EXTRACTS: Frank Bellamy's King Arthur and his Knights: The Complete Adventure © 2008 The Book Palace (116 PAGES in Full edition)

3 The story of King Arthur, like so many of Britain’s most legendary characters, owes more to romance and poetry than historical fact. Most of us know something of the story: that Arthur pulled a sword from a stone which, according to prophecy, made him King of England; that he was taken under the wing of a wizard called Merlin; that he had a court of knights at his round table in Camelot... But even the early legends become confused with more modern retellings. Were the legends really set in medieval England and could Arthur really have met Robin Hood? Who was the lady of the lake and did she give Arthur a sword called Excalibur or was Excalibur the sword that Arthur pulled from the stone? Did Merlin really have a wizard’s duel with a witch called Madam Mim? What we think of as ‘the Arthurian legends’ has changed over the years; other legends, such as that of Tristan and Iseult, have become inescapably linked with the story of Arthur and to find the historical origins of Arthur is somewhat akin to creating a statue from a block of stone and, like Michelangelo, chipping away the subsequent legends until the shape of the original figure is revealed. The story of Arthur was first related by Geoffrey of Monmouth (c.1100-c.1155), a Welsh clergyman, who composed a history of Britain – the Historia Regum Britanniae (1138) – from the time of Brutus to the death of Cadwallader in the 7th century. Geoffrey himself stated that his Historia was translated (into Latin) from an ancient book written in Welsh, although his stories derive in part from the 9th century Historia Brittonum , itself a recension of various earlier histories which had, by Geoffrey’s time, been altered and revised by other hands. Other sources were Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (731) by Bede and De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae of Gildas the Wise, which dated from the 6th century. 1 Welsh legends and a great deal of imagination were also woven into Geoffrey’s Historia . From Historia Brittonum Geoffrey took the story of Merlin, whom he made the star of Prophetiae Merlini , written before 1135. Merlin was a composite figure based on Myrddin Wyllt – a 6th century Welsh bard driven mad after seeing the horrors of battle who fled to live as a wild man in a forest where he gained the powers of prophecy – and Aurelius Ambrosius – about whom the Historia Brittonum related the tale of how he had been brought to the attention of the British King, Vortigern, following the collapse of a newly erected tower. Ambrosius revealed that the tower was built on an underground lake where two dragons were constantly fighting. Geoffrey of Monmouth combined these in one character, but altered the name Myrddin to Merlin. 2 He also introduces Aurelius Ambrosius as a secondary character for whom Merlin creates Stonehenge as a burial place after he is poisoned. The Merlin character is central to the story of Arthur as it is Merlin who is ultimately responsible for Arthur’s birth. Uther Pendragon – brother to Aurelius who had become king after defeating Vortigern – had become obsessed with Igerna, the wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, and Merlin transforms his appearance so that Uther can enter Tintagel Castle. There he and Igerna conceive Arthur. Gorlois, besieged elsewhere by Uther’s army, is killed that same night, allowing Uther and Igerna to marry, thus legitimizing the birth and allowing Arthur to become heir to the kingdom when Uther dies. Arthur defeats the Saxons in a series of decisive battles, conquers Scotland, marries Guanhumara, of noble Roman descent but raised in Cornwall, before setting off to conquer Ireland, Iceland and other North Atlantic islands. With knights coming from far and wide to join his court over the next twelve years of peace, Arthur is able to conquer Norway, Denmark and Gaul. After such a major series of successes and nine years of battle, Arthur decides to hold a magnificent party at Caerleon, the City of Legions. His success in Gaul – at that time under the rule of Rome – provokes a letter from emperor Lucius Tiberius 3 demanding he pays Rome tribute. Arthur’s response, after taking counsel, is to warn Rome that he is on his way to demand tribute of his own. Placing his nephew Modred in charge at home, Arthur heads off to fight the Romans and wins a great battle; Lucius Tiberius is killed and Arthur is marching on Rome when he learns that Modred has claimed the crown of Britain for his own and (adulterously) married Guanhumara. Returning to Britain, Arthur’s army meets with Modred’s army of Saxons, Irish, Scots and Picts. Modred is killed and Arthur, mortally wounded, is taken to the Isle of Avallon to be cured. Arthur passes on his crown to his kinsman Constantine in the year 542. * * * * * The story as related by Geoffrey of Monmouth lacks many of the episodes that have since become part of the Arthurian legend. His book was an immediate and widespread success and was circulated around Britain and translated on the Continent. A Normandy poet called Wace produced Roman de Brut in c.1155, a relatively close translation into Anglo-Norman, although he added various speeches, names, comments and one or two new features of his own. One was the round table which Arthur introduces to stop any squabbling between nobles over precedence at table. Wace also added a line to Arthur’s death: “The Bretons still await him”. Converting Geoffrey of Monmouth’s prose into poetry also had the effect of romanticising the story and it was not long before other verse romances were being composed in France. Marie de France’s Lanval was a fairy story in which a prince at King Arthur’s court is taken up by a fairy mistress. Chrétien de Troyes composed no less than five romances The Once and Future King The Story of King Arthur