King_Arthur

Account for the development of different ‘King Arthurs’ in Medieval Europe The first references to King Arthur appear in early Welsh history and tradition. Mostly told in story or song format, these folklore tales were of a brave king who fought for his country, leading crusades to the holy lands and heading into battle. The version of King Arthur that immediately comes to mind today is the heavily romanticised and exaggerated figure who first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s, ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’1. Even though Geoffrey’s Arthur is a chivalrous knight, riding on horseback and saving the lives of fair maidens, this is nowhere near to the truth. If Arthur had been a real figure, it is much more likely that he would have been a Pagan warrior of wealth and violence. A mercenary leader of a war band, Arthur could have been one reason that the Britons re-united after the fall of the Roman Empire. However, Geoffrey of Monmouth was not the first to turn Arthur into a literary figure. In the early 6th century, a Welsh monk named Gildas records the famous battle of Mount Badon. He does not tell who leads the battle, but it is the oldest known text to contain a figure who could have been Arthur. This is a reliable source, even though it is bias because it aims to show that Britain had abandoned its moral virtues at the time. The next source to shed a new light on the Arthurian figure is ‘The History of Britain’ by Nennius, c.800. He is believed to have lived near Bangor, North Wales, which sides nicely with the Welsh folklore tales of Arthur. In Nennius’s work, an individual who could be Arthur is described as a war-lord who won many battles against the Anglo-Saxon invaders2. Nennius’s work gives the clearest recollection of Arthur up until Geoffrey of Monmouth’s creation in the early 1100’s. In the ‘History’, Arthur is not referred to as king, but he is said to have fought twelve successful battles. Most of the whereabouts of these battles are unidentifiable; some appear in other Welsh literature. The most famous of these, the battle of Mount Badon, has been widely debated as to its whereabouts. The list of sites that have been proposed by scholars are mainly in England and Wales, which continues the theory that Arthur fought for the Britons. The ‘Annales Cambriae’ (Annals of Wales) is a language chronicle, c.960, which gives several references to Arthur and Mordred. ‘The strife of Camlann in which Arthur and Medraut fell3’ is a direct quote from the Annales, giving reason to believe that both Arthur and Mordred were real figures in history, as are all of the other individuals mentioned in the text. 1 Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, 1996, London: Penguin 2 The Literary Encyclopaedia - Nennius http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php'rec=true&UID=3320 3 Sources of British History – Annales Cambriae http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/annales.html Both of the above websites consulted: 3rd December 2009 The next literary work concerning King Arthur is ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’ by Geoffrey of Monmouth. This is the defining work in terms of Arthurian literature, as it is the first to romanticise Arthur and to speak of him as a real individual, and also as a King. All subsequent stories about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table take some sort of influence from this book, because the way that Geoffrey spoke of Arthur made his story seem plausible but also wonderful. Geoffrey’s work was dedicated to Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and Waleran, Count of Mellent4, who were both high-class figures at the time. The book contains considerable embellishments, but in the twelfth century it was taken for the truth and accepted by many scholars as a real account of the life of King Arthur. Geoffrey’s work is a chronicle which covered past events; he devoted most of his work to Arthur and was motivated by the 1066 Norman court. He introduced the Isle of Avalon, illegitimacy, continental conquests and the idea that Mordred was Arthur’s murderer. His name, Monmouth, suggests that Arthur is linked with Cornwall, where Geoffrey was from. This puts paid to the suspicion that Arthur was from Wales, but it could also mean that Arthur travelled around Britain, as Cornwall would have been easily accessible to a mercenary band. An Anglo-Norman poet named Wace is the next person to mention Arthur in his work, ‘Roman de Brut’. It is in this literacy that the round table is introduced, a key element of the modern day interpretation of Arthur, but which has never been mentioned before. Wace wrote his book for Eleanor of Aquitaine and her royal court, which gives good reason to believe that it was entirely embellished and cannot be taken for a true history; he would have been trying his hardest to impress the court with his tales. Wace’s work is basically a romanticised paraphrase of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s book, and its ‘fanciful additions’ helped to increase the spread of the Arthurian legend5. After Wace came an author, Chretian de Troys, c.1140-1200, who wrote for one of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s daughters. He embellished on the tale of the Knights and the round table and wrote five Arthurian romances, but mainly focused his work on the love story between Lancelot and Guinevere. His work has a widely heroic theme; Lancelot regularly rescues maidens from whatever peril they have managed to attract. He also writes about the Holy Grail, bringing about the ultimate Christianisation of Arthur. This magic vessel, or chalice, into which the blood of Christ was collected was a hugely important story to Christians at that time, it would have won many, many supporters for Arthur and so subsequent books or work on 4 David Nash Ford Britannia History – Geoffrey of Monmouth http://www.britannia.com/history/arthur/geofmon.html Consulted: 3rd December 2009 5 Encyclopaedia Britannica – Wace http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/633697/Wace Consulted: 3rd December 2009 him were certain to be widely recognised. The Holy Grail is also the perfect theme for a romance novel. After this, Arthur was given incredibly Christ-like associations. The next notable medieval work on Arthur and the Knights is by Thomas Malory, an English writer who compiled his book, ‘Le Morte D’Arthur’6, based on the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth, but with many additions and elaborations of his own. He lived in the 15th century, and before his time not many people had used or read sources. He changed the stories of Arthur to fit his themes, and to coincide with the fashion. His work was published at the height of Arthurian romance literature; it contains themes of courtly valour tampered by moral weakness and civil strife. This sort of tale, of the rise and fall of a kingdom, would have been hugely popular at the time, more and more people were becoming literate and this passionate and involved story would have been all the rage. Overall, there have been many different mentions of Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere and the Knights of the Round Table that have served to influence medieval and modern day assumptions of that particular period of time. Over the centuries, as literary tastes have changed, the depictions of all these people have changed to suit their audience. This is the main reason that different King Arthurs have developed and grown. This is evident with people like Chretian de Troys, whose work was solely for the audience of the royal court. He needed to impress them with stories of a wonderful romance, and so he embellished on existing tales and legends. To conclude, the story of King Arthur has been developed through the years to suit the needs of a differing audience, firstly because people wanted a figurehead for their troubles and, as time progresses, as a wonderful hero who can fulfil their hopes and dreams. 6 Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte D’Arthur, 1985, Hertfordshire: Omega books Bibliography Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, 1996, London: Penguin Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte D’Arthur, 1985, Hertfordshire: Omega books Wace, Roman de Brut, c.1155 The Literary Encyclopaedia - Nennius http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php'rec=true&UID=3320 Consulted – 3rd December 2009 David Nash Ford Britannia History – Geoffrey of Monmouth http://www.britannia.com/history/arthur/geofmon.html Consulted: 3rd December 2009 Encyclopaedia Britannica – Wace http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/633697/Wace Consulted: 3rd December 2009