(About 520)
[Illustration: King Arthur.]
Arthur, king of the Siluri, or Dumnonii--British races driven back into
the west of England by the Saxons--is represented as having united the
British tribes in resisting the pagan invaders, and as having been the
champion not only of his people but also of Christianity. He is said to
have lived in the sixth century, and to have maintained a stubborn
contest against the Saxon Cerdic, but the "Saxon Chronicle" is
suspiciously silent as to his warfare and as to his existence. Indeed,
the Welsh bards of the earliest period do not assert that he was a
contemporary, and it is more than doubtful whether he is an historic
personage. It is worthy of remark that the fame of Arthur is widely
spread; he is claimed alike as a prince in Brittany, Cornwall, Wales,
Cumberland, and the lowlands of Scotland; that is to say, his fame is
conterminous with the Brithonic race, and does not extend to the Goidels
or Gaels. As is now well known, Great Britain was twice invaded by races
of Celtic blood and tongue; the first wave was that of the Goidels, and
after a lapse of some considerable time a second Celtic wave, that of
the Brithons, or Britons, from the east, overran Britain, and drove the
Gaels to west and north. Finn and Ossian belong to the mythic heroic
cycle of the Gaels, and Arthur and Merlin to that of the Britons. These
several shadowy forms are probably deities shorn of their divinity and
given historic attributes and position, much as, among the Norsemen,
Odin, when he ceased to be regarded as the All-father, or God, came to
be reckoned as an ancestor of the kings.
In the lays of the Welsh bards, supposed to be as early as the sixth and
seventh centuries (although no MS. is extant of older date than the
twelfth century), Arthur and his brave companions are celebrated, but
modestly and without marvels. It is possible that there may have existed
in the sixth century a prince bearing the already well-known heroic
name; and if so, about him the myths belonging to the remote ancestor or
god have crystallized. The legendary additions begin to gather in the
history of the Britons by Nennius, a writer supposed to have lived at
the beginning of the seventh century; but Mr. Thomas Wright has shown
("Biographia Literaria," Saxon period) that his history is a forgery of
a much later date, probably of the tenth century. Mr. Skene, however
("The Four Ancient Books of Wales"), makes fight to give Arthur an
historic place, and we do not deny that there may have been a prince of
that name. Next in order come the so-called Armoric collections of
Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford (latter part of eleventh century), from
which Geoffrey of Monmouth professes to translate, and in which the
marvellous and supernatural elements largely prevail. Here for the first
time the magician Merlin comes into association with Arthur. According
to Geoffrey, Arthur's father, Uther, conceiving a passion for Igerna,
wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, is changed by Merlin into the
likeness of Gorlois, and Arthur is the result. After his father's death
Arthur becomes paramount leader of the British, and makes victorious
expeditions to Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, and also to France,
where he defeats a great Roman army. During his absence his nephew,
Modred, revolts, and seduces Prince Arthur's wife, Gweniver
(Gwenhwywar). Arthur returning, falls in a battle with his nephew, and
is carried to the Isle of Avalon to be cured of his wounds. Geoffrey's
work apparently gave birth to a multitude of fictions, which came to be
considered as quasi-historical traditions. From these, exaggerated by
each succeeding age, and recast by each narrator, sprung the famous
metrical romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, first in
French and afterward in English, from which modern notions of Arthur are
derived. In these his habitual residence is at Caerlon, on the Usk, in
Wales, where, with his beautiful wife, Guinevere, he lives in splendid
state, surrounded by hundreds of knights and beautiful ladies, who serve
as patterns of valor, breeding, and grace to all the world. Twelve
knights, the bravest of the throng, form the centre of this retinue, and
sit with the king at a round table, the "Knights of the Round Table."
From the court of King Arthur knights go forth to all countries in
search of adventure--to protect women, chastise oppressors, liberate the
enchanted, enchain giants and malicious dwarfs, is their knightly
mission.
The earliest legends of Arthur's exploits are to be found in the bardic
lays attributed to the sixth and seventh centuries ("Myoyrian Archæology
of Wales," 1801). A Welsh collection of stories called the "Mabinogion,"
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and translated into English
by Lady Charlotte Guest in 1849, gives further Arthurian legends. Some
of the stories "have the character of chivalric romances," and are
therefore probably of French origin; while others "bear the impress of a
far higher antiquity, both as regards the manners they depict and the
style of language in which they are composed." These latter rarely
mention Arthur, but the former belong, as Mr. Skene puts it, to the
"full-blown Arthurian romance." Chrétien de Troies, the most famous of
the old French trouvères in the latter part of the twelfth century, made
the Arthur legend the subject for his "Romans" and "Contes," as well as
for two epics on Tristan; the Holy Grail, Peredur, etc., belonging to
the same cycle. Early in the same century the Arthurian metrical romance
became known in Germany, and there assumed a more animated and artistic
form in the "Parzival" of Wolfram of Eschenbach, "Tristan und Isolt" of
Gottfried of Strasburg, "Erec and Iwein" of Hartmann, and "Wigalois" of
Wirnt. The most renowned of the heroes of the Arthurian school are
Peredur (Parzival or Perceval), Tristan or Tristram, Iwein, Erec,
Gawein, Wigalois, Wigamur, Gauriel, and Lancelot. From France the
Arthurian romance spread also to Spain, Provence, Italy, and the
Netherlands, even into Iceland, and was again transplanted into England.
One of the publications that issued from the press of Caxton (1485) was
a collection of stories by Sir Thomas Malory, either compiled by him in
English, from various of the later French prose romances, or translated
directly from an already existing French compendium. Copland reprinted
the work in 1557, and in 1634 the last of the black-letter editions
appeared. A reprint of Caxton's "Kynge Arthur," with an introduction and
notes by Robert Southey, was issued in 1817--"The Byrth, Lyfe, and Actes
of Kyng Arthur." The most complete edition is that by Thomas Wright,
from the text of 1634.
The name of King Arthur was given during the Middle Ages to many places
and monuments supposed to have been in some way associated with his
exploits, such as "Arthur's Seat," near Edinburgh, "Arthur's Oven," on
the Carron, near Falkirk, etc. What was called the sepulchre of his
queen was shown at Meigle, in Strathmore, in the sixteenth century. Near
Boscastle, in Cornwall, is Pentargain, a headland called after him
"Arthur's Head." Other localities take his name in Brittany. In the
Middle Ages, in Germany, Arthur's Courts were buildings in which the
patricians assembled. One such still remains at Danzig. There was one
anciently at Thorn, about which a ballad and legend exist. Milton was
meditating an Arthurian epic in 1639; and in our own day the interest of
the legends about King Arthur and his knights has been revived by
Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" and some of Wagner's operas. We must not
omit to note the magnificent life-sized ideal bronze figure of Arthur,
cast for the monument of Maximilian I., now in the Franciscan church at
Innsbruck, and regarded as the finest among the series of heroes there
represented.
[Illustration: The Ruins of King Arthur's Castle.]