Who Was King Arthur - Essay Example

King Arthur Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name Insert Date Here (Day, Month, Year) Question 5: Who was Arthur? The legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table have been esteemed as the most powerful and enduring works in the western world. There had been several versions on King Arthur, Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot with many propounded the fact that they never existed at all yet still their names invoke romanticism and gallant of the knights are adorned with shining armour, beautiful ladies with elegance increasing the grace in medieval castles, their quests for the holy grail for retaining their power and glory and their romanticism endeavours along with the court of Camelot at the center of a royal and mystical Britain. The Arthurian legends have been most popularly advocated since the years Geoffrey of Monmouth, Robert de Boron, Chretien de Troyes, and most majestically, Sir Thomas Malory had created them. Enormous number of poets, writers and artists were inspired by the lives and the times of King Arthur who was a central figure of the Arthurian legends. There are many versions of King Arthur depicting him in the form of different personality in each of them. It is said that he was a son of Uther Pendragon and Igraine of Cornwall and mythic figure in Celtic stories such as Culhwch and Olwen. Early Latin Chronicles considered him as a military leader, the dux bellorum, while in the later romantic period he was shown as a king and emperor. (Mathews, 160) Within all these versions, still historians and all those interested to know about him are not able to validate the historicity about King Arthur. This debate has been ranging since Renaissance when several historians were advocating King Arthur as a historical figure and the partial reason behind it was that the Tudor monarchs had claimed their lineage to Arthur. Scholars of today assumed there might be some person as mentioned in the legends but not so heroic with band of knights and armour. As depicted by O.J Padel, “historical attributes of just the kind that we find attached to Arthur can be associated with a figure who was not historical to start with.” (Mathews, 160) If such a person had been a historical figure then he would have gained much popularity and fame as a warrior giving a tough stand to the German invaders during the late fifth and early sixth centuries. Despite all the arguments, there is still no concrete proof and no solid validation or evidence for or against Arthur’s historicity, but this is also fact that the legends of King Arthur will continue to inspire artists, musicians and writers of the literary world. There are many historical novels who have mentioned the King Arthur into sixth-century setting, yet the way he is depicted in the Middle ages has captured the imagination of the King Arthur the most. (Mathews, 160) As the best knight of the whole world, he figured in the most important versions of the legend created by many writers from Malory to Tennyson to T. H. White. In the center of all the myths is the downfall of the Arthur’s kingdom because of the treachery of Mordred and in the romantic period, this treachery was achieved on account of the love of Lancelot and Guinevere. (Mathews, 161) Arthur was one of the greatest legendary British Kings born from Uther Pendragon and Igraine. Igraine became a wife of Duke Gorlois of Cornwall at the time she was going to give birth to Arthur. Legend states that with the Merlin’s magic, Uther changed to Duke Gorlois and made love to Igranie in the absence of Gorlois. As soon as Gorplois was killed, Uther married Igraine. According to the legend of Welsh, King’s Arthur’s mother was Eigr who was a daughter of Anlawdd Wledig and Uthr Bendragon. Arthur also had one sister whose name was Gwyar, who was mother of Gwalchmai or Gwalchmei, meaning Hawk of May, and of Gwalhaved. Gwalchmai was known in English and French legend as Gawain or Gauvain. There is still the confusion, about who were the sisters of Arthur and who was the mother of Gawain in the main Arthurian legend. (Joe, Online) The earlier references of Arthur appeared from Welsh and Breton sources and very little mention has been made to define the nature and character of Arthur as a whole during the pre Galfridian tradition rather than single text or story. Findings by Thomas Green revealed that three versions have been found defining his character, and one of them is that he was a great warrior and worked as the monster-hunting protector of Britain from all internal and external threats. Some of these kinds were human threats, just like the Saxons he fought with in Historia Brittonum, but the maximum were supernatural including cat monsters, giants, divine boars, dragons, giants, dogheads, and witches. (Green, 93-130) In yet another pre-Galfridian period, Arthur was a figure of folklore and magical tales, who happened to be the leader of the heroes living amidst the wilds in the landscape. The third strand according to the Welsh legend, Arthur had a close proximity with Annwn. At one instance, he was attacking Otherworldly fortresses to search for treasure and give prisoners freedom whereas on the other hand, he had a warband, which included pagan gods and his wife with his worldly possessions from the other world. (Green, 135-176) One of the most popular poetic references to the Arthur originated from the heroic songs known as Y Gododdin written by 6th-century poet Aneirin. In the first stanza of the poem, there is a mention of a warrior who killed 300 enemies but it was later found that he was not Arthur, as his tale of gallantry could not be compared to the valour of Arthur. (Green, 13-15) King Arthur was also at the center of the pre-Galfridian material and Geoffrey’s Historia but in these legends too, his character is differentiated and alters. According to the earliest materials by Geoffrey, he is considered as much great and ferocious warrior who never hesitates in slaughtering witches and giants and takes the most prominent role during the campaigns, whereas in the continental romances, he has been depicted as the most wise, dignified and some kind of bland and a very delicate monarch, so at the time when he heard about the affair of Lancelot’s with Geunevere in the Mort Artu, whilst in Chertien de Troyes’s Yvain, the knight of the Lion, he is not able to awake when the feast gets over and then he has to retire to get a nap. (Morris, 99-102) According to the ninth century historians, Arthur had a son known as Amr as well as dog known as Cabal. According to Nennius, Arthur had been responsible for killing his own son, but never stated the fact that why he did so. Arthur had established a tomb near the spring known as Licat Amr. According to the Welsh myth, the ‘Welsh Triad’ mentioned the list of three queens of Arthur. All these queens were known by the same name Gwenhwyvar. They were called Gwenhwyfar daughter of Gwent (Cywryd), and Gwenhwyfar daughter of Gwythyr son of Greidiawl, and Gwenhwyfar daughter of Gogfran the Giant and the ‘Welsh Triad’ also mentions about Arthur having three mistresses- Ideg daughter of Garwy the Tall, and Garwen (Fair Leg) daughter of Henin the Old, and Gwyl (Modest) daughter of Gendawd (Big Chin). (Joe, Online) However the most prominent of the Arthurian legend was Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, which shows the Lancelot and his adulterous relationship with Arthur’s queen Guinevere, extending the theme of Arthur as cuckold, and in the tales of Holy Grain and the Fisher King too, there is a role of Arthur but reduced. By the time middle ages came to an end, the legend of King Arthur also began to come to an end. Though the Malory’s English version of the great French romances had been very popular yet it was the time when the great French romances began to show their popularity with the attacks on the validity on the historical version of the King Arthur. (Kibler & Carroll, 1) Sixteenth century humanist scholar Polydor Vergil denied the claim that the Arthur was the ruler of the post-Roman empire, found all through the post-Galfridian medieval chronicle tradition, towards the much traumatic and horror of the Welsh and English antiquarians. (Carley, 86) With the social changes by the end of the medieval period and the Renaissance too described the character of Arthur from different angle and different light. But no body discarded the legends of King Arthur and the Arthurian legend and by the early 19th century; the material was not taken very seriously but only as a vehicle for allegories of 17th- and 18th-century politics. Therefore the King Arthur has been featured like an allegory to show the struggles of William III against James II. (Ashe, 20-21) Likewise the most popular tale has been Tom Thumb, the mention of which was made through the chapbooks but later through the political plays of Henry Fielding, though the action of the same has been very well set in Arthurian Britain. In this version Arthur has been appeared as a comic version of the romantic character. (Green (A), 123) But it was not early in the nineteenth century that the Medievalism, Romanticism and Gothic revival increased the interest in Arthur and the medieval romances. According to the Geoffrey of Monmouth in the Historia regum Britanniae, Arthur was considered to be a great warrior king, having great powers as well as great diplomacy. He was also considered as a world conqueror, whole empire extended from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Brittany, Normandy and Gaul (France). (Joe, Online) His reign came to an end at the time when his nephew Mordred made an attempt to depose him as a king of Britain. According to this legend, Arthur was born and brought up in Brittany, until the day he succeeded his father at the age of fifteen. The legend that was told later that Arthur was brought up by his foster father namely Antor, who was the father of Kay. The legend also states that he had possessed the magic sword Caliburn from Avalon but it was not until Robert de Boron wrote ‘Merlin’, that mention of the Arthur was made in the legend and how the way young Arthur drew out the sword from a rock. This sword was quite a proven fact that the Arthur was truly the most powerful king of Britain. The other weapons of the Arthur were also given names like the lance began to be known as ‘Ron,’ whereas his helmet was given the name ‘Goosewhite’ and his shield was known as ‘Pridwen,’ showing Virgin Mary. His horse was called by the name of ‘Passelandentil’. The symbol of Arthur is Red Dragon, similar to that of his father and had a name known as Pendragon. His other symbol was the ‘Boar of Cornwall’, only because of the fact that Tintagel, a castle at Cornwall, was his birthplace. His war cry and the Round Table was ‘Clarence’. (Joe, Online) During 13th century, Arthur became more of a conventional kind of king but less of hero as he had to perform the functions of a king confined to his throne and not just to leave his court in pursuit of adventure. A French author Chretien de Troyes, during the second half of the 12th century, focused more on the knights than to the king himself. These heroes began to occupy much greater role in the tales while Arthur began to take a less active role. (Joe, Online) King Arthur threw his barbarian enemies at the Battle of Bath and then defeated the Scots to keep the things quite from the northern side. Arthur also ruled very peacefully for 12 years, with his queen by his side whose name was Ganhumara who was assumed to the Roman lady from noble birth. Arthur conquered Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and Gaul. Geoffrey also said that he had to defeat the Roman army commanders too, Lucius Hiberius, at Saussy. He also went out to fight in Burgundy before he was defeated back at home at the hands of Mordred. Geoffrey did make mention about the final battle but said that Mordred got slain and King Arthur had been alive. Now the King Arthur is used as a model by youngsters of today. In 1930, the Order of the Fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table was also formulated in Britain to spread the Christian ideals and Arthurian notions of medieval chivalry. (Thomas, 128-31) Whereas in the United States, several hundreds of thousands of boys and girls joined the Arthurian youth groups, such as the Knights of King Arthur, whereby they took full part for promotion of the Arthur and his legends. (Lupack, 2) Works Cited Ashe, Geoffrey. “The Visionary Kingdom.” In The Quest for Arthur's Britain. London: Granada, 1968. Carley, J. P. “Polydore Vergil and John Leland on King Arthur: The Battle of the Books.” Interpretations, 1984, (15): 86–100  Green, Thomas. “Concepts of Arthur: The Making of a Legend.” Tempus Publishing Ltd, 2007. Green, Thomas. (A) “Tom Thumb and Jack the Giant Killer: Two Arthurian Fairytales?” Folklore, 2007, 118 (2): 123–40. Kibler, William & Ed. Carroll, Carleton W. “Chrétien de Troyes: Arthurian Romances.” London: Penguin, 1991. Lupack, Alan. “Preface.” Eds. Sklar, Elizabeth Sherr and Hoffman, Donald L., King Arthur in Popular Culture. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002. pp. 1–3 Mathews, Richard. “Fantasy: the liberation of imagination.” Routledge, 2002. Morris, Rosemary. “The Character of King Arthur in Medieval Literature.” Cambridge: Brewer, 1982. Joe, Jimmy. “King Arthur.” Internet (2006) Available: http://www.timelessmyths.com/arthurian/arthur.html, June 1, 2009 Thomas, Charles. “Book of Tintagel: Arthur and Archaeology.” London: Batsford, 1993. Read More