Arthur

Arthur. The British hero ‘King Arthur’, of medieval international romance, legend, pseudo-history, and poetry. As Arthur was the most popular figure in European literature from the 12th to the 15th centuries, and because speculations about his origins and possible historicity have been endless, the study of his persona and associations fills libraries. The earliest written evidence for Arthur is in Welsh sources: Gildas, who wrote the Latin history De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae before AD 547; the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, formerly attributed to Nennius; and the Annales Cambriae, compiled c.950–1000. These fragments suggest to learned commentators that the beginnings of the Arthurian character lay in British (i.e. Brythonic, antecedent to the modern Welsh) resistance to Saxon encroachments after the withdrawal of Roman forces (c.449–600). Welsh commentators, eager to accept Arthur as one of their own, have presented etymologies for Arthur's name to compete with several from other languages. Among the most plausible are arth [bear] = (g)wr [hero]; this is further supported by Arthur's association with the constellation Ursa Major, ‘Great Bear’. A second nomination is arddhu, ‘very black’; this is further supported by Arthur's association with theblack raven or chough. A writer who was not keen on the Welsh contributed most to what we now know as the dramatic character; this was Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose widely read Historia Regum Britanniae (c.1136) freely adapted several Welsh sources, including Nennius and others now lost.

In the following century several writers, including Wace of Jersey, Layamon, and Chrétien de Troyes, added new dimensions both to the character of Arthur and to the whole of Arthurian literature; of these, Chrétien appears to have made the greatest use of Celtic sources. In this same century appeared the anonymous Welsh prose romance Culhwch ac Olwen, which despite its charm was apparently not known outside Wales until the 19th century. Other Welsh Arthurian narratives followed that have been conventionally bound with the Mabinogi since its first translation in 1848. These are known under their Welsh titles, Breuddwyd Rhonabwy [The Dream of Rhonabwy], Owain [The Lady of the Fountain], Peredur, and Geraint ac Enid. From the time of Geoffrey, according to T. G. Jones, Arthur tended to be folkloric in Welsh narrative and legendary in the Triads. In Welsh tradition Arthur's activities are centred in south-east Wales and Cornwall. Less well known is the Scottish claim for Arthur's identity, which in 1989 was supported by Burke's Peerage. Arthur's Seat (a place-name found elsewhere in Britain) is an 822-foot hill near the centre of Edinburgh. And from the beginning of the 13th century the literary character of Arthur had a life of its own in nations beyond the Celtic lands.

Although the claims for the Celtic origin of Arthuriana made by R. S. Loomis in Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance (1927) are now widely disputed, a number of striking parallels do exist between Celtic and Arthurian narratives. Examples include Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Breton instances, as well as Welsh. Those figures most often thought to resemble Arthur include: Fionn mac Cumhaill, Conchobar mac Nessa, Eochaid Airem, Gwydion, Angus Óg, and Ogma. If these figures are not originals from which Arthurian copies were made, they certainly evoke a comparable ambiance and resonance. Some commentators have argued that post-12th-century Celtic narratives may themselves have been influenced by international Arthurian examples. Regardless of the merits of either side of the debate on origins, it must be admitted that a character called Arthur or Arthur of Britain also appears in Irish folklore collected from oral sources. He has little of the personality of the Arthur of Arthurian romance, and seems instead only to be a rapacious invader, much as another invader called ‘King of the World’ may evoke a peasant conception of the Holy Roman Emperor.

From the vast bibliography of Arthuriana a few items will be especially useful for Celticists. See the essays of K. H. Jackson, A. O. H. Jarman, I. L. Foster, R. Bromwich, and E. Hoepffner in R. S. Loomis (ed.), Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1959); G. D. West, An Index to Names in Arthurian Romances (Toronto, 1975); Jean Markale, Le Roi Arthur et la société celtique (Paris, 1976); and King Arthur: King of Kings (London, 1977); Joy Chant, The High Kings: Arthur's Celtic Ancestors (New York, 1981). Also to be consulted are V. M. Lagoria and M. L. Day (eds.), King Arthur Through the Ages (2 vols., New York, 1989); N. J. Lacy (comp.), The Arthurian Encyclopedia (New York, 1986); E. Reiss, L. H. Reiss, and B. Taylor (eds.), Arthurian Legend and Literature: An Annotated Bibliography (2 vols., New York, 1983); Rachel Bromwich and A. O. H. Jarman (eds.), The Arthur of the Welsh (Cardiff, 1991); and the Bulletin Bibliographique of the International Arthurian Society, published annually. See also MERLIN; AVALON; CAMELOT; TRISTAN; PREIDDIAU ANNWFN [The Spoils of Annwfn].