The Matter of Britain: an Introduction to Arthurian Legend

Jonathan G. Reinhardt The Matter of Britain: An Introduction to Arthurian Legend hen most Western contemporaries remi- the bridge where her bedestined bemusedly Wnisce upon Arthur the King, they inevitably waits to consequently rescue her; they form the do so with a certain wistfulness, a sense of story- chivalrous template for how to act adolescent books and wonders, ideals of justice and love for men shy with verse and roses, or bois- romance: they see Disneyesque castle lands, or terously steeded with big trucks—and the Kennedy’s smile. Arthurian legends are indeed unwell-spring of dreams of life-long love whence the mythology of the anglophone world. even on their deathbeds not yet disenchanted Wrapped in the mists of childish memory, they women murmur princes themwards. are the childhood photographs of its sense of ad- The pivotal medieval reteller Sir Thomas venture, every memory shaking with the yearning Malory’s conclusion to his Mort d’Arthur (ca. sense that this is a good, magical world after all, 1470)—that “some say in many parts of England where all women are beautiful princesses, all that King Arthur is not dead, but had by the will men glistening knights on horseback, and evil of Our Lord Jesu in another place; and men say merely monsters to be slain. that he shall come again”—embodies the dream Even to those who have knowledge of the of a golden age encompassing all aspects of life. stories beyond The Sword in the Stone animation Thus the Arthurian legends evoke the cultural and Prince Valiant, to the cultured who have memory of the Anglo-Saxon and of much of the bowed and curtsied before Arthur, Merlin, Lance- European passages, ravages, and rebirths of lot du Lac and Guinevere, have grappled with époques faded and revived. Accumulating the Gawain encountering the Green Knight, hoped hopes and hatreds of the centuries, the highly with Perceval, been touched by Tristram and eclectic mythos interprets this Anglophone Isolde in their fate-crossed love—even to them, dream and memory vivacious in terms historical, the legends recall primarily a pleasant story-book mythical, narrative, religious, and sentimental. illustration of what medieval times were like (or The “real” Arthur, however, remains an likely not). And of course, all around they re- enigma—if he existed at all. In the sources pre- sound as the patronizable seat of somber girlish served from close to his lifetime, the historical excitement, such as when Anne of Green Gable and mythic qualities of the traditional Arthurian opheliaizes “The Lady of Shalott” before she slips characters and their genuine biographies are an off her bargelet into the emerald river beneath imbroglio difficult to disentangle. Most have, pre- MARS HILL AUDIO Resource Essay sumably, some unfabled origin, but often enough he himself was campaigning abroad. Although it it seems the current characters are variously is unclear where exactly Camlann was, Arthur fused from a handful of historical heroes, vestiges likely met his end in battle there, as did another of folklore, and memories of Celtic and Norse prominent figure named Medraut (Mordred). mythology. Whoever the “historical” Arthur was, he was Of the authentic Arthur himself, for example, not the wondrously fabulous, aging, high medie- only four claims can be somewhat safely made. val monarch he has come to represent as a First, given that his historical name Artorius is of literary figment. Much that the Arthurian legends Roman origin, and in concurrence with the earli- are now valued for—as well as the lack of clarity est sources, he was a war leader (dux bellorum) concerning the “historical” Arthur—arises from in Britain, fighting—probably at the head of Ro- the Welsh poetical tradition through which the man-style cavalry units—for the Romanized Celtic hero’s stories were preserved after the Saxon Briton petty kings, soon after the Romans with- hordes harried and hounded the battered, broken drew from the island in A.D. 407. Secondly, based Britons into the island’s western hills. Thus the either in Welsh southwestern Britain or in those first preserved mention of Arthur is not in a his- parts of the north inhabited by Brythonic Celts, torical text, but occurs in the long poem Y he defended Christian Celtic Britain against hea- Gododdin from the Book of Aneirin, originally then invaders. Interestingly, the earliest Welsh written around A.D. 600. Most Welsh poetry was writers mentioning Arthur in the twelfth century transmitted only orally, as was the Celtic tradi- Vita Paterni—the hagiographies of the saints tion, so that Welsh verse was not more widely Cadoc, Carannog, Gildas, and Padarn—describe collected in books until the twelfth and thir- Arthur as a tyrant who plundered monasteries to teenth centuries. Among these were those telling finance his wars. Of course, the authors were some of the Arthurian legends, and unrelated sto- likely themselves simply put-out monks, and they ries of their characters, that were then collected did note favorably that Arthur carried Christian into the Book of Taliessin and the Black Book of emblems into battle. It seems the dux victori- Carmarthen. One such story, Culhwch and ously battled Picts, Saxons, and the heathen fac- Olwen, which was first recorded in the tenth- tion among the Britons headed by a predecessor century forms the arch-pattern for most all pur- vortigern (“high king”). Thirdly, in the later sixth suant Arthur-related romances. In these texts, century several Arthurs find mention in the his- written four centuries after his death, Arthur has tory books, which indicates a bearer of this already ascended the throne of the benevolent originally rare name was important and admired arch-king surrounded by other valiant Welsh he- enough for people to name their sons after him. roes such as Bedwyr/Bedivere and Cei/Kay. The Finally, according to renowned Arthurian complex Welsh poems recall Arthur’s rule as an scholar Geoffrey Ashe, his true biography per- idealized time, and intertwine what is left of the haps inspired at least some of the story elements historical account with popular elements of pre- in the highly eclectic group of legends, since a Christian myths: battles with giants, Gwenhwy- very few of them cannot be traced to other far/Guinevere and her triplet sisters, the sources and remain in essence unchanged ambiguous bard Myrddin/Merlin, and such magi- whether reinterpreted by Welsh bards, French cal places as the apple-isle of Avalon. troubadours, or English laureate poets. Among The Myrddin/Merlin character is a prime ex- these remnants are Arthur’s leading horse- ample of such mythological eclecticism. In the mounted men into a series of successful battles medieval manuscripts, he appears in two cultur- and his dominance during a few decades in the ally defined roles: he is a bard in the Welsh sixth century when the British Celts held the tradition, and an enchanter and counselor in the Saxons and Picts more or less peacefully at bay. service of Arthur in the English texts. Perhaps He ruled from hill-top fortifications, and pre- reflecting the differing interpretations of his “his- ferred an especially prominent one with a name torical” role, authors frequently describe Merlin similar to “Camelot”. More speculatively, the his- in terms half demoniac, half human. When Geof- torical Arthur’s wife may have been abducted (or frey of Monmouth later conflates him with an- seduced) by one of his lieutenants at home while other collected character, Imrys/Ambrosius, the Jonathan Reinhardt, “An Introduction to Arthurian Legend,” page 2 MARS HILL AUDIO Resource Essay future sorcerer’s ambiguity earns its exposé by the Irish figure’s tales include hiding within an inheriting the latter figure’s alleged conception apple tree (symbolically associated with the lure by a fiend’s rape of a noble nun. Briton heroes of of the supernatural), it is likely that the entire that particular time seem to have had an inordi- episode is a vestige of an older Celtic divine. nate propensity towards being fathered on Some have noted Merlin’s repeated association ravished brides of Christ: the sixth century Welsh with stags, his preferred steed, and thereby trace patron saint Dewi/David, for example, reportedly him to the Celtic sylvan Pan-like god Cernunnos. was the son of a nun raped by a local prince The best-known mythic quality of Merlin, (sometimes said to be a nephew of Arthur’s). however, stems from what is likely a faulty asso- Less can be said about a “historical” Merlin ciation of the Welsh figure with the Briton Am- than of Arthur. If he existed at all, he seems to brosius (sometimes faultily Celticized as “Imrys”, have been a truly talented poet of noble back- the eternal). It has been suggested that the two ground (and contrary to recent attempts at figures actually represent St. Martin of Tours and reconstruction, likely not a covert druid) St. Ambrose of Milan, but even when confined monikered, like Shakespeare, “The Bard”. The within Britain their identities repel one another. name Myrddin seems to have been an adjective The Welsh Myrddin is clearly a Celtic figure, connoting inspiration by a Celtic deity of the arts, whereas Gildas calls the military predecessor to similar to the Greek Muses. At times, the Welsh Arthur “the last Roman,” Ambrosius was the Myrddin skirts identity with the ideal Welsh bard, leader of the Romanized and Christianized Brit- Taliesin, whose name “radiant brow” likewise ons and ruled in competition with another high implies supernatural inspiration. king, or vortigern, who likely led the pagan Additionally, most scholars presume that the Celts. The latter may be the “Vortigern” who in- “historical” Merlin is closer to the “wild man” or vited the Saxons to Britain.

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