The legendary cycle of King Arthur (or Artus) and his Knights of the Round Table has its origins in the far southwest of the British Isles, in what are now the counties of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. Here, historians are agreed, at the end of the fifth/early part of the sixth century, lived a Breton military leader who confronted the Anglo Saxon invaders from the east, defeating them in battle at Mons Badonicus in 516.
At this point however history ends and legend begins, a legend which has immortalized in the figure of Arthur the archetype of a Christian king and the embodiment of all the knightly virtues.
The first mention of this mythical Arthur, as "dux bellorum", appears in the "Historia Britonum", written
about 800 and attributed to Nennius.
But it was the Benedictine monk Geoffrey of Monmouth who first transformed Arthur into a figure of profound cultural significance when, in his "Historia Regum Britanniae" (1132-35), he embellished facts relating to the historical king with fiction drawn from Breton fables and folk tales. Geoffrey's Arthur is the son of the Breton king Uther Pendragon and Ygerne, wife of the Duke of Cornwall. Brought up by the wizard Merlin, he takes the throne at the age of fifteen, marrying the beautiful Guinevere, a Roman. Having extended his rule throughout Britain, twelve years of peace ensue. He then embarks with an army for mainland Europe where his knight Gawain defeats the Roman emperor Lucius. Standing on the threshold of Rome, Arthur receives word that his nephew Mordred has abducted Guinevere and siezed power.
Returning home he catches up with Mordred at Camlann, killing him in single combat and being himself mortally wounded. He does not however die, but is "carried away" to the island of Avalon. His legendary sword Excalibur disappears, embedded immovably in a rock at the bottom of a lake.
Geoffrey's fable inspired a succession of literary works. In his "Roman de Brut" (1155), the Anglo Norman poet Wace introduced several new elements which have remained essential strands of the myth ever since. Healed in Avalon by the sorceress Morgan, for example, Arthur awaits the day when he can return and liberate Britain. But Wace's chief contribution was the introduction of the Round Table of 28 knights. Thereafter, the adventures of Gawain, Galahad, Percival and Lancelot, based on exploits in Celtic Irish mythology, overshadowed the original Arthurian story. Assuming a dynamism of their own, they opened up new narrative fields. The figure of the king becomes merely the embodiment of chivalrous ideals, and is even on occasion ridiculed - as the husband cuckolded by the lovers in the story of Lancelot and Guinevere for example.
Onto this already much embroidered version of the Arthurian story, Chrétien de Troyes grafted the further legend of the Holy Grail, elevating the search for the mystical chalice into the most sacred duty of King Arthur's knights. From the 12th to the 14th centuries de Troyes' "Conte de Graal" (1175) inspired a number of other writers in France while also proving very influential in Germany, where the most notable interpretations were Hartmann von Aue's "Ivein", "Erec" and "Lanzelot" and Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parsifal".
Wolfram transformed what had up to then been an adventure story into a "character" novel, by taking the spiritual metamorphosis of the madcap Percival as his principal theme.
It was in England however that the Arthurian legend achieved its most vivid rendering, in Sir Thomas Malory's "Morte d'Arthur" (1470).
The myth has continued to exercise a powerful influence on the literary imagination even in more recent times, as in the 19th century Alfred Lord Tennyson's famous poetry cycle "Idylls of the King (1859-88), Mark Twain's satire on contemporary culture in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1889) and Richard Wagner's operas "Tristan and Isolde" and "Parsifal".
The present century has seen Jean Cocteau's play "Les Chevaliers de la Table Ronde" (1924) which, while based on the love affair of Guinevere and Lancelot, removes the trappings of magic from the story, and the American writer Hal Foster's comic epic featuring Prince Eisenherz at the Round Table. Other examples include the film "Excalibur" by John Boorman and Marion Zimmer Bradley's novel "The Mists of Avalon". ".
Anyone setting off today in search of King Arthur will find no shortage of places shrouded in mystery. Their authenticity however is quite another matter, and many sites are a disappointment, with nothing to see but an artificial mound.
Tintagel Castle lays claim to being Arthur's birthplace, three other castles, Castle Killibury, Barras Nose and Willapark, to being the legendary Killiwick where he spent his youth. Close to Bodmin Moor there is a hunting lodge called Arthur's Hall. Two of the most famous Arthurian knights - Galahad and Tristan (Tristram) - are reputed to have come from the British Atlantis, Lyonesse, assumed to be the now sunken land bridge between the Scilly Isles and the mainland. Many people have claimed to see the remains of ancient walls uncovered at low tide.
It was in Castle Dore, on the south coast, that King Mark brooded over Tristan's and Isolde's love. Three miles away stands Tristran's Stone, alleged to be Tristan's burial place. Experts now agree on Cadbury Castle in Somerset as the site of Arthur's castle Camelot. Some miles to the northwest stands Glastonbury Tor, beneath which the Holy Grail is said to have been buried by Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph also founded Glastonbury Abbey, where a stone square stands over what is claimed to be Arthur's and Guinevere's grave.
Some say Arthur's victory over the Anglo Saxons took place near the Badbury Rings in Dorset, others at Liddington Castle in Wiltshire. The scene of his final battle is likewise disputed, the alternatives including Camelot (i.e. Cadbury) or Slaughterbridge near Camelford. Not far from the latter is Arthur's Tomb where, according to yet another tradition, the king lies buried. It is said that Excalibur still waits to be reclaimed by its owner at the bottom of Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor.
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