Hampshire and King Arthur
Winchester was the capital of Wessex,
the home of the Domesday Book and, allegedly, King Arthur's 'round table'.
It was the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Wessex and by the late 9th Century, Winchester was
the main city in King Alfred's kingdom, and the core of the street layout of today can be attributed to Alfred.
As one of only two walled cities of Hampshire, Winchester remained the capital of Wessex, and then
England, until some time after the Norman Conquest. Indeed, the fact that it was walled stresses its
importance. The West Gate survives to this day.
The exact date of transfer from Winchester to London is unclear, but there is no doubt that the
Normans saw Winchester as a symbol of England's Saxon past - a past that they were keen to wipe out.
The Great Hall can be found in Winchester in Hampshire and is the first and finest of all
13th century halls, with the greatest symbol of medieval mythology, 'The Round Table of King Arthur'.
King Arthur, according to medieval history, led the defence of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century.
The first written accounts of the Arthurian story appeared in 1130 in Geoffrey of
Monmouth's 'History of the Kings of Britain', which maintains that Merlin had the
15-year-old Arthur crowned at nearby Silchester.
Unfortunately so much of Arthur's story is folklore and fictional fantasy
that his existence is doubted by today's historians.
It is, however, usual for this historic period to be undocumented, passed by word of mouth,
that it is to be expected that there is now a section of literature named 'Arthurian' that
we want to belive whilst a small voice tells us that it is probably as accurate as our
televised stories of Robin Hood.
But Arthur is mentioned by many in historical documents including those of Gildas, Nennius and
the Annales Cambriae.
Fact or Fiction?
Nennius was an 8th century historian who was said to be 'unrestrainedly inventive'
but Nennius did have access to no-longer available 5th century sources and as such we cannot
be sure that he wasn't being factual when he wrote:
"Then it was, that the magnanimous Arthur, with all the kings and military force of Britain,
fought against the Saxons. And though there were many more noble than himself, yet he was twelve
times chosen their commander, and was as often conqueror. The first battle in which he was
engaged, was at the mouth of the river Gleni. The second, third, fourth, and fifth, were on
another river, by the Britons called Duglas, in the region Linuis. The sixth, on the river
Bassas. The seventh in the wood Celidon, which the Britons call Cat Coit Celidon. The eighth
was near Gurnion castle, where Arthur bore the image of the Holy Virgin, mother of God, upon
his shoulders, and through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the holy Mary, put the
Saxons to flight, and pursued them the whole day with great slaughter. The ninth was at
te City of Legion, which is called Cair Lion. The tenth was on the banks of the river
Trat Treuroit. The eleventh was on the mountain Breguoin, which we call Cat Bregion.
The twelfth was a most severe contest, when Arthur penetrated to the hill of Badon.
In this engagement, nine hundred and forty fell by his hand alone, no one but the Lord
affording him assistance. In all these engagements the Britons were successful. For no
strength can avail against the will of the Almighty."
Arthur's name also occurs in 'The Gododdin', probably the oldest surviving British poem, by
the poet Aneirin at the end of the 6th century and recorded in a 13th century Welsh manuscript.
Set in Yorkshire 'The Gododdin' is an epic tale about the Scottish Celts
whose enemies were Germanic settlers
who regarded themselves as English.
They held a bloody battle in Catterick.
At the beginning of the 5th century, the kings of Britain declared independence from the
crumbling Roman empire which
had been raided by German pirates for years along the North Sea coast.
The raids grew steadily worse, until the British High King decided to invite a group of
Germanic mercenaries to help fight off their cousins, promising to pay them well and to give
them the Isle of Thanet in Kent.
This proved to be a disastrous mistake. The mercenaries revolted, called for
reinforcements from over the grey sea and established their own English kingdom in Kent.
Over the next hundred and fifty years, the future of the island hung in the balance.
More tribes arrived to set up new Germanic kingdoms along the south and east coast.
The Britons were weakened by a series of plagues in the old Roman cities, by quarrelling
and civil war between rival petty kingdoms, and by the emigration of many thousands of their
wealthier families to more peaceful lands, particularly Brittany, whose traditional Breton
tongue can still be more or less understood by Welsh speakers.
In spite of this, those who remained resisted the advance of the Angles and Saxons doggedly.
There is little doubt that the legend of King Arthur has its roots in a real great leader who
organised a series of British victories which came close to driving the invaders back into the
sea
and Arthur became a household name as early as 600 AD.
After a generation of uneasy peace the English advance began again.
It is thought that the Britons of the south and east were exterminated or left and
by 597 AD the Britons of the north were desperate.
Mynyddog, King of the Gododdin, the British tribe inhabiting south east Scotland,
decided on a crusade to turn back the English tide before it was too late.
They marched south to their doom in 598 AD.
Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur
Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur was published in 1485
and depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons
and established an empire over the British Isles, Iceland, Norway and Gaul.
This monumental work made the Arthurian cycle available for the first time in English. Malory
took a body of legends from Celtic folklore that had been adapted into French literature, gave
them an English perspective, and produced a work which ever since has had tremendous
influence upon literature.
The story begins with King Uther Pendragon's use of enchantment to lay with Igraine, Duchess
of Cornwall. Arthur is conceived and taken away in secret, returning as a young man to claim
the throne by pulling the sword Excalibur from the stone. In retelling the story of Arthur's rule
of Britain, Malory intertwines the romances of Guinevere and Launcelot, Tristram and Isolde,
and Launcelot and Elaine. Sir Galahad's appearance at Camelot begins the quest for the Holy
Grail. Finally, Camelot is brought down by the conflict between King Arthur and his natural son,
Mordred.
Malory tells that just before the mortally-wounded Arthur passes from this world to Avalon,
Arthur instructs Sir Bedivere (Bedwyr) to throw his sword Excalibur into the nearby water.
Bedivere does not wish to lose such a precious sword, so he returns to Arthur twice having put the sword away out of sight. Each time Arthur asks what Bedivere saw when he threw the sword into the water. Bedivere lies twice and said the water merely moved. Nearly cursing him, the dying Arthur commands one last time. This time Bedivere obeys and throws the sword as far as he can over the water:
"and there came an arm and a hand above the water and met it and caught it, and so shook it
thrice and brandished it, and then vanished away the hand with the sword in the water."
Arthur is then taken away to Avalon through the mist by the beautiful women in black on the
barges. Their mourning belies Arthur’s last words that he will go to Avalon to be healed and return if possible.
In the Celtic world, springs, lakes and marshes are sacred places that are intermediaries between
the living and the dead.
When Arthur’s sword Excalibur is returned to the Lady of the Lake, this is most likely associated
with a common Celtic ritual.
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth is believed to have been a learned man, a Master at the College of St. George
in Oxford.
He produced 'Historia Regum Britaniae' (The History of the Kings of Britain)
which he claimed drew heavily upon an "ancient book"
loaned to him by Walter, Archbishop of Oxford.
Geoffrey's work came at a time when England was beeing
torn apart by civil war as King Stephen and Queen Maude struggled for ascendancy.
Within his account of his Celtic ancestor's great deeds, Geoffrey provides the first complete
version of the King Arthur legend then present in the folk tales of Wales and Brittany.
Nobody has suggested that Geoffrey invented the King Arthur legends, only that
he gathered myths and historical facts and retold the stories in a more 'modern' way.
He was probably also responsible for Vita Merlini, The Life of Merlin,
which appeared around 1150.
Together, these volumes gave a sense of national
identity to the Saxon, Norman, and British inhabitants of the British Isles.
It is therefore believed that there was a firm basis of historical fact beneath
the romantic tales of Arthur and Merlin.
Many of Geoffrey's tales have been proven by modern archaeological research
to be founded in fact - Geoffrey refers to contact between the British leader Pascent
and the Irish and this was long thought to have been a fictional invention
but recent discoveries of stones in Wales bearing Irish ogham inscriptions tend
to support the tale.
At Merlin's feet the wily Vivien lay.
From Tennyson's Merlin and Vivien.
Engraving by W. Ridgway
In fact, many elements and incidents that are now an integral part of the Arthurian story appear in Geoffrey's Historia, including Arthur's father Uther Pendragon, adviser Merlin,
the sword Excalibur, his birth at Tintagel and his death at Camlann and final rest in Avalon.
The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot and the Holy Grail to the story, began the genre of Arthurian romance that became a significant strand of medieval literature.
In these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table.
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