what most people know about the story of Arthur
today. Malory combined stories that had been written
to produce a large work focusing on tragedy and CHIV-
ALRY. He broke his account of Arthur into eight books,
each covering important points in the romance. Malory
begins with Arthur’s birth as the son of Uther Pen-
dragon and the chaste Igrayne, and moves to his
crowning. Additionally, the account covers the inva-
sion of France and Rome, the story of Tristan and
Isolde, and a version of the Holy Grail. Morte d’Arthur
also includes the infamous love affair of Lancelot and
Guinevere and accounts of knights such as Gareth and
Gawain. In the fi nal death scene, Arthur kills Mordred
but is struck with Mordred’s poison sword, and a
group of women in black take Arthur away to parts
unknown.
While Malory’s tale is not the greatest literary work
or even a feasible representation of an historical Arthur,
until the 18th century it remained the foremost depic-
tion of the Arthurian legend. Part of the reason for the
paucity in Arthurian legend was that by the time of the
Renaissance, Geoffrey’s history of Arthur had been so
widely disputed that most historians and literary
authors neglected to include Arthur in any works of
the time. Consequently, this scholarly stalemate
resulted in his being dropped from favor in literature
for a time. Nevertheless, Arthur did continue to make
minor appearances. In fi ction, he appears in EDMUND
SPENSER’s The FAERIE QUEENE, but only as a minor char-
acter. He resurfaced in numerous poems for a time
during the Gothic period of the late 18th and early
19th century, but until the publication of Alfred Lord
Tennyson’s The Idylls of the King, he continued to
remain largely ignored in fi ction as well as history. In
the 19th century, however, as Victorians struggled to
fi nd meaning and national unity in the midst of the
Industrial Revolution, Tennyson’s Arthur again repre-
sented all the romantic glories of Britain.
The trend to envision Arthur either historically or
romantically continues into the 21st century. He
appears in various places in pop culture, and there
have been several cinematic portrayals of Arthur on
fi lm: Camelot (1967) and Excalibur (1981) are among
the romanticized Arthur movies; First Knight (1995)
and King Arthur (2004) focus more on a historical
Arthur. While it remains debatable whether the his-
torical King Arthur existed and whether the tales of his
exploits involve historical accuracy or romantic repre-
sentations, it is clear that Arthur continues to represent
an ideology of noble ideals and chivalric COURTLY
LOVE.
FURTHER READING
Bryden, Inga. Reinventing King Arthur: The Arthurian Legends
in Victorian Culture. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2005.
Finke, Laurie A., and Martin B. Shichtman. King Arthur
and the Myth of History. Gainesville: University Press of
Florida, 2004.
Sklar, Elizabeth S., and Donald L. Hoffman, eds. King Arthur
in Popular Culture. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002.
Michael ModarelliARTHURIAN LITERATURE After the Romans
left in 410 C.E., Britain was subject to invasions and
attacks by various continental races, thus necessitating
a national hero to help create a sense of identity. King
ARTHUR fi lled that role. He is fi rst mentioned as a leader
who fi ghts against the Germanic invaders; later, he
becomes a king who changes the course of history. The
earliest references to Arthur can be found in Latin
CHRONICLEs (Nennius’s Historia Brittonum, the Annales
Cambriae, Gildas’s De excidio et conquestu Britanniae).
Early in the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth
took these references and expanded them with the aid
of Celtic stories, such as Adomnán’s life of the Irish
saint Columba, when writing his chronicle of the kings
of Britain. The account of Arthur is the climax of the
work, occupying a third of its length. He established
the descent of Britain from Troy and raised Arthur to
the status of a powerful heroic king. Geoffrey’s audi-
ence was the new ANGLO-NORMAN aristocracy, and he
wanted to link them to the Celts, demonstrating that
they were the legitimate rulers of England. By 1155,
there were two adaptations in French: L’Estoire des
Engles by Geoffrey Gaimar and WACE’s verse ROMAN DE
BRUT. Wace was from Jersey and basically made the
history more rational. He redefi ned Arthur as a chival-
ric hero (see CHIVALRY). LAYAMON, a man of Norse-Irish
descent, chose to write in Middle English and to use
the native tradition of alliterative verse (see ALLITERA-
TION), combined with rhyming COUPLETs. Layamon’sARTHURIAN LITERATURE 29