Arthurian Legend - Essay

Arthur’s knights were his most trusted friends and family, but ironically, he is betrayed by the best of them. The most reputed of Arthur’s knights are Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristram. Sir Lancelot was the leader of the Knights of the Round Table and Arthur’s most trusted friend, but he was involved in an illicit love affair. This affair was with Arthur’s

Arthurian history is vague to say the least, and written records are not always entirely factual. The brief Annals of Wales tells two things of Arthur: he fought at Badon, and he was killed at Camlann in the same battle. These Annals were composed centuries after the time of Arthur, and were compiled from other, earlier sources. A battle between Arthur and Medraut (Modred) is recorded for the year 539 AD. This entry was made after Arthur had already become a legend, and the spelling of the name with an "h" would suggest this, as the evidence from the earliest reliable sources spells the name without an "h". So it is reasonable to believe that this is a very late and unreliable entry indeed.

There are countless versions of the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. Most English versions are based on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, but where did these tales originate, and what different interpretations are there today? This essay seeks to examine the roots and different renditions of the various legends circulating today. The first section deals with the origins of the legend. The second section speculates on who the "real" King Arthur could have been. A comparison of several different versions, and suggestions of why they differ are given in the third section, and the conclusion presents an analysis on the ambiguity of the legend.

A king was expected to sit on his throne, give demands to his people and rule his kingdom. It is unheard of for a medieval King to charge around on his horse and organize knights or to look for the Holy Grail. According to the information that has been given; King Arthur has fought in twelve battles. However, based on the facts, these battles took place in so many different times and places that it would have been impossible for one man to participate in all of them. The actions of King Arthur do not correspond with the typical actions of a king because after the death of his mother, Merlin (the powerful wizard) took him away. Merlin gave young Arthur away to Sir Ector, who raised young Arthur as his son. However, Sir Ector did not know that young Arthur was the son of Uther Pendragon (King of Britain). Eleven years later, the young Arthur ends up pulling the sword out of the stone and becomes the king of Britain. For a kid to pull the sword out of the stone subsequently and being crowned after that event is very extraordinary.

Arthur and Guinevere are wedded to one another, and both care deeply about each other. But as time goes by, Guinevere starts to develop feelings for Sir Lancelot, one of Arthur’s most trusted knights, while still admiring her husband, Arthur. One evening, at a funeral feast for Lancelot’s son, Lancelot “reached out and took her hand, pressing it softly and holding on to it, stroking her fingers beneath the rings she wore”(Bradley 838). Lancelot and Guinevere’s affair with each other has been flickering on and off like a lamp across the Arthurian legend. They try to keep their relationship a secret from the public, but as courtly lovers, everyone is already aware that the both of them are seeing one another, except for Guinevere's husband. That is the reason to why Lancelot holds Guinevere's hand secretly. In The Mists of Avalon, Arthur stays completely unaware about his wife’s affair with Sir Lancelot until Arthur’s son, Mordred, sets them up. Once discovered, Guinevere and Lancelot immediately make a run for it, and leave Camelot. Their actions cause Mordred to spill the truth about them to Arthur, who became somber. The news ultimately lead to Arthur's death and the downfall of Camelot, after being intensely injured in a battle for the throne against

Not only does Lancelot’s affair with Guinevere cause him a great deal of suffering, it wreaks havoc on the lives of many other men as well. For instance, their affair brings tragedy to Sir Gawain and his family. Lancelot kills Gawain’s innocent brothers, Sir Gaheris and Sir Gareth, while rescuing the queen from being executed for adultery. Sir Gawain consequently instigates a blood feud against Lancelot that will eventually lead to his own death. King Arthur and his

King Arthur and the knights of the round table belong to a long line of books and stories of the Arthurian legend. Merlin, Lancelot, The lady of the lake, King Arthur, and Excaliber are all very important in the Arthurian legend. In this essay we will talk about King Arthur, the knights of the round table, and Merlin in the famous story, The sword in the stone.

The fact that Gwynevere is the King Arthur wife means that she is committing treason by having her relationship with Lancelot. Yet again the novel Arthur is being betrayed.

Countless amounts of people have heard about the legend of King Arthur. The mythological stories of him and his heroic events can still be found today and he remains to be a legend in literature history. Even some of the adventures he had can still be compared to in today's world. Between his connections with other characters and his innumerable amount of heroic events, Arthur continues to be a heroic figure and can be compared to few people in ancient times. Although he seems to have been in literature for a very long time, the works of him are still a hit today.

    In all the long history of literature, some fictional characters have loomed above others, written about again and again by various authors of various eras. Arthurian literature is one area of fiction that has always been popular for writers to recreate in new versions, and one of the most intriguing characters of all Arthurian literature is Merlin, the magician/ prophet who aids Arthur early in his reign. As the Arthurian saga develops, so does Merlin, changing from an aloof, druidical character into a more human, magical being, though always retaining some traces of his Welsh origins.

During the years that King Arthur ruled over England, his reign is always remembered as a time of peace, a golden age, a great era, and a glorious time. However, this all comes to a halt, when two of Arthur’s most noble knights bring an affair into the open, causing his round table and kingdom to fall and bringing Arthur to his death. Written by Sir Thomas Malory in the latter half of the 15th century, books 20 and 21 of Morte D’Arthur (Death of Arthur) describe how over time, the tragic hero, King Arthur slowly loses control over his kingdom due to his ignorance, leading to a few errors in judgement that inevitably lead him to his own demise and to the passing of the great era that was the reign of the legendary King Arthur. King Arthur is a tragic hero due to his ignorance, overly trusting manner, and the careless mistakes that he makes during his time as king.

The Arthurian Legends were an effect of the Romantic Era and resulted in abstract thinking, as well as the arts including music, painting, poetry, and writing. The birth of the Arthurian Legends came from Celtic mythology and medieval romance, while the existence of magic confirms the conception of artistic intellect. Whether or not King Arthur truly existed, his influence dramatically changed the English society and English Literature to its current form (Arthurian Legends Vol. 1).

Although King Arthur is one of the most well-known figures in the world, his true identity remains a mystery. Attempts to identify the historical Arthur have been unsuccessful, since he is largely a product of fiction. Most historians, though, agree that the real Arthur was probably a battle leader of the Britons against the Anglo-Saxons in the sixthth century. In literature, King Arthur's character is unique and ever changing, taking on a different face in every work. There is never a clearly definitive picture that identifies Arthur's character. It is therefore necessary to look at a few different sources to get better insight into the character of Arthur, the once and future king.

The adulterous affair between King Arthur’s most trusted knight Lancelot, and his wife, Guinevere, is symbolic to the coming of the mischievous serpent in God’s garden as a result to an end of a perfect world. According to the influential work of Sir Thomas Malory at the end of the 15th century, there became one of the major causes of the downfall of Arthur’s Round Table. Through various parts of literature, Lancelot’s romantic character becomes known. In The Knight of the Cart (ca. 1175), by Chrûtien de Troyes Sir Lanceolt rescues Guinevere from the evil knight, Meleagent, and ultimately spends the night with the queen in her chamber. He later listens and obeys every instruction she asks Lancelot to do, such as to do his worst in the Tournament. Another major romance of which Lancelot is the protagonist is the extensive early 13th-century Prose Lancelot, a part of the Vulgate Cycle of Arthurian romances. Here, he is raised by the Lady of the Lake, and by 18 sent to Arthur’s court after realizing his royal percentage. He is given a sword by Guinevere, who knights him in a ceremony of divided loyalties. He goes to act of numerous adventures for the king to earn his reputation, but his adultery with the queen disables his legitimacy to succeed in the quest for the Holy Grail. In the last romance of the cycle, Lancelot and the

If the name of King Arthur is mentioned, I suppose what comes to mind is not so much one person as a whole array of characters and themes, a montage so to speak. Of course we do think first of the King, the magnificent monarch of a glorified or idealized medieval realm. But we think also of his Queen, of the fair and wayward Guinevere, we think of his enchanter, Merlin, who presided over his birth, who set him on the throne, who established him there in the early and traveled days of his reign. There were the knights of the Round Table, vowed to the highest ideals of chivalry, and the greatest of them, Sir Lancelot, who, of course, has a tragic love affair with the Queen. There is another great love story, that of Tristan