King Arthur And Camelot Essays - Holy Grail, Mythological Kings

King Arthur and Camelot King Arthur and Camelot The Arthurian Legends are a cycle of stories that has been shaped and passed down through over fourteen hundred years of English history. The legend of King Arthur tells of the adventures of an early king of Britain and the knights and ladies who made up his royal court at Camelot. It tells of a world filled with warriors armed with lance, sword, and armor. It speaks of jousts, tournaments, wizards, falconry, enchantresses, damsels in distress, wars, quests, and the code of chivalry. It is a legend that talks of a great king who came to throne from what seemed to be nowhere and of a noble idea that ends in tragedy. I suppose, the version we know best is the one that was composed in the 15th century. This is the great English version of the story, compiled out of earlier versions by the creative genius of a rather mysterious and cryptic figure, the knight, Sir Thomas Malory. The main characters in romance literature are larger than life. Romance literature is concerned with the feats of kings, queens, and knights---not with common, ordinary people. They follow a code of chivalry. A main character in romance literature is braver, nobler, and more honorable than an ordinary human. Oftentimes, the medieval period in general, and King Arthur in particular, have an air of mystery, romance, fantasy, and adventure that are popular themes in all times and cultures. We see King Arthur's magical powers when Sir Bedivere throws Excalibur into the lake, causing lightning to strike in the splendor of the moon. Main characters in romance literature are god-like characters that have no fear, retain their youthful qualities as they age, and never become a victim of sickness. Sometimes a main character in a romance is motivated by love. Morte d' Arthur is a mysterious, magical and perhaps realistic view of the medieval period. If the name of King Arthur is mentioned, I suppose what comes to mind is not so much one person as a whole array of characters and themes, a montage so to speak. Of course we do think first of the King, the magnificent monarch of a glorified or idealized medieval realm. But we think also of his Queen, of the fair and wayward Geneviere, we think of his enchanter, Merlin, who presided over his birth, who set him on the throne, who established him there in the early and traveled days of his reign. There were the Knights of the Round Table, vowed to the highest ideals of chivalry, and the greatest of them, Sir Lancelot, who, of course, has a tragic love affair with the Queen. We think of the place where these people assembled, Camelot, Arthur's magnificent, personal castle and capital and then, there are stranger things; the story of the quest for the Holy Grail, giving a spiritual dimension to the whole story. There is magic, not only the magic of Merlin but also the magic of his strange, ambiguous student, the women, and the enchantress, Morgan LaFay. And at the end is the tragedy of Arthur's downfall, his passing away at the isle of Avalon, which has been shrouded in secrecy. In Arthurian literature, Mordred turns the Knights against each other, which destroys the Round Table and brings King Arthur's entire world crashing down. One cannot help but wonder about the part that fate played in the society where the legends of King Arthur were created. Case in point, had Lancelot not decided to come to Camelot to join in the Round Table, and Mordred had never been told that Arthur was his father, Camelot may have never been destroyed. A law was made a distant moon ago here, July and August cannot be too hot. And there's a legal limit to the snow here in Camelot ... In that legendary story, a few key events transformed Camelot from a utopian kingdom into a wasteland. King Arthur is nothing but a nave idealist. His dream, or should I say fantasy of Camelot is nothing but an illusion. Arthur's leadership is based on emotional seduction not on power. "I have loste mygh forty knyghtes and also the noblefelyshyp of sir Launcelot and hys blood, for now I may nevermore holde hem togydirs with my worshyp." It is power and fear that make a kingdom great not dreamy words of idealism. Arthur is a sinner just like Geneviere by having a son that he never loved and neglecting his queen-wife-adulteress Geneviere. And he knows of her affair, it is the gossip of all