Kings and Queens of Early Britain by Geoffrey Ashe

Author:Geoffrey Ashe
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2018-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

2

This is the framework into which the medieval tales of Arthur were fitted. Romancers updated the milieu even more, altered the sequence, cut down the warfare, introduced further themes and characters (for example, the Sword in the Stone, the Round Table, the royal city of Camelot, the Holy Grail, Lancelot, Galahad, Tristan and Iseult). But Arthur as king of Britain, the greatest of them all, begins his known career in Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Where did he get even hints for this feat of imagination? The question, of course, is a literary one, and if it could be confined to literature, the attempts to answer it would rate only summary treatment in history. But through its symbolism and influence the Arthurian Legend became part of history itself. It broke free from a purely Welsh-Breton patriotism and evoked an ancient, glorious unity transcending the divisions of Britain in Geoffrey’s day. Henry II and his successors were delighted to see themselves as the heirs of King Arthur, the principal if not the sole rulers in his imperial island. It was such a splendid retort to the kings of France, who plumed themselves on being the heirs of Charlemagne. Arthurian romance, owing much to the patronage of Henry’s queen Eleanor, took shape and spread through Christendom. Every region of Britain could find a place in it. Arthur and his knights acquired habitations on the map, all the way from Cornwall to Scotland. Castles and battlefields were assigned in retrospect to Arthurian characters.

The mythos was more than entertainment and morale-building fantasy. It carried political weight, as a factor adding dignity to the monarchy and drawing Britain together. English kings claimed the sovereignty of Scotland on the ground that Arthur had held it. The Tudors exploited their part-Welsh ancestry to make out, with some success, that they were the destined reunifiers and restorers of Arthurian Britain. Even in Queen Victoria’s reign, the Arthurian poems of her immensely popular laureate Tennyson gave the Crown a fresh glamour, which helped it to recover from discredit and republican agitation after the death of Prince Albert.

So, once again, where did this creation come from? What elements of fact, tradition, folk-myth and fiction went into it and contributed to its spell? Who was Arthur if he was anybody, and how was it that he could be transmuted into a king with more importance than most real kings?

Geoffrey, according to himself, simply translated the whole story from that ‘ancient book in the British language’ where he also found Brutus and the rest. On present evidence it is impossible to believe him. The statement is so unlikely that nothing short of the rediscovery of the book could make it acceptable. The utmost serious possibility (and as will appear, there is a case for this) is that he took ideas for King Arthur and his exploits from a book we no longer have. Certainly, however, we no longer have it, and if we survey the pre-Geoffrey matter we do have, the effect is somewhat baffling.

Arthurian

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.