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Arthur, the focus of an extensive medieval cycle of legends and romances, was probably a Celtic British king or chieftain of the 6th century AD who fought against the Saxon invaders of England. The name may also be that of a Celtic god whose mythology was early confused with the exploits of the historical figure. Arthur is first mentioned in the Welsh poem Gododdin (c.600), is referred to by the Welsh chronicler Nennius (c.800) in his Latin Historia Britonum, and appears also in the compilation Annales Cambriae (10th century). His popularity was equally great in Cornwall and Brittany, and it was through the Bretons that the legends spread orally to the rest of Europe.
By the 12th century, Arthur, now indistinguishable from folk and literary accretion, had become a national hero to the English. Given full-bodied shape by GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH, he appears in the Historia regum Britanniae (1137) as the master of a European empire. The French poet Wace fleshed out the details of Arthur's fame in Le Roman de Brut (1155), to which the English poet LAYAMON added in his epic narrative Brut at the end of the century. The French poet CHRETIEN DE TROYES (fl. late 12th century) used the court of King Arthur as the setting for his intense, tragic romances of individual knights associated with Arthur, such as LANCELOT and Percival. These in turn influenced the German renderings of the PARSIFAL legend produced by WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH and the Tristan legend (see TRISTAN AND ISOLDE) produced by GOTTFRIED VON STRASSBURG (both 13th century); Chretien de Troyes's romances also contributed substantially to the mystique of COURTLY LOVE and the ideals of CHIVALRY then in vogue among the French aristocracy.
In the 13th century, the Arthurian legends, especially those concerning the Holy GRAIL, increasingly took on Christian overtones; pagan and religious elements survived in interpretive re-creations through the 19th century, most notably in Alfred, Lord TENNYSON's Idylls of the King (1859-85) and Richard WAGNER's opera Parsifal (1882). SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT was an important 14th-century English addition to Arthurian literature.
Arthur and his knights assumed quasi-definitive form in the heroic prose epic MORTE D'ARTHUR of Sir Thomas MALORY. Here could be found all the ingredients that have continued as a source of inspiration for the poets Edmund Spenser and Algernon Charles Swinburne as well as for takeoffs as various as Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1899), T. H. WHITE's Once and Future King (1958), and the Alan Jay Lerner-Frederick Loewe musical Camelot (1960); (see LERNER, ALAN JAY, AND LOEWE, FREDERICK.) These elements include Arthur's natural birth to Igraine and King Uther Pendragon; his tutelage by the magician MERLIN; his assumption of the English throne after extracting the sword Excalibur from a rock; the institution of a round table for the knights at his court in Caerleon, or CAMELOT; the adulterous love affair between his queen, GUINEVERE, and the noble Lancelot; the treachery of his nephew Mordred (or Modred); the mortal combat between Arthur and Mordred at the battle of Camlan; his mysterious translation to the island of Avalon, where he was taken to be buried (or healed); the quest of Sir GALAHAD for the Holy Grail; and the adventures of GAWAIN, Gareth, Kay, Bedivere, Tristram, and others.
David M. Zesmer
Bibliography: Alcock, Leslie, Arthur's Britain (1970); Ashe, Geoffrey, et al., eds., Quest for Arthur's Britain (1977); Barber, Richard, King Arthur (1986); Brengle, Richard L., ed., Arthur, King of Britain: History, Romance, Chronicle, and Criticism (1964); Chambers, E. K., Arthur of Britain (1927); Fletcher, Robert H., Arthurian Material in the Chronicles of Great Britain and France (1906; repr. 1969); Goodman, J. R., The Legend of Arthur in British and American Literature (1988); Lacy, N. L., The Arthurian Handbook (1988); Loomis, Roger S., ed., Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages (1959); Matthews, J., and Stewart, B., Warriors of Arthur (1988)
Welsh literature
Welsh literature begins with the 6th-century bardic poetry attributed to Aneurin and Taliesin, which praises patrons and elegizes fallen warriors. Parallels in Irish literature suggest that many other early genres have been lost. The former existence of genealogical traditions, mythic tales, and epic accounts of such heroic figures as King Arthur and the poet-wizard Merlin (Myrddin) may be inferred from surviving prose tales of the 11th century and later periods, particularly the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, for mythological lore; native Arthurian tales, and others such as Peredur and Owein showing Norman French influence; and native historical accounts such as The Dream of Maxen Wledig.
The Anglo-Norman Period
The Norman victory in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings paved the way for the expansion in England of a continental influence that had already begun to make itself felt under Edward the Confessor, who had been raised at the Norman court. But the administrative consolidation and resulting cultural fusion between the Anglo-Saxons and their conquerors was not always evident linguistically: the court continued to speak French, the clerical language remained Latin, and the people continued to speak English.
Great achievements were made in Latin prose. At Peterborough, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was continued in English to the year 1154. But William of Malmesbury (c.1090-c.1143) chose to write his history of the English kings in Latin, and that language was the preeminent one for historians. It was used to greatest effect by the Welsh cleric GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH.
Geoffrey's partly legendary History of the Kings of Britain (1135), which helped to popularize the Arthurian legends (see ARTHUR AND ARTHURIAN LEGEND), was adapted into French verse by the historians Geoffrey Gaimar and Robert Wace of Jersey. Wace's account was then retold in English by the priest LAYAMON. His poem The Brut (c.1205) is the first truly English version of the story of Arthur, signifying a nationalistic trend also evident in the anonymous metrical romances King Horn (c.1250) and Havelock the Dane (c.1310). Both are based on Norman sources but celebrate the deeds of native English heroe
Grail, Holy
The Holy Grail, a symbolic talisman around which numerous medieval legends and poems revolve, probably originated in Celtic pagan tradition, but later became associated with the cup used at the LAST SUPPER, in which Joseph of Arimathea gathered blood from Christ's wounds. The Grail was sought by the knights of King Arthur in several medieval romances, the earliest of which was the late-12th-century Perceval by CHRETIEN DE TROYES. The quest for the Grail, which can only be found by a hero free from sin, is treated at great length in Sir Thomas MALORY's Morte Darthur (c.1469) and in Wolfram von Eschenbach's epic, Parzifal (c.1210), which inspired Richard Wagner's opera, Parsifal (1877-82)
Camelot
In the Arthurian legends, Camelot was the seat of King Arthur's court and the Knights of the Round Table. It has been identified with Winchester in England and with Caerleon, a town in Monmouthshire, Wales.
Gawain, Sir
In the Arthurian legends Sir Gawain was King Arthur's nephew, the son of King Lot of Orkney and Morgawse. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a 14th-century romance, is the most famous legend about him. His name and some of his attributes suggest that he was identified with or related to the Celtic sun deity.
Guinevere
Guinevere, wife of King Arthur, first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain (c.1135-39), where she is described as a noble Roman. Seized by Mordred, her husband's cousin, she is later reunited with Arthur and retires to a convent on his death. Later medieval poets such as Layamon and Sir Thomas Malory relate her adulterous affair with Sir Lancelot, with whom she bears a child, Sir Galahad. William Morris redeems her character in The Defence of Guinevere (1858), and one of Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King (1859) weaves a historical fantasy around this shadowy, romantic figure.
Lancelot, Sir
In the medieval stories about King Arthur (see ARTHUR AND ARTHURIAN LEGEND), Sir Lancelot of the Lake (du Lac) was King Arthur's bravest knight. As a baby he was rescued from a lake by Morgan Le Fay, who prepared him to receive his surname--Lancelot. He was descended from kings named Galahad and was the father of Sir GALAHAD. When grown, Lancelot superseded Sir GAWAIN, as Arthur's champion. In later versions of the legend, Lancelot committed adultery with Queen GUINEVERE. Always a champion of women, he frequently saved her from danger. He eventually left Arthur's court altogether. The legend of Lancelot seems to have originated in ancient Ireland, where he was the Gaelic sun-god of summer, known at Tara as Lugh (Lug) Lamfada.
Tristan and Isolde
Tristan and Isolde, or Tristram and Iseult, are famous lovers in Celtic and Arthurian legend (see ARTHUR AND ARTHURIAN LEGEND). Tristan, nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, and Isolde, Mark's wife, drink a love potion and become tragically enmeshed in an adulterous passion that involves them in secrecy and intrigue. Their story was told in the Middle Ages by the Anglo-Norman poet Thomas (c.1170), by GOTTFRIED VON STRASSBURG (c.1210), who inspired Richard Wagner's opera, and by Sir Thomas Malory, in his MORTE DARTHUR, and in the 19th century by Tennyson (in IDYLLS OF THE KING), Matthew Arnold ("Tristram and Iseult," 1852), and Swinburne (Tristram of Lyonesse, 1882).
David M. Zesmer
Merlin
In Arthurian legend (see ARTHUR AND ARTHURIAN LEGEND), Merlin was a sorcerer and counselor of Uther Pendragon and his son Arthur. It was on Merlin's advice that Uther established the Round Table and found his true heir through the sword-in-the-stone test. Merlin disappeared forever when the Lady of the Lake, using magic he taught her, imprisoned him in an enchanted thornbush. Merlin represents an amalgamation of a Celtic sky deity and a Welsh or British bard who lived about AD 500.
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth, d. 1155, bishop of Saint Asaph in Wales, wrote the Historia Regum Britanniae (1135-39), which introduced the Arthurian legend (see ARTHUR AND ARTHURIAN LEGEND) into Western literature. Shakespeare's King Lear is based on Geoffrey's work, which was essentially folklore
Wolfram von Eschenbach
The German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach, c.1170-c.1220, is remembered primarily for Parzival (1200), a long narrative poem recounting the knight PARSIFAL's quest for the Holy Grail. Little is known of Wolfram's life, except that he was a poor aristocrat patronized by Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia, for whom he wrote the unfinished epic Willehalm, about William of Toulouse, who battled the Moors in 783 but ended his life as a monk. Wolfram also left two fragments of a stanzaic romance, Titurel, and some fine lyric poems.
James J. Wilhelm
Chretien de Troyes
The French poet Chretien de Troyes, fl. c.1160-80, created an episodic verse genre that illustrated a code of COURTLY LOVE inspired by Ovid. His widely translated and imitated works influenced the development of future narrative forms and added substantially to the tales of ARTHUR AND ARTHURIAN LEGEND. Chretien drew upon historical figures and events of the Middle Ages for the subject matter of his romances Erecet Enide (c.1160-64), Cliges (c.1160-64), Lancelot, ou le chevalier de la charette (c.1164-72), Yvain, ou le chevalier au lion (c.1164-72), and Perceval, ou le conte du Graal (c.1180-90), which was left incomplete at his death. A frequent visitor to the court of Marie de Champagne , daughter of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine, Chretien found inspiration there for Le Chevalier de la charette, a tale concerning the project to liberate Queen Guinevere and prove her innocent of adultery. He also enjoyed the patronage of Philip, count of Flanders, who asked him to versify a book that served as a basis for Le Conte du Graal, the story of the pure knight Perceval and his attempt to achieve the holy but apocryphal relic, the Grail. The stories of Chretien's poems appear to be his own inventions, although he relied on written texts for plots and had heard similar tales from professional reciters. Chretien's influence and his development of courtly love can be seen in adaptations and revisions of his themes by Chaucer, Spenser, Malory, and Tennyson, and in Wagner's opera Parsifal.
Francis Carmody
Malory, Sir Thomas
Sir Thomas Malory, d. 1471, the author of the MORTE DARTHUR, made available in English a major portion of the traditional romance material concerning ARTHUR AND ARTHURIAN LEGEND. In his manuscript the author says that he finished his work in the ninth year of the reign of Edward IV (1469 or 1470) and prays for "good delyueraunce" from prison. On the basis of this information, scholars have identified two possible Thomas Malorys. The most widely accepted candidate is a Thomas Malory of Newbold Revell, Warwickshire, a knight who was committed to prison--on at least two occasions for rape--and who died there on March 14, 1471.
Robert P. Miller
Layamon
The English poet Layamon, a Worcestershire priest who flourished in the early 13th century, is known only for his 16,000-line poem The Brut (c.1205), which includes the first account in English of King Arthur and his knights (see ARTHUR AND ARTHURIAN LEGEND). Brut, a shortened name for Brutus, was the mythical founder of Britain. Layamon's poem is based on the Roman de Brut by Robert Wace of Jersey, which in turn is an adaptation of GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH's Historia Regum Britanniae.
David Yerkes
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (c.1360-1400) is a Middle English alliterative romance written by an anonymous West Midlands poet also credited with The Pearl, Patience, and Purity, or Cleanness. The protagonist, Sir Gawain, survives two tests: a challenge, which he alone of King Arthur's knights accepts, to behead the fearsome Green Knight and to let him retaliate a year later at the distant Green Chapel; and a temptation to commit adultery with the wife of Lord Bertilak--in reality the Green Knight--in whose castle he stays en route to the chapel.
Memorable for its intricate and sumptuous poetry and for its superb portrait of Gawain--an ideal knight who remains fallibly human--the poem contains elaborate descriptions of Arthur's feast, Gawain's lonely journey, and Bertilak's hunting excursions.
Morte Darthur
The Morte Darthur (c.1469), a prose romance by Sir Thomas MALORY, was drawn from a number of French and English sources dealing with the adventures of Arthur, legendary king of the Britons (. Malory's eight romances, which are written in plain but vigorous prose, relate the collapse of Arthur's court and the rivalry of his knights, the adulterous love of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, and the quest for the Holy Grail. The work was first printed by William Caxton in 1485
'Le Morte d'Arthur'
English Text Here.
Idylls of the King
Idylls of the King, published between 1859 and 1885, are 12 poems in blank verse by Alfred Lord TENNYSON that recount the adventures of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. Although generations of schoolchildren have become acquainted with ARTHUR AND ARTHURIAN LEGEND through this popular Victorian version, Tennyson actually stripped the original medieval tales of their fey qualities and humor by elevating the language used and by focusing on the Christian elements of the story, such as the quest for the Holy Grail. His chief source was Sir Thomas Malory's MORTE DARTHUR (1469-70). The Idylls were intended as public poetry, written by the reigning poet laureate and dedicated to Prince Albert, with an epilogue to Queen Victoria.
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