Arthurian Arthurian LegendLegend

Historical Arthur• If Arthur existed, he would

have been a war leader in the dark days following the collapse of Roman rule, around 450 A.D. May or may not have been a king.

• The Roman-Celtic population was being driven west by Anglo-Saxons.

• Arthur briefly rallied and stopped the tide of Anglo-Saxons.

Arthur in Wales

• As Britons were driven west into Wales, the legend of Arthur grew.

• Around the legendary King Arthur clustered a series of marvelous figures, (i.e. Merlin, questing knights, Lady in the Lake, fire-breathing serpents)

• And wondrous events (i.e. Quest for the Holy Grail, an embodiment of salvation, which had been brought to England by Joseph of Arimathea) frequently set around the festival of Pentecost (descent of the Holy Spirit into Christ’s apostles 50 days following Easter.)

The Legendary Arthur

• Legends get “romanticized” through the work of poets and writers

• Arthur becomes the hero who came to epitomize England of the 15th century.

• Brings an age of justice and glory to England. This golden age was symbolized by the palace at Camelot.

Chivalry

• Notions of trust and obligation were strong.

• Honor defined relations between people.

• Honor was a complex concept in which one had to have a reputation and a commitment to integrity and courage.

• Conduct on the battlefield and off.

• From the “chevalier,” from French word for horse.

Chivalric and Courtly love

• In medieval Europe, in both secular and religious life, love was elevated into a cult.

• Worshipping from afar.

• Gives a sacred character to courtly love

• In reality, much seduction and infidelity.

• Both pure and impure carnal love plays a significant role in the story of King Arthur.

A Few of the Rules of Courtly Love• Marriage is no real excuse for not loving

• He who is not jealous, cannot love

• It is well known that love is always increasing or decreasing

• When one lover dies, a widowhood of two years is required of the survivor

• No one should be deprived of love without the very best of reasons

• It is not proper to love any woman whom one would be ashamed to seek to marry

• When made public, love rarely endures

• The difficulty of attainment of love makes it prized

• Every lover regularly turns pale in the presence of his beloved

• When a lover suddenly catches sight of his beloved, his heart palpitates

• A new love puts to flight an old one

• He whom the thought of love vexes eats and sleeps very little

• Every act of a lover ends in the thought of his beloved

• Love can deny nothing to love

• A true lover is constantly and without intermission possessed by the thought of his beloved

• Nothing forbids one woman being loved by two men or one man by two women

• The above rules of Courtly love demonstrate how playing this game could lead to all kinds of problems within the court circle.

Malory’s Morte

d’Arthur

• Religious and carnal love, history and myth came together in the literary cycle of King Arthur and the search for the Holy Grail.

• King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, the love of Lancelot and Guinevere, and Sir Galahad and the Grail brought together the themes of chivalry, courtly love, and religious mysticism.

Malory’s Morte d’Arthur (cont.)

• Captures passion, consequences, contradictions of romantic & spiritual love.

• One of the first great works of English prose, it summarizes the civilization of medieval chivalry in its ideal form.

• Morte d’Arthur has inspired poems, novels, musicals, movies, comic books, role playing games, operas, video games, etc.

Thomas Malory • English knight served with

distinction in the Hundred Years’ War, elected to Parliament.

• In 1459, he and a group of fellow knights allegedly beat up and robbed some monks.

• Sentenced to jail, where he died in 1471.

• Used jail time to come to grips with the question of love & to write Morte d’Arthur.

Morte d’ArthurContent

• Uther Pendragon, a mighty ruler over the western part of the British Isles, falls for Igraine, wife of Duke of Tintagel

• Merlin arranges for Uther to assume the form of the duke and be transported to his castle. If any child results from the union, it must be given to Merlin.

• The real duke is killed in battle three hours before Uther visits Igraine.

• Their son is Arthur, given to Merlin who gives him to Sir Bors to raise as his own.

• Uther Pendragon dies.

Succession• Arthur rides to an

assembly in London. Word is the next king will be the man who can draw a sword from a stone.

• Only the young Arthur can do so. Some nobles agree that Arthur should be the king of England. Some do not which causes war.

• This is not Excalibur.

Arthur as King• A strange woman in

a lake gives the sword Excalibur to Arthur.

• With that sword and his innate goodness, Arthur unifies Britain and the whole of Europe into one kingdom.

The Round Table

• Knights come to serve King Arthur at his capital city at Camelot. The knights sit at a round table (the dowry of Guinevere) because everyone is equal (ergo peers). Arthur is “first among equals.”

• Arthur weds Guinevere.

• The knights gather and serve the cause of good.

Lancelot • French • The greatest of all the

knights: brave, courteous, and bold

• His only flaw is that he loves Queen Guinevere—and she loves him.

• Rescues Gwen and many other maidens

• Does NOT succeed in Quest for Grail

• Stays unwed to remain “pure”

• On a journey, Lancelot arrives at the castle of King Pelleas, who asks him to sleep with his daughter Elaine so that he will sire the perfect knight.

• When Lancelot refuses, Pelleas changes his daughter’s appearance so that she looks like Guinevere.

• Lancelot sleeps with Elaine, sires Galahad.

Birth of Galahad

Galahad • Truly the perfect knight.

• Raised by nuns, who lead him to Camelot. Takes the unfilled Siege Perilous, seat designated for the person that God chose to find the Holy Grail. Anyone else taking the chair would be struck dead, but for Galahad, a chalice appears.

Search for the Grail• The knights decide that a

young boy should not seek the Holy Grail by himself, and the entire Round Table sets off.

• Arthur is distraught, believes that many of these men of honor, courage, and faith will die on this lonely journey.

The Fall• Lancelot and Guinevere are

overcome by lust, and their affair is an open secret. Arthur shuts his ear to these rumors.

• Lancelot’s life is about gossip, defense of rep.

• The beginning of the end of Arthur’s reign comes when the love between Launcelot and Gwynevere is discovered and made public.

• Modred tells Arthur he must show the world that everyone must follow his laws even Guinevere.

• Arthur, shamed, must exile Lancelot.

• The queen is sentenced to be burnt at the stake for infidelity to the king.

• Launcelot comes to rescue her, but in the process kills two unarmed knights who were Sir Gawain’s brothers.

• Arthur leads an attack on Launcelot in France, mainly at Gawain’s insistence.

• During the battle Gawain is wounded.

• Back at Camelot, Sir Modred, Arthur’s illegitimate son, decides to usurp the throne.

• He even tries to make Queen Gwynevere marry him, but she escapes him.

• Then Modred defies the Archbishop of Canterbury who excommunicates him.

• Arthur returns from France to defend his kingdom from Modred.

• They have one bloody battle at sea, which Arthur’s side wins, but in which Gawain is mortally wounded.

• Before he dies, Gawain writes to Launcelot to ask for forgiveness because he now realizes that he did not intend to kill his brothers and to ask Launcelot to come to the aid of King Arthur against Modred.

Arthur’s Dream

• “He was appareled in gold cloth and seated in a chair which stood on a pivoted scaffold. Below him, many fathoms deep, was a dark well, and in the water swam serpents, dragons, and wild beasts. Suddenly the scaffold tilted and Arthur was flung into the water, where all the creatures struggled toward him and began tearing him limb from limb.”

• The night before a battle between Arthur and Modred is planned, Arthur has two dreams.

• One in which he is on the wheel of fortune and falls from the top into a well of serpents and dragons.

• Then he dreams of Gawain who tells him to make a truce with Modred because if he fights him on the following morning he will surely lose.

Arthur’s Dream• Beasts of the water

– Serpents

• symbol of evil and deception

– Sir Modred

• Foreshadowing the death of King Arthur?

Arthur’s Dream

• Vision of Sir Gawain– Begs King Arthur not to battle Sir

Modred tomorrow.– Wait for Lancelot to come back, and he

will defeat Sir Modred

• Arthur and Modred agree to a treaty.

• The two meet with their armies the next morning, but they distrust one another, so they tell their men that if anyone draws a sword to begin the battle.

• By chance, one of the soldiers is bitten by a snake in the field and draws him sword to kill it.

• The battle begins immediately.

• The armies destroy one another until only four knights are left. King Arthur is there with Sir Bedevere and his brother Sir Lucan, and on the opposing side is Sir Modred.

The Snake

• Bites the knight

• The knight pulls out his sword to kill the serpent

• As soon as the sword is drawn, both sides see it as an act of war.

• Because of the serpent, many people die

• Allusion?– The serpent in the Garden of Eden

• Arthur sees Modred by himself and wants to attack him.

• Bedevere and Lucan ask him to wait until Launcelot comes with reinforcements, but Arthur insisits.

• Arthur spears Modred with his lance.

• Modred impales himself on the lance so he can strike Arthur a mortal blow to his head.

• Modred dies.

• Arthur is carried off the field by his knights and into a small chapel.

• Sir Lucan is ordered by Arthur to investigate the screams he hears. Sir Lucan reports that the camp followers are looting the dead and murdering the wounded.

• The brothers want to move Arthur to a nearby town, so they try to lift him, but Sir Lucan falls dead as his guts fall out from his stomach wound under the pressure of trying to lift the king.

• Knowing that he is dying, Arthur asks Bedevere to take Excalibur to a nearby lake and throw the sword in. Then he is to return and tell Arthur what he saw.

• The first two times, Bedevere can not bear to throw away such a noble and valuable sword.

• The third time, he throws it in and a hand rises from the water and catches the sword, waves it three times, and disappears beneath the water.

• The return of the sword summons a barge with three beautiful ladies who have come for Arthur.

• They are to take him to Avalon to care for his wounds.

• Supposedly, one day when England needs him again, Arthur will return.

• Guinevere becomes a nun; Lancelot, a monk, fasting and serving God.

Glastonbury grave • Bedevere meets a hermit

the next day who has newly buried a corpse.

• The hermit says that it was brought to him by three beautiful ladies.

• Bedevere assumes that it is Arthur, and spends the remainder of his life with the hermit fasting and praying.

• At his tomb in Glastonbury is a headstone that reads: Here lies Arthur, the once and future king.

The Honorable Knights

• The knights give their lives for King Arthur

• Sir Lucan the Butler– Dies trying to comfort and protect King

Arthur

• Sir Bedivere the Bold– Lives with the monk to honor King Arthur

What’s it All Mean?

• Story of love, search for the Holy Grail, becomes a story of redemption.

• Sinners, such as Lancelot and Guinevere, bring destruction to those they love. God can take away their sin so that they die in peace.

• A great love story and a religious story.

• Speaks to values of the Middle Ages.

Is this a great book?

• The theme: distinction between lust and true spiritual love; principles of chivalry; medieval ideals.

• Written in noble language. The first long work of prose fiction in English language.

• A universal story; each generation has new movies, novels, comic books about Arthur.

• Morte d’Arthur summarizes a culture—the world of the Middle Ages and chivalry—at its apex.

The End of King Arthur?

• Tomb stone inscription:– “Here lies Arthur, the once and future king.”

• Legend– Some believe Arthur did not die and the he

will return Britain to glory.