King Arthur Essay
The stories and legends surrounding the character of King Arthur are among the best known of all stories about kings and knights. He is the greatest of British literary heroes, although little is known about the real person. Folklore and literature provide examples of a recurrent myth about a leader or hero who has not really died, but is asleep somewhere or in some estate of suspended life who will return to save his people (Geocities 3). There is little real historical information left about him other than, texts, chronicles, verses, myths, and fragments of epic poems, inscriptions, symbols and …show more content…
It begins with the mythical story of King Arthur's birth and ends with the destruction of the Round table and the deaths of King Arthur,
Queen Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot, who is Arthur's best knight and the queen's lover. The bulk of the work is taken up with the separate adventures of the Knights of the Round Table, and how they relate to
King Arthur. In the end the story turns to legend when King Arthur asks Sir Bedivere to throw his sword in the river and mystical ladies gather him and take him away (Jarman 104-105).
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. Igrayne was the wife of one of his barons, and
Merlin's magic transforms Uther into the likeness of her husband, and
Arthur is born of this union. This Arthur is associated with the magic and supernatural, while others are more closely related to myths.
Raised in secrecy away from his father's court,
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The Legend of King Arthur Essay
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King Arthur Essay example
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