Arthur, High King of Britain

Product Information

One of the most famous Welsh poetic references to Arthur comes in the collection of heroic death-songs known as Y Gododdin ( The Gododdin), attributed to the 6th-century poet Aneirin. One stanza praises the bravery of a warrior who slew 300 enemies, but says that despite this, "he was no Arthur" – that is, his feats cannot compare to the valour of Arthur. [48] Y Gododdin is known only from a 13th-century manuscript, so it is impossible to determine whether this passage is original or a later interpolation, but John Koch's view that the passage dates from a 7th-century or earlier version is regarded as unproven; 9th- or 10th-century dates are often proposed for it. [49] Several poems attributed to Taliesin, a poet said to have lived in the 6th century, also refer to Arthur, although these all probably date from between the 8th and 12th centuries. [50] They include "Kadeir Teyrnon" ("The Chair of the Prince"), [51] which refers to "Arthur the Blessed"; " Preiddeu Annwn" ("The Spoils of Annwn"), [52] which recounts an expedition of Arthur to the Otherworld; and "Marwnat vthyr pen[dragon]" ("The Elegy of Uther Pen[dragon]"), [53] which refers to Arthur's valour and is suggestive of a father-son relationship for Arthur and Uther that pre-dates Geoffrey of Monmouth. David, Brian, Review of Nicholas J. Higham, King Arthur: The Making of the Legend in Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 50:221-222 (2019) doi: 10.1353/cjm.2019.0021 ProjectMUSE 734087 a b c Tom Shippey, "So Much Smoke", review of Higham 2002, London Review of Books, 40:24:23 (20 December 2018) Pryor, Francis (2004), Britain AD: A Quest for England, Arthur, and the Anglo-Saxons, London: HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-00-718186-5 .

King Arthur ( Welsh: Brenin Arthur, Cornish: Arthur Gernow, Breton: Roue Arzhur, French: Roi Arthur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. Marooned on a sandbank, a boy faces certain death. With the sea closing in and the current about to drag him to a watery grave, his final wish is to see heaven. Waking in a strange bed, the boy meets an old man sitting by the fire with his dog. It is King Arthur, the great warrior of legend, and from his lips the boy hears of Camelot, chivalry, magic, evil and betrayal. Whatever his sources may have been, the immense popularity of Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae cannot be denied. Well over 200 manuscript copies of Geoffrey's Latin work are known to have survived, as well as translations into other languages. [74] For example, 60 manuscripts are extant containing the Brut y Brenhinedd, Welsh-language versions of the Historia, the earliest of which were created in the 13th century. The old notion that some of these Welsh versions actually underlie Geoffrey's Historia, advanced by antiquarians such as the 18th-century Lewis Morris, has long since been discounted in academic circles. [75] As a result of this popularity, Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae was enormously influential on the later medieval development of the Arthurian legend. While it was not the only creative force behind Arthurian romance, many of its elements were borrowed and developed (e.g., Merlin and the final fate of Arthur), and it provided the historical framework into which the romancers' tales of magical and wonderful adventures were inserted. [76] Romance traditions During the 12th century, Arthur's character began to be marginalised by the accretion of "Arthurian" side-stories such as that of Tristan and Iseult, here pictured in a painting by John William Waterhouse (1916) The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe. An online peer-reviewed journal that includes regular Arthurian articles; see especially the first issue. Wright, Neil (1982). "Geoffrey of Monmouth and Gildas". In Barber, Richard (ed.). Arthurian Literature. Vol.II. Boydell & Brewer. pp.1–40. ISSN 0261-9946.Breeze, Andrew (September 2015). "The Historical Arthur and Sixth-Century Scotland". Northern History. LII (2): 158–181. doi: 10.1179/0078172x15z.00000000085. S2CID 161217897. Lacy, Norris J.; Ashe, Geoffrey; Mancoff, Debra N. (2014). The Arthurian Handbook. Routledge. ISBN 978-1317777441 . Retrieved 14 July 2014. Ashe, Geoffrey (1985), The Discovery of King Arthur, Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday, ISBN 978-0-385-19032-9 . Bromwich, Rachel (2006). Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain. University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1386-8.

Whitaker, Muriel (1984). Arthur's Kingdom of Adventure: The World of Malory's Morte Darthur. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 0859911659.

Authors

Lacy, Norris J. (1996b), "Chrétien de Troyes", in Lacy, Norris J. (ed.), The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, New York: Garland, pp.88–91, ISBN 978-1-56865-432-4 .