Week 11: Is this history and does it matter?

Roger Federer as King Arthur

This unit has focussed on considering the historicity of Arthur as well as the historical contexts within which the image of Arthur has been reconstructed. It has also viewed Arthur through the lenses of myth, legend, romance and societal expectations.

Arthur in mosaic

Blog Question : Is this history and does it matter?

Week 10: Arthur's Victorian Idyll

In the early 19th century, medievalism, Romanticism and the Gothic Revival reawakened interest in Arthur and the medieval romances. A new code of ethics for 19th-century gentlemen was shaped around the chivalric ideals that the "Arthur of romance" embodied. This renewed interest first made itself felt in 1816, when Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur was reprinted for the first time since 1634. Initially the medieval Arthurian legends were of particular interest to poets, inspiring, for example, William Wordsworth to write "The Egyptian Maid" (1835), an allegory of the Holy Grail. Pre-eminent among these was Alfred Lord Tennyson, whose first Arthurian poem, "The Lady of Shalott", was published in 1832.  Although Arthur himself played a minor role in some of these works, following in the medieval romance tradition, Tennyson's Arthurian work reached its peak of popularity with Idylls of the King, which reworked the entire narrative of Arthur's life for the Victorian era. First published in 1859, it sold 10,000 copies within the first week. In the Idylls, Arthur became a symbol of ideal manhood whose attempt to establish a perfect kingdom on earth fails, finally, through human weakness. Tennyson's works prompted a large number of imitators, generated considerable public interest in the legends of Arthur and the character himself, and brought Malory's tales to a wider audience. Indeed, the first modernization of Malory's great compilation of Arthur's tales was published shortly after Idylls appeared, in 1862, and there were six further editions and five competitors before the century ended. [Wikipedia ‘King Arthur’]

Victorian view of the Holy Grail

Blog Question: What was it about the Victorian age that promoted the revival of the Arthurian story?

Week 9: Malory and the once and future king

Lancelot from Arthur (2004)

In creating the Morte, Malory drew on several sources, including various parts of the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate cycles, the Prose Tristan, and the Alliterative Morte Arthure and the Stanzaic Morte Arthur; but he was not a slavish translator. He reshaped his originals, omitted much that was not relevant to his purpose and even created new sections to advance his themes. One of the ways that Malory reworked earlier texts was by bringing Lancelot into prominence and making him the central character, more important even than Arthur in the overall scheme of the book. 

One of the things that makes Lancelot such a significant and interesting character is that, in his attempt to live up to his reputation as the best of knights, he strives for perfection in all of the codes that a knight should be subject to. He is more chivalric and courtly than any other knight; he seeks adventure, champions women and the oppressed, acts in a courtly manner and serves his king at home and abroad to a degree unachieved by anyone else. He is the truest of all lovers never even considering another woman. And he strives to perfect himself spiritually as he seeks the Holy Grail. Of course he fails to be perfect in all these areas – partly because they place conflicting demands on him. By being a true lover to Guinevere he fails in the quest for the Grail and he is less than loyal to his king. But the attempt to adhere to the conflicting codes is what gives Lancelot his grandeur; and the very fact of those conflicts is what makes him the sort of character with whom readers for centuries have been able to identify, even as they recognise his failings – or perhaps because they recognise his failings – in the great enterprise he has undertaken. Lancelot’s prominence does not negate the centrality of Arthur or the roles of the vast cast of other fascinating characters in the Morte. Indeed, it is the wealth of characters and tales in the book that has made it such a treasure trove for future artists. But Lancelot’s character and conflict are central unifying elements in the book; and he is the one against whom all the others are measured. [Lupack, Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend, 2007, pp.134-135]

Lancelot and Guinevere

Blog question: Do you identify with Malory’s Lancelot? If so, why? And, if not, why not?

Week 8: The Vulgate Cycle: Clerical Myth?

Walter Map taking down a story of the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table on the quest of the Holy Grail at the dictation of King Arthur, from the Manchester Arthurian Romance, c.1300

The elements of the Vulgate Cycle, comprising The History of the Holy Grail, The Story of Merlin, Lancelot, The Quest of the Holy Grail and The Death of King Arthur, are cleverly interlaced in a number of ways. The last two are linked, or better, locked together, by the introduction of a putative author, Walter Map. Here are the passages which outline this linking; first from the end of The Quest of the Holy Grail,

When they had dined King Arthur summoned his clerks who were keeping a record of all the adventures undergone by the knights of his household. When Bors had related to them the adventures of the Holy Grail as witnessed by himself, they were written down and the record kept  in the library at Salisbury, whence Master Walter Map extracted them in order to make his book of the Holy Grail for love of his lord King Henry, who had the story translated from Latin into French. And with that the tale falls silent and has no more to say about the Adventures of the Holy Grail. 

Next, from the beginning of The Death of King Arthur:

After Master Walter Map had put down in writing as much as he thought sufficient about the Adventures of the Holy Grail, his lord King Henry II felt that what he had done would not be satisfactory unless he told about the rest of the lives of those he had previously mentioned and the deaths of those whose prowess he had related in his book. So he began this last part; and when he had put it together he called it The Death of King Arthur, because the end of it relates how King Arthur was wounded at the battle of Salisbury and left Girflet who had long been his companion, and how no one ever again saw him alive. So Master Walter begins this last part accordingly.

And finally from the end of The Death of King Arthur:

At this point Master Walter Map will end the Story of Lancelot, because he has brought everything to a proper conclusion according to the way it happened; and he finishes his book here so completely that no one can afterwards add anything to the story that is not complete falsehood. 

This seems very convincing evidence that the author of these two last works and perhaps of the cycle as a whole was Master Walter Map. Unfortunately “Map died before the works attributed to him were written”.

The body of Elaine, the Maid of Astolat, arrives at Camelot

BLOG QUESTION: Why would the group of anonymous Cistercian monks responsible for constructing the Vulgate Cycle want to see the work attributed to Walter Map?

Week 7: The Matter of Britain

The “matter of France” includes the subjects of the old French epics. These concern the stories about Charlemagne and a good example is the well-known Song of Roland. The “matter of Rome” concerned the tales of classical antiquity, and included stories about Alexander and Troy amongst many others. 

The “matter of Britain” derives from the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth and made King Arthur into a national hero, the British counterpart of Charlemagne. Nonetheless the pretence of solidity and historical truth found in Geoffrey was not suitable for romantic purposes and the Arthur found in the “matter of Britain” stories is very unlike the great imperial monarch and conqueror as presented by Geoffrey and his followers. 

Geoffrey announced his purpose – to set out the deeds of the kings of the Britons from the first king, Brutus to Cadwaladr, i.e. from 1115 BC to AD 689. It created a new and rich history for a very old country – Britain which by Geoffrey’s day had been forgotten and passed over for England. His work restored pride for Britain’s people, the Britons. Because he left the end tantalizingly open it meant that the Matter of Britain not only referred to the glories of the past but might well have relevance for the future. 

Geoffrey of Monmouth made Britain, not England, the subject o his work and in the process provided Britain with a glorious pre-English and non-English past. The Matter of Britain was an overwhelming success, particularly as the fount of a remarkable body of literature.

Blog Question: What was it about the Matter of Britain that was so attractive not only to British authors, but to the continental authors of Romance?

Week 6: Brutus and Britain's foundation myth

Foundation myths, whether of nations, dynasties or cities, have been at the heart of western culture since classical times. Europe’s archetypal national foundation myth was the subject of Virgil’s Aeneid. Present in Virgil’s poem are three key elements which appear repeatedly in western foundation myths: the wanderer/outsider making good; the foundation prompted by divine prophecy or visions, and the planting, by the ‘chosen people’ of their new (and often superior) culture in a foreign land. Most medieval states, cities and dynasties were comparative newcomers, and many sought to obscure their uncomfortably recent origins in a cloud of myth.

Troy provided the ideal means to do this. In medieval England, the Trojan myth received perhaps its most elaborate and fantastical development. The original source for the English tradition was probably the 9^th century Historia Brittonum, (Pseudo-Nennius). This original story was greatly expanded by Geoffrey of Monmouth who begins his own work with an account of Brutus, or Brute, Aeneas’s grandson, who is expelled from Italy with his followers, and wanders the Mediterranean. In a vision, the goddess Diana tells Brutus that his destiny is to lead the Trojans to an island in the west, where he shall found a race of kings. Brutus eventually realises the prophecy, founding Britain, and supplanting its primitive native giants. Thus, Brutus’s tale exhibits the ‘Virgilian’ topoi of the outsider, divine intervention and colonisation.

Brutus of Troy, represented here as founder of London

Blog Question: What are the elements of the story of Brutus as relayed in the reading from Wace’s Brut, that mark it as the perfect foundation myth from Britain?

Week 5: Contemporary supporters and detractors of Geoffrey of Monmouth

William of Newburgh (1135-1198) Augustinian canon and historian, whose major work Historia rerum Anglicarum was written between 1196-8. The work is divided into 5 books including a Prologue from which the extract in the reader is taken which itself looks back largely with approval to the work of Gildas and Bede. Book I covers 1066-1154; Book II deals with the reign of Henry II from 1154-74; Book III covers from 1175 to Henry's death in 1189; Book IV covers 1187-94 and Book V covers the remaining years until William's death (1194-98). William of Newburgh is a writer whose reputation has remained consistently high among modern readers largely because of the high order of his historical ability. His critical judgement is well demonstrated in his repose to the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth.

William of Newburgh's Historia rerum Anglicarum

Henry of Huntingdon (1088-1157) was a historian and poet whose major work was Historia Anglorum covering the period between the invasions of Julius Caesar and the coronation of Henry II in 1154. There was a moral purpose to this work which was to interpret the five invasions of Britain 1) by the Romans; 2) by the Picts and Scots; 3) by the Angles and Saxons; 4) by the Danes; and 5) by the Normans; as five punishments or plagues inflicted by God on a faithless people (sound familiar?). The letter of the excerpt in the reader, addressed to Warin the Briton (Breton?) concerns the origin of the "British kings who reigned in this country down to the coming of Julius Caesar" and is pretty much taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth.

MS Illustration from Historia Anglorum

Gerald of Wales (1146-1220) author and ecclesiastic. After a long period of education mainly in Paris, Gerlad entered the service of King Henry II in 1184. His Itinerarium Cambriae (1191) is remarkable for the detailed narrative it provides of specific events but also for its acute coments on social customs.

Gerald of Wales

Ranulf Higden (d.1364) was a Benedictine monk and chronicler whose major work was his universal chronicle in seven books known as the Polychronicon. This work offered to the educated audience of fourteenth century England a picture of world history based on medieval tradition but with an interest in antiquity and with the early history of Britain related as part of the whole.

Ranulf Higden's world view

QUESTION: Select one of the four primary source extracts provided in the unit reader for this week's work and analyse the view expressed about Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum britanniae. What do you think?

Week 4: The Galfridian Age Begins

From the dedicatory letter serving as preface to the Historia Regum Britanniae

"Oftentimes in turning over in mine own mind the many themes that might be subject-matter of a book, my thoughts would fall upon the plan of writing a history of the Kings of Britain, and in my musings thereupon meseemed it a marvel that, beyond such mention as Gildas and Bede have made of them in their luminous tractate, nought could I find as concerning the kings that had dwelt in Britain before the Incarnation of Christ, nor nought even as concerning Arthur and the many others that did succeed him after the Incarnation, albeit that their deeds be worthy of praise everlasting and be as pleasantly rehearsed from memory by word of mouth in the traditions of many peoples as though they had been written down.  

Now, whilst, I was thinking upon such matters, Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, a man learned not only in the art of eloquence, but in the histories of foreign lands, offered me a certain most ancient book in the British language that did set forth the doings of them all in due succession and order from Brute, the first King of the Britons, onward to Cadwallader, the son of Cadwallo, all told in stories of exceeding beauty. At his request, therefore, albeit that never have I gathered gay flowers of speech in other men's little gardens, and am content with mine own rustic manner of speech and mine own writing-reeds, have I been at the pains to translate this volume into the Latin tongue. 

For had I besprinkled my page with high-flown phrases, I should only have engendered a weariness in my readers by compelling them to spend more time over the meaning of the words than upon understanding the drift of my story."

QUESTION:

Is the "most ancient book in the British language" a source awaiting discovery or is it the fabrication of a great storyteller seeking authority for his own invention? What do you think? 

Week 3: William of Malmesbury and the "truthful history"

"Glass discovered at Glastonbury Abbey dates back to 7th century, researchers find" (from medievalists.net) [May 2012]

Glastonbury glass discoveries

New research led by the University of Reading has revealed that finds at Glastonbury Abbey provide the earliest archeological evidence of glass making in Britain. Professor Roberta Gilchrist, from the Department of Archaeology, has re-examined the records of excavations that took place at Glastonbury in the 1950s and 1960s.  

Glass furnaces recorded in 1955-7 were previously thought to date from before the Norman Conquest. However, radiocarbon dating has now revealed that they date approximately to the 680s, and are likely to be associated with a major rebuilding of the abbey undertaken by King Ine of Wessex. Glass-making at York and Wearmouth is recorded in historical documents in the 670s but Glastonbury provides the earliest and most substantial archaeological evidence for glass-making in Saxon Britain.  

The extensive remains of five furnaces have been identified, together with fragments of clay crucibles and glass for window glazing and drinking vessels, mainly of vivid blue-green colour. It is likely that specialist glassworkers came from Gaul (France) to work at Glastonbury. The glass will be analysed chemically to provide further information on the sourcing and processing of materials.

 Professor Gilchrist said "Glastonbury Abbey is a site of international historical importance but until now the excavations have remained unpublished. The research project reveals new evidence for the early date of the monastery at Glastonbury and charts its development over one thousand years, from the 6th century to its dissolution in the 16th century.” 

............ end of article:.........

William of Malmesbury has much to say about the history of Glastonbury Abbey and demonstrates cautious historical methodology in dating its origin. His position is nicely captured in the excerpt from Geoffrey Ashe's Avalonian Quest.





The question to answer:
"What role did Glastonbury play in the early spread of Christianity in Britain?" 

Week 2: Primary Foudations

Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events of conditions being documented. Primary sources are original materials and may be artefacts, documents or other sources of information created at the time under study.  They are characterised by their content, regardless of whether they are available in original format, in microfilm, in digital format or in published format.

Late Roman and "Arthurian" artefacts

It is through the primary sources that the past indisputably imposes its reality on the historian. That this imposition is basic in any understanding of the past is clear from the rules that documents should not be altered, or that any material damaging to a historian's argument or purpose should not be left out or suppressed. These rules mean that the sources or the texts of the past have an integrity and that they do indeed 'speak for themselves', and that they are necessary constraints through which past reality imposes itself on the historian. [E. Sreedharan (2004) A textbook of Historiography, 500 B.C. to A.D. 2000 Orient Longman, p.302] [try Google Books for this]

Celtic myth and Arthurian artefact

However, there are considerable challenges in the use of primary sources. They are usually fragmentary and most usually survive without their original context. They are often ambiguous and notoriously difficult to interpret. Eyewitnesses may misunderstand events or distort their reports either deliberately or unconsciously. These effects often increase over time as others uses these sources and add further distorting filters. It is usually helpful to interrogate the source and one of the most common methods uses the following “W” questions : Who, What, When, Where and Why.

Gildas instructing a pupil

Analyses of the works of Gildas, Nennius and Bede have been used equally to debunk and support the historicity of Arthur.

The question to answer is this:

What historical question can you answer using the excerpts of Gildas, Nennius and Bede found in the unit reader?

Week 1: Arthur – the construction of a history

This image is from the 1893-4 Dent publication of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, with illustration by the famous Art Deco artist, Aubrey Beardsley.

The basic story on which much of the popular understanding of Arthur is based is derived from Sir Thomas Malory’s 15^th century Le Morte d’Arthur (Death of Arthur). In this we are told of Arthur’s conception when Igraine was courted by Uther, who had been made, by Merlin’s sorcery, to resemble her husband. The child was given to Ector to be raised in secret. After Uther’s death there was no king ruling all England. Merlin had placed a sword in a stone, saying that whoever drew it out would be king. Arthur did so and Merlin had him crowned. This led to a rebellion by 11 rulers which Arthur put down. He married Guinevere whose father gave him the Round Table as a dowry; it became the place where his knights sat, to avoid quarrels over precedence. A magnificent reign followed, Arthur’s court becoming the focus for many heroes. In the war against the Romans, Arthur defeated the Emperor Lucius and became emperor himself. However, his most illustrious knight, Lancelot, became enamoured of Guinevere and an affair between them followed. The quest for the Holy Grail took place and Lancelot’s intrigue with the queen came to light. Lancelot fled and Guinevere was sentenced to death. Lancelot rescued her and took her to his Continental realm; this led to Arthur crossing the channel to make war on his former knight. While away from Britain he left his natural son Mordred in charge. (Mordred was also his nephew, the result of an unwittingly incestuous affair between Arthur and his sister Morgause. Arthur had been unaware of the incestuous nature of the intrigue because he was ignorant of his own parentage.) Mordred rebelled and Arthur returned to quell him. This led to Arthur’s last battle on Salisbury Plain, where he slew Mordred, but was himself gravely wounded. Arthur was then carried off in a barge, saying he was heading for the vale of Avilion (Avalon). Some said he never died, but would one day return.

In the first lecture we will be looking at this story and thinking about whether there is a balance of history and myth to be found. To do this we will need to share an understanding of both "history" and "myth". The following definitions from Encyclopedia Britannica may be helpful.

This is Clio, the Muse of History. She was one of the 9 daughters born to Mnemosyne, the goddess of Memory and Zeus, the most powerful of the Olympian gods.

History: the discipline that studies the chronological record of events (as affecting a nation or people) based on a critical examination of source readings and usually presenting an explanation of their causes.

Modern historians aim to reconstruct a record of human activities and to achieve a more profound understanding of them. This conception of their task is quite recent, dating from the development in the late 18th and early 19th centuries of “scientific” history and the simultaneous rise of history as an academic profession. It springs from an outlook that is very new in human experience: the assumption that the study of history is a natural, inevitable human activity. Before the late 18th century, historiography did not stand at the centre of any civilization. History was almost never an important part of regular education, and it never claimed to provide an interpretation of human life as a whole. This larger ambition was more appropriate to religion, philosophy, and perhaps poetry and other imaginative literature.

Bullfinch's medieval mythology is a large collection of myths, national and universal. The volume entitled The age of chivalry captures the entirety of the Arthurian stories and is available online.

myth, a symbolic narrative, usually of unknown origin and at least partly traditional, that ostensibly relates actual events and that is especially associated with religious belief. It is distinguished from symbolic behaviour (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects (temples, icons). Myths are specific accounts of gods or superhuman beings involved in extraordinary events or circumstances in a time that is unspecified but which is understood as existing apart from ordinary human experience.

As with all religious symbolism, there is no attempt to justify mythic narratives or even to render them plausible. Every myth presents itself as an authoritative, factual account, no matter how much the narrated events are at variance with natural law or ordinary experience. By extension from this primary religious meaning, the word myth may also be used more loosely to refer to an ideological belief when that belief is the object of a quasi-religious faith; an example would be the Marxist eschatological myth of the withering away of the state.

While the outline of myths from a past period or from a society other than one’s own can usually be seen quite clearly, to recognize the myths that are dominant in one’s own time and society is always difficult. This is hardly surprising, because a myth has its authority not by proving itself but by presenting itself. In this sense the authority of a myth indeed “goes without saying,” and the myth can be outlined in detail only when its authority is no longer unquestioned but has been rejected or overcome in some manner by another, more comprehensive myth.


For the second lecture it may also be helpful to understand the term Pelagianism and who Bishop Germanus was. See below (again taken from Encyclopedia Britannica online):

Pelagianism, also called Pelagian Heresy, a 5th-century Christian heresy taught by Pelagius and his followers that stressed the essential goodness of human nature and the freedom of the human will. Rejecting the arguments of those who claimed that they sinned because of human weakness, he insisted that God made human being free to choose between good and evil and that sin is a voluntary act committed by a person against God’s law.

Pelagianism was opposed by Augustine, bishop of Hippo, who asserted that human beings could not attain righteousness by their own efforts and were totally dependent upon the grace of God. Condemned by two councils of African bishops in 416, and again at Carthage in 418, Pelagius was finally excommunicated in 418; Pelagius’ later fate is unknown.


Saint Germanus of Auxerre, French Germain (born c. 378, Autissiodurum, Gaul [now Auxerre, France]—died July 31, 448, Ravenna [Italy]; feast day: Wales, August 3; elsewhere, July 31), Gallic prelate who was twice sent on crucial missions to England that helped effect the consolidation of the British church. After practicing law at Rome, Germanus was made a provincial governor in Armorica (probably Britanny) by the Western Roman emperor Flavius Honorius. In 418 he was chosen successor to Bishop St. Amator of Auxerre, after which his life dramatically changed to that of an ascetic. Near Auxerre he founded the Monastery of SS. Cosmas and Damian. Concurrently, Pelagianism was spreading through Britain, causing an ecclesiastical upheaval there. In 429, in reply to an appeal for help by the British bishops, Pope St. Celestine I deputed Germanus, with the assistance of Bishop St. Lupus of Troyes, to combat the Pelagian heresy in Britain. Their fervent campaign was successful: according to tradition, they victoriously debated Pelagianism at Verulamium (later St. Albans in Hertfordshire). It was probably during this trip that he assisted the Britons against a joint attack by the Saxons and the Picts. He reportedly led the Britons, having them shout “Alleluia!”; the sound was so ominous that it frightened off the marauders and thus led to what was called the Alleluia Victory.


Later Germanus returned to Auxerre, where he built St. Alban’s Church. Through his appeal in 431, St. Palladius was sent to Scotland by Celestine as the first bishop of the Scots. According to tradition, while he was there he answered an appeal from St. Patrick, patron of Ireland, for assistance by sending to Ireland bishops who helped evangelize the country and establish Irish monasticism. Meanwhile, Pelagianism persisted in Britain, and in 447 Germanus was asked to return there and exterminate the heresy. With the aid of Bishop Severus of Trèves, his second mission succeeded in ending Pelagianism in England and banishing its advocates.

Welcome to Arthur: History and Myth blog

Welcome everyone.

My name is Carol and I am your tutor for Arthur: History and Myth (ATS2604). It's a great subject and I know you'll enjoy exploring the legends and possible historical background of King Arthur as much as I do.

Clive Owen as King (?) Arthur in the 2004 film.

We'll be considering the history of the myth of Arthur and discover that, at least in English speaking countries, stories about this British King have maintained a popular position for many centuries. A consideration of "medievalism" will be integral in this unit.

The image below is a miniature from Matthew Paris' "Flores Historiarum" round about 1250. As you can see it illustrates the coronation of Arthur and you might even be able to read the "rubric" for this (red writing, top right of the image). You can see all the usual paraphenalia for a medieval coronation here - the regal rod with a fleur de lys emblem, the crown being placed on Arthur's blonde curls by two bishops (note mitred hats and bishop's crook), the throne and so on. The artist has made no attempt to portray a coronation of the 5th or 6th centuries, when the real Arthur might have lived, but instead has given us a very good idea of what a mid 13th century royal coronation looked like. So, though the stories about Arthur may be fictional, they still have much useful information for historians.

In the weeks to follow, I will be asking you to make a blog comments on a question which, with the accompanying reading, will prepare you for the week. For now however, go to week 1 and see what's ahead. You're welcome to comment of course, but don't feel you have to.

I'm looking forward to working with you this semester - Cheers, Carol.