King Arthur. Essay, Research Paper

King Arthur

There has been a lot of material written about the legendary King

Arthur and although he has been a popular figure inliterature for over 800

years, not a lot is known about the real Arthur. It is believed that Arthur

was a 5the-century British King named Riothamus (meaning “high king”) who

ruled from 454 – 470 A.D. and led an army into Gaul where he was defeated

by the Goths of Burgundy. Two men by the names of Jordanes (6the century)

and William (11the century) contributed to the legend of Arthur. Their

input was perhaps the real basis of future adaptations of the story. Arthur

appeared in literature as a national hero in a book written in Latin by

Geoffrey of Monmouth called Historia Regum Britanniae (meaning History of

the Kings of Britain). he book supposedly covered history from 1200 B.C. to

689 A.D. Geoffrey includes many sources of information with his work but

most scholars believe it to be a fictional bibliography added only to give

his book some credibility. Therefore his work is considered to be

literature not factual history. Geoffrey is the one responsible for the

portrayal of Arthur as a splendid King who conquered the British Isles and

much of Europe Introduced by Geoffrey are Guenevere, Merlin, information

about Arthur’s strange birth and death and the concept of chivalry. Due to

the tremendous popularity of Geoffrey’s book, authors like Robert Wace and

Chretien de Troyes continued on with the development of King Arthur and his

life, adding yet more detail and depth to the story. Robert Wace

concentrated on the Arthurian aspect of the story while Chretien

concentrated on the romantic aspect of Arthur’s life. Some of the new

elements added include d the Round Table, courtly love and the love affair

between Lancelot and Guenevere. In 1205 A.D. Layamon wrote the first

English version of the King Arthur stories with a distinctly British

perspective. Another nationalistic version of the story was Morte Arthure.

This version was centered around fighting and action diminishing many of

the character’s parts, like Lancelot for instance. Perhaps the most widely

accepted story of Arthur was written in 1485 by Sir Thomas Malory. Malory

combines aspects of Wace, Chretien, Geoffrey and Layamon, expands on

Arthur’s court by adding short stories about some of Arthur’s most

important knights and writes of the collapse of the Round Table.

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