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Matter of Britain

September 01, 2023

"Arthurian literature" redirects here. For a bibliography, see Bibliography of King Arthur.

The Matter of Britain (French: matière de Bretagne) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Western story cycles recalled repeatedly in medieval literature, together with the Matter of France, which concerned the legends of Charlemagne, and the Matter of Rome, which included material derived from or inspired by classical mythology.[1] Its pseudo-chronicle and chivalric romance works, written both in prose and verse, flourished from the 12th to the 16th century, particularly in northern France.

Name Edit

The three "matters" were first described in the 12th century by French poet Jean Bodel, whose epic La Chanson des Saisnes [fr] ("Song of the Saxons") contains the lines:

The name distinguishes and relates the Matter of Britain from the mythological themes taken from classical antiquity, the "Matter of Rome", and the tales of the Paladins of Charlemagne and their wars with the Moors and Saracens, which constituted the "Matter of France".

Themes and subjects Edit

King Arthur is the chief subject of the Matter of Britain, along with stories related to the legendary kings of Britain, as well as lesser-known topics related to the history of Great Britain and Brittany, such as the stories of Brutus of Troy, Coel Hen, Leir of Britain (King Lear), and Gogmagog.

Legendary history Edit

The legendary history of Britain was created partly to form a body of patriotic myth for the country. Several agendas thus can be seen in this body of literature. According to John J. Davenport, the question of Britain's identity and significance in the world "was a theme of special importance for writers trying to find unity in the mixture of their land's Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Roman and Norse inheritance."[2]

Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae is a central component of the Matter of Britain. Geoffrey drew on a number of ancient British texts, including the ninth century Historia Brittonum. The Historia Brittonum is the earliest known source of the story of Brutus of Troy. Traditionally attributed to Nennius, its actual compiler is unknown; it exists in several recensions. This tale went on to achieve greater currency because its inventor linked Brutus to the diaspora of heroes that followed the Trojan War.[2] As such, this material could be used for patriotic myth-making just as Virgil linked the founding of Rome to the Trojan War in The Æneid. Geoffrey lists Coel Hen as a King of the Britons,[3] whose daughter, Helena marries Constantius Chlorus and gives birth to a son who becomes the Emperor Constantine the Great, tracing the Roman imperial line to British ancestors.

It has been suggested that Leir of Britain, who later became King Lear, was originally the Welsh sea-god Llŷr, related to the Irish Ler. Various Celtic deities have been identified with characters from Arthurian literature as well: for example Morgan le Fay was often thought to have originally been the Welsh goddess Modron or Irish the Morrígan. Many of these identifications come from the speculative comparative religion of the late 19th century and have been questioned in more recent years.

William Shakespeare was interested in the legendary history of Britain, and was familiar with some of its more obscure byways. Shakespeare's plays contain several tales relating to these legendary kings, such as King Lear and Cymbeline. It has been suggested that Shakespeare's Welsh schoolmaster Thomas Jenkins introduced him to this material. These tales also figure in Raphael Holinshed's The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which also appears in Shakespeare's sources for Macbeth.

Other early authors also drew from the early Arthurian and pseudo-historical sources of the Matter of Britain. The Scots, for instance, formulated a mythical history in the Pictish and the Dál Riata royal lines. While they do eventually become factual lines, unlike those of Geoffrey, their origins are vague and often incorporate both aspects of mythical British history and mythical Irish history. The story of Gabrán mac Domangairt especially incorporates elements of both those histories.

Arthurian cycle Edit

The Arthurian literary cycle is the best-known part of the Matter of Britain. It has succeeded largely because it tells two interlocking stories that have intrigued many later authors. One concerns Camelot, usually envisioned as a doomed utopia of chivalric virtue, undone by the fatal flaws of the heroes like Arthur, Gawain and Lancelot. The other concerns the quests of the various knights to achieve the Holy Grail; some succeed (Galahad, Percival), and others fail.

The Arthurian tales have been changed throughout time, and other characters have been added to add backstory and expand on other Knights of the Round Table. The medieval legend of Arthur and his knights is full of Christian themes; those themes involve the destruction of human plans for virtue by the moral failures of their characters, and the quest for an important Christian relic. Finally, the relationships between the characters invited treatment in the tradition of courtly love, such as Lancelot and Guinevere, or Tristan and Iseult.

In more recent years, the trend has been to attempt to link the tales of King Arthur and his knights with Celtic mythology, usually in highly romanticized, 20th-century reconstructed versions. The work of Jessie Weston, in particular From Ritual to Romance, traced Arthurian imagery through Christianity to roots in early nature worship and vegetation rites, though this interpretation is no longer fashionable.[4] It is also possible to read the Arthurian literature, particularly the Grail tradition, as an allegory of human development and spiritual growth, a theme explored by mythologist Joseph Campbell amongst others.[5]

Noteworthy authors Edit

Medieval Edit

Author Century Language Œuvres
Béroul 12th Old Norman Tristan
Chrétien de Troyes 12th Old French Erec and Enide, Cligès, Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, Perceval, the Story of the Grail
Geoffrey Chaucer 14th Middle English The Canterbury Tales
Thomas Chestre 14th Middle English Sir Launfal, Libeaus Desconus
Geoffrey of Monmouth 12th Latin Historia Regum Britanniae, Vita Merlini
Gottfried von Strassburg 13th Middle High German Tristan [de]
Hartmann von Aue 12th Middle High German Erec, Iwein
Layamon 13th Middle English Brut
Thomas Malory 15th Middle English Le Morte d'Arthur
Marie de France 12th Anglo-Norman Lais of Marie de France: Lai de Yonec, Lai de Frêne, Lai de Lanval (...)
Nennius 9th Latin Historia Brittonum
Robert de Boron 12th Old French Merlin
Taliesin 6th Middle Welsh Book of Taliesin
Thomas of Britain 12th Old French Tristan
Wace 12th Old Norman Roman de Brut, Roman de Rou
Wolfram von Eschenbach 12th Middle High German Parzival
Raoul de Houdenc 12th Old French Meraugis de Portlesguez
Païen de Maisières 12-13th Old French La Mule sans frein
Raoul de Houdenc 13th Old French La Vengeance Raguidel
Rustichello da Pisa 13th Franco-Italian Roman de Roi Artus, Guiron le Courtois, Meliodus
Ulrich von Zatzikhoven 13th Middle High German Lanzelet

Anonymous Edit

Œuvres Century Language
Alliterative Morte Arthure 14th–15th Middle English
The Awntyrs off Arthure 14th–15th Middle English
L'âtre périlleux 13th Old French
Le Chevalier au papegau [fr] 14th–15th Middle French
Elucidation 13th Old French
Floriant et Florete [fr] 13th Old French
Folie Tristan d'Oxford 12th Anglo-Norman
De Ortu Waluuanii 12–13th Latin
Gliglois [fr] 13th Old French
Hunbaut [fr] 13th Old French
Jaufre 13th Old Occitan
The Knight with the Sword 13th Old French
The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain 15th Middle Scots
Lancelot-Grail Cycle 13th Old French
Life of Caradoc 6th
Mabinogion 11th-13th Middle Welsh
The Marvels of Rigomer [fr] 13th Old French
Meliadus 13th Old French
Of Arthour and of Merlin 13th Middle English
Palamedes 13th Old French
Perceforest 14th Middle French
Perceval Continuations 13th Old French
Perlesvaus 13th Old French
Post-Vulgate Cycle 13th Old French
Prose Tristan 13th Old French
Roman de Fergus 13th Old French
Romanz du reis Yder 13th Anglo-Norman
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 14th Middle English
Stanzaic Morte Arthur 14th Middle English
La Tavola Ritonda 15th Tuscan
Vera historia de morte Arthuri 12th/13th Latin

Modern Edit

See also Edit

References Edit

Citations Edit

  1. ^ Evans (2012)
  2. ^ a b c Davenport (2004)
  3. ^ Geoffrey of Monmouth (1966)
  4. ^ Surette (1988)
  5. ^ Campbell & Moyers (1991)
  6. ^ Flieger (2000)

Cited works Edit

  • Campbell, Joseph; Moyers, Bill (1991). "Sacrifice and Bliss". Power of Myth. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. pp. 113–150. ISBN 978-0385418867.
  • Davenport, John J. (2004). "The Matter of Britain: The Mythological and Philosophical Significance of the British Legends" (PDF). Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  • Evans, Barry (25 October 2012). "King Arthur, Part 1: The Matter of Britain". North Coast Journal. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  • Flieger, Verlyn (15 October 2000). "J.R.R. Tolkien and the Matter of Britain". Mythlore. 23 (1). Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  • Geoffrey of Monmouth (1966). Thorpe, Lewis (ed.). The History of the Kings of Britain. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044170-0.
  • Surette, Leon (Summer 1988). "The Waste Land and Jessie Weston: A Reassessment". Twentieth Century Literature. 34 (2): 223–244. doi:10.2307/441079. JSTOR 441079.

Other sources Edit

  • Dover, Carol, ed. (2005). A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1843842453.
  • Green, D.H. (2005). The Beginnings of Medieval Romance: Fact and fiction, 1150–1220. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521049566.
  • Pearsall, Derek (2005). Arthurian Romance: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0631233206.

External links Edit

 
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Arthurian Legend".
  • - a website detailing Welsh Arthurian folklore
  • Arthurian Resources: King Arthur, History and the Welsh Arthurian Legends - detailed and comprehensive academic site, includes numerous scholarly articles, from Thomas Green of Oxford University
  • Arthuriana - the only academic journal solely concerned with the Arthurian Legend with a selection of resources and links
  • - provides texts and translations (of varying quality) of Welsh medieval sources, many of which mention Arthur
  • International Arthurian Society
  • The Camelot Project - provides valuable bibliographies of freely downloadable Arthurian texts from the sixth to the early 20th centuries, from the University of Rochester
  • The Heroic Age - an online peer-reviewed journal which includes regular Arthurian articles
  • The Medieval Development of Arthurian Literature - from H2G2
  • - a collection of articles on King Arthur by various Arthurian enthusiasts

September 01, 2023
matter, britain, arthurian, literature, redirects, here, bibliography, bibliography, king, arthur, french, matière, bretagne, body, medieval, literature, legendary, material, associated, with, great, britain, brittany, legendary, kings, heroes, associated, wit. Arthurian literature redirects here For a bibliography see Bibliography of King Arthur The Matter of Britain French matiere de Bretagne is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it particularly King Arthur It was one of the three great Western story cycles recalled repeatedly in medieval literature together with the Matter of France which concerned the legends of Charlemagne and the Matter of Rome which included material derived from or inspired by classical mythology 1 Its pseudo chronicle and chivalric romance works written both in prose and verse flourished from the 12th to the 16th century particularly in northern France Contents 1 Name 2 Themes and subjects 2 1 Legendary history 2 2 Arthurian cycle 3 Noteworthy authors 3 1 Medieval 3 2 Anonymous 3 3 Modern 4 See also 5 References 5 1 Citations 5 2 Cited works 5 3 Other sources 6 External linksName EditThe three matters were first described in the 12th century by French poet Jean Bodel whose epic La Chanson des Saisnes fr Song of the Saxons contains the lines Ne sont que III matieres a nul homme antandant De France et de Bretaigne et de Rome la grant There are only three subject matters for any discerning man That of France that of Britain and that of great Rome citation needed The name distinguishes and relates the Matter of Britain from the mythological themes taken from classical antiquity the Matter of Rome and the tales of the Paladins of Charlemagne and their wars with the Moors and Saracens which constituted the Matter of France Themes and subjects EditKing Arthur is the chief subject of the Matter of Britain along with stories related to the legendary kings of Britain as well as lesser known topics related to the history of Great Britain and Brittany such as the stories of Brutus of Troy Coel Hen Leir of Britain King Lear and Gogmagog Legendary history Edit The legendary history of Britain was created partly to form a body of patriotic myth for the country Several agendas thus can be seen in this body of literature According to John J Davenport the question of Britain s identity and significance in the world was a theme of special importance for writers trying to find unity in the mixture of their land s Celtic Anglo Saxon Roman and Norse inheritance 2 Geoffrey of Monmouth s Historia Regum Britanniae is a central component of the Matter of Britain Geoffrey drew on a number of ancient British texts including the ninth century Historia Brittonum The Historia Brittonum is the earliest known source of the story of Brutus of Troy Traditionally attributed to Nennius its actual compiler is unknown it exists in several recensions This tale went on to achieve greater currency because its inventor linked Brutus to the diaspora of heroes that followed the Trojan War 2 As such this material could be used for patriotic myth making just as Virgil linked the founding of Rome to the Trojan War in The AEneid Geoffrey lists Coel Hen as a King of the Britons 3 whose daughter Helena marries Constantius Chlorus and gives birth to a son who becomes the Emperor Constantine the Great tracing the Roman imperial line to British ancestors It has been suggested that Leir of Britain who later became King Lear was originally the Welsh sea god Llŷr related to the Irish Ler Various Celtic deities have been identified with characters from Arthurian literature as well for example Morgan le Fay was often thought to have originally been the Welsh goddess Modron or Irish the Morrigan Many of these identifications come from the speculative comparative religion of the late 19th century and have been questioned in more recent years William Shakespeare was interested in the legendary history of Britain and was familiar with some of its more obscure byways Shakespeare s plays contain several tales relating to these legendary kings such as King Lear and Cymbeline It has been suggested that Shakespeare s Welsh schoolmaster Thomas Jenkins introduced him to this material These tales also figure in Raphael Holinshed s The Chronicles of England Scotland and Ireland which also appears in Shakespeare s sources for Macbeth Other early authors also drew from the early Arthurian and pseudo historical sources of the Matter of Britain The Scots for instance formulated a mythical history in the Pictish and the Dal Riata royal lines While they do eventually become factual lines unlike those of Geoffrey their origins are vague and often incorporate both aspects of mythical British history and mythical Irish history The story of Gabran mac Domangairt especially incorporates elements of both those histories Arthurian cycle Edit The Arthurian literary cycle is the best known part of the Matter of Britain It has succeeded largely because it tells two interlocking stories that have intrigued many later authors One concerns Camelot usually envisioned as a doomed utopia of chivalric virtue undone by the fatal flaws of the heroes like Arthur Gawain and Lancelot The other concerns the quests of the various knights to achieve the Holy Grail some succeed Galahad Percival and others fail The Arthurian tales have been changed throughout time and other characters have been added to add backstory and expand on other Knights of the Round Table The medieval legend of Arthur and his knights is full of Christian themes those themes involve the destruction of human plans for virtue by the moral failures of their characters and the quest for an important Christian relic Finally the relationships between the characters invited treatment in the tradition of courtly love such as Lancelot and Guinevere or Tristan and Iseult In more recent years the trend has been to attempt to link the tales of King Arthur and his knights with Celtic mythology usually in highly romanticized 20th century reconstructed versions The work of Jessie Weston in particular From Ritual to Romance traced Arthurian imagery through Christianity to roots in early nature worship and vegetation rites though this interpretation is no longer fashionable 4 It is also possible to read the Arthurian literature particularly the Grail tradition as an allegory of human development and spiritual growth a theme explored by mythologist Joseph Campbell amongst others 5 Noteworthy authors EditMedieval Edit Author Century Language ŒuvresBeroul 12th Old Norman TristanChretien de Troyes 12th Old French Erec and Enide Cliges Lancelot the Knight of the Cart Yvain the Knight of the Lion Perceval the Story of the GrailGeoffrey Chaucer 14th Middle English The Canterbury TalesThomas Chestre 14th Middle English Sir Launfal Libeaus DesconusGeoffrey of Monmouth 12th Latin Historia Regum Britanniae Vita MerliniGottfried von Strassburg 13th Middle High German Tristan de Hartmann von Aue 12th Middle High German Erec IweinLayamon 13th Middle English BrutThomas Malory 15th Middle English Le Morte d ArthurMarie de France 12th Anglo Norman Lais of Marie de France Lai de Yonec Lai de Frene Lai de Lanval Nennius 9th Latin Historia BrittonumRobert de Boron 12th Old French MerlinTaliesin 6th Middle Welsh Book of TaliesinThomas of Britain 12th Old French TristanWace 12th Old Norman Roman de Brut Roman de RouWolfram von Eschenbach 12th Middle High German ParzivalRaoul de Houdenc 12th Old French Meraugis de PortlesguezPaien de Maisieres 12 13th Old French La Mule sans freinRaoul de Houdenc 13th Old French La Vengeance RaguidelRustichello da Pisa 13th Franco Italian Roman de Roi Artus Guiron le Courtois MeliodusUlrich von Zatzikhoven 13th Middle High German LanzeletAnonymous Edit Œuvres Century LanguageAlliterative Morte Arthure 14th 15th Middle EnglishThe Awntyrs off Arthure 14th 15th Middle EnglishL atre perilleux 13th Old FrenchLe Chevalier au papegau fr 14th 15th Middle FrenchElucidation 13th Old FrenchFloriant et Florete fr 13th Old FrenchFolie Tristan d Oxford 12th Anglo NormanDe Ortu Waluuanii 12 13th LatinGliglois fr 13th Old FrenchHunbaut fr 13th Old FrenchJaufre 13th Old OccitanThe Knight with the Sword 13th Old FrenchThe Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain 15th Middle ScotsLancelot Grail Cycle 13th Old FrenchLife of Caradoc 6thMabinogion 11th 13th Middle WelshThe Marvels of Rigomer fr 13th Old FrenchMeliadus 13th Old FrenchOf Arthour and of Merlin 13th Middle EnglishPalamedes 13th Old FrenchPerceforest 14th Middle FrenchPerceval Continuations 13th Old FrenchPerlesvaus 13th Old FrenchPost Vulgate Cycle 13th Old FrenchProse Tristan 13th Old FrenchRoman de Fergus 13th Old FrenchRomanz du reis Yder 13th Anglo NormanSir Gawain and the Green Knight 14th Middle EnglishStanzaic Morte Arthur 14th Middle EnglishLa Tavola Ritonda 15th TuscanVera historia de morte Arthuri 12th 13th LatinModern Edit Lloyd Alexander Alexandre Astier Rene Barjavel T A Barron Marion Zimmer Bradley Gillian Bradshaw Bernard Cornwell Sara Douglass David Drake Michael Drayton Hal Foster Parke Godwin Roger Lancelyn Green Raphael Holinshed Eric Idle David Jones Debra A Kemp C S Lewis John Cowper Powys Howard Pyle William Shakespeare 2 Edmund Spenser John Steinbeck Mary Stewart Rosemary Sutcliff Alfred Tennyson J R R Tolkien 6 Nikolai Tolstoy Mark Twain Richard Wagner Evangeline Walton Charles White T H White Jack Whyte Charles WilliamsSee also EditAvalon and Glastonbury Battle of Badon and Battle of Camlann Breton mythology and Cornish mythology English historians in the Middle Ages Historicity of King Arthur List of Arthurian characters List of works based on Arthurian legends Sites and places associated with Arthurian legendReferences EditCitations Edit Evans 2012 a b c Davenport 2004 Geoffrey of Monmouth 1966 Surette 1988 Campbell amp Moyers 1991 Flieger 2000 Cited works Edit Campbell Joseph Moyers Bill 1991 Sacrifice and Bliss Power of Myth Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group pp 113 150 ISBN 978 0385418867 Davenport John J 2004 The Matter of Britain The Mythological and Philosophical Significance of the British Legends PDF Retrieved 24 May 2022 Evans Barry 25 October 2012 King Arthur Part 1 The Matter of Britain North Coast Journal Retrieved 24 May 2022 Flieger Verlyn 15 October 2000 J R R Tolkien and the Matter of Britain Mythlore 23 1 Retrieved 24 May 2022 Geoffrey of Monmouth 1966 Thorpe Lewis ed The History of the Kings of Britain Penguin ISBN 0 14 044170 0 Surette Leon Summer 1988 The Waste Land and Jessie Weston A Reassessment Twentieth Century Literature 34 2 223 244 doi 10 2307 441079 JSTOR 441079 Other sources Edit Dover Carol ed 2005 A Companion to the Lancelot Grail Cycle Boydell amp Brewer ISBN 978 1843842453 Green D H 2005 The Beginnings of Medieval Romance Fact and fiction 1150 1220 Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521049566 Pearsall Derek 2005 Arthurian Romance A Short Introduction Oxford Blackwell ISBN 978 0631233206 External links Edit Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article Arthurian Legend Arthurian Folklore a website detailing Welsh Arthurian folklore Arthurian Resources King Arthur History and the Welsh Arthurian Legends detailed and comprehensive academic site includes numerous scholarly articles from Thomas Green of Oxford University Arthuriana the only academic journal solely concerned with the Arthurian Legend with a selection of resources and links Celtic Literature Collective provides texts and translations of varying quality of Welsh medieval sources many of which mention Arthur International Arthurian Society The Camelot Project provides valuable bibliographies of freely downloadable Arthurian texts from the sixth to the early 20th centuries from the University of Rochester The Heroic Age an online peer reviewed journal which includes regular Arthurian articles The Medieval Development of Arthurian Literature from H2G2 Vortigern Studies a collection of articles on King Arthur by various Arthurian enthusiasts Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Matter of Britain amp oldid 1171757919, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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