ING ARTHUR

and the
Knights of the

Round Table
And many men say that there is written upon his
tomb this verse:

Here lies Arthur,

king who was,
and king who will be

Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, 1485

• Malory was the last writer to pen the tale of King
Arthur as the Middle Ages neared their end.

• Who was Malory? He describes himself as a knight.

• But he was imprisoned as a thief, bandit, kidnapper,

attempted murderer, and rapist.

• He drew upon a long-standing literary tradition,

combining various Arthurian materials to create a
coherent narrative.

Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, 1485

Arthurian world • In insane expansion

is a universe • Established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, and

characters

• Filled with stories about heroes, written and rewritten by many

authors over time (pan-European, multilingual, multi-cultural)

• Packed with contradictions, plot holes, continuity errors

 The Gododdin
The beginning of the myth:
•5th-6th centuries. Invasion ofBattle of Catraeth (c AD 600)
Britain by the Angles, the Jutes, and the Saxons.

He fed black ravens on the rampart of a fortress

Though he was no Arthur
Among the powerful ones in battle
In the front rank, Gwawrddur was a palisade
 • Historia Brittonum, 9th century
• Annales Cambriae, 10th century

A Celtic-Roman chieftain who stopped the Anglo-Saxon

invasion in the 5th century in the battle of Badon or Mons
Badonicus

A military leader (dux bellorum) who successfully

participated in 12 battles, heroically resisting the Anglo-
Saxon invaders.

Annales Cambriae: the Battle of Camlann (537), “in which

Arthur and Medraut fell.”

King Arthur returning from the Battle of Mons

Badonis (or Mount Badon), Stained glass in
Llandaf Cathedral, Wales
GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH

The History of the Kings of Britain, 1130

A blend of realistic accounts of battles and

locations, along with mythic heroes, magical
swords, and sorcery.
Brutus

A
A magical
Roman fortress calledCaliburnus
sword called
wise counselor named Merlin
Caerleon
Wice: Roman de Brut, 1155

• The round Table

Chrétien de Troyes:

Courtly romances
Perceval, the Story of the Grail
Lancelot, the knight of the cart

• Individual knights: Perceval, Gawain

• Holy Grail
• Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere’s love
triangle

- Courtly love: mad love, adulterous love