Legend of King Arthur

This essay will examine the legend of King Arthur, exploring the reasons for our fascination with him, even today. Is he the "perfect" king, the king for all time? The history of how the legends and myths surrounding this most famous King of the Britons evolved will be presented first. Then, a most famous and historical source of the legends, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, will serve as the primary text, (with passing references to others), to analyze the heroic traits attributed to this "once and future king," traits which have been enshrined in the epic traditions of western culture. The thesis of this essay is that Arthur is the "perfect" king of the western world because he is its most enduring mythic figure. And as a mythic figure, he has actually been created by the west, and has evolved with its urgent need for a heroic code. Thus, it is as an epic hero of mythic proportions that Arthur's "living," mythic characteristics have evolved.

What traits make Arthur the "perfect" king? In keeping with epic tradition, the first interesting trait of King Arthur (one reflecting western cultural values) emerges from the nature of his birth, his infancy, and his early childhood instruction. In a word, he is of high birth, but is taken away and raised anonymously. The fates watch over him, however, so he becomes student of a great teacher, Merlin, the great prophet, who embodies his education with both selfless spirituality and inevitability. Arthur is carefully

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es of communal self-importance," and the basis for a primal and exulting sense of cultural flowering (92). The inner meaning, symbols, religious beliefs and the codes of ethics that make up the Arthurian legends were constructed out of centuries of communal life, then, and can be read as allegories which tell us what our culture holds as "perfection" in a man. The circumstances of Arthur's birth and early childhood are in Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of Arthur, and it also presents many of the familiar characters of the later romance, such as Merlin, Kay, Uther Pendragon, and Bedevere. In it, we hear a fiercely nationalistic account that attempts to trace the history of the Briton people back to the royal family of Troy. As such, it serves as a source for the first quality that becomes enshrined in the tales of Arthur, his miraculous birth and early childhood instruction, an allegory for the proper attitude of preparedness in youth. In Malory's opening section, "Merlin," much of the same material is covered, recounting, as well the theme that Arthur will come again, which inserts a mystical aspect involved in his instruction even at this young age. These two accounts confirm for us the first significant trait that makes Ar

Category: History - L