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King Arthur

King Arthur (Welsh: Brenin Arthur, Cornish: Arthur Gernow, Breton: Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain.

Tapestry showing Arthur as one of the Nine Worthies, wearing a coat of arms often attributed to him,[1] c. 1385

In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a leader of the post-Roman Britons 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 and the Historia Brittonum, 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.[2][3] His name also occurs in early Welsh poetic sources such as Y Gododdin.[4] The character developed through Welsh mythology, 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.[5]

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).[6] 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. 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 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" 1898

The historical basis for King Arthur has been long debated by scholars. One school of thought, citing entries in the Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) and Annales Cambriae (Welsh Annals), saw 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.[7]

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.[8] John Davies notes this as consistent with the British victory at Badon Hill, attributed to Arthur by Nennius.[8] The monks of Glastonbury are also said to have discovered the grave of Arthur in 1180.[9]

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.

 
King Arthur returning from the Battle of Mons Badonis (or Mount Badon). First reference to Arthur, found in early Welsh literature. Llandaf Cathedral, Cardiff.

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.[10]

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".[11] 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.[12]

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".[13] Gildas's 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.[14] Arthur is not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle or named in any surviving manuscript written between 400 and 820.[15] 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.[16] 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."[17]

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, 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.[18] 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 wars) and "miles" (soldier).[19]

 
Former Gravesite of Arthur at Glastonbury Abbey

According to one source, the consensus among academic historians today is that there is no solid evidence for his historical existence.[2] 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,[20] 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.[21] Other inscriptional evidence for Arthur, including the Glastonbury cross, is tainted with the suggestion of forgery.[a]

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),[22] but his conclusions are disputed.[23]

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,[24] to sub-Roman British rulers such as Riotamus,[25] Ambrosius Aurelianus,[26] Owain Ddantgwyn,[27] the Welsh king Enniaun Girt,[28] and Athrwys ap Meurig.[29] However, no convincing evidence for these identifications has emerged.[2][30]

Name

 
"Arturus rex" (King Arthur), a 1493 illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle

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.[31] Artorius itself is of obscure and contested etymology,[32] but possibly of Messapian[33] or Etruscan origin.[34] 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.[35] 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.[36]

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".[37]

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.[38] 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.[39]

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 led by Caitlin Green has identified three key strands to the portrayal of Arthur in this earliest material.[40] 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.[41] 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.[42] 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.[43]

 
A facsimile page of Y Gododdin, one of the most famous early Welsh texts featuring Arthur (c. 1275)

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.[44] 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.[45] 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.[46] They include "Kadeir Teyrnon" ("The Chair of the Prince"),[47] which refers to "Arthur the Blessed"; "Preiddeu Annwn" ("The Spoils of Annwn"),[48] which recounts an expedition of Arthur to the Otherworld; and "Marwnat vthyr pen[dragon]" ("The Elegy of Uther Pen[dragon]"),[49] 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 entering Arthur's court in the Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen. An illustration by Alfred Fredericks for a 1881 edition of the Mabinogion[50]

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?").[51] 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.[52] 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".[53] 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.[54]

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).[55] According to the Life of Saint Gildas, 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 from Glastonbury.[56] 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.[57] 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).[58] Also important are the references to Arthur in William of Malmesbury's De Gestis Regum Anglorum and Herman's De Miraculis Sanctae Mariae Laudunensis, 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

 
King Arthur in a 15th-century Welsh version of Historia Regum Britanniae

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. According to Geoffrey's tale, Arthur was a descendant of Constantine the Great.[61] 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.[62]

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.[63] 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.[64] 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.[65] 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."[66] 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.[67] 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".[68] 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.[69]

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.[70] 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.[71] 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.[72]

Romance traditions

 
During the 12th century, Arthur's character began to be marginalised by the accretion of "Arthurian" side-stories such as that of Tristan and Iseult, here pictured in a painting by John William Waterhouse (1916)

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.[73] 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),[74] and "Celtic" names and stories not found in Geoffrey's Historia appear in the Arthurian romances.[75] 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.[76] 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,[77] 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".[78] 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.[79] 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."[80]

 
The story of Arthur drawing the sword from a stone appeared in Robert de Boron's 13th-century Merlin. By Howard Pyle (1903)[81]

Arthur and his retinue appear in some of the Lais of Marie de France,[82] 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.[83] 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.[84] 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",[85] 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.[86] 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.[87] 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.[88] 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.[89]

 
The Round Table experiences a vision of the Holy Grail, an illumination by Évrard d'Espinques (c. 1475)[90]

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.[91] 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.[92] 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.[91] 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.[93]

 
Arthur receiving the later tradition's sword Excalibur in N. C. Wyeth's illustration for The Boy's King Arthur (1922), a modern edition of Thomas Malory's 1485 Le Morte d'Arthur

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.[94] 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.[95]

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.[96] 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.[97] 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.[98] 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.[98] 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.[99] John Dryden's masque 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, 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.[100] 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.[101] Pre-eminent among these was Alfred Tennyson, whose first Arthurian poem "The Lady of Shalott" was published in 1832.[102] 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.[103] In the Idylls, Arthur became a symbol of ideal manhood who ultimately failed, through human weakness, to establish a perfect kingdom on earth.[104] 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.[105] 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.[106]

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.[107] 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.[108] 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).[109] 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 opera—Parsifal—providing a notable instance of the latter.[110] 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,[111] 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.[112] The romance tradition did, however, remain sufficiently powerful to persuade Thomas Hardy, Laurence Binyon and John Masefield to compose Arthurian plays,[113] and T. S. Eliot alludes to the Arthur myth (but not Arthur) in his poem The Waste Land, which mentions the Fisher King.[114]

Modern legend

 
King Arthur (holding Excalibur) and Patsy in Spamalot, a stage musical adaptation of the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail

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), Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave (1970) and its four sequels, Thomas Berger's tragicomic Arthur Rex and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon (1982) in addition to comic strips such as Prince Valiant (from 1937 onward).[115] 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.[116] American authors often rework the story of Arthur to be more consistent with values such as equality and democracy.[117] 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.[118] 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).[119] Powys's earlier novel, A Glastonbury Romance (1932) is concerned with both the Holy Grail and the legend that Arthur is buried at Glastonbury.[120]

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).[121]

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.[122] 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.[123] This trend towards placing Arthur in a historical setting is also apparent in historical and fantasy novels published during this period.[124]

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.[125] 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.[126] 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."[127]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Modern scholarship views the Glastonbury cross as the result of a probably late-12th-century fraud. See Rahtz 1993 and Carey 1999.

References

Citations

  1. ^ Neubecker 1998–2002
  2. ^ a b c Tom Shippey, "So Much Smoke", review of Higham 2002, London Review of Books, 40:24:23 (20 December 2018)
  3. ^ Higham 2002, pp. 11–37, has a summary of the debate on this point.; Davies, John (1993). A history of Wales. Internet Archive. London : Allen Lane the Penguin Press. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-7139-9098-0.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ See Padel 1994; Sims-Williams 1991; Green 2007b; and Roberts 1991a
  6. ^ Thorpe 1966, but see also Loomis 1956
  7. ^ Dumville 1986; Higham 2002, pp. 116–169; Green 2007b, pp. 15–26, 30–38.
  8. ^ a b Davies (1994) pp. 56
  9. ^ Davies, John (1993). A history of Wales. Internet Archive. London : Allen Lane the Penguin Press. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-7139-9098-0.; "Arthur's Tomb". Glastonbury Abbey Archaeology. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  10. ^ Green 2007b, pp. 26–30; Koch 1996, pp. 251–253.
  11. ^ Charles-Edwards 1991, p. 29
  12. ^ Morris 1973
  13. ^ Myres 1986, p. 16
  14. ^ , De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, chapter 26.
  15. ^ Pryor 2004, pp. 22–27
  16. ^ Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Book 1.16.
  17. ^ Dumville 1977, pp. 187–188
  18. ^ Green 2009; Padel 1994; Green 2007b, chapters five and seven.
  19. ^ Historia Brittonum 56, 73; Annales Cambriae 516, 537.
  20. ^ For example, Ashley 2005.
  21. ^ Heroic Age 1999
  22. ^ Breeze, Andrew (2015). "The Historical Arthur and Sixth-Century Scotland". Northern History. 52 (2): 158–181. doi:10.1179/0078172X15Z.00000000085. S2CID 161217897.; Breeze, Andrew (2020). British Battles 493-937: Mount Badon to Brunanburh. London: Anthem Press. pp. 13–24. doi:10.2307/j.ctvv4187r. ISBN 9781785272233. JSTOR j.ctvv4187r. S2CID 243164764.
  23. ^ "King Arthur 'was real, wasn't a king... and lived in Strathclyde'". The Independent. 3 September 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2015.; Higham, Nicholas J. (2018). King Arthur: The Making of the Legend. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. pp. 262–63. ISBN 978-0-300-21092-7.; "537 and Camlann (Flint Johnson, University of Wisconsin - River Falls)". researchgate.net. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  24. ^ Littleton & Malcor 1994
  25. ^ Ashe 1985
  26. ^ Reno 1996
  27. ^ Phillips & Keatman 1992
  28. ^ Phillips, Graham (2016). The Lost Tomb of King Arthur: The Search for Camelot and the Isle of Avalon. Bear & Company.
  29. ^ Bartrum, Peter Clement (1993). A Welsh Classical Dictionary, people in History and Legend up to about A.D. 1000 (PDF). National Library of Wales. p. 35. William Owen Pughe in his Cambrian Biography, 1803, ... put forward the suggestion that Arthur was the same person as Athrwys ap Meurig. It was discussed and rejected by Sharon Turner (History of the Anglo-Saxons, Bk.3, Ch.3, 1805) and Rice Rees (Welsh Saints, 1836, pp.185-6), but accepted by Robert Owen (The Kymry, 1891, p.77)
  30. ^ 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) doi:10.1353/cjm.2019.0021 Project MUSE 734087
  31. ^ Koch 2006, p. 121.
  32. ^ Malone 1925.
  33. ^ Marcella Chelotti, Vincenza Morizio, Marina Silvestrini, Le epigrafi romane di Canosa, Volume 1, Edipuglia srl, 1990, pp. 261, 264.; Ciro Santoro, "Per la nuova iscrizione messapica di Oria", La Zagaglia, A. VII, n. 27, 1965, pp. 271–293.; 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.
  34. ^ 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; Olli Salomies, Die römischen Vornamen. Studien zur römischen Namengebung. Helsinki 1987, p. 68; Herbig, Gust., "Falisca", Glotta, Band II, Göttingen, 1910, p. 98.
  35. ^ Zimmer 2009.
  36. ^ Koch 1996, p. 253.
  37. ^ See Higham 2002, p. 74; Higham 2002, p. 80.
  38. ^ Chambers 1964, p. 170; Bromwich 1978, p. 544; Johnson 2002, pp. 38–39; Walter 2005, p. 74; Zimmer 2006, p. 37.
  39. ^ Anderson 2004, pp. 28–29; Green 2007b, pp. 191–194.
  40. ^ Green 2007b, pp. 45–176
  41. ^ Green 2007b, pp. 93–130
  42. ^ Padel 1994 has a thorough discussion of this aspect of Arthur's character.
  43. ^ Green 2007b, pp. 135–176. On his possessions and wife, see also Ford 1983.
  44. ^ Williams 1937, p. 64, line 1242
  45. ^ Charles-Edwards 1991, p. 15; Koch 1996, pp. 242–245; Green 2007b, pp. 13–15, 50–52.
  46. ^ See, for example, Haycock 1983–1984 and Koch 1996, pp. 264–265.
  47. ^ 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.
  48. ^ See, for example, Green 2007b, pp. 54–67 and Budgey 1992, who includes a translation.
  49. ^ Koch & Carey 1994, pp. 314–15
  50. ^ Lanier 1881
  51. ^ Sims-Williams 1991, pp. 38–46 has a full translation and analysis of this poem.
  52. ^ 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.
  53. ^ Barber 1986, pp. 17–18, 49; Bromwich 1978
  54. ^ Roberts 1991a, pp. 78, 81
  55. ^ Roberts 1991a
  56. ^ Translated in Coe & Young 1995, pp. 22–27. On the Glastonbury tale and its Otherworldly antecedents, see Sims-Williams 1991, pp. 58–61.
  57. ^ Coe & Young 1995, pp. 26–37
  58. ^ 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.; 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. ^ Mulligan, p. 262–4.
  62. ^ Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae Book 8.19–24, Book 9, Book 10, Book 11.1–2
  63. ^ Roberts 1991b, p. 106; Padel 1994, pp. 11–12
  64. ^ Green 2007b, pp. 217–219
  65. ^ Roberts 1991b, pp. 109–110, 112; Bromwich & Evans 1992, pp. 64–65
  66. ^ Roberts 1991b, p. 108
  67. ^ Bromwich 1978, pp. 454–455
  68. ^ See, for example, Brooke 1986, p. 95.
  69. ^ Ashe 1985, p. 6; Padel 1995, p. 110; Higham 2002, p. 76.
  70. ^ Crick 1989
  71. ^ Sweet 2004, p. 140. See further, Roberts 1991b and Roberts 1980.
  72. ^ As noted by, for example, Ashe 1996.
  73. ^ For example, Thorpe 1966, p. 29
  74. ^ Stokstad 1996
  75. ^ Loomis 1956; Bromwich 1983; Bromwich 1991.
  76. ^ Lacy 1996a, p. 16; Morris 1982, p. 2.
  77. ^ For example, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae Book 10.3.
  78. ^ Padel 2000, p. 81
  79. ^ Morris 1982, pp. 99–102; Lacy 1996a, p. 17.
  80. ^ Lacy 1996a, p. 17
  81. ^ Pyle 1903
  82. ^ Burgess & Busby 1999
  83. ^ Lacy 1996b
  84. ^ Kibler & Carroll 1991, p. 1
  85. ^ Lacy 1996b, p. 88
  86. ^ Roach 1949–1983
  87. ^ Ulrich von Zatzikhoven 2005
  88. ^ Padel 2000, pp. 77–82
  89. ^ 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
  90. ^ BNF c. 1475, fol. 610v
  91. ^ a b Lacy 1992–1996
  92. ^ For a study of this cycle, see Burns 1985.
  93. ^ Lacy 1996c, p. 344
  94. ^ On Malory and his work, see Field 1993 and Field 1998.
  95. ^ Vinaver 1990
  96. ^ Carley 1984
  97. ^ Parins 1995, p. 5
  98. ^ a b Ashe 1968, pp. 20–21; Merriman 1973
  99. ^ Green 2007a
  100. ^ Parins 1995, pp. 8–10
  101. ^ Wordsworth 1835
  102. ^ See Potwin 1902 for the sources that Tennyson used when writing this poem
  103. ^ Taylor & Brewer 1983, p. 127
  104. ^ See Rosenberg 1973 and Taylor & Brewer 1983, pp. 89–128 for analyses of The Idylls of the King.
  105. ^ See, for example, Simpson 1990.
  106. ^ Staines 1996, p. 449
  107. ^ Taylor & Brewer 1983, pp. 127–161; Mancoff 1990.
  108. ^ Green 2007a, p. 127; Gamerschlag 1983
  109. ^ Twain 1889; Smith & Thompson 1996.
  110. ^ Watson 2002
  111. ^ Mancoff 1990
  112. ^ Workman 1994
  113. ^ Hardy 1923; Binyon 1923; and Masefield 1927
  114. ^ Eliot 1949; Barber 2004, pp. 327–328
  115. ^ White 1958; Bradley 1982; Tondro 2002, p. 170
  116. ^ Lagorio 1996
  117. ^ Lupack & Lupack 1991
  118. ^ Porius. New York: Overlook Duckworth 2007. pp. 8–19.
  119. ^ C. A. Coates, John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape. Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble, 1982, p. 139.
  120. ^ New York: Simon and Schuster. C. A. Coates, John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape. pp. 92–97.
  121. ^ Harty 1996; Harty 1997
  122. ^ Taylor & Brewer 1983, chapter nine; see also Higham 2002, pp. 21–22, 30.
  123. ^ Thompson 1996, p. 141
  124. ^ 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's The 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.
  125. ^ Thomas 1993, pp. 128–131
  126. ^ Lupack 2002, p. 2; Forbush & Forbush 1915
  127. ^ Lacy 1996d, p. 364

General and cited sources

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Further reading

  • Breeze, Andrew (September 2015). "The Historical Arthur and Sixth-Century Scotland". Northern History. LII (2): 158–181. doi:10.1179/0078172x15z.00000000085. S2CID 161217897.
  • Breeze, Andrew (September 2016). "Arthur's Battles and the Volcanic Winter of 536-7". Northern History. LIII (2): 161–172. doi:10.1080/0078172x.2016.1195600. S2CID 164111727.
  • Halsall, Guy (2013). Worlds of Arthur: Facts & Fictions of the Dark Ages. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-870084-5.
  • Higham, Nicholas J. (2018). King Arthur : the making of the legend. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-21092-7.

External links

  • International Arthurian Society
  • . 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.
  • 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.
Legendary titles
Preceded by King of Britain Succeeded by

king, arthur, arthur, pendragon, redirects, here, other, uses, arthur, pendragon, disambiguation, disambiguation, welsh, brenin, arthur, cornish, arthur, gernow, breton, roue, arzhur, legendary, king, britain, central, figure, medieval, literary, tradition, kn. Arthur Pendragon redirects here For other uses see Arthur Pendragon disambiguation and King Arthur disambiguation King Arthur Welsh Brenin Arthur Cornish Arthur Gernow Breton Roue Arzhur is a legendary king of Britain and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain Tapestry showing Arthur as one of the Nine Worthies wearing a coat of arms often attributed to him 1 c 1385 In the earliest traditions Arthur appears as a leader of the post Roman Britons 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 and the Historia Brittonum 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 2 3 His name also occurs in early Welsh poetic sources such as Y Gododdin 4 The character developed through Welsh mythology 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 5 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 6 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 Chretien 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 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 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 Contents 1 Historicity 2 Name 3 Medieval literary traditions 3 1 Pre Galfridian traditions 3 2 Geoffrey of Monmouth 3 3 Romance traditions 4 Decline revival and the modern legend 4 1 Post medieval literature 4 2 Tennyson and the revival 4 3 Modern legend 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 7 1 Citations 7 2 General and cited sources 8 Further reading 9 External linksHistoricityMain article Historicity of King Arthur Arthur Leading the Charge at Mount Badon 1898 The historical basis for King Arthur has been long debated by scholars One school of thought citing entries in the Historia Brittonum History of the Britons and Annales Cambriae Welsh Annals saw 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 7 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 8 John Davies notes this as consistent with the British victory at Badon Hill attributed to Arthur by Nennius 8 The monks of Glastonbury are also said to have discovered the grave of Arthur in 1180 9 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 King Arthur returning from the Battle of Mons Badonis or Mount Badon First reference to Arthur found in early Welsh literature Llandaf Cathedral Cardiff 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 10 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 11 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 12 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 13 Gildas s 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 14 Arthur is not mentioned in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle or named in any surviving manuscript written between 400 and 820 15 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 16 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 17 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 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 18 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 wars and miles soldier 19 Former Gravesite of Arthur at Glastonbury Abbey According to one source the consensus among academic historians today is that there is no solid evidence for his historical existence 2 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 20 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 21 Other inscriptional evidence for Arthur including the Glastonbury cross is tainted with the suggestion of forgery a 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 22 but his conclusions are disputed 23 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 24 to sub Roman British rulers such as Riotamus 25 Ambrosius Aurelianus 26 Owain Ddantgwyn 27 the Welsh king Enniaun Girt 28 and Athrwys ap Meurig 29 However no convincing evidence for these identifications has emerged 2 30 NameMain article Arthur Arturus rex King Arthur a 1493 illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle 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 31 Artorius itself is of obscure and contested etymology 32 but possibly of Messapian 33 or Etruscan origin 34 Linguist Stephan Zimmer suggests Artorius possibly had a Celtic origin being a Latinization of a hypothetical name Artorijos in turn derived from an older patronym Arto rig ios meaning son of the bear warrior king This patronym is unattested but the root arto rig bear warrior king is the source of the Old Irish personal name Artri 35 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 36 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 37 An alternative theory which has gained only limited acceptance among professional scholars derives the name Arthur from Arcturus the brightest star in the constellation Bootes near Ursa Major or the Great Bear 38 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 Bootes 39 Medieval literary traditionsThe 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 led by Caitlin Green has identified three key strands to the portrayal of Arthur in this earliest material 40 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 41 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 42 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 43 A facsimile page of Y Gododdin one of the most famous early Welsh texts featuring Arthur c 1275 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 44 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 45 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 46 They include Kadeir Teyrnon The Chair of the Prince 47 which refers to Arthur the Blessed Preiddeu Annwn The Spoils of Annwn 48 which recounts an expedition of Arthur to the Otherworld and Marwnat vthyr pen dragon The Elegy of Uther Pen dragon 49 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 entering Arthur s court in the Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen An illustration by Alfred Fredericks for a 1881 edition of the Mabinogion 50 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 51 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 52 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 53 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 54 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 55 According to the Life of Saint Gildas 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 from Glastonbury 56 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 57 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 58 Also important are the references to Arthur in William of Malmesbury s De Gestis Regum Anglorum and Herman s De Miraculis Sanctae Mariae Laudunensis 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 King Arthur in a 15th century Welsh version of Historia Regum Britanniae 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 According to Geoffrey s tale Arthur was a descendant of Constantine the Great 61 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 62 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 63 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 64 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 65 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 66 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 67 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 68 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 69 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 70 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 71 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 72 Romance traditions During the 12th century Arthur s character began to be marginalised by the accretion of Arthurian side stories such as that of Tristan and Iseult here pictured in a painting by John William Waterhouse 1916 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 73 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 74 and Celtic names and stories not found in Geoffrey s Historia appear in the Arthurian romances 75 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 76 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 77 whereas in the continental romances he becomes the roi faineant the do nothing king whose inactivity and acquiescence constituted a central flaw in his otherwise ideal society 78 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 79 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 80 The story of Arthur drawing the sword from a stone appeared in Robert de Boron s 13th century Merlin By Howard Pyle 1903 81 Arthur and his retinue appear in some of the Lais of Marie de France 82 but it was the work of another French poet Chretien de Troyes that had the greatest influence with regard to the development of Arthur s character and legend 83 Chretien wrote five Arthurian romances between c 1170 and 1190 Erec and Enide and Cliges 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 84 Chretien 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 85 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 86 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 Chretien s character and that of Ulrich von Zatzikhoven s Lanzelet 87 Chretien 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 88 Particularly significant in this development were the three Welsh Arthurian romances which are closely similar to those of Chretien albeit with some significant differences Owain or the Lady of the Fountain is related to Chretien s Yvain Geraint and Enid to Erec and Enide and Peredur son of Efrawg to Perceval 89 The Round Table experiences a vision of the Holy Grail an illumination by Evrard d Espinques c 1475 90 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 91 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 Chretien s Lancelot as Arthur s primary court 92 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 91 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 93 Arthur receiving the later tradition s sword Excalibur in N C Wyeth s illustration for The Boy s King Arthur 1922 a modern edition of Thomas Malory s 1485 Le Morte d Arthur 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 94 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 95 Decline revival and the modern legendPost 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 96 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 97 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 98 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 98 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 99 John Dryden s masque 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 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 100 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 101 Pre eminent among these was Alfred Tennyson whose first Arthurian poem The Lady of Shalott was published in 1832 102 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 103 In the Idylls Arthur became a symbol of ideal manhood who ultimately failed through human weakness to establish a perfect kingdom on earth 104 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 105 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 106 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 107 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 108 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 109 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 opera Parsifal providing a notable instance of the latter 110 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 111 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 112 The romance tradition did however remain sufficiently powerful to persuade Thomas Hardy Laurence Binyon and John Masefield to compose Arthurian plays 113 and T S Eliot alludes to the Arthur myth but not Arthur in his poem The Waste Land which mentions the Fisher King 114 Merlin and Viviane in Gustave Dore s 1868 illustration for Alfred Lord Tennyson s Idylls of the King King Arthur by Charles Ernest Butler 1903 N C Wyeth s title page illustration for The Boy s King Arthur 1922 Modern legend See also List of works based on Arthurian legends King Arthur holding Excalibur and Patsy in Spamalot a stage musical adaptation of the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail 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 Mary Stewart s The Crystal Cave 1970 and its four sequels Thomas Berger s tragicomic Arthur Rex and Marion Zimmer Bradley s The Mists of Avalon 1982 in addition to comic strips such as Prince Valiant from 1937 onward 115 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 116 American authors often rework the story of Arthur to be more consistent with values such as equality and democracy 117 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 118 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 119 Powys s earlier novel A Glastonbury Romance 1932 is concerned with both the Holy Grail and the legend that Arthur is buried at Glastonbury 120 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 Eric 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 121 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 122 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 123 This trend towards placing Arthur in a historical setting is also apparent in historical and fantasy novels published during this period 124 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 125 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 126 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 127 See also Wales portal History portal Cornwall portalArthur s O on Artus Court King Arthur s family King Arthur s messianic return List of Arthurian characters List of books about King Arthur List of films based on Arthurian legend List of legendary kings of Britain Nine Worthies of which Arthur was oneNotes Modern scholarship views the Glastonbury cross as the result of a probably late 12th century fraud See Rahtz 1993 and Carey 1999 ReferencesCitations Neubecker 1998 2002 a b c Tom Shippey So Much Smoke review of Higham 2002 London Review of Books 40 24 23 20 December 2018 Higham 2002 pp 11 37 has a summary of the debate on this point Davies John 1993 A history of Wales Internet Archive London Allen Lane the Penguin Press p 133 ISBN 978 0 7139 9098 0 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 See Padel 1994 Sims Williams 1991 Green 2007b and Roberts 1991a Thorpe 1966 but see also Loomis 1956 Dumville 1986 Higham 2002 pp 116 169 Green 2007b pp 15 26 30 38 a b Davies 1994 pp 56 Davies John 1993 A history of Wales Internet Archive London Allen Lane the Penguin Press p 133 ISBN 978 0 7139 9098 0 Arthur s Tomb Glastonbury Abbey Archaeology Retrieved 8 August 2022 Green 2007b pp 26 30 Koch 1996 pp 251 253 Charles Edwards 1991 p 29 Morris 1973 Myres 1986 p 16 De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae chapter 26 Pryor 2004 pp 22 27 Bede Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum Book 1 16 Dumville 1977 pp 187 188 Green 2009 Padel 1994 Green 2007b chapters five and seven Historia Brittonum 56 73 Annales Cambriae 516 537 For example Ashley 2005 Heroic Age 1999 Breeze Andrew 2015 The Historical Arthur and Sixth Century Scotland Northern History 52 2 158 181 doi 10 1179 0078172X15Z 00000000085 S2CID 161217897 Breeze Andrew 2020 British Battles 493 937 Mount Badon to Brunanburh London Anthem Press pp 13 24 doi 10 2307 j ctvv4187r ISBN 9781785272233 JSTOR j ctvv4187r S2CID 243164764 King Arthur was real wasn t a king and lived in Strathclyde The Independent 3 September 2015 Retrieved 30 December 2015 Higham Nicholas J 2018 King Arthur The Making of the Legend New Haven Connecticut Yale University Press pp 262 63 ISBN 978 0 300 21092 7 537 and Camlann Flint Johnson University of Wisconsin River Falls researchgate net Retrieved 19 April 2021 Littleton amp Malcor 1994 Ashe 1985 Reno 1996 Phillips amp Keatman 1992 Phillips Graham 2016 The Lost Tomb of King Arthur The Search for Camelot and the Isle of Avalon Bear amp Company Bartrum Peter Clement 1993 A Welsh Classical Dictionary people in History and Legend up to about A D 1000 PDF National Library of Wales p 35 William Owen Pughe in his Cambrian Biography 1803 put forward the suggestion that Arthur was the same person as Athrwys ap Meurig It was discussed and rejected by Sharon Turner History of the Anglo Saxons Bk 3 Ch 3 1805 and Rice Rees Welsh Saints 1836 pp 185 6 but accepted by Robert Owen The Kymry 1891 p 77 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 doi 10 1353 cjm 2019 0021 Project MUSE 734087 Koch 2006 p 121 Malone 1925 Marcella Chelotti Vincenza Morizio Marina Silvestrini Le epigrafi romane di Canosa Volume 1 Edipuglia srl 1990 pp 261 264 Ciro Santoro Per la nuova iscrizione messapica di Oria La Zagaglia A VII n 27 1965 pp 271 293 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 Wilhelm Schulze Zur Geschichte lateinischer Eigennamen Volume 5 Issue 2 of Abhandlungen der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen Philologisch Historische Klasse Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften Gottingen Philologisch Historische Klasse 2nd edition Weidmann 1966 p 72 pp 333 338 Olli Salomies Die romischen Vornamen Studien zur romischen Namengebung Helsinki 1987 p 68 Herbig Gust Falisca Glotta Band II Gottingen 1910 p 98 Zimmer 2009 Koch 1996 p 253 See Higham 2002 p 74 Higham 2002 p 80 Chambers 1964 p 170 Bromwich 1978 p 544 Johnson 2002 pp 38 39 Walter 2005 p 74 Zimmer 2006 p 37 Anderson 2004 pp 28 29 Green 2007b pp 191 194 Green 2007b pp 45 176 Green 2007b pp 93 130 Padel 1994 has a thorough discussion of this aspect of Arthur s character Green 2007b pp 135 176 On his possessions and wife see also Ford 1983 Williams 1937 p 64 line 1242 Charles Edwards 1991 p 15 Koch 1996 pp 242 245 Green 2007b pp 13 15 50 52 See for example Haycock 1983 1984 and Koch 1996 pp 264 265 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 See for example Green 2007b pp 54 67 and Budgey 1992 who includes a translation Koch amp Carey 1994 pp 314 15 Lanier 1881 Sims Williams 1991 pp 38 46 has a full translation and analysis of this poem For a discussion of the tale see Bromwich amp Evans 1992 see also Padel 1994 pp 2 4 Roberts 1991a and Green 2007b pp 67 72 and chapter three Barber 1986 pp 17 18 49 Bromwich 1978 Roberts 1991a pp 78 81 Roberts 1991a Translated in Coe amp Young 1995 pp 22 27 On the Glastonbury tale and its Otherworldly antecedents see Sims Williams 1991 pp 58 61 Coe amp Young 1995 pp 26 37 Bourges Andre Yves Guillaume le Breton et l hagiographie bretonne aux XIIe et XIIIe siecles in Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l Ouest 1995 102 1 pp 35 45 See Ashe 1985 for an attempt to use this vita as a historical source Padel 1994 pp 8 12 Green 2007b pp 72 75 259 261 262 Bullock Davies 1982 Wright 1985 Thorpe 1966 Mulligan p 262 4 Geoffrey of Monmouth Historia Regum Britanniae Book 8 19 24 Book 9 Book 10 Book 11 1 2 Roberts 1991b p 106 Padel 1994 pp 11 12 Green 2007b pp 217 219 Roberts 1991b pp 109 110 112 Bromwich amp Evans 1992 pp 64 65 Roberts 1991b p 108 Bromwich 1978 pp 454 455 See for example Brooke 1986 p 95 Ashe 1985 p 6 Padel 1995 p 110 Higham 2002 p 76 Crick 1989 Sweet 2004 p 140 See further Roberts 1991b and Roberts 1980 As noted by for example Ashe 1996 For example Thorpe 1966 p 29 Stokstad 1996 Loomis 1956 Bromwich 1983 Bromwich 1991 Lacy 1996a p 16 Morris 1982 p 2 For example Geoffrey of Monmouth Historia Regum Britanniae Book 10 3 Padel 2000 p 81 Morris 1982 pp 99 102 Lacy 1996a p 17 Lacy 1996a p 17 Pyle 1903 Burgess amp Busby 1999 Lacy 1996b Kibler amp Carroll 1991 p 1 Lacy 1996b p 88 Roach 1949 1983 Ulrich von Zatzikhoven 2005 Padel 2000 pp 77 82 See Jones amp Jones 1949 for accurate translations of all three texts It is not entirely certain what exactly the relationship is between these Welsh romances and Chretien s works however see Koch 1996 pp 280 288 for a survey of opinions BNF c 1475 fol 610v a b Lacy 1992 1996 For a study of this cycle see Burns 1985 Lacy 1996c p 344 On Malory and his work see Field 1993 and Field 1998 Vinaver 1990 Carley 1984 Parins 1995 p 5 a b Ashe 1968 pp 20 21 Merriman 1973 Green 2007a Parins 1995 pp 8 10 Wordsworth 1835 See Potwin 1902 for the sources that Tennyson used when writing this poem Taylor amp Brewer 1983 p 127 See Rosenberg 1973 and Taylor amp Brewer 1983 pp 89 128 for analyses of The Idylls of the King See for example Simpson 1990 Staines 1996 p 449 Taylor amp Brewer 1983 pp 127 161 Mancoff 1990 Green 2007a p 127 Gamerschlag 1983 Twain 1889 Smith amp Thompson 1996 Watson 2002 Mancoff 1990 Workman 1994 Hardy 1923 Binyon 1923 and Masefield 1927 Eliot 1949 Barber 2004 pp 327 328 White 1958 Bradley 1982 Tondro 2002 p 170 Lagorio 1996 Lupack amp Lupack 1991 Porius New York Overlook Duckworth 2007 pp 8 19 C A Coates John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape Totowa NJ Barnes amp Noble 1982 p 139 New York Simon and Schuster C A Coates John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape pp 92 97 Harty 1996 Harty 1997 Taylor amp Brewer 1983 chapter nine see also Higham 2002 pp 21 22 30 Thompson 1996 p 141 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 s The 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 Thomas 1993 pp 128 131 Lupack 2002 p 2 Forbush amp Forbush 1915 Lacy 1996d p 364 General and cited sources Anderson Graham 2004 King Arthur in Antiquity London Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 31714 6 Ashe Geoffrey 1985 The Discovery of King Arthur Garden City NY Anchor Press Doubleday ISBN 978 0 385 19032 9 Ashe Geoffrey 1996 Geoffrey of Monmouth in Lacy Norris ed The New Arthurian Encyclopedia New York Garland pp 179 182 ISBN 978 1 56865 432 4 Ashe Geoffrey 1968 The Visionary Kingdom in Ashe Geoffrey ed The Quest for Arthur s Britain London Granada ISBN 0 586 08044 9 Ashley Michael 2005 The Mammoth Book of King Arthur London Robinson ISBN 978 1 84119 249 9 Barber Richard 1986 King Arthur Hero and Legend Woodbridge UK Boydell Press ISBN 0 85115 254 6 Barber Richard 2004 The Holy Grail Imagination and Belief London Allen Lane ISBN 978 0 7139 9206 9 Bibliotheque nationale de France French National Library c 1475 Francais 116 Lancelot en prose French MS 116 The Prose Lancelot in French Illuminated by Evrard d Espinques Originally commissioned for Jacques d Armagnac now held by the BNF Department of Manuscripts Paris Binyon Laurence 1923 Arthur A Tragedy London Heinemann OCLC 17768778 Bradley Marion Zimmer 1982 The Mists of Avalon New York Knopf ISBN 978 0 394 52406 1 Bromwich Rachel 1978 Trioedd Ynys Prydein The Welsh Triads Cardiff University of Wales Press ISBN 978 0 7083 0690 1 2nd ed Bromwich Rachel 1983 Celtic Elements in Arthurian Romance A General Survey in Grout P B Diverres Armel Hugh eds The Legend of Arthur in the Middle Ages Woodbridge Boydell and Brewer pp 41 55 ISBN 978 0 85991 132 0 Bromwich Rachel 1991 First Transmission to England and France in Bromwich Rachel Jarman A O H Roberts Brynley F eds The Arthur of the Welsh Cardiff University of Wales Press pp 273 298 ISBN 978 0 7083 1107 3 Bromwich Rachel Evans D Simon 1992 Culhwch and Olwen An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale Cardiff University of Wales Press ISBN 978 0 7083 1127 1 Brooke Christopher N L 1986 The Church and the Welsh Border in the Central Middle Ages Woodbridge Boydell ISBN 978 0 85115 175 5 Budgey A 1992 Preiddeu Annwn and the Welsh Tradition of Arthur in Byrne Cyril J Harry Margaret Rose o Siadhail Padraig eds Celtic Languages and Celtic People Proceedings of the Second North American Congress of Celtic Studies held in Halifax August 16 19 1989 Halifax Nova Scotia D Arcy McGee Chair of Irish Studies Saint Mary s University pp 391 404 ISBN 978 0 9696252 0 9 Bullock Davies C 1982 Exspectare Arthurum Arthur and the Messianic Hope Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 29 432 440 Burgess Glyn S Busby Keith eds 1999 The Lais of Marie de France London Penguin ISBN 978 0 14 044759 0 2nd ed Burns E Jane 1985 Arthurian Fictions Re reading the Vulgate Cycle Columbus Ohio State University Press ISBN 978 0 8142 0387 3 Carey John 1999 The Finding of Arthur s Grave A Story from Clonmacnoise in Carey John Koch John T Lambert Pierre Yves eds Ildanach Ildirech A Festschrift for Proinsias Mac Cana Andover Celtic Studies Publications pp 1 14 ISBN 978 1 891271 01 4 Carley J P 1984 Polydore Vergil and John Leland on King Arthur The Battle of the Books Arthurian Interpretations 15 86 100 Chambers Edmund Kerchever 1964 Arthur of Britain Speculum Historiale Charles Edwards Thomas M 1991 The Arthur of History in Bromwich Rachel Jarman A O H Roberts Brynley F eds The Arthur of the Welsh Cardiff University of Wales Press pp 15 32 ISBN 978 0 7083 1107 3 Coe John B Young Simon 1995 The Celtic Sources for the Arthurian Legend Felinfach Lampeter Llanerch ISBN 978 1 897853 83 2 Crick Julia C 1989 The Historia regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth 3 A Summary Catalogue of the Manuscripts Cambridge Brewer ISBN 978 0 85991 213 6 Dumville D N 1977 Sub Roman Britain History and Legend History 62 205 173 192 doi 10 1111 j 1468 229X 1977 tb02335 x Dumville D N 1986 The Historical Value of the Historia Brittonum Arthurian Literature 6 1 26 Eliot Thomas Stearns 1949 The Waste Land and Other Poems London Faber and Faber OCLC 56866661 Field P J C 1993 The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Malory Cambridge Brewer ISBN 978 0 585 16570 7 Field P J C 1998 Malory Texts and Sources Cambridge Brewer ISBN 978 0 85991 536 6 Ford P K 1983 On the Significance of some Arthurian Names in Welsh Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 30 268 273 Forbush William Byron Forbush Dascomb 1915 The Knights of King Arthur How To Begin and What To Do The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester retrieved 22 May 2008 Gamerschlag K 1983 Tom Thumb und Konig Arthur oder Der Daumling als Massstab der Welt Beobachtungen zu dreihundertfunfzig Jahren gemeinsamer Geschichte Anglia in German 101 361 391 Green Caitlin 2009 The Historicity and Historicisation of Arthur Arthuriana retrieved 9 July 2018 Green Thomas August 2007a Tom Thumb and Jack the Giant Killer Two Arthurian Fairytales Folklore 118 2 123 140 doi 10 1080 00155870701337296 S2CID 161588264 EBSCO subscription required Green Thomas 2007b Concepts of Arthur Stroud Tempus ISBN 978 0 7524 4461 1 Haycock M 1983 1984 Preiddeu Annwn and the Figure of Taliesin Studia Celtica 18 19 52 78 Haycock M 2007 Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin Aberystwyth CMCS ISBN 978 0 9527478 9 5 Hardy Thomas 1923 The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall at Tintagel in Lyonnesse A New Version of an Old Story Arranged as a Play for Mummers in One Act Requiring No Theatre or Scenery London Macmillan OCLC 1124753 Harty Kevin J 1996 Films in Lacy Norris J ed The New Arthurian Encyclopedia New York Garland pp 152 155 ISBN 978 1 56865 432 4 Harty Kevin J 1997 Arthurian Film Arthuriana Camelot Project Bibliography retrieved 22 May 2008 Heroic Age Spring Summer 1999 Early Medieval Tintagel An Interview with Archaeologists Rachel Harry and Kevin Brady The Heroic Age 1 archived from the original on 21 August 2014 Higham N J 2002 King Arthur Myth Making and History London Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 21305 9 Jones Gwyn Jones Thomas eds 1949 The Mabinogion London Dent OCLC 17884380 Johnson Flint 2002 The British Sources of the Abduction and Grail Romances University Press of America Kibler William Carroll Carleton W eds 1991 Chretien de Troyes Arthurian Romances London Penguin ISBN 978 0 14 044521 3 Koch John T 1996 The Celtic Lands in Lacy Norris J ed Medieval Arthurian Literature A Guide to Recent Research New York Garland pp 239 322 ISBN 978 0 8153 2160 6 Koch John T Carey John 1994 The Celtic Heroic Age Literary Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe and Early Ireland and Wales Malden MA Celtic Studies Publications ISBN 978 0 9642446 2 7 Koch John T 2006 Celtic Culture A Historical Encyclopedia Santa Barbara CA ABC CLIO ISBN 1851094407 Lacy Norris J 1992 1996 Lancelot Grail The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post Vulgate in Translation New York Garland ISBN 978 0 8153 0757 0 5 vols Lacy Norris J 1996a Character of Arthur in Lacy Norris J ed The New Arthurian Encyclopedia New York Garland pp 16 17 ISBN 978 1 56865 432 4 Lacy Norris J 1996b Chretien de Troyes in Lacy Norris J ed The New Arthurian Encyclopedia New York Garland pp 88 91 ISBN 978 1 56865 432 4 Lacy Norris J 1996c Nine Worthies in Lacy Norris J ed The New Arthurian Encyclopedia New York Garland p 344 ISBN 978 1 56865 432 4 Lacy Norris J 1996d Popular Culture in Lacy Norris J ed The New Arthurian Encyclopedia New York Garland pp 363 364 ISBN 978 1 56865 432 4 Lagorio V M 1996 Bradley Marion Zimmer in Lacy Norris J ed The New Arthurian Encyclopedia New York Garland p 57 ISBN 978 1 56865 432 4 Lanier Sidney ed 1881 The Boy s Mabinogion being the earliest Welsh tales of King Arthur in the famous Red Book of Hergest Illustrated by Alfred Fredericks New York Charles Scribner s Sons Lanier Sidney ed 1922 The Boy s King Arthur Sir Thomas Malory s History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table Illustrated by N C Wyeth New York Charles Scribner s Sons Littleton C Scott Malcor Linda A 1994 From Scythia to Camelot A Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King Arthur the Knights of the Round Table and the Holy Grail New York Garland ISBN 978 0 8153 1496 7 Loomis Roger Sherman 1956 The Arthurian Legend before 1139 in Loomis Roger Sherman ed Wales and the Arthurian Legend Cardiff University of Wales Press pp 179 220 OCLC 2792376 Lupack Alan Lupack Barbara 1991 King Arthur in America Cambridge D S Brewer ISBN 978 0 85991 543 4 Lupack Alan 2002 Preface in Sklar Elizabeth Sherr Hoffman Donald L eds King Arthur in Popular Culture Jefferson NC McFarland pp 1 3 ISBN 978 0 7864 1257 0 Malone Kemp May 1925 Artorius Modern Philology 22 4 367 374 doi 10 1086 387553 JSTOR 433555 S2CID 224832996 JSTOR subscription required Mancoff Debra N 1990 The Arthurian Revival in Victorian Art New York Garland ISBN 978 0 8240 7040 3 Masefield John 1927 Tristan and Isolt A Play in Verse London Heinemann OCLC 4787138 Merriman James Douglas 1973 The Flower of Kings A Study of the Arthurian Legend in England Between 1485 and 1835 Lawrence University of Kansas Press ISBN 978 0 7006 0102 8 Morris John 1973 The Age of Arthur A History of the British Isles from 350 to 650 New York Scribner ISBN 978 0 684 13313 3 Morris Rosemary 1982 The Character of King Arthur in Medieval Literature Cambridge Brewer ISBN 978 0 8476 7118 2 Myres J N L 1986 The English Settlements Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 282235 2 Neubecker Ottfried 1998 2002 Wappenkunde in German Munich Orbis Verlag p 170 ISBN 3 572 01336 4 Padel O J 1994 The Nature of Arthur Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 27 1 31 Padel O J Fall 1995 Recent Work on the Origins of the Arthurian Legend A Comment Arthuriana 5 3 103 14 doi 10 1353 art 1995 0040 S2CID 32369325 Padel O J 2000 Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature Cardiff University of Wales Press ISBN 978 0 7083 1682 5 Parins Marylyn Jackson 1995 Sir Thomas Malory The Critical Heritage London Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 13400 2 Phillips Graham Keatman Martin 1992 King Arthur The True Story London Century ISBN 978 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 JSTOR 2917812 Pryor Francis 2004 Britain AD A Quest for England Arthur and the Anglo Saxons London HarperCollins ISBN 978 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 ISBN 978 0 7134 6865 6 Reno Frank D 1996 The Historic King Arthur Authenticating the Celtic Hero of Post Roman Britain Jefferson NC McFarland ISBN 978 0 7864 0266 3 Roach William ed 1949 1983 The Continuations of the Old French Perceval of Chretien de Troyes Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press OCLC 67476613 5 vols Roberts Brynley F 1980 Brut Tysilio darlith agoriadol gan Athro y Gymraeg a i Llenyddiaeth in Welsh Abertawe Coleg Prifysgol Abertawe ISBN 978 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 ISBN 978 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 ISBN 978 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 ISBN 978 0 674 29175 1 Simpson Roger 1990 Camelot Regained The Arthurian Revival and Tennyson 1800 1849 Cambridge Brewer ISBN 978 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 ISBN 978 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 ISBN 978 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 ISBN 978 1 56865 432 4 Stokstad M 1996 Modena Archivolt in Lacy Norris J ed The New Arthurian Encyclopedia New York Garland pp 324 326 ISBN 978 1 56865 432 4 Sweet Rosemary 2004 Antiquaries The Discovery of the Past in Eighteenth century Britain Continuum London ISBN 1 85285 309 3 Taylor Beverly Brewer Elisabeth 1983 The Return of King Arthur British and American Arthurian Literature Since 1800 Cambridge Brewer ISBN 978 0 389 20278 3 Tennyson Alfred 1868 Enid Illustrated by Gustave Dore London Edward Moxon amp Co Thomas Charles 1993 Book of Tintagel Arthur and Archaeology London Batsford ISBN 978 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 ISBN 978 1 56865 432 4 Thorpe Lewis ed 1966 Geoffrey of Monmouth The History of the Kings of Britain Harmondsworth Penguin OCLC 3370598 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 ISBN 978 0 7864 1257 0 Twain Mark 1889 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur s Court New York Webster OCLC 11267671 Ulrich von Zatzikhoven 2005 c 1194 Lanzelet Translated by Thomas Kerth New York Columbia University Press ISBN 978 0 231 12869 8 Vinaver Sir Eugene ed 1990 The Works of Sir Thomas Malory Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 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 ISBN 978 0 85991 767 4 Walter Philippe 2005 2002 Artu 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 OCLC 547840 Williams Sir Ifor ed 1937 Canu Aneirin in Welsh Caerdydd Cardiff Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru University of Wales Press OCLC 13163081 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 ISBN 978 0 85991 211 2 Zimmer Stefan 2006 Die keltischen Wurzeln der Artussage mit einer vollstandigen Ubersetzung der altesten Artuserzahlung 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 readingBreeze Andrew September 2015 The Historical Arthur and Sixth Century Scotland Northern History LII 2 158 181 doi 10 1179 0078172x15z 00000000085 S2CID 161217897 Breeze Andrew September 2016 Arthur s Battles and the Volcanic Winter of 536 7 Northern History LIII 2 161 172 doi 10 1080 0078172x 2016 1195600 S2CID 164111727 Halsall Guy 2013 Worlds of Arthur Facts amp Fictions of the Dark Ages Oxford UK Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 870084 5 Higham Nicholas J 2018 King Arthur the making of the legend New Haven Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 21092 7 External linksKing Arthur at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Data from Wikidata International Arthurian Society 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 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 Legendary titlesPreceded byUther Pendragon King of Britain Succeeded byConstantine III Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title King Arthur amp oldid 1131492195, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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