ''Annals of Wales'') is the title given to a complex of Latin chronicles compiled or derived from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales. The earliest is a 12th-century presumed copy of a mid-10th-century original; later ed ...
'' and the ''
Historia Brittonum
''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British ( Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia B ...
'', but these date to 300 years after he is supposed to have lived, and most historians who study the period do not consider him a
historical figure
A historical figure is a significant person in history.
The significance of such figures in human progress has been debated. Some think they play a crucial role, while others say they have little impact on the broad currents of thought and social ...
.
[Tom Shippey, "So Much Smoke", ''review'' of , ''London Review of Books'', 40:24:23 (20 December 2018)] His name also occurs in early
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
poetic sources such as ''
Y Gododdin
''Y Gododdin'' () is a medieval Welsh poem consisting of a series of elegies to the men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin and its allies who, according to the conventional interpretation, died fighting the Angles of Deira and Bernicia a ...
''. The character developed through
Welsh mythology
Welsh mythology (Welsh: ''Mytholeg Cymru'') consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of the predominantly oral societies Celti ...
, appearing either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatural enemies or as a magical figure of folklore, sometimes associated with the Welsh otherworld
Annwn
Annwn, Annwfn, or Annwfyn (in Middle Welsh, ''Annwvn'', ''Annwyn'', ''Annwyfn'', ''Annwvyn'', or ''Annwfyn'') is the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Ruled by Arawn (or, in Arthurian literature, by Gwyn ap Nudd), it was essentially a world of de ...
.
The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...
's fanciful and imaginative 12th-century ''
Historia Regum Britanniae
''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. I ...
'' (''History of the Kings of Britain''). Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established a vast empire. Many elements and incidents that are now an integral part of the Arthurian story appear in Geoffrey's ''Historia'', including Arthur's father
Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon (Brittonic) (; cy, Ythyr Ben Dragwn, Uthyr Pendragon, Uthyr Bendragon), also known as King Uther, was a legendary King of the Britons in sub-Roman Britain (c. 6th century). Uther was also the father of King Arthur.
A few ...
, the magician
Merlin, Arthur's wife
Guinevere, the sword
Excalibur
Excalibur () is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. It was associated with the Arthurian legend very early on. Excalibur and the Sword in th ...
, Arthur's conception at
Tintagel
Tintagel () or Trevena ( kw, Tre war Venydh, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle are associated with the legends surroundin ...
, his final battle against
Mordred at
Camlann
The Battle of Camlann ( cy, Gwaith Camlan or ''Brwydr Camlan'') is the legendary final battle of King Arthur, in which Arthur either died or was fatally wounded while fighting either with or against Mordred, who also perished. The original l ...
, and final rest in
Avalon
Avalon (; la, Insula Avallonis; cy, Ynys Afallon, Ynys Afallach; kw, Enys Avalow; literally meaning "the isle of fruit r appletrees"; also written ''Avallon'' or ''Avilion'' among various other spellings) is a mythical island featured in the ...
. The 12th-century
French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added
Lancelot and the
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracu ...
to the story, began the
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
of Arthurian romance that became a significant strand of
medieval literature
Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...
. In these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various
Knights of the Round Table. The themes, events and characters of the Arthurian legend vary widely from text to text, and there is no one canonical version. Arthurian literature thrived during the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
but waned in the centuries that followed, until it experienced a major resurgence in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the legend continues to have prominence, not only in literature but also in adaptations for theatre, film, television, comics and other media.
Historicity
![Arthur Leading the Charge at Mount Badon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Arthur_Leading_the_Charge_at_Mount_Badon.png)
The historical basis for King Arthur has been long debated by scholars. One school of thought, citing entries in the ''
Historia Brittonum
''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British ( Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia B ...
'' (''History of the Britons'') and ''
Annales Cambriae
The (Latin for ''Annals of Wales'') is the title given to a complex of Latin chronicles compiled or derived from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales. The earliest is a 12th-century presumed copy of a mid-10th-century original; later ed ...
'' (''Welsh Annals''), saw Arthur as a genuine historical figure, a
Romano-British
The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...
leader who fought against the invading
Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
some time in the late 5th to early 6th century.
The ''Historia Brittonum'', a 9th-century Latin historical compilation attributed in some late manuscripts to a Welsh cleric called
Nennius, contains the first datable mention of King Arthur, listing twelve battles that Arthur fought. These culminate in the
Battle of Badon
The Battle of Badon /ˈbeɪdən/ also known as the Battle of Mons Badonicus ( la, obsessio isBadonici montis, "Blockade/Siege of the Badonic Hill"; ''Bellum in monte Badonis'', "Battle on Badon Hill"; ''Bellum Badonis'', "Battle of Badon"; Old W ...
, where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men. Recent studies, however, question the reliability of the ''Historia Brittonum''.
Archaeological evidence, in the Low Countries and what was to become England, shows early Anglo-Saxon migration to Great Britain reversed between 500 and 550, which concurs with Frankish chronicles.
[Davies (1994) pp. 56] John Davies notes this as consistent with the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
victory at
Badon Hill, attributed to Arthur by
Nennius.
The monks of Glastonbury are also said to have discovered the grave of Arthur in 1180.
The other text that seems to support the case for Arthur's historical existence is the 10th-century ''Annales Cambriae'', which also link Arthur with the Battle of Badon. The ''Annales'' date this battle to 516–518, and also mention the
Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and
Medraut (Mordred) were both killed, dated to 537–539. These details have often been used to bolster confidence in the ''Historia''
's account and to confirm that Arthur really did fight at Badon.
Problems have been identified, however, with using this source to support the ''Historia Brittonum''s account. The latest research shows that the ''Annales Cambriae'' was based on a chronicle begun in the late 8th century in Wales. Additionally, the complex textual history of the ''Annales Cambriae'' precludes any certainty that the Arthurian annals were added to it even that early. They were more likely added at some point in the 10th century and may never have existed in any earlier set of annals. The Badon entry probably derived from the ''Historia Brittonum''.
This lack of convincing early evidence is the reason many recent historians exclude Arthur from their accounts of
sub-Roman Britain. In the view of historian
Thomas Charles-Edwards
Thomas Mowbray Charles-Edwards (born 11 November 1943) is an emeritus academic at the University of Oxford. He formerly held the post of Jesus Professor of Celtic and is a Professorial Fellow at Jesus College.
Biography
He was educated at ...
, "at this stage of the enquiry, one can only say that there may well have been an historical Arthur
ut ...the historian can as yet say nothing of value about him". These modern admissions of ignorance are a relatively recent trend; earlier generations of historians were less sceptical. The historian
John Morris made the putative reign of Arthur the organising principle of his history of sub-Roman Britain and Ireland, ''The Age of Arthur'' (1973). Even so, he found little to say about a historical Arthur.
Partly in reaction to such theories, another school of thought emerged which argued that Arthur had no historical existence at all. Morris's ''Age of Arthur'' prompted the archaeologist
Nowell Myres
John Nowell Linton Myres (27 December 1902 – 25 September 1989) was a British archaeologist and Bodley's Librarian at the Bodleian Library in Oxford from 1948 until his resignation in 1965; and librarian of Christ Church before his Bodleian a ...
to observe that "no figure on the borderline of history and mythology has wasted more of the historian's time".
Gildas
Gildas ( Breton: ''Gweltaz''; c. 450/500 – c. 570) — also known as Gildas the Wise or ''Gildas Sapiens'' — was a 6th-century British monk best known for his scathing religious polemic ''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'', which recount ...
's 6th-century polemic ''
De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae
''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'' ( la, On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain, sometimes just ''On the Ruin of Britain'') is a work written in Latin by the 6th-century AD British cleric St Gildas. It is a sermon in three parts condemning ...
'' (''On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain''), written within living memory of Badon, mentions the battle but does not mention Arthur. Arthur is not mentioned in the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' or named in any surviving manuscript written between 400 and 820. He is absent from
Bede's early-8th-century ''
Ecclesiastical History of the English People
The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' ( la, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict b ...
'', another major early source for post-Roman history that mentions Badon. The historian
David Dumville
David Norman Dumville (born 5 May 1949) is a British medievalist and Celtic scholar. He attended at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; and received his PhD at ...
wrote: "I think we can dispose of him
rthurquite briefly. He owes his place in our history books to a 'no smoke without fire' school of thought ... The fact of the matter is that there is no historical evidence about Arthur; we must reject him from our histories and, above all, from the titles of our books."
Some scholars argue that Arthur was originally a fictional hero of folklore—or even a half-forgotten Celtic deity—who became credited with real deeds in the distant past. They cite parallels with figures such as the
Kentish Hengist and Horsa
Hengist and Horsa are Germanic brothers said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Britain in the 5th century. Tradition lists Hengist as the first of the Jutish kings of Kent.
Most modern scholarly consensus now rega ...
, who may be totemic horse-gods that later became historicised. Bede ascribed to these legendary figures a historical role in the 5th-century
Anglo-Saxon conquest of eastern Britain. It is not even certain that Arthur was considered a king in the early texts. Neither the ''Historia'' nor the ''Annales'' calls him "''rex''": the former calls him instead "''
dux
''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, '' ...
bellorum''" (leader of wars) and "''miles''" (soldier).
![Former Gravesite King Arthur (GlastonburyAbbey)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Former_Gravesite_King_Arthur_%28GlastonburyAbbey%29.jpg)
According to one source, the consensus among academic historians today is that there is no solid evidence for his historical existence.
However, because historical documents for the post-Roman period are scarce, a definitive answer to the question of Arthur's historical existence is unlikely.
Sites and places have been identified as "Arthurian" since the 12th century, but archaeology can confidently reveal names only through inscriptions found in secure contexts. The so-called "
Arthur stone", discovered in 1998 among the ruins at
Tintagel Castle
Tintagel Castle ( kw, Dintagel) is a medieval fortification located on the peninsula of Tintagel Island adjacent to the village of Tintagel (Trevena), North Cornwall in the United Kingdom. The site was possibly occupied in the Romano-British ...
in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
in securely dated 6th-century contexts, created a brief stir but proved irrelevant. Other inscriptional evidence for Arthur, including the
Glastonbury cross, is tainted with the suggestion of forgery.
Andrew Breeze has recently argued that Arthur was historical, and claimed to have identified the locations of his battles as well as the place and date of his death (in the context of the
Extreme weather events of 535–536
The volcanic winter of 536 was the most severe and protracted episode of climatic cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 2,000 years. The volcanic winter was caused by an eruption, with several possible locations proposed in various contin ...
), but his conclusions are disputed.
Several historical figures have been proposed as the basis for Arthur, ranging from
Lucius Artorius Castus
Lucius Artorius Castus (fl. 2nd century AD) was a Roman military commander. A member of the ''gens Artoria'' (possibly of Messapic or Etruscan origin), he has been suggested as a potential historical basis for King Arthur.
Military career accor ...
, a Roman officer who served in Britain in the 2nd or 3rd century, to sub-Roman British rulers such as
Riotamus,
Ambrosius Aurelianus
Ambrosius Aurelianus ( cy, Emrys Wledig; Anglicised as Ambrose Aurelian and called Aurelius Ambrosius in the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' and elsewhere) was a war leader of the Romano-British who won an important battle against the Anglo-Sax ...
,
Owain Ddantgwyn Owain Danwyn ( fl. 440) was a king of Rhos in Gwynedd, Wales, in the mid-5th century. He was the son of Einion Yrth and the father of Cynlas Goch, probably the Cuneglasus excoriated by Gildas. Very little is known of his life. Graham Phillips a ...
, the Welsh king Enniaun Girt, and
Athrwys ap Meurig
Athrwys ap Meurig (c. 605–655) was a prince, and possibly king, of Gwent and Glywysing in Wales. He was the son of King Meurig ap Tewdrig and the father of the later king Morgan ab Athrwys. It is possible he died before his father Meurig and d ...
. However, no convincing evidence for these identifications has emerged.
[David, Brian, Review of Nicholas J. Higham, ''King Arthur: The Making of the Legend'' in ''Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies'' 50:221-222 (2019) ]
Name
![Nuremberg chronicles f 143v 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Nuremberg_chronicles_f_143v_2.jpg)
The origin of the Welsh name "Arthur" remains a matter of debate. The most widely accepted etymology derives it from the Roman ''
nomen gentile'' (family name)
Artorius. Artorius itself is of obscure and contested etymology, but possibly of
Messapian or
Etruscan __NOTOC__
Etruscan may refer to:
Ancient civilization
*The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy
*Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization
**Etruscan architecture
**Etruscan art
**Etruscan cities
** Etrusca ...
origin. Linguist Stephan Zimmer suggests Artorius possibly had a Celtic origin, being a Latinization of a hypothetical name ''*Artorījos'', in turn derived from an older
patronym'' *Arto-rīg-ios'', meaning "son of the bear/warrior-king". This patronym is unattested, but the root, ''*arto-rīg'', "bear/warrior-king", is the source of the Old Irish personal name ''Artrí''.
[.] Some scholars have suggested it is relevant to this debate that the legendary King Arthur's name only appears as ''Arthur'' or ''Arturus'' in early Latin Arthurian texts, never as ''Artōrius'' (though Classical Latin Artōrius became Arturius in some Vulgar Latin dialects). However, this may not say anything about the origin of the name ''Arthur'', as ''Artōrius'' would regularly become ''Art(h)ur'' when borrowed into Welsh.
Another commonly proposed derivation of ''Arthur'' from Welsh ''arth'' "bear" + ''(g)wr'' "man" (earlier ''*Arto-uiros'' in Brittonic) is not accepted by modern scholars for
phonological
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
and
orthographic reasons. Notably, a Brittonic compound name ''*Arto-uiros'' should produce Old Welsh ''*Artgur'' (where ''u'' represents the short vowel /u/) and Middle/Modern Welsh ''*Arthwr'', rather than ''Arthur'' (where ''u'' is a long vowel /ʉː/). In Welsh poetry the name is always spelled ''Arthur'' and is exclusively rhymed with words ending in ''-ur''—never words ending in ''-wr''—which confirms that the second element cannot be ''
r'' "man".
An alternative theory, which has gained only limited acceptance among professional scholars, derives the name Arthur from
Arcturus
, - bgcolor="#FFFAFA"
, Note (category: variability): , , H and K emission vary.
Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Boötes. With an apparent visual magnitude of −0.05, it is the third-brightest of the ...
, the brightest star in the constellation
Boötes, near
Ursa Major
Ursa Major (; also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear," referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa ...
or the Great Bear. Classical Latin ''Arcturus'' would also have become ''Art(h)ur'' when borrowed into Welsh, and its brightness and position in the sky led people to regard it as the "guardian of the bear" (which is the meaning of the name in Ancient Greek) and the "leader" of the other stars in Boötes.
Medieval literary traditions
The familiar literary persona of Arthur began with
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...
's pseudo-historical ''
Historia Regum Britanniae
''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. I ...
'' (''History of the Kings of Britain''), written in the 1130s. The textual sources for Arthur are usually divided into those written before Geoffrey's ''Historia'' (known as pre-Galfridian texts, from the Latin form of Geoffrey, ''Galfridus'') and those written afterwards, which could not avoid his influence (Galfridian, or post-Galfridian, texts).
Pre-Galfridian traditions
The earliest literary references to Arthur come from Welsh and Breton sources. There have been few attempts to define the nature and character of Arthur in the pre-Galfridian tradition as a whole, rather than in a single text or text/story-type. A 2007 academic survey led by Caitlin Green has identified three key strands to the portrayal of Arthur in this earliest material. The first is that he was a peerless warrior who functioned as the monster-hunting protector of Britain from all internal and external threats. Some of these are human threats, such as the Saxons he fights in the ''Historia Brittonum'', but the majority are supernatural, including giant
cat-monsters, destructive
divine boars, dragons,
dogheads, giants, and witches. The second is that the pre-Galfridian Arthur was a figure of folklore (particularly
topographic
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scien ...
or
onomastic
Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An '' orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study.
Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, ...
folklore) and localised magical wonder-tales, the leader of a band of superhuman heroes who live in the wilds of the landscape. The third and final strand is that the early Welsh Arthur had a close connection with the Welsh Otherworld,
Annwn
Annwn, Annwfn, or Annwfyn (in Middle Welsh, ''Annwvn'', ''Annwyn'', ''Annwyfn'', ''Annwvyn'', or ''Annwfyn'') is the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Ruled by Arawn (or, in Arthurian literature, by Gwyn ap Nudd), it was essentially a world of de ...
. On the one hand, he launches assaults on Otherworldly fortresses in search of treasure and frees their prisoners. On the other, his warband in the earliest sources includes former pagan gods, and his wife and his possessions are clearly Otherworldly in origin.
![Gododdin1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Gododdin1.jpg)
One of the most famous Welsh poetic references to Arthur comes in the collection of heroic death-songs known as ''
Y Gododdin
''Y Gododdin'' () is a medieval Welsh poem consisting of a series of elegies to the men of the Brittonic kingdom of Gododdin and its allies who, according to the conventional interpretation, died fighting the Angles of Deira and Bernicia a ...
'' (''The Gododdin''), attributed to 6th-century poet
Aneirin
Aneirin , Aneurin or Neirin was an early Medieval Brythonic war poet. He is believed to have been a bard or court poet in one of the Cumbric kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd, probably that of Gododdin at Edinburgh, in modern Scotland. From the 17th c ...
. One stanza praises the bravery of a warrior who slew 300 enemies, but says that despite this, "he was no Arthur" – that is, his feats cannot compare to the valour of Arthur. ''Y Gododdin'' is known only from a 13th-century manuscript, so it is impossible to determine whether this passage is original or a later interpolation, but John Koch's view that the passage dates from a 7th-century or earlier version is regarded as unproven; 9th- or 10th-century dates are often proposed for it. Several poems attributed to
Taliesin
Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the '' Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the courts ...
, a poet said to have lived in the 6th century, also refer to Arthur, although these all probably date from between the 8th and 12th centuries. They include "Kadeir Teyrnon" ("The Chair of the Prince"), which refers to "Arthur the Blessed"; "
Preiddeu Annwn" ("The Spoils of Annwn"), which recounts an expedition of Arthur to the Otherworld; and "Marwnat vthyr pen
ragon
Ragon may refer to:
People Surname
* Charles Ragon de Bange (1833–1914), French artillery officer and Polytechnician
* Heartsill Ragon (1885–1940), United States Representative from Arkansas
* Henriette Ragon (1918–2015), stage name Pata ...
("The Elegy of Uther Pen
ragon
Ragon may refer to:
People Surname
* Charles Ragon de Bange (1833–1914), French artillery officer and Polytechnician
* Heartsill Ragon (1885–1940), United States Representative from Arkansas
* Henriette Ragon (1918–2015), stage name Pata ...
), which refers to Arthur's valour and is suggestive of a father-son relationship for Arthur and Uther that pre-dates Geoffrey of Monmouth.
![Culhwch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Culhwch.jpg)
Other early Welsh Arthurian texts include a poem found in the ''
Black Book of Carmarthen'', "
Pa gur
Poem 31 of the Black Book of Carmarthen, a mid-13th century manuscript, is known from its first line as ''Pa gur yv y porthaur?'' (meaning "What man is the gatekeeper?") or ''Pa gur'', or alternatively as ''Ymddiddan Arthur a Glewlwyd Gafaelfaw ...
yv y porthaur?" ("What man is the gatekeeper?"). This takes the form of a dialogue between Arthur and the gatekeeper of a fortress he wishes to enter, in which Arthur recounts the names and deeds of himself and his men, notably
Cei (Kay) and
Bedwyr
Bedivere ( or ; cy, Bedwyr; la, Beduerus; french: link=no, Bédoier, also Bedevere and other spellings) is one of the earliest characters to be featured in the legend of King Arthur, originally described in several Welsh texts as the one-hande ...
(Bedivere). The Welsh prose tale ''
Culhwch and Olwen
''Culhwch and Olwen'' ( cy, Culhwch ac Olwen) is a Welsh tale that survives in only two manuscripts about a hero connected with Arthur and his warriors: a complete version in the Red Book of Hergest, c. 1400, and a fragmented version in the Whi ...
'' (), included in the modern ''
Mabinogion'' collection, has a much longer list of more than 200 of Arthur's men, though Cei and Bedwyr again take a central place. The story as a whole tells of Arthur helping his kinsman
Culhwch
Culhwch (, with the final consonant sounding like Scottish "loch"), in Welsh mythology, is the son of Cilydd son of Celyddon and Goleuddydd, a cousin of Arthur and the protagonist of the story '' Culhwch and Olwen'' (the earliest of the medie ...
win the hand of
Olwen
In Welsh mythology, Olwen (or Olwyn) is the daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden and cousin of Goreu. She is the heroine of the story ''Culhwch and Olwen'' in the Mabinogion. Her father is fated to die if she ever marries, so when Culhwch (sometimes ...
, daughter of
Ysbaddaden
; "Ysbaddaden, Chief of Giants," is the primary antagonist of the Welsh romance '' Culhwch ac Olwen''.Helmut Birkhan: Kelten. Versuch einer Gesamtdarstellung ihrer Kultur. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 1997, , S. ...
Chief-Giant, by completing a series of apparently impossible tasks, including the hunt for the great semi-divine boar
Twrch Trwyth
Twrch Trwyth (; also Trwyd, Troynt (MSS.''HK''); Troit (MSS.''C1 D G Q''); or Terit (MSS. ''C2 L'')) is an enchanted wild boar in the ''Matter of Britain'' great story cycle that King Arthur or his men pursued with the aid of Arthur's dog Cavall ( ...
. The 9th-century ''Historia Brittonum'' also refers to this tale, with the boar there named Troy(n)t. Finally, Arthur is mentioned numerous times in the
Welsh Triads
The Welsh Triads ( cy, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, "Triads of the Island of Britain") are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a ...
, a collection of short summaries of Welsh tradition and legend which are classified into groups of three linked characters or episodes to assist recall. The later manuscripts of the Triads are partly derivative from Geoffrey of Monmouth and later continental traditions, but the earliest ones show no such influence and are usually agreed to refer to pre-existing Welsh traditions. Even in these, however, Arthur's court has started to embody legendary Britain as a whole, with "Arthur's Court" sometimes substituted for "The Island of Britain" in the formula "Three XXX of the Island of Britain". While it is not clear from the ''Historia Brittonum'' and the ''Annales Cambriae'' that Arthur was even considered a king, by the time ''Culhwch and Olwen'' and the Triads were written he had become ''Penteyrnedd yr Ynys hon'', "Chief of the Lords of this Island", the overlord of Wales, Cornwall and the North.
In addition to these pre-Galfridian Welsh poems and tales, Arthur appears in some other early Latin texts besides the ''Historia Brittonum'' and the ''Annales Cambriae''. In particular, Arthur features in a number of well-known ''vitae'' ("
Lives
Lives may refer to:
* The plural form of a '' life''
* Lives, Iran, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran
* The number of lives in a video game
* '' Parallel Lives'', aka ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', a series of biographies of famous ...
") of post-Roman
saints, none of which are now generally considered to be reliable historical sources (the earliest probably dates from the 11th century). According to the ''Life of Saint
Gildas
Gildas ( Breton: ''Gweltaz''; c. 450/500 – c. 570) — also known as Gildas the Wise or ''Gildas Sapiens'' — was a 6th-century British monk best known for his scathing religious polemic ''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'', which recount ...
'', written in the early 12th century by
Caradoc of Llancarfan, Arthur is said to have killed Gildas's brother Hueil and to have rescued his wife
Gwenhwyfar
Guinevere ( ; cy, Gwenhwyfar ; br, Gwenivar, kw, Gwynnever), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First ment ...
from Glastonbury. In the ''Life of Saint
Cadoc
Saint Cadoc or Cadog ( lat-med, Cadocus; also Modern Welsh: Cattwg; born or before) was a 5th–6th-century Abbot of Llancarfan, near Cowbridge in Glamorgan, Wales, a monastery famous from the era of the British church as a centre of learni ...
'', written around 1100 or a little before by Lifris of Llancarfan, the saint gives protection to a man who killed three of Arthur's soldiers, and Arthur demands a herd of cattle as ''
wergeld
Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price (blood money), was a precept in some archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to b ...
'' for his men. Cadoc delivers them as demanded, but when Arthur takes possession of the animals, they turn into bundles of ferns. Similar incidents are described in the medieval biographies of
Carannog
Saint Carantoc ( cy, Carannog; ga, Cairnech; br, Karanteg; la, Carantocus), also anglicized as Carantock, Carannog and by other spellings, was a 6th-century abbot, confessor, and saint in Wales and the West Country. He is credited with foundin ...
,
Padarn
Padarn ( la, Paternus, Padarnus; cy, Padarn; br, Padern; ? – 550 AD) was an early 6th century British Christian abbot-bishop who founded St Padarn's Church in Ceredigion, Wales. He appears to be one and the same with the first bishop of Bra ...
, and Eufflam, probably written around the 12th century. A less obviously legendary account of Arthur appears in the ''
Legenda Sancti Goeznovii'', which is often claimed to date from the early 11th century (although the earliest manuscript of this text dates from the 15th century and the text is now dated to the late 12th to early 13th century). Also important are the references to Arthur in
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as " ...
's ''De Gestis Regum Anglorum'' and Herman's ''
De Miraculis Sanctae Mariae Laudunensis
''De miraculis sanctae Mariae Laudunensis'', generally ascribed to Herman of Tournai, is a Latin work written in the 1140s which describes two fundraising tours of northern France and southern England made by the canons of Laon Cathedral in 1112 ...
'', which together provide the first certain evidence for a belief that Arthur was not actually dead and would at some point
return
Return may refer to:
In business, economics, and finance
* Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense.
* Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment
* Tax return, a blank document or t ...
, a theme that is often revisited in post-Galfridian folklore.
Geoffrey of Monmouth
![History of the Kings (f](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/History_of_the_Kings_%28f.75.v%29_King_Arthur.jpg)
Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'', completed , contains the first narrative account of Arthur's life. This work is an imaginative and fanciful account of British kings from the legendary Trojan exile
Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Serv ...
to the 7th-century Welsh king
Cadwallader. Geoffrey places Arthur in the same post-Roman period as do ''
Historia Brittonum
''The History of the Britons'' ( la, Historia Brittonum) is a purported history of the indigenous British ( Brittonic) people that was written around 828 and survives in numerous recensions that date from after the 11th century. The ''Historia B ...
'' and ''
Annales Cambriae
The (Latin for ''Annals of Wales'') is the title given to a complex of Latin chronicles compiled or derived from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales. The earliest is a 12th-century presumed copy of a mid-10th-century original; later ed ...
''. He incorporates Arthur's father
Uther Pendragon
Uther Pendragon (Brittonic) (; cy, Ythyr Ben Dragwn, Uthyr Pendragon, Uthyr Bendragon), also known as King Uther, was a legendary King of the Britons in sub-Roman Britain (c. 6th century). Uther was also the father of King Arthur.
A few ...
, his magician advisor
Merlin, and the story of Arthur's conception, in which Uther, disguised as his enemy
Gorlois
In Arthurian legend, Gorlois ( cy, Gwrlais) of Tintagel, Duke of Cornwall, is the first husband of Igraine, whose second husband is Uther Pendragon. Gorlois's name first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' (). A v ...
by Merlin's magic, sleeps with Gorlois's wife
Igerna (Igraine) at
Tintagel
Tintagel () or Trevena ( kw, Tre war Venydh, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle are associated with the legends surroundin ...
, and she conceives Arthur. On Uther's death, the fifteen-year-old Arthur succeeds him as King of Britain and fights a series of battles, similar to those in the ''Historia Brittonum'', culminating in the Battle of Bath. He then defeats the
Pict
The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ear ...
s and
Scots before creating an Arthurian empire through his conquests of Ireland, Iceland and the
Orkney Islands. After twelve years of peace, Arthur sets out to expand his empire once more, taking control of Norway, Denmark and
Gaul
Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
. Gaul is still held by the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
when it is conquered, and Arthur's victory leads to a further confrontation with Rome. Arthur and his warriors, including
Kaius (Kay),
Beduerus (Bedivere) and
Gualguanus (Gawain), defeat the Roman emperor
Lucius Tiberius
Lucius ( el, Λούκιος ''Loukios''; ett, Luvcie) is a male given name derived from ''Lucius'' (abbreviated ''L.''), one of the small group of common Latin forenames (''praenomina'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius derives from L ...
in Gaul but, as he prepares to march on Rome, Arthur hears that his nephew
Modredus (Mordred)—whom he had left in charge of Britain—has married his wife
Guenhuuara (Guinevere) and seized the throne. Arthur returns to Britain and defeats and kills Modredus on the river Camblam in Cornwall, but he is mortally wounded. He hands the crown to his kinsman
Constantine
Constantine most often refers to:
* Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I
*Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria
Constantine may also refer to:
People
* Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...
and is taken to the isle of
Avalon
Avalon (; la, Insula Avallonis; cy, Ynys Afallon, Ynys Afallach; kw, Enys Avalow; literally meaning "the isle of fruit r appletrees"; also written ''Avallon'' or ''Avilion'' among various other spellings) is a mythical island featured in the ...
to be healed of his wounds, never to be seen again.
How much of this narrative was Geoffrey's own invention is open to debate. He seems to have made use of the list of Arthur's twelve battles against the Saxons found in the 9th-century ''Historia Brittonum'', along with the battle of Camlann from the ''Annales Cambriae'' and the idea that Arthur was
still alive. Arthur's status as the king of all Britain seems to be borrowed from pre-Galfridian tradition, being found in ''Culhwch and Olwen'', the Welsh Triads, and the saints' lives. Finally, Geoffrey borrowed many of the names for Arthur's possessions,
close family, and companions from the pre-Galfridian Welsh tradition, including Kaius (Cei), Beduerus (Bedwyr), Guenhuuara (Gwenhwyfar), Uther (Uthyr) and perhaps also Caliburnus (Caledfwlch), the latter becoming
Excalibur
Excalibur () is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. It was associated with the Arthurian legend very early on. Excalibur and the Sword in th ...
in subsequent Arthurian tales. However, while names, key events, and titles may have been borrowed, Brynley Roberts has argued that "the Arthurian section is Geoffrey's literary creation and it owes nothing to prior narrative." Geoffrey makes the Welsh Medraut into the villainous Modredus, but there is no trace of such a negative character for this figure in Welsh sources until the 16th century. There have been relatively few modern attempts to challenge the notion that the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' is primarily Geoffrey's own work, with scholarly opinion often echoing
William of Newburgh
William of Newburgh or Newbury ( la, Guilelmus Neubrigensis, ''Wilhelmus Neubrigensis'', or ''Willelmus de Novoburgo''. 1136 – 1198), also known as William Parvus, was a 12th-century English historian and Augustinian canon of Anglo-Saxon de ...
's late-12th-century comment that Geoffrey "made up" his narrative, perhaps through an "inordinate love of lying".
Geoffrey Ashe
Geoffrey Thomas Leslie Ashe (29 March 1923 – 30 January 2022) was a British cultural historian and lecturer, known for his focus on King Arthur.
Early life
Born in London, Ashe was an only child who excelled all his classmates in academics ...
is one dissenter from this view, believing that Geoffrey's narrative is partially derived from a lost source telling of the deeds of a 5th-century British king named
Riotamus, this figure being the original Arthur, although historians and Celticists have been reluctant to follow Ashe in his conclusions.
Whatever his sources may have been, the immense popularity of Geoffrey's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' cannot be denied. Well over 200 manuscript copies of Geoffrey's Latin work are known to have survived, as well as translations into other languages. For example, 60 manuscripts are extant containing the ''
Brut y Brenhinedd
''Brut y Brenhinedd'' ("Chronicle of the Kings") is a collection of variant Middle Welsh versions of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. About 60 versions survive, with the earliest dating to the mid-13th century. Adaptat ...
'', Welsh-language versions of the ''Historia'', the earliest of which were created in the 13th century. The old notion that some of these Welsh versions actually underlie Geoffrey's ''Historia'', advanced by antiquarians such as the 18th-century Lewis Morris, has long since been discounted in academic circles. As a result of this popularity, Geoffrey's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' was enormously influential on the later medieval development of the Arthurian legend. While it was not the only creative force behind Arthurian romance, many of its elements were borrowed and developed (e.g., Merlin and the final fate of Arthur), and it provided the historical framework into which the romancers' tales of magical and wonderful adventures were inserted.
Romance traditions
![John william waterhouse tristan and isolde with the potion](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/John_william_waterhouse_tristan_and_isolde_with_the_potion.jpg)
The popularity of Geoffrey's ''Historia'' and its other derivative works (such as
Wace
Wace ( 1110 – after 1174), sometimes referred to as Robert Wace, was a Medieval Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy (he tells us in the ''Roman de Rou'' that he was taken as a child to Caen), ending his car ...
's ''
Roman de Brut
The ''Brut'' or ''Roman de Brut'' (completed 1155) by the poet Wace is a loose and expanded translation in almost 15,000 lines of Norman-French verse of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin '' History of the Kings of Britain''. It was formerly known ...
'') gave rise to a significant numbers of new Arthurian works in continental Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries, particularly in France. It was not, however, the only Arthurian influence on the developing "
Matter of Britain
The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...
". There is clear evidence that Arthur and Arthurian tales were familiar on the Continent before Geoffrey's work became widely known (see for example, the
Modena Archivolt
Modena Cathedral ( it, Cattedrale Metropolitana di Santa Maria Assunta e San Geminiano but colloquially known as simply ''Duomo di Modena'') is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Modena, Italy, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saint G ...
), and "Celtic" names and stories not found in Geoffrey's ''Historia'' appear in the Arthurian
romances. From the perspective of Arthur, perhaps the most significant effect of this great outpouring of new Arthurian story was on the role of the king himself: much of this 12th-century and later Arthurian literature centres less on Arthur himself than on characters such as
Lancelot and
Guinevere,
Percival
Percival (, also spelled Perceval, Parzival), alternatively called Peredur (), was one of King Arthur's legendary Knights of the Round Table. First mentioned by the French author Chrétien de Troyes in the tale ''Perceval, the Story of the Gr ...
,
Galahad
Sir Galahad (), sometimes referred to as Galeas () or Galath (), among other versions of his name, is a knight of King Arthur's Round Table and one of the three achievers of the Holy Grail in Arthurian legend. He is the illegitimate son of Si ...
,
Gawain
Gawain (), also known in many other forms and spellings, is a character in Arthurian legend, in which he is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table. The prototype of Gawain is mentioned under the name Gwalchmei in the earliest ...
,
Ywain
Sir Ywain , also known as Yvain and Owain among other spellings (''Ewaine'', ''Ivain'', ''Ivan'', ''Iwain'', ''Iwein'', ''Uwain'', ''Uwaine'', etc.), is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend, wherein he is often the son of King Urie ...
, and
Tristan
Tristan (Latin/ Brythonic: ''Drustanus''; cy, Trystan), also known as Tristram or Tristain and similar names, is the hero of the legend of Tristan and Iseult. In the legend, he is tasked with escorting the Irish princess Iseult to we ...
and
Iseult. Whereas Arthur is very much at the centre of the pre-Galfridian material and Geoffrey's ''Historia'' itself, in the romances he is rapidly sidelined. His character also alters significantly. In both the earliest materials and Geoffrey he is a great and ferocious warrior, who laughs as he personally slaughters witches and giants and takes a leading role in all military campaigns, whereas in the continental romances he becomes the ''roi fainéant'', the "do-nothing king", whose "inactivity and acquiescence constituted a central flaw in his otherwise ideal society". Arthur's role in these works is frequently that of a wise, dignified, even-tempered, somewhat bland, and occasionally feeble monarch. So, he simply turns pale and silent when he learns of Lancelot's affair with Guinevere in the ''Mort Artu'', whilst in ''
Yvain, the Knight of the Lion
, original_title_lang = fro
, translator =
, written = between 1178 and 1181
, country =
, language = Old French
, subject = Arthurian legend
, genre = Chivalric romance
, fo ...
'', he is unable to stay awake after a feast and has to retire for a nap. Nonetheless, as
Norris J. Lacy Norris J. Lacy (born March 8, 1940 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky) is an American scholar focusing on French medieval literature. He was the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor Emeritus of French and Medieval Studies at the Pennsylvania State University until ...
has observed, whatever his faults and frailties may be in these Arthurian romances, "his prestige is never—or almost never—compromised by his personal weaknesses ... his authority and glory remain intact."
![Arthur-Pyle How Arthur drew forth ye sword](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Arthur-Pyle_How_Arthur_drew_forth_ye_sword.JPG)
Arthur and his retinue appear in some of the ''
Lais'' of
Marie de France
Marie de France (fl. 1160 to 1215) was a poet, possibly born in what is now France, who lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an unknown court, but she and her work were almost certainly known at the royal court o ...
, but it was the work of another French poet,
Chrétien de Troyes, that had the greatest influence with regard to the development of Arthur's character and legend. Chrétien wrote five Arthurian romances between and 1190. ''
Erec and Enide
, original_title_lang = fro
, translator =
, written = c. 1170
, country =
, language = Old French
, subject = Arthurian legend
, genre = Chivalric romance
, form ...
'' and ''
Cligès
''Cligès'' (also ''Cligés'') is a poem by the medieval French poet Chrétien de Troyes, dating from around 1176. It is the second of his five Arthurian romances; '' Erec and Enide'', ''Cligès'', ''Yvain'', ''Lancelot'' and ''Perceval''. The po ...
'' are tales of courtly love with Arthur's court as their backdrop, demonstrating the shift away from the heroic world of the Welsh and Galfridian Arthur, while ''Yvain, the Knight of the Lion'', features
Yvain
Sir Ywain , also known as Yvain and Owain among other spellings (''Ewaine'', ''Ivain'', ''Ivan'', ''Iwain'', ''Iwein'', ''Uwain'', ''Uwaine'', etc.), is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend, wherein he is often the son of King Urien ...
and Gawain in a supernatural adventure, with Arthur very much on the sidelines and weakened. However, the most significant for the development of the Arthurian legend are ''
Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart
, original_title_lang = fro
, translator =
, written = between 1177 and 1181
, country =
, language = Old French
, subject = Arthurian legend
, genre = Chivalric romance
, fo ...
'', which introduces Lancelot and his adulterous relationship with Arthur's queen
Guinevere, extending and popularising the recurring theme of Arthur as a
cuckold, and ''
Perceval, the Story of the Grail
''Perceval, the Story of the Grail'' (french: Perceval ou le Conte du Graal) is the unfinished fifth verse romance by Chrétien de Troyes, written by him in Old French in the late 12th century. Later authors added 54,000 more lines in what are kn ...
'', which introduces the
Holy Grail
The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracu ...
and the
Fisher King
The Fisher King is a figure in Arthurian legend, the last in a long line of British kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. The Fisher King is both the protector and physical embodiment of his lands, but a wound renders him incapable and hi ...
and which again sees Arthur having a much reduced role. Chrétien was thus "instrumental both in the elaboration of the Arthurian legend and in the establishment of the ideal form for the diffusion of that legend", and much of what came after him in terms of the portrayal of Arthur and his world built upon the foundations he had laid. ''Perceval'', although unfinished, was particularly popular: four separate continuations of the poem appeared over the next half century, with the notion of the Grail and its quest being developed by other writers such as
Robert de Boron, a fact that helped accelerate the decline of Arthur in continental romance. Similarly, Lancelot and his cuckolding of Arthur with Guinevere became one of the classic motifs of the Arthurian legend, although the Lancelot of the prose ''Lancelot'' () and later texts was a combination of Chrétien's character and that of
Ulrich von Zatzikhoven
Ulrich von Zatzikhoven was the author of the Middle High German Arthurian romance ''Lanzelet''.
Ulrich's name and his place of origin (''Zezikon'' in Switzerland) are only known definitively from the work itself. However, it is generally accepted ...
's ''
Lanzelet
''Lanzelet'' is a medieval romance written by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven after 1194. It is the first treatment of the Lancelot tradition in German, and contains the earliest known account of the hero's childhood with the Lady of the Lake-like fig ...
''. Chrétien's work even appears to feed back into Welsh Arthurian literature, with the result that the romance Arthur began to replace the heroic, active Arthur in Welsh literary tradition. Particularly significant in this development were the three Welsh Arthurian romances, which are closely similar to those of Chrétien, albeit with some significant differences: ''
Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain'' is related to Chrétien's ''Yvain''; ''
Geraint and Enid
Geraint () is a character from Welsh folklore and Arthurian legend, a valiant warrior possibly related to the historical Geraint, an early 8th-century king of Dumnonia. It is also the name of a 6th-century Dumnonian saint king from Briton h ...
'', to ''Erec and Enide''; and ''
Peredur son of Efrawg
''Peredur son of Efrawg'' is one of the Three Welsh Romances associated with the ''Mabinogion''. It tells a story roughly analogous to Chrétien de Troyes' unfinished romance ''Perceval, the Story of the Grail'', but it contains many striking di ...
'', to ''Perceval''.
![Holy-grail-round-table-bnf-ms fr-116F-f610v-15th-detail](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Holy-grail-round-table-bnf-ms_fr-116F-f610v-15th-detail.jpg)
Up to , continental Arthurian romance was expressed primarily through poetry; after this date the tales began to be told in prose. The most significant of these 13th-century prose romances was the
Vulgate Cycle
The ''Lancelot-Grail'', also known as the Vulgate Cycle or the Pseudo-Map Cycle, is an early 13th-century French Arthurian literary cycle consisting of interconnected prose episodes of chivalric romance in Old French. The cycle of unknown author ...
(also known as the Lancelot-Grail Cycle), a series of five Middle French prose works written in the first half of that century.
These works were the ''Estoire del Saint Grail'', the ''Estoire de Merlin'', the ''Lancelot propre'' (or Prose ''Lancelot'', which made up half the entire Vulgate Cycle on its own), the ''Queste del Saint Graal'' and the ''Mort Artu'', which combine to form the first coherent version of the entire Arthurian legend. The cycle continued the trend towards reducing the role played by Arthur in his own legend, partly through the introduction of the character of Galahad and an expansion of the role of Merlin. It also made Mordred the result of an
incestuous relationship
Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close kinship, relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by Affinity (law), affinity (marriage ...
between Arthur and his sister
Morgause
The Queen of Orkney, today best known as Morgause and also known as Morgawse and other spellings and names, is a character in later Arthurian traditions. In some versions of the legend, including the seminal text ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', she is ...
and established the role of
Camelot
Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as th ...
, first mentioned in passing in Chrétien's ''Lancelot'', as Arthur's primary court. This series of texts was quickly followed by the
Post-Vulgate Cycle
The ''Post-Vulgate Cycle'', also known as the Post-Vulgate Arthuriad, the Post-Vulgate ''Roman du Graal'' (''Romance of the Grail'') or the Pseudo-Robert de Boron Cycle, is one of the major Old French prose cycles of Arthurian literature from th ...
(), of which the ''Suite du Merlin'' is a part, which greatly reduced the importance of Lancelot's affair with Guinevere but continued to sideline Arthur, and to focus more on the Grail quest.
As such, Arthur became even more of a relatively minor character in these French prose romances; in the Vulgate itself he only figures significantly in the ''Estoire de Merlin'' and the ''Mort Artu''. During this period, Arthur was made one of the
Nine Worthies
The Nine Worthies are nine historical, scriptural, and legendary men of distinction who personify the ideals of chivalry established in the Middle Ages, whose lives were deemed a valuable study for aspirants to chivalric status. All were commonly ...
, a group of three pagan, three Jewish and three Christian exemplars of chivalry. The Worthies were first listed in
Jacques de Longuyon
Jacques de Longuyon of Lorraine is the author of a chanson de geste, '' Les Voeux du paon'' ("The Vows of the Peacock"), written for Thibaut de Bar, bishop of Liège in 1312. It was one of the most popular romances of the 14th century, and intr ...
's ''Voeux du Paon'' in 1312, and subsequently became a common subject in literature and art.
![Boys King Arthur - N](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Boys_King_Arthur_-_N._C._Wyeth_-_p16.jpg)
The development of the medieval Arthurian cycle and the character of the "Arthur of romance" culminated in ''
Le Morte d'Arthur'',
Thomas Malory
Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of ''Le Morte d'Ar ...
's retelling of the entire legend in a single work in English in the late 15th century. Malory based his book—originally titled ''The Whole Book of King Arthur and of His Noble Knights of the Round Table''—on the various previous romance versions, in particular the Vulgate Cycle, and appears to have aimed at creating a comprehensive and authoritative collection of Arthurian stories. Perhaps as a result of this, and the fact that ''Le Morte D'Arthur'' was one of the earliest printed books in England, published by
William Caxton
William Caxton ( – ) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer to be the first English retailer of printed books.
His parentage a ...
in 1485, most later Arthurian works are derivative of Malory's.
Decline, revival, and the modern legend
Post-medieval literature
The end of the Middle Ages brought with it a waning of interest in King Arthur. Although Malory's English version of the great French romances was popular, there were increasing attacks upon the truthfulness of the historical framework of the Arthurian romances – established since Geoffrey of Monmouth's time – and thus the legitimacy of the whole
Matter of Britain
The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...
. So, for example, the 16th-century humanist scholar
Polydore Vergil
Polydore Vergil or Virgil (Italian: ''Polidoro Virgili''; commonly Latinised as ''Polydorus Vergilius''; – 18 April 1555), widely known as Polydore Vergil of Urbino, was an Italian humanist scholar, historian, priest and diplomat, who spent ...
famously rejected the claim that Arthur was the ruler of a post-Roman empire, found throughout the post-Galfridian medieval "chronicle tradition", to the horror of Welsh and English antiquarians. Social changes associated with the end of the medieval period and the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
also conspired to rob the character of Arthur and his associated legend of some of their power to enthrall audiences, with the result that 1634 saw the last printing of Malory's ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' for nearly 200 years. King Arthur and the Arthurian legend were not entirely abandoned, but until the early 19th century the material was taken less seriously and was often used simply as a vehicle for allegories of 17th- and 18th-century politics.
[; ] Thus
Richard Blackmore
Sir Richard Blackmore (22 January 1654 – 9 October 1729), English poet and physician, is remembered primarily as the object of satire and as an epic poet, but he was also a respected medical doctor and theologian.
Earlier years
He was born ...
's epics ''Prince Arthur'' (1695) and ''King Arthur'' (1697) feature Arthur as an allegory for the struggles of
William III against
James II.
[ Similarly, the most popular Arthurian tale throughout this period seems to have been that of ]Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. ''The History of Tom Thumb'' was published in 1621 and was the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tan ...
, which was told first through chapbooks and later through the political plays of Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English novelist, irony writer, and dramatist known for earthy humour and satire. His comic novel ''Tom Jones'' is still widely appreciated. He and Samuel Richardson are seen as founders ...
; although the action is clearly set in Arthurian Britain, the treatment is humorous and Arthur appears as a primarily comedic version of his romance character. John Dryden
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
's masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masq ...
'' King Arthur'' is still performed, largely thanks to Henry Purcell's music, though seldom unabridged.
Tennyson and the revival
In the early 19th century, medievalism
Medievalism is a system of belief and practice inspired by the Middle Ages of Europe, or by devotion to elements of that period, which have been expressed in areas such as architecture, literature, music, art, philosophy, scholarship, and variou ...
, Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, and the Gothic Revival reawakened interest in Arthur and the medieval romances. A new code of ethics for 19th-century gentlemen was shaped around the chivalric
Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is an informal and varying code of conduct developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It was associated with the medieval Christian institution of knighthood; knights' and gentlemen's behaviours were governed b ...
ideals embodied in the "Arthur of romance". This renewed interest first made itself felt in 1816, when Malory's ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' was reprinted for the first time since 1634. Initially, the medieval Arthurian legends were of particular interest to poets, inspiring, for example, William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
to write "The Egyptian Maid" (1835), an allegory of the Holy Grail
The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracu ...
. Pre-eminent among these was Alfred Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...
, whose first Arthurian poem "The Lady of Shalott
"The Lady of Shalott" is a lyrical ballad by the 19th-century English poet Alfred Tennyson and one of his best-known works. Inspired by the 13th-century Italian short prose text '' Donna di Scalotta'', the poem tells the tragic story of Elain ...
" was published in 1832. Arthur himself played a minor role in some of these works, following in the medieval romance tradition. Tennyson's Arthurian work reached its peak of popularity with '' Idylls of the King'', however, which reworked the entire narrative of Arthur's life for the Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
. It was first published in 1859 and sold 10,000 copies within the first week. In the ''Idylls'', Arthur became a symbol of ideal manhood who ultimately failed, through human weakness, to establish a perfect kingdom on earth. Tennyson's works prompted a large number of imitators, generated considerable public interest in the legends of Arthur and the character himself, and brought Malory's tales to a wider audience. Indeed, the first modernisation of Malory's great compilation of Arthur's tales was published in 1862, shortly after ''Idylls'' appeared, and there were six further editions and five competitors before the century ended.
This interest in the "Arthur of romance" and his associated stories continued through the 19th century and into the 20th, and influenced poets such as William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
and Pre-Raphaelite
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...
artists including Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...
. Even the humorous tale of Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. ''The History of Tom Thumb'' was published in 1621 and was the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tan ...
, which had been the primary manifestation of Arthur's legend in the 18th century, was rewritten after the publication of ''Idylls''. While Tom maintained his small stature and remained a figure of comic relief, his story now included more elements from the medieval Arthurian romances and Arthur is treated more seriously and historically in these new versions. The revived Arthurian romance also proved influential in the United States, with such books as Sidney Lanier's ''The Boy's King Arthur'' (1880) reaching wide audiences and providing inspiration for Mark Twain's satire ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' is an 1889 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The book was originally titled ''A Yankee in King Arthur's Court''. Some early editions are titled ''A Yankee at the Court of King Arth ...
'' (1889). Although the 'Arthur of romance' was sometimes central to these new Arthurian works (as he was in Burne-Jones's "The Sleep of Arthur in Avalon", 1881–1898), on other occasions he reverted to his medieval status and is either marginalised or even missing entirely, with Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's Arthurian opera—Parsifal
''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival ...
—providing a notable instance of the latter. Furthermore, the revival of interest in Arthur and the Arthurian tales did not continue unabated. By the end of the 19th century, it was confined mainly to Pre-Raphaelite imitators, and it could not avoid being affected by World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, which damaged the reputation of chivalry and thus interest in its medieval manifestations and Arthur as chivalric role model. The romance tradition did, however, remain sufficiently powerful to persuade Thomas Hardy, Laurence Binyon and John Masefield
John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels ''The Midnight Folk'' and ...
to compose Arthurian plays, and T. S. Eliot alludes to the Arthur myth (but not Arthur) in his poem ''The Waste Land
''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...
'', which mentions the Fisher King
The Fisher King is a figure in Arthurian legend, the last in a long line of British kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. The Fisher King is both the protector and physical embodiment of his lands, but a wound renders him incapable and hi ...
.
File:Idylls of the King 10.jpg, alt=, Merlin and Viviane in Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French artist, as a printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravin ...
's 1868 illustration for Alfred, Lord Tennyson's '' Idylls of the King''
File:Charles Ernest Butler - King Arthur.jpg, ''King Arthur'' by Charles Ernest Butler (1903)
File:Boys King Arthur - N. C. Wyeth - title page.jpg, N. C. Wyeth
Newell Convers Wyeth (October 22, 1882 – October 19, 1945), known as N. C. Wyeth, was an American painter and illustrator. He was the pupil of Howard Pyle and became one of America's most well-known illustrators. Wyeth created more than 3,000 ...
's title page illustration for ''The Boy's King Arthur'' (1922)
Modern legend
In the latter half of the 20th century, the influence of the romance tradition of Arthur continued, through novels such as T. H. White's ''The Once and Future King
''The Once and Future King'' is a collection of fantasy novels by T. H. White about the legend of King Arthur. It is loosely based upon the 1485 work ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' by Sir Thomas Malory. It was first published in 1958 as a collection ...
'' (1958), Mary Stewart's ''The Crystal Cave
''The Crystal Cave'' is a 1970 fantasy novel by Mary Stewart. The first in a quintet of novels covering the Arthurian legend, it is followed by '' The Hollow Hills''.
Plot introduction
The protagonist of this story is a boy named Myrddin Emrys ...
'' (1970) and its four sequels, Thomas Berger's tragicomic '' Arthur Rex'' and Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley (June 3, 1930 – September 25, 1999) was an American author of fantasy, historical fantasy, science fiction, and science fantasy novels, and is best known for the Arthurian fiction novel ''The Mists of Avalon'' an ...
's ''The Mists of Avalon
''The Mists of Avalon'' is a 1983 historical fantasy novel by American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley, in which the author relates the Arthurian legends from the perspective of the female characters. The book follows the trajectory of Morgaine (M ...
'' (1982) in addition to comic strips such as ''Prince Valiant
''Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur'', often simply called ''Prince Valiant'', is an American comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretc ...
'' (from 1937 onward). Tennyson had reworked the romance tales of Arthur to suit and comment upon the issues of his day, and the same is often the case with modern treatments too. Stewart's first three Arthurian novels present the wizard Merlin as the central character, rather than Arthur, and ''The Crystal Cave'' is narrated by Merlin in the first person, whereas Bradley's tale takes a feminist approach to Arthur and his legend, in contrast to the narratives of Arthur found in medieval materials. American authors often rework the story of Arthur to be more consistent with values such as equality and democracy. In John Cowper Powys
John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...
's '' Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages'' (1951), set in Wales in 499, just prior to the Saxon invasion, Arthur, the Emperor of Britain, is only a minor character, whereas Myrddin (Merlin) and Nineue, Tennyson's Vivien, are major figures. Myrddin's disappearance at the end of the novel is "in the tradition of magical hibernation when the king or mage leaves his people for some island or cave to return either at a more propitious or more dangerous time" (see King Arthur's messianic return
King Arthur's messianic return is a mythological motif in the legend of King Arthur, which claims that he will one day return in the role of a messiah to save his people. It is an example of the king asleep in mountain motif. King Arthur was a ...
). Powys's earlier novel, ''A Glastonbury Romance
''A Glastonbury Romance'' was written by John Cowper Powys (1873–1963) in rural upstate New York and first published by Simon and Schuster in New York City in March 1932. An English edition published by John Lane followed in 1933. It has ...
'' (1932) is concerned with both the Holy Grail and the legend that Arthur is buried at Glastonbury
Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbur ...
.
The romance Arthur has become popular in film and theatre as well. T. H. White's novel was adapted into the Lerner and Loewe
Lerner and Loewe refers to the partnership between lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe.Kenny, Ellen, and James M. Salem. “A Guide to Critical Reviews, Part II: The Musical from Rodgers-and-Hart to Lerner-and-Loe ...
stage musical ''Camelot
Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as th ...
'' (1960) and Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
's animated film '' The Sword in the Stone'' (1963); ''Camelot'', with its focus on the love of Lancelot and Guinevere and the cuckolding
A cuckold is the husband of an adulterous wife; the wife of an adulterous husband is a cuckquean. In biology, a cuckold is a male who unwittingly invests parental effort in juveniles who are not genetically his offspring. A husband who is a ...
of Arthur, was itself made into a film of the same name in 1967. The romance tradition of Arthur is particularly evident and in critically respected films like Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson (; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was a French film director.
Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson contributed notably to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have l ...
's '' Lancelot du Lac'' (1974), Éric Rohmer
Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer (; 21 March 192011 January 2010), was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher.
Rohmer was the last of the post-World ...
's ''Perceval le Gallois
''Perceval le Gallois'' () is a 1978 historical drama film written and directed by Éric Rohmer, based on the 12th-century Arthurian romance ''Perceval, the Story of the Grail'' by Chrétien de Troyes.
Synopsis
The film chronicles Percival's kni ...
'' (1978) and John Boorman's ''Excalibur
Excalibur () is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. It was associated with the Arthurian legend very early on. Excalibur and the Sword in th ...
'' (1981); it is also the main source of the material used in the Arthurian spoof '' Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (1975).
Retellings and reimaginings of the romance tradition are not the only important aspect of the modern legend of King Arthur. Attempts to portray Arthur as a genuine historical figure of , stripping away the "romance", have also emerged. As Taylor and Brewer have noted, this return to the medieval "chronicle tradition" of Geoffrey of Monmouth and the ''Historia Brittonum'' is a recent trend which became dominant in Arthurian literature in the years following the outbreak of the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, when Arthur's legendary resistance to Germanic enemies struck a chord in Britain. Clemence Dane
Clemence Dane CBE is the pseudonym of Winifred Ashton (21 February 1888 – 28 March 1965), an English novelist and playwright.
Life and career
After completing her education, Dane went to Switzerland to work as a French tutor, but returned h ...
's series of radio plays, ''The Saviours'' (1942), used a historical Arthur to embody the spirit of heroic resistance against desperate odds, and Robert Sherriff's play ''The Long Sunset'' (1955) saw Arthur rallying Romano-British resistance against the Germanic invaders. This trend towards placing Arthur in a historical setting is also apparent in historical and fantasy novels published during this period.
Arthur has also been used as a model for modern-day behaviour. In the 1930s, the Order of the Fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table was formed in Britain to promote Christian ideals and Arthurian notions of medieval chivalry. In the United States, hundreds of thousands of boys and girls joined Arthurian youth groups, such as the Knights of King Arthur, in which Arthur and his legends were promoted as wholesome exemplars.[; ] However, Arthur's diffusion within modern culture goes beyond such obviously Arthurian endeavours, with Arthurian names being regularly attached to objects, buildings, and places. As Norris J. Lacy has observed, "The popular notion of Arthur appears to be limited, not surprisingly, to a few motifs and names, but there can be no doubt of the extent to which a legend born many centuries ago is profoundly embedded in modern culture at every level."
See also
* Arthur's O'on
Arthur's O'on ( sco, Oven) was a stone building thought to be Roman temple that, until 1743, stood on rising ground above the north bank of the River Carron not far from the old Carron ironworks in Stenhousemuir, near Falkirk, Scotland. The s ...
* Artus Court
The Artus Court, formerly also Junkerhof ( pl, Dwór Artusa; german: Artushof), is a building in the centre of Gdańsk, Poland at Długi Targ 44, which used to be the meeting place of merchants and a centre of social life. Today it is a point of ...
* King Arthur's family
* King Arthur's messianic return
King Arthur's messianic return is a mythological motif in the legend of King Arthur, which claims that he will one day return in the role of a messiah to save his people. It is an example of the king asleep in mountain motif. King Arthur was a ...
* List of Arthurian characters
The Arthurian legend features many characters, including the Knights of the Round Table and members of King Arthur's family
King Arthur's family grew throughout the centuries with King Arthur's legend. Many of the legendary members of this m ...
* List of books about King Arthur
This is a bibliography of works about King Arthur, his family, his friends or his enemies. This bibliography includes works that are notable or are by notable authors.
6th century
*''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'' by Gildas, mentions the B ...
* List of films based on Arthurian legend
* List of legendary kings of Britain
The following list of legendary kings of Britain derives predominantly from Geoffrey of Monmouth's circa 1136 work ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' ("the History of the Kings of Britain"). Geoffrey constructed a largely fictional history for the B ...
* Nine Worthies
The Nine Worthies are nine historical, scriptural, and legendary men of distinction who personify the ideals of chivalry established in the Middle Ages, whose lives were deemed a valuable study for aspirants to chivalric status. All were commonly ...
, of which Arthur was one
Notes
References
Citations
General and cited sources
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EBSCO Industries is an American company founded in 1944 by Elton Bryson Stephens Sr. and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The ''EBSCO'' acronym is based on ''Elton Bryson Stephens Company''. EBSCO Industries is a diverse company of over 4 ...
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Further reading
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External links
International Arthurian Society
* . An excellent site detailing Welsh Arthurian folklore.
* . A detailed and comprehensive academic site, which includes numerous scholarly articles.
Arthuriana: The Journal of Arthurian Studies, published by Scriptorium Press for Purdue University, US
The only academic journal solely concerned with the Arthurian Legend; a good selection of resources and links.
* . Provides texts and translations (of varying quality) of Welsh medieval sources, many of which mention Arthur.
* .
The Camelot Project, The University of Rochester
Provides valuable bibliographies and freely downloadable versions of Arthurian texts.
The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe
An online peer-reviewed journal that includes regular Arthurian articles; see especially the first issue.
''Of Arthour and of Merlin''
translated and retold in modern English prose, the story from Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.2.1 (the Auchinleck MS) (from the Middle English of the Early English Text Society edition: O D McCrae-Gibson, 1973, ''Of Arthour and of Merlin'', 2 vols, EETS and Oxford University Press).
Alliterative ''Morte Arthure''
translated and retold in modern English alliterative prose, from Lincoln Cathedral MS 91, the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arthur, King
Arthurian legend
Welsh folklore
Welsh mythology
Welsh legendary characters
British male characters in television
Burials at Glastonbury Abbey
English folklore
English mythology
King Arthur's family
Legendary British kings
Male characters in animation
Male characters in film
Male characters in literature
Mythological swordfighters
People whose existence is disputed