King Arthur

King Arthur

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

u The History of the British Isles has been a turbulent one with wave after wave of invaders landing on British shores and contending for territorial supremacy. Though fewer in number, the Romans exerted the most lasting influence on Britain during the early Middle Ages- and influence that did much to shape the Arthurian legend.

Who was Arthur?

u There are written references to a period at the end of the 5^th century when there was a pause in the Saxon advance and the Britons won a series of victories under the leadership of an exceptional general : Arthur.

u Even so, he has never been precisely identified.

u A relatively high proportion of place names associated with the Arthurian legend can be identified.

Place names associated with Arthur

u Cornwall (Tintagel, Arthur's birthplace)

u Salisbury plain (Stonehenge, momument to Pendragon)

u The ancient regions of  East Anglia and West Anglia

u Camelot: traces of fortifications have been found at Cadbury Castle

The Creation of a Legend

u The Historia Regun Britanniae

u In 1138 Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote a chronicle of all the major events that had occurred in Britain since its earliest mythical origins.

u First it describes the arrival of the first civilizing ingluence to Britain- the Romans.

u A ship carrying Brutus was swept on to its shores. The island was called at the time Albion. Brutus renamed the island “Britain” and his companions after himself.

History Regum Britanniae

o   Geoffrey of Monmouth was the first author to collect together the few scattered pieces of evidence relating to Arthur and to produce a major myth.

o   He emphasizes the common interest shared by Normans and Britons, who face the same foe, -the Saxons- and demonstrates how Britain's future hopes are indissolubly linked to the Norman cause.

The first novel: Wace's Roman de Brut

Henry II of Plantagenet became king in 1154. He sought to present himself as King Arthur's legitimate heir. He commisioned a cleric -Wace- at his court to turn the Historia Regum Britanniae into a novel.

Wace's Brut reproduced the events in the Historia and the basic elements of the legend.

Key elements

                Alongside Arthur these characters are mentioned by Geoffrey de Monmouth:

u Sir Kay, the Seneschal (household manager)

u Sir Gawain, the king's nephew.

u The Round Table

u The return from the island of Avalon

u The twelve years of peace during Arthur's reign

Other Key Terms and Ideas

The Sword in the Stone (not Excalibur)

Guinevere

Lancelot

Galahad

The Holy Grail

The Lady of the Lake

Excalibur

Badon Hill

Battle of Camlann

Mordred

Avalon

The Life of Arthur

Arthur was the son of legendary king Uther Pendragon and Igrain, the wife of his vassal the Duke of Cornwall.

Thanks to the intervention of Merlin, the magician and prophet, Uther was able to assume the guise of the duke and make love to Igraine. It was through this ploy that Arthur was conceived.

Uther Pendragon's death deprived Britain of a legitimate king.

Avalon

Arthur’s resting place of Avalon has been associated with Glastonbury Abbey.

The Round Table

Celtic warriors met in circles before battle to discuss strategy.

                                               The Holy Grail

•       Spread of story in Northern France. A political fable becomes a chivalric romance.

•       Chrétien de Troyes turned the legend from courtly romance into spiritual quest.

•       The mysterious Holy Grail, first appears as in Chrétien's unfinished poem 'Perceval'

'Perceval, or the Story of the Grail' (1181-90).

“A girl came in, fair and comely and beautifully adorned, and between her hands she held a grail. And when she carried the grail in, the hall was suffused by a light so brilliant that the candles lost their brightness as do the moon or stars when the sun rises. After her came another girl bearing a silver trencher. The grail was made of the finest pure gold, and in it were set precious stones of many kinds, the richest and most precious in the earth or the sea.”

Arthur becomes ‘propaganda’

Thomas Malory’s ‘Death of Arthur’ presented a haunting vision of a knightly golden age swept away by civil strife and the betrayal of its ideals. Malory identified Winchester as Camelot.

Henry VII’s son called Arthur and meant to herald a new Arthurian Age.

Henry VIII presented himself as a latter-day Arthur, a Christian emperor and head of a new British empire, with claims once more to European glory.

A musical

"Don't let it be forgotten, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot."

...There'll never be another Camelot again..."