Arthurian Legend

King Arthur and His Knights (by Culver Pictures/Encarta)

I. Introduction

Arthurian Legend, group of tales in several languages that concern the legendary King Arthur of the Britons, his realm, and the knights of his inner circle. The legend is one of the most enduring tales in recorded history. It first appeared in the 5th or 6th century AD and took its basic form between the 12th and 15th centuries. It continues as a popular subject in modern times.

The legend presents Arthur as a leader in ancient times who defeats the Saxons and other enemies. He thereby unites the people of Britain in peace and harmony. Eventually his kingdom weakens from within—in part because of the illicit love between Arthur's queen, Guinevere, and the knight Lancelot—and Arthur himself is struck down by his own illegitimate son, Mordred. Many stories then say that Arthur is taken to the island of Avalon for his wounds to be healed. The legend tells that he will return in the hour of Britain's greatest need.

II. The Legend

Arthur is conceived when King Uther Pendragon falls in love with a married woman, Ygraine, and arranges for the magician Merlin to transform him into the likeness of Ygraine's husband. The husband, Gorlois, dies in battle, and Arthur's parents marry soon thereafter.

But Merlin exacts a price for his assistance. Uther and Ygraine must give to him the child who will be born. When Arthur is born, Merlin delivers him to Hector (also called Antor), who raises Arthur alongside his own son, Kay, and trains him to be a squire to Kay once Kay becomes a knight. When King Uther dies, the land is left without a leader, so one must be chosen. Ensuing events take different forms from text to text, but virtually all include the story of the Sword in the Stone.

According to legend, Merlin announces to the assembled barons that God has established a test to identify the chosen successor to Uther. Before the cathedral they find a great stone, topped by an anvil in which a sword is embedded. Merlin informs them that no one other than the intended king will be able to draw the sword. All those present try and fail the test. Meanwhile, Arthur is sent to find Kay's sword. Unable to do so, he sees the sword in the stone and easily draws it. The barons make him repeat the test a number of times because they do not want to be ruled by a young commoner, but they eventually recognize his claim to the throne.

With Merlin as his adviser, Arthur begins his reign. He first fights Britain's enemies, and early texts describe him defeating the Saxons, Picts, and Scots and overrunning Ireland and Iceland. His conquests are made easier because of his marvelous sword, first called Caliburn and later known as Excalibur. He receives the sword from a hand that emerges from a lake. (In some versions of the story, Excalibur is the Sword in the Stone.)

Arthur rules his land from Camelot, his favorite castle, and he meets, courts, and marries a beautiful young woman named Guinevere. Following his initial wars, he and his followers enjoy a period of peace, during which he founds a fellowship of knights known as the society of the Round Table. The shape of the table that serves as the group's meeting place ensures that all who sit around it are equal in status.

Men come from every land to be knighted by Arthur and to seek fame as members of the Round Table fellowship. One of the finest knights is a young Frenchman named Lancelot. He quickly becomes one of Arthur's favorites, but he also falls in love with Queen Guinevere, and she with him. Their illicit love is one of the major causes for the eventual destruction of Arthur's kingdom. But Arthur's own flaws contribute to his downfall as well. Despite his valor and wisdom, he fathers a son named Mordred with his half sister Morgause. (Some versions present Mordred as Arthur's nephew rather than as his illegitimate son.)

Adventures and quests are an essential element of chivalry, and eventually most of Arthur's knights embark on the greatest quest of all, the quest for the Holy Grail, which is understood to be the chalice that Jesus Christ used at the Last Supper. All the finest knights at the court swear to seek the Grail, however long the search might take. Arthur is displeased by these events, because he knows that the quest means the end of Camelot. Indeed, many of his best knights die in the quest, some of them even killing one another.

As Arthur fathers an illegitimate son, so too does Lancelot, although he does so while under a spell that makes him think the woman (named Elaine) is actually Guinevere. Lancelot's son, Galahad, is entirely free of sin and weakness, and thus he alone is ultimately qualified to complete the quest and find the Holy Grail. (Sir Bors and Sir Percival accompany him, but they are excluded from the final holy vision that appears to Galahad as he reaches the Grail.)

Once the quest is ended, peace does not last, and eventually Arthur's armies are embroiled in new wars, including one with the Romans, who demand tribute from Arthur and provoke a battle. Not all the conflicts involve foreign enemies, however. When Arthur discovers Lancelot and Guinevere's love affair, his system of justice requires that Guinevere be arrested and condemned to death. Lancelot flees but then returns to rescue her. During the ensuing battle, Lancelot kills the brothers of Sir Gawain, who remain loyal to Arthur. As a consequence, Gawain and Lancelot, formerly the closest of friends, become enemies.

Arthur's absence from court while battling the Romans and pursuing Lancelot offers Mordred the opportunity to seize the throne. He attempts to do so by buying the allegiance of Arthur's barons, and some texts say that he either marries Guinevere or attempts to do so after lying to her and telling her that Arthur is dead. The king learns of Mordred's treason and returns to reclaim his rights.

During a great battle on Salisbury Plain, Arthur kills Mordred, but before dying the young man strikes Arthur a grievous blow. Arthur orders that his sword be thrown into the lake to prevent it from falling into unworthy hands. Twice his orders are disobeyed. The third time they are followed, and as Excalibur nears the water, a hand mysteriously rises from beneath the surface to grasp it and disappear.

Arthur's ultimate fate is uncertain. Some tales say that he dies, and that his body is either buried or taken away, never to be seen again. Most stories, however, preserve the idea of Arthur's immortality. They tell that, although gravely wounded, Arthur does not die. A group of women (usually including Arthur's half sister Morgan le Fay) takes him and they sail away to the island of Avalon. There his wounds will be healed, and eventually he will return to Britain.

III. Literary Treatment of the Legend

Between the 6th and 12th centuries, a number of documents appeared that mention Arthur briefly or allude to some events that would later be associated with him. They do not prove that a historical Arthur existed, but they do provide evidence of a legend forming around the idea of a great king who saved the Britons from their Saxon enemies. These texts include the poem Y Gododdin by 6th-century Welsh bard Aneirin, the mid-9th century Historia Britonum by Welsh historian Nennius, and the Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh tales that first started appearing in the 11th century.

In about 1136 Welsh writer Geoffrey of Monmouth produced his Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), which describes King Arthur leading the Britons to victory and then presiding over a period of peace. Geoffrey's work is a combination of history, legend, and imagination, and it launched widespread retellings of the Arthurian legend.

In 1155 the Anglo-Norman chronicler Wace translated Geoffrey's work into French as the Roman de Brut (Story of Brutus). Wace was the first to write of the Round Table. Within a few years, French writer Chrétien de Troyes created a new fictional form known as Arthurian romance. Chrétien focused primarily on the characters surrounding the king. He emphasized chivalric adventure, although he also suggested that chivalry can be a vain pursuit as much as an ennobling ideal. Chrétien first mentioned Camelot, and he also introduced Lancelot. In his final romance, Perceval, ou le conte du graal (1190?; Percival, or the Story of the Grail), Chrétien introduced the theme of the Grail, which was for him a holy object, although not yet the chalice from which Jesus Christ drank at the Last Supper (an identification that would be made soon after Chrétien's death).

Chrétien's themes became the principal subjects of Arthurian texts composed in virtually every European language. In Germany, for example, Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote the epic poem Parzival (1210?). Chrétien's two major innovations—the love between Lancelot and Guinevere and the quest for the Grail—became the core of the massive 13th-century Lancelot-Grail Cycle, also known as the Vulgate Cycle. This cycle of five romances, running to thousands of pages, depicts the history of the Grail going as far back as the biblical figures of David, Solomon, and Joseph of Arimathea before telling of Merlin, Arthur, the quest for the Holy Grail, and the destruction of the Round Table fellowship.

The Vulgate Cycle was translated or adapted even more widely than were Chrétien's romances. In English it was one of the major sources for Le morte d'Arthur (1469-1470; The Death of Arthur) by Sir Thomas Malory. Malory drew together Arthurian stories from a variety of French and English sources, beginning before Arthur's conception and extending past his departure to Avalon. Malory's work thus traces the full rise and fall of the Arthurian world.

Malory's influence was immense but not immediate. From the 16th century through the 18th century, the popularity of the Arthurian legend waned throughout Europe. But once Malory's work was rediscovered early in the 19th century, it led to an explosion of Arthurian literature that has continued to contemporary times.

Nineteenth-century English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote a series of poems called Idylls of the King (1859-1885). Tennyson used the Arthurian past as a model against which he could measure the ugliness he found in the increasingly industrialized society of his century. Yet instead of idealizing the Arthurian reign as an enduring golden age, he emphasized that its glory was transitory and suggested that sin eventually led to the ruin of the Arthurian world. In one of the Idylls, "The Holy Grail," Tennyson moves away from the traditional depiction of the quest as a noble venture, suggesting instead that the loss of the Grail is a consequence of sin and that the search for it distracts knights from more appropriate chivalric activities.

Despite Tennyson's pessimism, his poetry, along with Malory's work, fired the imagination of hundreds of poets, dramatists, and novelists. Many of them assumed that Arthur had lived or that, at least, his legend evoked a glorious past in which ideals and heroism flourished. A few authors took King Arthur less seriously, seeing an opportunity for humor and satire in the legend's marvels, magic, and exaggerated exploits.

The best-known use of humor in an Arthurian creation is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) by American author Mark Twain. By having a modern man travel back to Arthur's time, Twain contrasted medieval and modern customs. The ingenuity and the technological superiority of the Connecticut Yankee make him a success in Arthur's world, and he shows up Merlin as a foolish fraud. Arthur himself is portrayed as goodhearted but simple and buffoonish. Eventually, the novel becomes more grim, and Twain suggests that technological advances, such as guns, have not made people more civilized, just more efficient.

One of the most popular modern Arthurian authors is Englishman T. H. White. He wrote four novels—The Sword in the Stone (1938), The Witch in the Wood (1939), The Ill-Made Knight (1940), and The Candle in the Wind (1958)—that appeared together in 1958 in the single volume The Once and Future King. (A fifth work, The Book of Merlyn, was published in 1977, a number of years after White's death.) The Once and Future King begins on a light and playful tone, as Merlyn (White's spelling) educates Arthur on how to be king. As the work progresses, it becomes pessimistic and cynical, offering observations about cruelty, war, and death. At the end, Arthur realizes that his vision of a strong and united England will survive even though Camelot has crumbled.

British writer Mary Stewart wrote several Arthurian novels, three of them forming a trilogy about Merlin: The Crystal Cave (1970), The Hollow Hills (1973), and The Last Enchantment (1979). These novels tell the whole life of the magician, from his youth to the assistance he gives Arthur and on to his final disappearance from the world. American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley's work The Mists of Avalon (1982) is one of a number of modern novels written about Arthurian women. It tells the traditional Arthurian story, but through the eyes and perspectives of the female characters—Guinevere, Morgan le Fay, the lady Viviane, and others—some of whom are stronger and more independent than they are in earlier accounts.

In addition to the titles discussed in this article, there are several thousand other Arthurian works, written from the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century) up to present times. The Arthurian story is not only retold and reinterpreted, it is also regularly recast in science fiction and fantasy, in political tracts and social satire, and in light comedies and serious efforts to depict the sometimes dark realities of the medieval world.

IV. The Legend in Art, Music, and Motion Pictures

Arthurian themes have appealed to people working in many branches of the arts. Arthurian subjects frequently appeared in medieval illuminated manuscripts, and medieval artists also interpreted the legend through drawings, carvings, sculpture, and mural painting.

Arthurian art, like the literature devoted to the legend, became less popular after the Middle Ages ended in the 15th century, but, again like the literature, it experienced a dramatic rebirth in the 19th century and has flourished ever since. Particularly prominent was a group of artists known as Pre-Raphaelites. The group was organized in 1848 by English poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti and joined by other artists and writers, including Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones and William Morris. The Pre-Raphaelite group used Arthurian themes in paintings, murals, tapestries, stained glass, and other media.

Composers have interpreted the Arthurian legend through music since the times of medieval troubadours. From the post-medieval period, the most substantial early musical adaptation was King Arthur, or the British Worthy (1691), a vocal and instrumental work by English composer Henry Purcell written to accompany a text by English poet John Dryden. It combines heroic themes and mysterious rites with moments of lighter music. From the late 1600s on, and especially since the early 19th century, composers have created oratorios, instrumental pieces, ballets, and at least 50 operas based on the legend. The most famous operas are Tristan und Isolde (1865) and Parsifal (1882) by German composer Richard Wagner; these works concern characters closely identified with the Arthurian story. Tristan und Isolde tells of two characters united in a tragic and irresistible love. Parsifal presents Percival's spiritual awakening during his quest for the Holy Grail.

Throughout the 20th century, beginning with a 1904 production of Parsifal by American director Edwin Porter, filmmakers have been drawn to the story of King Arthur—for example, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court has been filmed repeatedly. In English, the most prominent Arthurian motion pictures are Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Excalibur (1981), the latter directed by English filmmaker John Boorman. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a comic masterpiece that captures both the idealism and the absurdity of an endless adventure. Excalibur, a more serious work, tells the entire Arthurian story as Sir Thomas Malory presents it, from Arthur's birth and the Sword in the Stone to Lancelot and Guinevere's love, and on to the king's final grievous wound.

Other prominent films include the animated picture The Sword in the Stone (1963), about the education of the young Arthur, and Camelot (1967), based on the Broadway musical of the same name. T. H. White's work inspired both films. Some movies recast Arthurian motifs in modern form, as in The Fisher King (1991), a story of personal redemption by characters involved with a modern Grail. Others, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), use the Grail as an impetus for swashbuckling adventure.

Arthurian films in other languages are less numerous, but in some cases these films are outstanding. In France, Robert Bresson directed Lancelot of the Lake (1974), a story of Lancelot's adventures, and Eric Rohmer directed a rendering of Chrétien de Troyes's medieval Grail story in Perceval le Gallois (Perceval the Welshman, 1978). German films include Richard Blank's Parzival (1980) and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's Parsifal (1982).

Contributed By: Norris J. Lacy, A.B., M.A., Ph.D. Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of French, The Pennsylvania State University. Editor of The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. Honorary President, International Arthurian Society.