The romantic legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are now familiar to audiences around the world. The 'lady of the lake' was as popular a subject with 19th-century painters as 14th-century' French illustrators. The tale of this warrior-king has been told in a myriad of ways, from the heroic odes of bards to feature-length animated films.
Some see Arthur as a fictional Celtic hero and the wizard Merlin as an archetypal druid, while others have searched vainly for some evidence of his historical existence. What can be stated with veracity is that the Arthurian story is a long-running saga, and that each generation has come up with fresh interpretations.
The sur'ival and development of the Arthurian legend must be viewed in context; not only against a multitude of local and regional folk-heroes across the ages, but also against the long-term evolution of 'world' legends such as Alexander the Great (356-323 Bc) or some of the early Christian saints.
Arthur - historical figure or literary character?
The earliest report, that of Gildas in the middle of the 6th century, locates Arthur in southern Britain during the darkest part of the Dark Ages. In c.500, according to Gildas, Arthur led a British army that defeated the invading Anglo-Saxons at the battle of Mons Badonicus (Mount Badon). A subsequent 'historical' source.
Nennius' 9th-century History of Britain, describes 12 of Arthur's battles against the Anglo-Saxons, although we may question whether this detail comes from reliable information or a vivid imagination.
An early 20th-century view of Arthur placed him slightly earlier in time, as a Romano-British cavalry commander engaged in the defence of Britain against German attack. However, there is no mention of Arthur in Roman records, and this interpretation is partly reliant on Nennius' use of the phrase dux bello-rum (a late-Roman military title) to describe Arthur. There are tiny snippets of late 5th - and early 6th-cen-tury information that would seem to confirm the core of the legend - that he defeated a Saxon attack.
We have no way of judging Arthur's |xipularity among the British in what was scx>n to become England, because only Anglo-Saxon writings have surv ived. He was, however, popular in Wales during the post-Roman twilight, and a 7th<entury Welsh poem, the Book of Aneirin, acknowledges Arthur as a great warrior. It is noteworthy that Arthur was, at this time, confined entirely to the secular realm, and the early Christian centres in southern Wales laid no claim upon him. Subsequent Welsh poetr' transformed Arthur into a magnificent king who slew monsters and performed mar els; and the Arthurian legend has become mainly associated with Wales and south-west Britain.
< Le Morte D'Arthur
By James Archer (1823-1904). In Sir Thomas Malory's (d. 1471?) medieval prose-romance Le Morte O'Arthur (1469-70), Arthur's discovery of Guinevere's adultery with Lancelot leads to war between Arthur and Lancelot. Mordred, Arthur's son by his half-sister Morgan le Fay, leads a revolt against the king. After Arthur's death in battle against Mordred, his body is borne away in a ship with three queens (Morgan le Fay, Queen of Northgalis and Queen of the Waste Lands). The ghostly figure bearing a goblet in the left of the painting is probably Nimue, the 'lady of the lake'.
< Lancelot at the Chapel of the Holy Grail{cAS%) by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-98). Arthurian legend was a favourite source of inspiration for Burne-Jones and his associates in the the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB). The angel that stands guard at the door of the chapel informs the sleeping Lancelot that he will never attain the Holy Grail because of his adultery with Queen Guinevere. Burne-Jones has painted himself as Lancelot. The painting, which measures 138 X 170 centimetres (54.5 x 67 inches), was probably inspired by Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur{] A69-70).
Building of a legend
Most of the detail about the life of King Arthur comes from the largely fictional History of British Kings produced by the Welsh priest, Geoffrey of Monmouth (c.1100-54). Writing in Latin, Geoffrey claimed his book was a translation of an older text "in the British tongue", and this dubious statement has been held to 'prove' Arthur's Celtic affinities.
About one-quarter of the book is devoted to the tale of Arthur and most of the action seems to have been wholly the wTiter's invention, or based largely on classical (rather than Celtic) sources. Other characters mentioned elsewhere in the book, such as King Lear and his daughters, have also achieved immortality through subsequent elaboration.
Geoffrey's work became extremely popular in England (it bcx>sted his own career and he was promoted to bishop), and was intrcxluced to the royal court of Normandy, where the legend became progressively embroidered. The 12th-century French poet Chretien de Troyes composed fie romances about Arthur which introduced the love-interest betw'een Lancelot and Arthur's Queen Guinevere, and the quest for the Holy Grail, while somewhat relegating Arthur to the background. These new themes dominated medieval renditions of the Arthurian legend, which became inextricably entwined with notions of chivalry and courtly love.
The incorporation of the Grail legend confirmed the Christianisation of Arthur and greatly contributed to his popularity. Several religious centres, including Glastonbury, south-west England, claimed to be the site of the Holy Grail and attracted thousands of pilgrims.
The monks of Glastonbury were not above exploiting their connections with Arthur, and in 1191, they 'exhumed' his body from its supposed resting-place.
Medieval Welsh poets celebrated Arthur, but by then he had become a generic supei+iero, and his legend had acquired a life of its own. For those so inclined, Arthur can be seen as a Celtic king who battled valiantly against Anglo-Saxon in aders, and certain elements of the tale, such as the casting of his sword Excalibur into a lake, are authentically (but not exclusively) Celtic. The only certainty is that the Arthurian legend remains a gripping story.
< Manuscript illumination
(14th century) of A Tournament of the Knights of the Round Table Before King Arthur and Queen Guenevere from Chretien de Troyes' Romance of King Arthur. Writing in the late 12th century, Chretien provided the first literary description of a tournament. In his five verse romances, Chretien established many of the central features of Arthurian literature: Lancelot and his love for Guinevere; Gawain, the model knight; and Percival and the quest for the Holy Grail.
World History
