Arthurian cycle

King Arthur

• Born: c. 6th century A.D.
• Birthplace: England
• Died: possibly 537 A.D.
• Known as: ruler of Camelot, a Roman-British leader who fought against the invading Anglo-Saxons

King Arthur and his circle are creations of medieval writers drawing on history, folklore, mythology, and imagination.

Arthurian material has been continually reshaped and developed, reflecting aspects of contemporary life, morality, and

(c.600), th

aspirations. The ‘real’ Arthur is a hero referred to in the British poem the Gododdin in the 9 century. Nennius' Historia Brittonum, Annales Cambriae.

and in two entries in the 10th-cent. King Arthur is one of the great mythic figures of English literature. Dozens of legends and romantic images have grown up around him: the knights of the Round Table, Merlin the wizard, and the Holy Grail, to name a few.

According to the mythology, he was the son of Uther Pendragon, King of Britain, and Igraine, wife of Duke Gorlois of Cornwall. He was conceived out of wedlock (illegitimate son) and brought up by the wizard Merlin.

By pulling the magic sword Excalibur from a stone, from which no one else could extract it, he revealed himself, though then a child, as the predestined king. Crowned at the age of fifteen, in Wales, he soon showed his skill as a military commander, even reaching the city of Rome in one campaign.

Against Merlin's advice, Arthur married Guinevere, who loved Sir Lancelot and was unfaithful to the king. Disaster struck his kingdom in the shape of a rebellion raised by Mordred, his nephew.

A great battle was fought, nearly all of the Knights of the Round Table slain, and Arthur himself sorely wounded. Excalibur was thrown into a lake, and in a boat, three fairies took Arthur away to Avalon, or Avallach, which has been identified with Glastonbury (a small town situated in the county of Somerset, England).

Queen Guinevere

She is the wife of King Arthur in the Arthurian legends. Her illicit and tragic relationship to Lancelot helps to bring about the downfall of Arthur's court and it ends with her retirement to a convent.

She also figures in several early romances and Celtic legends. Her betrayal first appears in Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart.

This motif was picked up in all the cyclical Arthurian literature, starting with the Lancelot-Grail Cycle of the early 13th century and carrying through Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.

In surviving accounts of Arthur, there are two originally separate legends about the sword's origin.