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King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians.^[2] The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthur's name also occurs in early poetic sources such as Y Gododdin.^[3]

King Arthur History Pdf Online

King Arthur, legendary British king who appears in a cycle of medieval romances as the sovereign of a knightly fellowship of the Round Table. It is not certain how these legends originated or whether the figure of Arthur was based on a historical person. Lecture 1: The Origins of King Arthur The Origins of King Arthur Lecture 1 W hen you hear the name “King Arthur,” several images probably come to mind: Round Tables, stone castles, knights in shining armor, beautiful ladies, and mysterious wizards. Even if you’ve never read a story from the Arthurian tradition, the tales have been so.

Arthur is a central figure in the legends making up the Matter of Britain. The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful and imaginative 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain).^[4] In some Welsh and Breton tales and poems that date from before this work, Arthur appears 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.^[5] How much of Geoffrey's Historia (completed in 1138) was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown.

May 12, 2017  When the movie King Arthur: Legend of the Sword hits theaters Friday, it will add the latest twist to a legend that’s been evolving for nearly a millennium. This version of the legend (starring. In 1485, Sir Thomas Malory published his most famous work, Le Morte D’Arthur. The story was about King Arthur, the legendary king of Britain, and his sword, Excalibur. Excalibur had been previously featured in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 1136 book History of the Kings of Britain, but at that time. KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS 2 liked to lie under the trees and gaze up at the blue of the sky. All about him old oaks stood like giant guardians watching sturdily over the soil where they had grown for centuries. Arthur could look between the trunks and see rabbits and squirrels whisking about. Sometimes a herd of brown deer with shy. Aug 4, 2016 Possible 6th-Century Palace Found at Site Linked to King Arthur. Archaeologists in England have unearthed the walls of a possible 6th-century royal palace atop a seaside promontory. When the movie King Arthur: Legend of the Sword hits theaters Friday, it will add the latest twist to a legend that’s been evolving for nearly a millennium. This version of the legend (starring.

Although the themes, events and characters of the Arthurian legend varied widely from text to text, and there is no one canonical version, Geoffrey's version of events often served as the starting point for later stories. 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, the magician Merlin, Arthur's wife Guinevere, the sword Excalibur, Arthur's conception at Tintagel, his final battle against Mordred at Camlann, and final rest in Avalon. The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot and the Holy Grail to the story, began the genre of Arthurian romance that became a significant strand of medieval literature. In these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table.

King Arthur History Pdf Book

Arthurian literature thrived during the Middle Ages but waned in the centuries that followed until it experienced a major resurgence in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the legend lives on, not only in literature but also in adaptations for theatre, film, television, comics and other media.

• 3Medieval literary traditions
• 4Decline, revival, and the modern legend
• 6References

Debated historicity

The historical basis for King Arthur has long been debated by scholars. One school of thought, citing entries in the Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) and Annales Cambriae (Welsh Annals), sees Arthur as a genuine historical figure, a Romano-British leader who fought against the invading Anglo-Saxons 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, where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men. Recent studies, however, question the reliability of the Historia Brittonum.^[6]

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.^[7]

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, 'at this stage of the enquiry, one can only say that there may well have been an historical Arthur [but ..] the historian can as yet say nothing of value about him'.^[8] 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.^[9]

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 to observe that 'no figure on the borderline of history and mythology has wasted more of the historian's time'.^[10]Gildas' 6th-century polemic De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain), written within living memory of Badon, mentions the battle but does not mention Arthur.^[11] Arthur is not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle or named in any surviving manuscript written between 400 and 820.^[12] He is absent from Bede's early-8th-century Ecclesiastical History of the English People, another major early source for post-Roman history that mentions Badon.^[13] The historian David Dumville wrote: 'I think we can dispose of him [Arthur] quite 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.'^[14]

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 KentishHengist and Horsa, 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.^[15] 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 bellorum' (leader of battles) and 'miles' (soldier).^[16]

Historical documents for the post-Roman period are scarce, so 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,^[17] 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 in Cornwall in securely dated 6th-century contexts, created a brief stir but proved irrelevant.^[18] Other inscriptional evidence for Arthur, including the Glastonbury cross, is tainted with the suggestion of forgery.^[19]

Several historical figures have been proposed as the basis for Arthur, ranging from Lucius Artorius Castus, a Roman officer who served in Britain in the 2nd or 3rd century,^[20] to sub-Roman British rulers such as Riotamus,^[21]Ambrosius Aurelianus,^[22]Owain Ddantgwyn,^[23] and Athrwys ap Meurig.^[24] However, no convincing evidence for these identifications has emerged.

Name

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.^[25] Artorius itself is of obscure and contested etymology,^[26] but possibly of Messapian^[27][28][29] or Etruscan origin.^[30][31][32] 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.^[33] 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.^[34]

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 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 [g]wr 'man'.^[35][36]

An alternative theory, which has gained only limited acceptance among professional scholars, derives the name Arthur from Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Boötes, near Ursa Major or the Great Bear.^[37] 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.^[38]

Medieval literary traditions

The familiar literary persona of Arthur began with Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-historical Historia Regum Britanniae (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 that does attempt this by Caitlin Green identifies three key strands to the portrayal of Arthur in this earliest material.^[39] 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.^[40] The second is that the pre-Galfridian Arthur was a figure of folklore (particularly topographic or onomastic folklore) and localised magical wonder-tales, the leader of a band of superhuman heroes who live in the wilds of the landscape.^[41] The third and final strand is that the early Welsh Arthur had a close connection with the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn. 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.^[42]

One of the most famous Welsh poetic references to Arthur comes in the collection of heroic death-songs known as Y Gododdin (The Gododdin), attributed to 6th-century poet Aneirin. 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.^[43]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.^[44] Several poems attributed to Taliesin, 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.^[45] They include 'Kadeir Teyrnon' ('The Chair of the Prince'),^[46] which refers to 'Arthur the Blessed'; 'Preiddeu Annwn' ('The Spoils of Annwn'),^[47] which recounts an expedition of Arthur to the Otherworld; and 'Marwnat vthyr pen[dragon]' ('The Elegy of Uther Pen[dragon]'),^[48] which refers to Arthur's valour and is suggestive of a father-son relationship for Arthur and Uther that pre-dates Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Other early Welsh Arthurian texts include a poem found in the Black Book of Carmarthen, 'Pa gur yv y porthaur?' ('What man is the gatekeeper?').^[50] 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). The Welsh prose tale Culhwch and Olwen (c. 1100), 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 win the hand of Olwen, daughter of Ysbaddaden Chief-Giant, by completing a series of apparently impossible tasks, including the hunt for the great semi-divine boar Twrch Trwyth. The 9th-century Historia Brittonum also refers to this tale, with the boar there named Troy(n)t.^[51] Finally, Arthur is mentioned numerous times in the Welsh Triads, 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'.^[52] 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.^[53]

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') of post-Roman saints, none of which are now generally considered to be reliable historical sources (the earliest probably dates from the 11th century).^[54] According to the Life of Saint Gildas, written in the early 12th century by Caradoc of Llancarfan, Arthur is said to have killed Gildas' brother Hueil and to have rescued his wife Gwenhwyfar from Glastonbury.^[55] In the Life of Saint Cadoc, 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 for his men. Cadoc delivers them as demanded, but when Arthur takes possession of the animals, they turn into bundles of ferns.^[56] Similar incidents are described in the medieval biographies of Carannog, Padarn, 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).^[57][58] Also important are the references to Arthur in William of Malmesbury's De Gestis Regum Anglorum and Herman's De Miraculis Sanctae Mariae Laudensis, which together provide the first certain evidence for a belief that Arthur was not actually dead and would at some point return, a theme that is often revisited in post-Galfridian folklore.^[59]

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, completed c. 1138, contains the first narrative account of Arthur's life.^[60] This work is an imaginative and fanciful account of British kings from the legendary Trojan exile Brutus to the 7th-century Welsh king Cadwallader. Geoffrey places Arthur in the same post-Roman period as do Historia Brittonum and Annales Cambriae. He incorporates Arthur's father Uther Pendragon, his magician advisor Merlin, and the story of Arthur's conception, in which Uther, disguised as his enemy Gorlois by Merlin's magic, sleeps with Gorlois's wife Igerna (Igraine) at Tintagel, 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 Picts 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 is still held by the Roman Empire 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 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 and is taken to the isle of Avalon to be healed of his wounds, never to be seen again.^[61]

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.^[62] 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.^[63] 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 in subsequent Arthurian tales.^[64] 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.'^[65] 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.^[66] 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's late-12th-century comment that Geoffrey 'made up' his narrative, perhaps through an 'inordinate love of lying'.^[67]Geoffrey Ashe 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.^[68]

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.^[69] For example, 60 manuscripts are extant containing the Brut y Brenhinedd, 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.^[70] 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.^[71]

Romance traditions

The popularity of Geoffrey's Historia and its other derivative works (such as Wace's Roman de Brut) gave rise to a significant numbers of new Arthurian works in continental Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries, particularly in France.^[72] It was not, however, the only Arthurian influence on the developing 'Matter of Britain'. 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),^[73] and 'Celtic' names and stories not found in Geoffrey's Historia appear in the Arthurian romances.^[74] 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, Galahad, Gawain, Ywain, and Tristan 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.^[75] 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,^[76] 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'.^[77] 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, he is unable to stay awake after a feast and has to retire for a nap.^[78] Nonetheless, as Norris J. Lacy 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.'^[79]

Arthur and his retinue appear in some of the Lais of Marie de France,^[81] 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.^[82] Chrétien wrote five Arthurian romances between c. 1170 and 1190. Erec and Enide and Cligès 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 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, 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, which introduces the Holy Grail and the Fisher King and which again sees Arthur having a much reduced role.^[83] 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',^[84] 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.^[85] 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 (c. 1225) and later texts was a combination of Chrétien's character and that of Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Lanzelet.^[86] 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.^[87] 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, to Erec and Enide; and Peredur son of Efrawg, to Perceval.^[88]

Up to c. 1210, 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 (also known as the Lancelot-Grail Cycle), a series of five Middle French prose works written in the first half of that century.^[90] 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 between Arthur and his sister Morgause and established the role of Camelot, first mentioned in passing in Chrétien's Lancelot, as Arthur's primary court.^[91] This series of texts was quickly followed by the Post-Vulgate Cycle (c. 1230–40), 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.^[90] 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, a group of three pagan, three Jewish and three Christian exemplars of chivalry. The Worthies were first listed in Jacques de Longuyon's Voeux du Paon in 1312, and subsequently became a common subject in literature and art.^[92]

The development of the medieval Arthurian cycle and the character of the 'Arthur of romance' culminated in Le Morte d'Arthur, Thomas Malory'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.^[93] 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 in 1485, most later Arthurian works are derivative of Malory's.^[94]

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. So, for example, the 16th-century humanist scholar Polydore Vergil 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.^[95] Social changes associated with the end of the medieval period and the Renaissance 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.^[96] 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.^[97] Thus Richard Blackmore's epics Prince Arthur (1695) and King Arthur (1697) feature Arthur as an allegory for the struggles of William III against James II.^[97] Similarly, the most popular Arthurian tale throughout this period seems to have been that of Tom Thumb, which was told first through chapbooks and later through the political plays of Henry Fielding; 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.^[98]John Dryden's masqueKing Arthur is still performed, largely thanks to Henry Purcell's music, though seldom unabridged.

Tennyson and the revival

History Of King Arthur Books

In the early 19th century, medievalism, Romanticism, 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 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.^[99] Initially, the medieval Arthurian legends were of particular interest to poets, inspiring, for example, William Wordsworth to write 'The Egyptian Maid' (1835), an allegory of the Holy Grail.^[100] Pre-eminent among these was Alfred Tennyson, whose first Arthurian poem 'The Lady of Shalott' was published in 1832.^[101] 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. It was first published in 1859 and sold 10,000 copies within the first week.^[102] In the Idylls, Arthur became a symbol of ideal manhood who ultimately failed, through human weakness, to establish a perfect kingdom on earth.^[103] 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.^[104] 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.^[105]

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 and Pre-Raphaelite artists including Edward Burne-Jones.^[106] Even the humorous tale of Tom Thumb, 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.^[107] 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 (1889).^[108] 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's Arthurian operas providing a notable instance of the latter.^[109] 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,^[110] and it could not avoid being affected by World War I, which damaged the reputation of chivalry and thus interest in its medieval manifestations and Arthur as chivalric role model.^[111] The romance tradition did, however, remain sufficiently powerful to persuade Thomas Hardy, Laurence Binyon and John Masefield to compose Arthurian plays,^[112] and T. S. Eliot alludes to the Arthur myth (but not Arthur) in his poem The Waste Land, which mentions the Fisher King.^[113]

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 (1958) and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon (1982) in addition to comic strips such as Prince Valiant (from 1937 onward).^[114] 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. Bradley's tale, for example, takes a feminist approach to Arthur and his legend, in contrast to the narratives of Arthur found in medieval materials,^[115] and American authors often rework the story of Arthur to be more consistent with values such as equality and democracy.^[116] In John Cowper Powys'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.^[117] 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).^[118] Powys's earlier novel, A Glastonbury Romance (1932) is concerned with both the Holy Grail and the legend that Arthur is buried at Glastonbury.^[119]

The romance Arthur has become popular in film and theatre as well. T. H. White's novel was adapted into the Lerner and Loewe stage musical Camelot (1960) and Walt Disney's animated film The Sword in the Stone (1963); Camelot, with its focus on the love of Lancelot and Guinevere and the cuckolding 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's Lancelot du Lac (1974), Éric Rohmer's Perceval le Gallois (1978) and John Boorman's Excalibur (1981); it is also the main source of the material used in the Arthurian spoof Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).^[120]

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 c. 500, 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, when Arthur's legendary resistance to Germanic enemies struck a chord in Britain.^[121]Clemence Dane'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.^[122] This trend towards placing Arthur in a historical setting is also apparent in historical and fantasy novels published during this period.^[123] In recent years the portrayal of Arthur as a real hero of the 5th century has also made its way into film versions of the Arthurian legend, most notably the TV series' Arthur of the Britons (1972–73) and The Legend of King Arthur (1979), and the feature films King Arthur (2004) and The Last Legion (2007).

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.^[124] 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.^[125] 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.'^[126]

See also

• Nine Worthies, of which Arthur was one

References

1. ^Neubecker 1998–2002
2. ^Higham 2002, pp. 11–37, has a summary of the debate on this point.
3. ^Charles-Edwards 1991, p. 15; Sims-Williams 1991. Y Gododdin cannot be dated precisely: it describes 6th-century events and contains 9th- or 10th-century spelling, but the surviving copy is 13th-century.
4. ^Thorpe 1966, but see also Loomis 1956
5. ^See Padel 1994; Sims-Williams 1991; Green 2007b; and Roberts 1991a
6. ^Dumville 1986; Higham 2002, pp. 116–169; Green 2007b, pp. 15–26, 30–38.
7. ^Green 2007b, pp. 26–30; Koch 1996, pp. 251–253.
8. ^Charles-Edwards 1991, p. 29
9. ^Morris 1973
10. ^Myres 1986, p. 16
11. ^Gildas, De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, chapter 26.
12. ^Pryor 2004, pp. 22–27
13. ^Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Book 1.16.
14. ^Dumville 1977, pp. 187–188
15. ^Green 1998; Padel 1994; Green 2007b, chapters five and seven.
16. ^Historia Brittonum56, 73; Annales Cambriae516, 537.
17. ^For example, Ashley 2005.
18. ^Heroic Age 1999
19. ^Modern scholarship views the Glastonbury cross as the result of a probably late-12th-century fraud. See Rahtz 1993 and Carey 1999.
20. ^Littleton & Malcor 1994
21. ^Ashe 1985
22. ^Reno 1996
23. ^Phillips & Keatman 1992
24. ^Gilbert, Wilson & Blackett 1998
25. ^Koch 2006, p. 121
26. ^Malone 1925
27. ^Marcella Chelotti, Vincenza Morizio, Marina Silvestrini, Le epigrafi romane di Canosa, Volume 1, Edipuglia srl, 1990, pp. 261, 264.
28. ^Ciro Santoro, 'Per la nuova iscrizione messapica di Oria', La Zagaglia, A. VII, n. 27, 1965, pp. 271–293.
29. ^Ciro Santoro, 'La Nuova Epigrafe Messapica 'IM 4. 16, I-III' di Ostuni ed nomi' in Art-, Ricerche e Studi, Volume 12, 1979, pp. 45–60
30. ^Wilhelm Schulze, 'Zur Geschichte lateinischer Eigennamen' (Volume 5, Issue 2 of Abhandlungen der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften Göttingen Philologisch-Historische Klasse), 2nd edition, Weidmann, 1966, p. 72, pp. 333–338
31. ^Olli Salomies, Die römischen Vornamen. Studien zur römischen Namengebung. Helsinki 1987, p. 68
32. ^Herbig, Gust., 'Falisca', Glotta, Band II, Göttingen, 1910, p. 98
33. ^Zimmer 2009
34. ^Koch 1996, p. 253
35. ^See Higham 2002, p. 74.
36. ^See Higham 2002, p. 80.
37. ^Chambers 1964, p. 170; Bromwich 1978, p. 544; Johnson 2002, pp. 38–39; Walter 2005, p. 74; Zimmer 2006, p. 37; Zimmer 2009
38. ^Anderson 2004, pp. 28–29; Green 2007b, pp. 191–194.
39. ^Green 2007b, pp. 45–176
40. ^Green 2007b, pp. 93–130
41. ^Padel 1994 has a thorough discussion of this aspect of Arthur's character.
42. ^Green 2007b, pp. 135–176. On his possessions and wife, see also Ford 1983.
43. ^Williams 1937, p. 64, line 1242
44. ^Charles-Edwards 1991, p. 15; Koch 1996, pp. 242–245; Green 2007b, pp. 13–15, 50–52.
45. ^See, for example, Haycock & 1983–84 and Koch 1996, pp. 264–265.
46. ^Online translations of this poem are out-dated and inaccurate. See Haycock 2007, pp. 293–311 for a full translation, and Green 2007b, p. 197 for a discussion of its Arthurian aspects.
47. ^See, for example, Green 2007b, pp. 54–67 and Budgey 1992, who includes a translation.
48. ^Koch & Carey 1994, pp. 314–15
49. ^Lanier 1881
50. ^Sims-Williams 1991, pp. 38–46 has a full translation and analysis of this poem.
51. ^For a discussion of the tale, see Bromwich & Evans 1992; see also Padel 1994, pp. 2–4; Roberts 1991a; and Green 2007b, pp. 67–72 and chapter three.
52. ^Barber 1986, pp. 17–18, 49; Bromwich 1978
53. ^Roberts 1991a, pp. 78, 81
54. ^Roberts 1991a
55. ^Translated in Coe & Young 1995, pp. 22–27. On the Glastonbury tale and its Otherworldly antecedents, see Sims-Williams 1991, pp. 58–61.
56. ^Coe & Young 1995, pp. 26–37
57. ^Bourgès, André-Yves, 'Guillaume le Breton et l'hagiographie bretonne aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles', in: Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l'Ouest, 1995, 102–1, pp. 35–45.
58. ^See Ashe 1985 for an attempt to use this vita as a historical source.
59. ^Padel 1994, pp. 8–12; Green 2007b, pp. 72–75, 259, 261–262; Bullock-Davies 1982
60. ^Wright 1985; Thorpe 1966
61. ^Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum BritanniaeBook 8.19–24, Book 9, Book 10, Book 11.1–2
62. ^Roberts 1991b, p. 106; Padel 1994, pp. 11–12
63. ^Green 2007b, pp. 217–219
64. ^Roberts 1991b, pp. 109–110, 112; Bromwich & Evans 1992, pp. 64–65
65. ^Roberts 1991b, p. 108
66. ^Bromwich 1978, pp. 454–455
67. ^See, for example, Brooke 1986, p. 95.
68. ^Ashe 1985, p. 6; Padel 1995, p. 110; Higham 2002, p. 76.
69. ^Crick 1989
70. ^Sweet 2004, p. 140. See further, Roberts 1991b and Roberts 1980.
71. ^As noted by, for example, Ashe 1996.
72. ^For example, Thorpe 1966, p. 29
73. ^Stokstad 1996
74. ^Loomis 1956; Bromwich 1983; Bromwich 1991.
75. ^Lacy 1996a, p. 16; Morris 1982, p. 2.
76. ^For example, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum BritanniaeBook 10.3.
77. ^Padel 2000, p. 81
78. ^Morris 1982, pp. 99–102; Lacy 1996a, p. 17.
79. ^Lacy 1996a, p. 17
80. ^Pyle 1903
81. ^Burgess & Busby 1999
82. ^Lacy 1996b
83. ^Kibler & Carroll 1991, p. 1
84. ^Lacy 1996b, p. 88
85. ^Roach & 1949–83
86. ^Ulrich von Zatzikhoven 2005
87. ^Padel 2000, pp. 77–82
88. ^See Jones & Jones 1949 for accurate translations of all three texts. It is not entirely certain what, exactly, the relationship is between these Welsh romances and Chrétien's works, however: see Koch 1996, pp. 280–288 for a survey of opinions
89. ^BNF c. 1475, fol. 610v
90. ^ ^abLacy & 1992–96
91. ^For a study of this cycle, see Burns 1985.
92. ^Lacy 1996c, p. 344
93. ^On Malory and his work, see Field 1993 and Field 1998.
94. ^Vinaver 1990
95. ^Carley 1984
96. ^Parins 1995, p. 5
97. ^ ^abAshe 1968, pp. 20–21; Merriman 1973
98. ^Green 2007a
99. ^Parins 1995, pp. 8–10
100. ^Wordsworth 1835
101. ^See Potwin 1902 for the sources that Tennyson used when writing this poem
102. ^Taylor & Brewer 1983, p. 127
103. ^See Rosenberg 1973 and Taylor & Brewer 1983, pp. 89–128 for analyses of The Idylls of the King.
104. ^See, for example, Simpson 1990.
105. ^Staines 1996, p. 449
106. ^Taylor & Brewer 1983, pp. 127–161; Mancoff 1990.
107. ^Green 2007a, p. 127; Gamerschlag 1983
108. ^Twain 1889; Smith & Thompson 1996.
109. ^Watson 2002
110. ^Mancoff 1990
111. ^Workman 1994
112. ^Hardy 1923; Binyon 1923; and Masefield 1927
113. ^Eliot 1949; Barber 2004, pp. 327–328
114. ^White 1958; Bradley 1982; Tondro 2002, p. 170
115. ^Lagorio 1996
116. ^Lupack & Lupack 1991
117. ^Porius. New York: Overlook Duckworth 2007. pp. 8–19.
118. ^C. A. Coates, John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape. Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble, 1982, p. 139.
119. ^New York: Simon and Schuster. C. A. Coates, John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape. pp. 92–97.
120. ^Harty 1996; Harty 1997
121. ^Taylor & Brewer 1983, chapter nine; see also Higham 2002, pp. 21–22, 30.
122. ^Thompson 1996, p. 141
123. ^For example: Rosemary Sutcliff's The Lantern Bearers (1959) and Sword at Sunset (1963); Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave (1970) and its sequels; Parke Godwin's Firelord (1980) and its sequels; Stephen Lawhead'sThe Pendragon Cycle (1987–99); Nikolai Tolstoy's The Coming of the King (1988); Jack Whyte's The Camulod Chronicles (1992–97); and Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Chronicles (1995–97). See List of books about King Arthur.
124. ^Thomas 1993, pp. 128–131
125. ^Lupack 2002, p. 2; Forbush & Forbush 1915
126. ^Lacy 1996d, p. 364

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• Padel, O. J. (Fall 1995), 'Recent Work on the Origins of the Arthurian Legend: A Comment', Arthuriana, 5 (3): 103–14.
• Padel, O. J. (2000), Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, ISBN978-0-7083-1682-5.
• Parins, Marylyn Jackson (1995), Sir Thomas Malory: The Critical Heritage, London: Routledge, ISBN978-0-415-13400-2.
• Phillips, Graham; Keatman, Martin (1992), King Arthur: The True Story, London: Century, ISBN978-0-7126-5580-4.
• Potwin, L. S. (1902), 'The Source of Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shalott'', Modern Language Notes, Modern Language Notes, Vol. 17, No. 8, 17 (8): 237–239, doi:10.2307/2917812, JSTOR2917812.
• Pryor, Francis (2004), Britain AD: A Quest for England, Arthur, and the Anglo-Saxons, London: HarperCollins, ISBN978-0-00-718186-5.
• Pyle, Howard (1903), The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, Illustrated by Howard Pyle, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
• Rahtz, Philip (1993), English Heritage Book of Glastonbury, London: Batsford, ISBN978-0-7134-6865-6.
• Reno, Frank D. (1996), The Historic King Arthur: Authenticating the Celtic Hero of Post-Roman Britain, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, ISBN978-0-7864-0266-3.
• Roach, William, ed. (1949–83), The Continuations of the Old French 'Perceval' of Chrétien de Troyes, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, OCLC67476613. 5 vols.
• Roberts, Brynley F. (1980), Brut Tysilio: darlith agoriadol gan Athro y Gymraeg a'i Llenyddiaeth (in Welsh), Abertawe: Coleg Prifysgol Abertawe, ISBN978-0-86076-020-7.
• Roberts, Brynley F. (1991a), 'Culhwch ac Olwen, The Triads, Saints' Lives', in Bromwich, Rachel; Jarman, A. O. H.; Roberts, Brynley F. (eds.), The Arthur of the Welsh, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, pp. 73–95, ISBN978-0-7083-1107-3.
• Roberts, Brynley F. (1991b), 'Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae and Brut Y Brenhinedd', in Bromwich, Rachel; Jarman, A. O. H.; Roberts, Brynley F. (eds.), The Arthur of the Welsh, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, pp. 98–116, ISBN978-0-7083-1107-3.
• Rosenberg, John D. (1973), The Fall of Camelot: A Study of Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King', Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, ISBN978-0-674-29175-1.
• Simpson, Roger (1990), Camelot Regained: The Arthurian Revival and Tennyson, 1800–1849, Cambridge: Brewer, ISBN978-0-85991-300-3.
• Sims-Williams, Patrick (1991), 'The Early Welsh Arthurian Poems', in Bromwich, Rachel; Jarman, A. O. H.; Roberts, Brynley F. (eds.), The Arthur of the Welsh, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, pp. 33–71, ISBN978-0-7083-1107-3.
• Smith, C.; Thompson, R. H. (1996), 'Twain, Mark', in Lacy, Norris J. (ed.), The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, New York: Garland, p. 478, ISBN978-1-56865-432-4.
• Staines, D. (1996), 'Tennyson, Alfred Lord', in Lacy, Norris J. (ed.), The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, New York: Garland, pp. 446–449, ISBN978-1-56865-432-4.
• Stokstad, M. (1996), 'Modena Archivolt', in Lacy, Norris J. (ed.), The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, New York: Garland, pp. 324–326, ISBN978-1-56865-432-4.
• Sweet, Rosemary (2004), 'Antiquaries: The Discovery of the Past in Eighteenth-century Britain', Continuum, London, ISBN1-85285-309-3.
• Taylor, Beverly; Brewer, Elisabeth (1983), The Return of King Arthur: British and American Arthurian Literature Since 1800, Cambridge: Brewer, ISBN978-0-389-20278-3.
• Tennyson, Alfred (1868), Enid, Illustrated by Gustave Doré, London: Edward Moxon & Co..
• Thomas, Charles (1993), Book of Tintagel: Arthur and Archaeology, London: Batsford, ISBN978-0-7134-6689-8.
• Thompson, R. H. (1996), 'English, Arthurian Literature in (Modern)', in Lacy, Norris J. (ed.), The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, New York: Garland, pp. 136–144, ISBN978-1-56865-432-4.
• Thorpe, Lewis, ed. (1966), Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, Harmondsworth: Penguin, OCLC3370598.
• Tondro, Jason (2002), 'Camelot in Comics', in Sklar, Elizabeth Sherr; Hoffman, Donald L. (eds.), King Arthur in Popular Culture, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 169–181, ISBN978-0-7864-1257-0.
• Twain, Mark (1889), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, New York: Webster, OCLC11267671.
• Ulrich von Zatzikhoven (2005) [c. 1194], Lanzelet, Translated by Thomas Kerth, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN978-0-231-12869-8.
• Vinaver, Sir Eugène, ed. (1990), The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN978-0-19-812346-0. 3rd ed., revised.
• Watson, Derek (2002), 'Wagner: Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal', in Barber, Richard (ed.), King Arthur in Music, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, pp. 23–34, ISBN978-0-85991-767-4.
• Walter, Philippe (2005) [2002], Artù. L'orso e il re [Original French title: Arthur: l'ours et le roi; English: Arthur: The Bear and the King] (in Italian), Translated by M. Faccia, Edizioni Arkeios (Original French publisher: Imago).
• White, Terence Hanbury (1958), The Once and Future King, London: Collins, OCLC547840.
• Williams, Sir Ifor, ed. (1937), Canu Aneirin (in Welsh), Caerdydd [Cardiff]: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru [University of Wales Press], OCLC13163081.
• Wordsworth, William (1835), 'The Egyptian Maid, or, The Romance of the Water-Lily', The Camelot Project, The University of Rochester, retrieved 22 May 2008.
• Workman, L. J. (1994), 'Medievalism and Romanticism', Poetica (39–40): 1–44.
• Wright, Neil, ed. (1985), The Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth, 1: Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS. 568, Cambridge: Brewer, ISBN978-0-85991-211-2.
• Zimmer, Stefan (2006), Die keltischen Wurzeln der Artussage: mit einer vollständigen Übersetzung der ältesten Artuserzählung Culhwch und Olwen.
• Zimmer, Stefan (2009), 'The Name of Arthur – A New Etymology', Journal of Celtic Linguistics, University of Wales Press, 13 (1): 131–136.

Further reading

• Breeze, Andrew (September 2015). 'The Historical Arthur and Sixth-Century Scotland'. Northern History. LII (2): 158–181.
• Breeze, Andrew (September 2016). 'Arthur's Battles and the Volcanic Winter of 536-7'. Northern History. LIII (2): 161–172.
• Halsall, Guy (2013). Worlds of Arthur: Facts & Fictions of the Dark Ages. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-870084-5.
• Higham, Nicholas J. (2018). King Arthur : the making of the legend. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN978-0-300-21092-7.

External links

• 'Arthurian Gwent'. Blaenau Gwent Borough County Council. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008.. An excellent site detailing Welsh Arthurian folklore.
• Green, Caitlin. 'Arthuriana: Studies in Early Medieval History and Legend'.. 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.
• 'Celtic Literature Collective'.. Provides texts and translations (of varying quality) of Welsh medieval sources, many of which mention Arthur.
• Green, Thomas (October 2012). 'John Dee, King Arthur, and the Conquest of the Arctic'. The Heroic Age (15)..
• 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.

King Arthur is among the most famous literary characters of all time. The Arthurian legend of the Knights of the Round Table, Camelot, the Quest for the Holy Grail, the love affair of Lancelot and Guinevere, and the wizard Merlin have informed and inspired literary, musical, and other major artistic visions for centuries. There have been countless books, major films, operas, television shows, games, toys, plays, and graphic novels either re-telling or inspired by the Arthurian legend which developed in Europe between 1136-1485 CE, was revived in the 19th century CE, and remains popular in the present day.

The great legendary king is most likely based on an actual historical figure from the 5th or 6th centuries CE. The difficulty in identifying Arthur as a certain historical figure is due to the primary sources which first tell his story.

There are early histories which give accounts of the Briton victory over the Saxons at the Battle of Badon Hill - an event closely associated with Arthur - but do not identify the leader of the Britons as Arthur. The figure of Ambrosius Aurelianus is given in the earliest sources and this would make Ambrosius the best candidate for the historical Arthur except that other sources cite someone named Arthur as Ambrosius' war-chief. It is generally agreed that the legendary Arthur was based on an actual figure but who he might have been is unclear. The most reasonable understanding is that the legendary Arthur is based on a great historical warrior named Arthur.

The Historical Background

The claim that the legendary Arthur is based on an actual person is supported by the fact that 'Arthur' is a Welsh name derived from the Roman family name Artorius. The figure of Ambrosius Aurelianus, it is argued, could have had the given name Artorius. Roman names had become common in Britain since the conquest under Claudius in 43 CE.

Rome began withdrawing troops in the 3rd century CE to protect the empire from invading barbarians. These difficulties had been increasing in severity for around 200 years by the time of the 5th century CE and Rome had been steadily decreasing its garrisons in Britain as troops were needed on the continent. By 410 CE, the same year the Goths sacked Rome, all the Roman garrisons had been withdrawn from Britain.

Rome's decision to remove the troops left the people of Britain helpless against invaders. The Roman army stationed along Hadrian's Wall and other areas had been the Britons' protectors for over 300 years by this time. With the power of Rome withdrawn, the northern Picts and Scots saw their opportunity and commenced raids on British farms and villages.

At about this same time, the Saxon confederacy broke apart on the continent and Saxon immigrants and raiders began appearing on the south-east coast of Britain. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles record:

A.D. 443. This year sent the Britons over sea to Rome, and begged assistance against the Picts; but they had none, for the Romans were at war with Attila, king of the Huns. Then sent they to the Angles, and requested the same from the nobles of that nation.

When no help came from Rome, a British king named Vortigern invited the Saxons to bring a military force to repel the Picts and Scots. The Saxons agreed but, once they had defeated the invaders, decided to stay. According to the historians Gildas (c. 500-570 CE), Bede (672-735 CE) and Nennius (9th century CE) – as well as many others – the Saxon immigration was an invasion (a claim disputed by modern scholars) in which Britain was sacked and looted continually.

At this time a great British leader appeared, rallied the people around him, and defeated the Saxons at the Battle of Badon Hill. This hero is called Ambrosius Aurelianus, by Gildas and Bede, and Arthur by Nennius, who is the first historian to mention his name. Arthur already seems to have been well known before Nennius’ work. The Welsh poem Y Goddodin, an elegy for the warriors who fell at the Battle of Catraeth in 600 CE, refers to him by name as a great hero. Although extant manuscripts date only from the 13th century CE, the work is thought to have been composed shortly after the battle.

It is clear from the preface to History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 - c. 1155 CE) that Arthur was regarded as a great king by his time; but Geoffrey’s work would elevate him to mythical status.

The Arthurian Legend

Geoffrey of Monmouth is known as the Father of the Arthurian Legend for developing the character of King Arthur, adding mythical elements to his story, and introducing many of the central characters and motifs which would later be expanded upon by other writers.

The phrase Arthurian Legend encompasses a number of different versions of the tale but, in the present day, mainly refers to the English work of Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte D’Arthur (Death of Arthur) published by William Caxton in 1485 CE. The legend developed from History of The Kings of Britain, passing over to France, to Germany, to Spain and Portugal, and back to England with numerous additions and versions proliferating, until Malory compiled, edited, revised, and rewrote a prose version in 1469 CE while he was in prison

The basic story goes that, once upon a time, there was a wizard named Merlin who arranged for a mighty king named Uther Pendragon to sleep with a queen named Igrayne who was another king’s wife. Merlin’s stipulation was that, when the child of their union was born, it would be given to him. All of this happens as it should, the child is named Arthur, and he is given to another lord, Sir Hector, to raise with his own son Kay. Many years later, when Arthur is grown, he accompanies Kay and Hector to a tournament in which Kay is to compete, finds that he forgot Kay’s sword at home, and so takes one he finds in the forest stuck in a stone. This is the Sword in the Stone which can only be drawn from the rock by the true king of Britain.

Merlin returns at this point to explain the situation to Arthur, who had no idea he was adopted, and helps him fight the other lords who contest his claim to the throne. Although the Sword in the Stone is frequently associated with the famous weapon Excalibur, they are two different swords. The sword Arthur draws from the stone is broken in a fight with Sir Pellinore and Merlin brings Arthur to a mystical body of water where the Lady of the Lake gives him Excalibur.

Excalibur is more than just a sword; it is a symbol of Arthur’s greatness. In some versions of the legend Arthur gives the sword to Sir Gawain but, in most, it is exclusively Arthur’s. This is in keeping with many ancient tales and legends in which a great hero has some kind of magical weapon. Once Arthur has forced the other lords to recognize his legitimacy, he marries the beautiful queen Guinevere and sets up his court at Camelot.

He invites the greatest knights of the realm to come and dine in his banquet hall but, when they do, they begin fighting over who will get the best seat. Arthur severely punishes the knight who began the trouble and, to avert any repeat in the future, accepts a round table from his father-in-law. From this time on, he explains, everyone sitting at the table will be equal, including himself, and everyone’s opinions will be weighed seriously no matter their social standing. Further, anyone requiring assistance will be welcomed in the hall to request it and every wrong shall be righted by Arthur and his knights.

The motif of the Round Table, along with the magical weapon, sets Arthur above the kings who have preceded him who believed that their position of power dictated what was right or wrong; Arthur believes that everyone’s opinion is valid and that might should be used to support right, not define it. Arthur again sends out invitations to noble knights to join him but this time his messengers are to go even farther, beyond the boundaries of Britain.

Among the knights who answer his call is Lancelot of the Lake, a French knight who is unrivaled in combat. He and Arthur become friends at the same time that he falls in love with Guinevere and she with him. While this affair is going on behind the scenes, the Knights of the Round Table are engaging in all kinds of fantastic adventures. If there is no apparent adventure, Arthur will go off and find one. In the famous story of Gawain and the Green Knight, a challenger comes to court to start the adventure. In the story of Jaufre (also known as Girflet) he arrives at the court to be knighted and then proceeds on his own adventures before returning and involving the others.

The greatest adventure the knights undertake is the quest for the Holy Grail. The grail is originally a platter in the French version of the legend or cauldron in the Welsh. It is transformed, however, into the cup of Christ used at the Last Supper by the time Malory revises the story and this is how it is generally understood. The grail quest can only be completed by a knight pure of heart and this is finally accomplished by Galahad, son of Lancelot.

Throughout all these adventures there are a number of times Guinevere is kidnapped by some menacing lord and has to be rescued or other ladies are in distress and also need the assistance of a noble knight. There are dragons, giants, invisible spirits, sacred wells, unending waters to cross, inanimate objects which move and speak, courageous heroes, scheming villains, women who are beautiful and noble and others whose beauty conceals their devious nature. Encountering all of these, Arthur remains a good and noble king until the affair of his queen and best friend is revealed by Arthur’s illegitimate son Mordred who then challenges Arthur’s right to rule.

In the final battle between Mordred and Arthur, Mordred is killed and Arthur mortally wounded. Guinevere retires to a convent and Lancelot to a hermitage. All of the other great knights of the court are killed. Sir Bedevere helps Arthur from the field and returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. Once the sword has been returned, Arthur dies and is carried away on a ship to the isle of Avalon.

The Legend as Allegory

The story of King Arthur and his knights instantly resonated among the literate in the Middle Ages shortly after Geoffrey published his work in 1136 CE. By c. 1160 CE the Norman poet Wace had translated it into Old French vernacular and the great poet of Provence, Chretien de Troyes (c. 1130-c.1190 CE) expanded upon it in his works. The legend was deepened and broadened by other French poets, re-worked and added to by German writers, and then translated to English by the cleric Layamon (12th/13th century CE). It was then revised in English prose as the Vulgate Cycle (1215-1235 CE) which was edited into the version known as the Post-Vulgate Cycle (c. 1240-1250 CE), the main source Malory worked from in 1469 CE.

One of the most enduring motifs of the legend is that of the Damsel in Distress who must be rescued by a noble knight who then, in many stories, marries her. It has been pointed out that the Arthurian legend, from the time of Chretien de Troyes onward, elevated the status and power of women. Even the damsel in distress often turns out to be a queen who possesses great wealth, land, or magical items. This is a significant departure from the literature of the Middle Ages in which women are usually depicted as objects to be fought over or protected. Mortal kombat 7 free download.

It has been suggested that the legends are Christian allegories which symbolically represent a believer's journey of faith. The quest for the Holy Grail, for example, exemplifies the Christian path: one must be pure of heart to complete it but, even if one is not, the life of the participant is still improved through the attempt. It has also been claimed that the legends are mystical allegories. Scholar David Livingstone advances this view in claiming that the Arthurian legends are 'Kabbalistic allegories of the trials and perils that beset the mystic on his journey towards a mystical union with God' (317). Most interpretations agree on a Christian foundation for the tales and the use of Christian symbols to advance it.

A lesser known theory suggests that they are based on a Christian heresy known as Catharism which flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries CE in southern France. The Cathars (from the GreekCatharoi, pure ones) venerated a female deity Sophia (wisdom in Greek) whose worship was compatible with the Medieval veneration of the Virgin Mary; the sacrifice of Christ, as the dying and reviving god, also fit with their beliefs. The Cathars emphasized purity of spirit and nobility in action and the sincerity of their faith, when compared with the corruption of the Catholic Church, brought them a number of converts until the church launched the Albigensian Crusade and massacred them between 1209-1244 CE.

The theory, most famously expressed by the scholar Denis de Rougemont in his Love in the Western World, is that the French poets – most notably Chretien – disguised the Cathar faith in romantic tales. Chretien was a poet at the court of Marie de Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, both known for their defiance of church doctrine and both associated with southern France and the Cathar heresy. According to this view, Guinevere’s numerous abductions would represent the church trying to appropriate Sophia, the ancient wisdom, and her rescue would symbolize the Cathars taking her back. The Damsel in Distress, likewise, would be this same Sophia who needs to be rescued by a Cathar perfecti (a “perfect one”) who then “marries” her and receives her gifts.

The obvious Christian imagery and symbolism of the legend would seem to contradict this view – and perhaps it does – but there are a number of interesting aspects which might support it. Among these is the fact that women were not presented in this same way in earlier European Christian literature. The concept of a love one would sacrifice for, cannot live without, and would even die for is central to the Arthurian Romances as it was to a Cathar’s relationship with Sophia. The development of the concept of Courtly Love, chivalry, and the elevation of women in southern France, the region most closely associated with the Cathars, is another suggestive aspect.

Since the Cathars were unable to express their ideas openly because of the persecution of the church, they embedded their message in poetry which was interpreted by non-initiates at face value and introduced Medieval Europe to the prototype of the modern-day love song. The uninformed, to use de Rougemont's expression, responded to the surface message of the legend without recognizing the spiritual power of the symbols.

Legacy

King Arthur's Father

The legacy of the Arthurian legends is so pervasive that it touches every aspect of world culture. The quest for spiritual answers, the noble defender of the weak, the purity of romantic love, the importance of fidelity, freedom, justice, and equality, a fair and responsive government, and a good and noble leader, all of these aspects of the legend have affected people’s interpretation of the world around them for centuries. Further, the modern understanding of romantic relationships is directly or indirectly influenced by Arthurian motifs.

Literature and art, especially, have been influenced by the Arthurian legends through the many different translations of the work and the others which were inspired by it. The legend fell out of favor during the Renaissance but was revived by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892 CE) through his Idylls of the King, published in 1859 CE. Tennyson’s work inspired others and revived an interest in the story of King Arthur and his noble knights, the Round Table, and a world of magical wonder and spiritual meaning.

King Arthur History Pdf Book

In the enchanted lands of the Arthurian realm anything can happen, at any time, but goodness will always triumph over evil and darkness can never put out the light. Help always comes for the hero or the damsel, the wicked are punished, the good are rewarded, the injured are healed, and justice is always recognized and rewarded. Even in defeat, the right prevails and, after countless struggles, the knight and damsel ride away toward a long life of contentment.

For HP products a product number. Hp laserjet 6p 6mp postscript driver windows 7. For Samsung Print products, enter the M/C or Model Code found on the product label. Examples: LG534UA. Use product model name: - Examples: laserjet pro p1102, DeskJet 2130. Examples: “SL-M2020W/XAA”.

King Arthur History Pdf Free

Although there is undeniably a great deal of religious and spiritual symbolism in the tales, the legend has never needed any allegorical interpretation to explain its popularity. It offers a vision in which, for the most part, people’s lives work out for the best and, even in the tragic fall of Arthur and his knights, one can find meaning and purpose. This is the reason for the legend's enduring popularity in every age which responds to it: a reprieve from a world that often lacks magic or apparent meaning and where most people do not live happily ever after.