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KING ARTHUR.
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Historical, literary & mythological roots & evolution of story of Arthur's leadership & personality.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Historical, literary & mythological roots & evolution of story of Arthur's leadership & personality.
Paper Introduction:
One of the world's most enduring legends is the story of King Arthur and the Round Table, a story which in the popular imagination has become lodged somewhere in the fourteenth century when knighthood was in flower, though in fact the story is much older. If there were a historical King Arthur, in fact, he would have existed centuries before the era of knighthood, probably sometime in the sixth century. The historical reality of Arthur is much in doubt and remains a controversy, though Arthur has his champions who believe the stories of his reign began with a real personage and then were turned into myth and legend by various writers.
The Arthurian legends began as a literary form in the twelfth century with traveling minstrels who told stories of heroism, usually built in the exploits of the French king
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The Battle of Badon is mentioned by the British monk and historian,Gildas, who details much of the British counter-attack on the northernhordes. Geoffrey contributed at leastthree new elements to the existing histories of Arthur--he supplied Arthurwith a family tree, told of Arthur's association with Merlin, and describedhis burial at Avalon. Charlemagne. It occurs in a dark age, the mysterious gap in British history (Ashe 27). Historical King Arthur 2. He is the only person so important that triads are enlarged into tetrads to fit him in (Ashe 45). The Return to Camelot. New York: Coward, McCann, and Geoghegan, 1975.O'Neal, Michael. Gododdin 6. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, 1992. Conclusion----------------------- 3 The Arthurian legends began as a literary form in the twelfth centurywith traveling minstrels who told stories of heroism, usually built in theexploits of the French king Charlemagne, or Charles the Great (742-814A.D.). The account that did the most to establish Arthur as a prominenthistorical figure was The History of the Kings of Britain written in 1135by Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh monk, and the book provides a history ofthe earliest kings of Britain, some 99 in all, including King Coel, knownto us from the nursery rhyme as Old King Cole. This battle has historical validity because it is mentionedelsewhere without the Arthurian connection (Jenkins 28-29). Britain alone among the lands of theRoman Empire achieved independence before the northern barbarians attacked,and the people of Britain put up a fight against them. The Arthur we remember best today derives from thisperiod, some 13 centuries after the historical Arthur fought his battles ina very different world from that in which he was placed by latergenerations. One of the world's most enduring legends is the story of King Arthurand the Round Table, a story which in the popular imagination has becomelodged somewhere in the fourteenth century when knighthood was in flower,though in fact the story is much older. Geoffrey of Monmouth C. Gildas does not name thegeneral involved in this battle, but Welsh tradition says the leader wasArthur. The manuscript containing theAnnals is considerably later than the events noted in that document, but itis agreed by historians that when new tables of calculations were drawn up,the chief events from previous tables were carried over to the newer table. However, this was not the end of the story of Arthur, and much existsabout him next in Welsh poetry from the end of the sixth century. No other hero is so frequently mentioned. Development of the legend D. The fist question is whether Arthur is the name of a Celt bornsomewhere in the 47 s, and it could be true since the name is a CelticizedRoman name, derived from Artorius (Ashe 38-39). Controversy over historical ArthurII. Independence from Roman Empire B. Our vision of Camelotderives largely from Malory's book (O'Neal 14-17). Works CitedAshe, Geoffrey. The oralliterature was the only means by which many of these stories were thentransmitted, and even if there were a kernel of truth in them, it would belikely to be changed many times in the course of subsequent tellings untilwhatever truth there was would be hard to discern. In the British Museum, there is a sheaf of documents called the HistoricalMiscellany, and it contains a set of Easter Tables. The entries madein the last column are the Easter Annals. The Matter of Rome C. Stories in England and Wales 2. The Arthur and the literature of the 12th century A. The Mystery of King Arthur. Most of the stories hadbeen known only in parts of England and Wales for some centuries, but inthe twelfth century their popularity grew when the French writer Chrétiende Troyes published a popular written version in both France and Britain.Other French and German writers also addressed these stories. This was a verylong fight, and at one stage at least it was successful: Between Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England there is an interregnum, which is not a chaos as historians once imagined, but a creative epoch with a character of its own. Gildas 4. Although it draws on factual information from earlier sources, it includes much that is fanciful and exaggerated, and it easily slides back and forth between history and fiction (O'Neal 41). Citing Nennius and the Annals, Ashewrites: Records of a strictly historical kind yield no more. Easter is a holiday that changes date each year, so inorder to ascertain when it was to take place it was necessary to draw upcalculations as to when it would fall for the next several years. OUTLINEI. Thesecalculating tables are called the Easter Tables, and they were arranged incolumns so that the right-handed column remained blank. One of the pieces ofevidence that has been offered as to the reality of King Arthur is theEaster Annals. These stories grew in popularity during the twelfthcentury, and the tales told of the lives of King Arthur and QueenGuinevere, of their magnificent castle at Camelot, of Merlin the Magician,and of the Round Table and the search for the Holy Grail. AfterMorte Darthur, Arthur did not make a very significant appearance until hewas rehabilitated by Walter Scott in a number of poems and romances(Girouard 178). Late in thefifteenth century, the various stories were brought together in a newversion by Sir Thomas Malory in his Morte Darthur. He is neither agood writer nor a good scholar, and what he has done is to collect togetherall that he could find on various subjects. In the Annals columnare two entries of importance. Arthur is also mentioned many times in the Welsh legends thathave come down to us as "triads," or mnemonics, where storytellers wouldgroup their favorite themes in groups of three: Meager as the triads are, they convey at least one crucial fact: Arthur's uniqueness. The record is not completely blank, however. Nennius 5. The historical realityof Arthur is much in doubt and remains a controversy, though Arthur has hischampions who believe the stories of his reign began with a real personageand then were turned into myth and legend by various writers. If there were a historical KingArthur, in fact, he would have existed centuries before the era ofknighthood, probably sometime in the sixth century. Introduction A. King Arthur. Thesepoets knew Arthur as a war-leader of proverbial glory and assume that theiraudiences know him as well. A ketch of his campaignsis then offered, indicating how Arthur fought the Saxons alongside thekings of the Britons (Ashe 4 ). Chrétien de Troyes 3. Many of the elements that would be part of the later traditionwere missing, however. B. Historical Miscellany 3. About one-fifth of the bookis devoted to Arthur, and Geoffrey provides the first organized version ofthe story. Arthur's status as a leader with a career rests primarily on onechapter in the Welsh book History of the Britons, a chaotic work compiledearly in the ninth century by Nennius, a cleric desirous of reasserting asense of national dignity after a long period of eclipse. "The Arthurian Fact." The Quest for Arthur's Britain, Geoffrey Ashe (ed.). Around 6 , Aneirin wrote a long poem calledGododdin that lamented over a corps of nobles who died fighting the Anglesat Catraeth (or Catterick), mentioning only that one of them "was noArthur." A poem in the collection Black Book of Carmarthen lists thefollowers of Arthur, among them Kei and Bedwyr, or Kay and Bedevere. One of the problems with discovering the historical Arthur is thatthe period in which he would have lived is a period of darkness as far asthe historical record is concerned. British Dark Ages A. Thesepoems also do not refer to Arthur as a king, though one does refer to himas emperor. The third group of stories was known as TheMatter of Britain. One documentincluded by Nennius introduces Arthur as a man without dynastic rank,stating that there were many more noble than he. Another group of stories was known as The Matter of Rome, and thesestories included tales from both Rome and Ancient Greece about the periodbefore the siege of Troy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.Jenkins, Elizabeth. The Matter of Britain 1. This rally of a Celtic people in some degree Romanized and Christianized is the reality of Arthur's Britain. The ingredients of his bookare seen as authentic, whatever he has done with them. Nineteenth century revivalIV. Easter Annals 2. The Annales Cambriae, an early Welsh source, mentioned the Battleof badon as taking place in either 516 or 518. Morte DarthurIII. The legend of King Arthur 1. It reads as follows: "Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carriedthe cross of our Lord Jesus Christ on his shoulders for three days andthree nights and the Britons were victors." The second is dated 539 andreads as follows: "The Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Mordredperished. The year given, which is in dispute, isapparently the year the Annals were begun, and it is given as either 499 or518 A.D. They disclose a British leader who almost certainly did command at Badon, because the immense credit of that triumph was never claimed for anyone else; and who fell at Camlaun (Ashe 43). And there was plague in Britain and Ireland." According to theAnnals, Arthur fought in the Battle of Badon for three days and threenights. Arthur's court is not at Camelot but at a placecalled Caerlon-on-Usk, or City of Legions. Later chroniclers would use Geoffrey's account as asource and would develop more complex stories establishing Arthur as a kingin the popular imagination: Clearly, Geoffrey's book was not history, as later ages would understand the term. Limits of the historical record 1. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1987.Girouard, Mark. The Arthurian stories would become models for chivalrous behavior andwould take on a romantic tinge in the nineteenth century as a number ofArthurian cycles were created by poets, painters, and other artists.
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