Arthurian Legend and Mythology
The legendary story of King Arthur and his noble knights of the round table is known throughout the world.
The names of Arthur, Merlin,
Lancelot, and Guinevere (to but name a few) invoke great
thoughts of knights in shining armor, love, honor, and battle.
Camelot was the most famous castle in medieval literature and was where Arthur established this noble court full of great and chivalrous warriors. The mythology of
Camelot, and the story of Arthur has been told over the centuries with many different versions and spins.
The Arthurian literary cycle is the best known part of the Matter of Britain. It has succeeded largely because it tells two interlocking stories that many later authors have been intrigued by. One concerns Camelot, usually envisioned as a doomed utopia of chivalric virtue, undone by the fatal flaws of Arthur and Sir Lancelot. The other concerns the quests of the various knights to achieve the Holy Grail; some succeed (Galahad, Percival), and others fail (Lancelot).
The medieval tale of Arthur and his knights is full of Christian themes; those themes involve the destruction of human plans for virtue by the moral failures of their characters, and the quest for an important Christian relic. Finally, the relationships between the characters invited treatment in the tradition of courtly love, such as Lancelot and Guinevere, or Tristan and Iseult. In more recent years, the trend has been to attempt to link the tales of King Arthur and his knights with Celtic mythology, usually in highly romanticized, early twentieth century reconstructed versions.
Was Arthur in fact a true historical figure, or only a hero of lengend and stories? Whether he and those associated with him were real or not, does not take away from what he and the knights represent...good against evil and that eternal struggle between that which is right and that which is wrong.
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Copyright: Nikki Burke 2000-2008
Website Last Updated: January 03, 2008
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