by Mariusz Misztal

Task 1

Working in pairs/groups, write two questions that you would like answered  for each of the items below.
 
 

Task 2

Now match the items with the paragraphs below and see if your questions have been answered.
 

• An ancient town in Somerset. It is fabled to be the place where Joseph of Arimathea brought the Christian faith to Britain, and the Holy Grail, in the year 63 AD.  It is also here that King Henry II, who claimed descent from Arthur, identified a tomb, in which a cross inscribed “Here lies buried the renowned King Arthur in the Isle of Avalon” was found, as that of Arthur.
• He supposedly lived about 470 AD. He was a Welsh bard who entered the service of Arthur during the Saxon invasion. He went mad after watching a horrible battle near Solway. Thereafter he lived in caves, singing to himself. He was known as a poet and a prophet as well as a magician. He is said to have been the son of a fierce demon and a Welsh princess.
• Merlin, the magician, created it. According to legend, it was made of marble, but it could be folded magically and carried in a coat pocket. It was round so that no one could argue over the order in which Arthur’s knights should be seated. It seated 150 knights, and one extra place was left in it for the Sangrail, the founder of the Holy Grail.
• It was the legendary spot where King Arthur held his court.
• It was King Arthur’s sword. One story says that the Lady of the Lake gave him this sword. Another says that only Arthur was able to draw it from a stone in which it had been magically stuck. At Arthur’s death, it was thrown back into the lake. A strange hand drew it below, and no one ever saw it again.
• It is the name given to the cup Jesus used at the Last Supper. It was believed to have the power to heal. It was taken to England by Joseph of Arimathea and disappeared.  During Arthur’s time, a sister of one of the Knights of the Round Table saw it in a vision. This vision was so inspiring that all the knights vowed to search for it. It was at last found by the son of Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad.

Read THE MYTH and THE HISTORY AND THE GROWTH OF THE LEGEND. What parts of the myth are supported by historical fact?
 

THE MYTH

     King Arthur was the hero of many legends and stories of the Middle Ages. According to legend, Merlin, the wizard,  arranged for the birth of Arthur by bringing together King Uther Pendragon and Igrayne, Duchess of Cornwall. Raised in secrecy away from his father’s court, Arthur succeeded to Uther’s throne at the age of fifteen, after proving his royalty and chastity by drawing the famous magic sword, Excalibur, from a stone. Soon, he subdued the Saxons, expanded his control over Scotland, Ireland, Iceland and the Orkneys, and established peace for a period of twelve years.
     With his wife, the lovely Guinevere, Arthur established his court at Camelot with the Knights of the Round Table as his companions and Merlin, the magician, as his advisor.  Arthur dispensed aid and honour from his court and his empire was filled with chivalry and courtly love.  Arthur’s knights went forth in quest of adventure and to defeat those hostile to the Round Table and its values, but their chief exploits were concerned with the quest to the Holy Grail.   Among the knights, Sir Lancelot was a model of fidelity, bravery, frailty in love, and repentance; Sir Galahad of chastity; Sir Gawain of courtesy. But not all the knights were perfect: Sir Kay represented a rude, boastful knight, and Sir Mordred  a treacherous knight.  Also, Sir Lancelot had to flee from Camelot when Arthur found out that he was a lover of Queen Guinevere.  This event brought about the dissolution of the knightly fellowship, and, eventually, the destruction of the kingdom.
     When Roman ambassadors arrived in Camelot demanding tribute, Arthur rejected them and set sail for Europe to confront the Roman forces, leaving his nephew Mordred as vice-regent.  Having conquered the Romans, Arthur was about to cross the Alps when word arrived that Mordred had usurped the throne.  Arthur returned to Camelot and a bitter battle was fought between the rebels and the loyal subjects. The king killed Mordred, but was severely wounded himself. He was carried away secretly to the isle of Avalon – in Celtic mythology the Island of the Blessed Souls - to be healed of his wounds. Arthur never returned to Camelot, but legends say he will some day come back to rule over England again.
 

THE HISTORY AND THE GROWTH OF THE LEGEND

     Some historians doubt that Arthur ever existed, but most believe that Arthur was a Welsh or Scottish leader who fought against pagan Saxon invaders early in the sixth century. Archeologists, in searching for evidence of the existence of Arthur, discovered a possible location for Camelot at South Cadbury, a village in southwestern England. In the 1960’s early sixth-century remains were excavated on a hill surrounded by earthenwork defenses, indicating that it could have been the site of Arthur’s headquarters.
     The earliest mention of Arthur in an extant source comes from the beginning of the 7th century: the long Welsh poem, 'Y Goddodin' alludes to Arthur as a great warrior.  As a shadowy ‘historical’ figure Arthur is mentioned under the Latin name Artorius in the late 7th-century 'Historia Brotnum' (usually known by the name of Nennius, its 9th-century editor). Arthur, as a war chief (Dux Bellorum), not king, is said to have led the Britons against the Saxons in twelve great battles culminating in the great victory of Mount Badon (fought between 493 and 516).  The 10th-century 'Annales Cambriae', also mention Arthur’s victory at Mount Badon, and record the Battle of Camlan (537), “in which Arthur and Mordred fell”.  In the 11th-century Welsh prose romance 'Culhwch and Olwen', Arthur is already presented as a world conqueror. This work also contains the first reference to his wife, Guinevere,  his retinue of  warriors and Excalibur
     The stories, which have King Arthur as their central figure, appear as early as the 12th century and Arthurian Romances owe most to Geoffrey of Monmouth.  In 1136  Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his famous and influential, though mainly fabulous, 'Historia Regnum Brittanniae', which was purported to be a translation of an ancient Celtic history of Britain. In this Historia Arthur is depicted as a glorious British monarch, and at the height of his career, Emperor of the West, who fights monsters and helps the weak.  Monmouth’s Historia was versified in Roman de 'Brut' (1155), which is the first to mention the Round Table. These works were used by Layamon, who in his Brut  (1205) adds the story of the fairies at Arthur’s birth, who transported him to Avalon at his death. In France, in the late 12th century, Robert de Borron introduced the legend of the Grail and gave prominence to Merlin. Chrestien de Tryes brought in the tale of the tragic loves of Lancelot and Guinevere. Soon stories and ballads of King Arthur and his knights were told and sung throughout Medieval Europe. Thus the Arthurian writers introduced the romantic spirit of chivalry and courtly manners into European literature and King Arthur became the embodiment of the ideal Christian knight.
Many other Welsh and Breton ballads and romances popularised the legend and the whole corpus was collected and edited by Sir Thomas Malory (d.1471) in his great prose romance 'Le Morte d’Arthur'.
     Many English poets and writers, such as  Edmund Spencer,  John Milton, Walter Scott, Alfred Tennyson or William Morris used Malory’s book as a source for their own writing. Richard Wagner based some of his operas, eg. 'Tristan and Isolde' and 'Parsival',  on Arthurian tales.  King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are not forgotten even today. Many films have been made on the theme, most recently 'Excalibur' and 'First Knight'.

Task 4

Project work

• Collect materials and information on figures in Polish history who have been mythologised  in the same way as King Arthur and present  your findings to the rest of the class.