Legends of Arthur

469 Pages·2001·1.36 MB·English

by  Richard Barber

LEGENDS OF
KING ARTHUR
Richard Barber
THE BOYDELL PRESS
LEGENDS OF KING ARTHUR

LEGENDS OF
KING ARTHUR
selected and presented by
Richard Barber
THE BOYDELL PRESS
Introduction, selection and adaptation © Richard Barber 2001
AllRightsReserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
First published 2001
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 0 85115 837 4
Arthur and Tristan originally appeared in Legends of King Arthur, published by The Folio
Society in 2000, and are reprinted with their permission.
The editor and publishers are grateful to the following translators and publishers for
their permission to reprint extracts from copyright material: The History of the Kings of
Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated by Lewis Thorpe (Penguin Classics,
Harmondsworth, 1966), copyright © Lewis Thorpe 1966; The High Book of the Grail,
translatedbyNigelBryant(D.S.Brewer,Cambridge1978),copyright©NigelBryant
1978; The Death of King Arthur translated by James Cable (Penguin Classics,
Harmondsworth,1971),copyright©JamesCable1971;RomanvanWalewein(Arthurian
Archives: DutchRomancesI)translatedbyDavidF.Johnson(D.S.Brewer,Cambridge,
2000)copyright©DavidF.Johnson;TristanbyGottfriedvonStrassburg,translatedby
A.T.Hatto(PenguinClassics,Harmondsworth,1960),copyright©A.T.Hatto1960;
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult, retold by Joseph Bédier, translated by Hilaire Belloc
(George Allen & Company Ltd, London, 1913) copyright © the Estate of Hilaire
Belloc.
Thetexthasbeenslightlymodifiedfromtheeditionscitedaboveinordertoharmonise
spellingofnamesandtoavoidabruptchangesofstyleandvocabulary. Suchchanges
have been kept to the minimum required to ensure that the text reads easily.
SirGawainandtheGreenKnightisreprintedbypermissionofOxfordUniversityPressfrom
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Keith Harrison (Oxford University Press,
Oxford,1998)copyright©KeithHarrison1983,1998. Thetranslationwasoriginally
commissioned by The Folio Society.
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 14604–4126, USA
Printed in Finland
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
ARTHUR 5
ARTHUR THE EMPEROR 13
ARTHUR AND THE ROUND TABLE 53
GAWAIN 153
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT 159
THE ROMANCE OF SIR GAWAIN 225
TRISTAN AND ISEULT 315
TRISTAN AND ISEULT 323
TRISTAN THE COURTIER 395
Acknowledgements 461
Further Reading 462
ILLUSTRATIONS
ArthurfightsaRomangeneral,fromThebookofthetreasureofhistories,written
and illuminated about 1415
ClichéBibliothèqueNationaledeFrance,Paris,MSArsenal5077,f.298
King Arthur and King Ban plan a tournament as Queen Guenevere and
courtiers watch
Cliché Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, MS fr. 95, f. 291
The Wedding of Arthur and Guenevere inChroniquesdeHainault
© Brussels, Royal Library of Belgium, f. 39v
The lady tempts Sir Gawain: from the unique manuscripts of Sir Gawain
andtheGreenKnight
By permission of the British Library, MS Cotton Nero X, f. 125v
James Archer,LaMortd’Arthur, oil painting 1860
© Manchester City Art Galleries
The Tristan stained glass for Harden Grange executed by Morris &
Company, 1862
Bradford Art Galleries and Museums, West Yorkshire, UK/Bridgeman
Art Library
James Archer, Iseult
Private Collection
Introduction
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
THE IMAGE OF ARTHUR has haunted the poets and writers of
westernEuropefornearlyninecenturies,andthereisnosignofanendto
the reign of the ‘once and future king’ in the world of literature. The
fi
Arthurianepicisaspopularasubjectnowasitwaswhenitwas rstfash-
ioned, and the stories about Arthur and the heroes associated with him
come in a bewildering number of guises. There has never been just one
authentic version of his deeds, and new Arthurs are still being created
fi
apace.Allthisspringsfroma guresoobscurethatwecannotevenbesure
that he existed, a shadow of a shadow in the fragments of history and
poetrythatsurvivefromsixth-centuryWales.Hisdeedshaveoften,ifnot
always, been those of other men; even the twelve great battles which the
Welsh chronicler Nennius tells us about in the eighth century may be
those involving other leaders, and his last victory over the Saxons at
MountBadon,centreofsomuchspeculationandinvention,isnotattrib-
uted to him in the one contemporary record of it. What inspired the
Welsh poets, however, was not the hero himself, whoever he may have
been,butanidea,anideawhichwasarallying-calltoapeopleinretreat,
drivenbytheSaxonsintothewesternextremitiesofthelandthathadonce
been theirs: ‘Their land they shall lose, except wild Wales.’ Arthur, who
had once held the Saxons at bay, would return to conquer them.
And, in a manner of speaking, he has done so. Later medieval stories
about him make him emperor of much of Europe; and his story was
called ‘the matter of Britain’. The other great ‘matters’ which medieval
poets celebrated were those of Troy and France, tales now long
forgottenorbestknowninother,olderversions.Arthurcametoplaya
leading part in the literature of France and Germany, and later of
England,conqueringmindsandimaginationsifnotbodiesandlands.It
fi
is he, obscure and perhaps ctional, who is the archetypal medieval
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heroic gure,nottherealandimperialCharlemagne,aroundwhomthe
matter of France revolved.
2 Introduction
fi ff
Muchofthecreditforthecreationofthis guremustgotoGeo reyof
Monmouth, probably of Welsh blood, but trained in the courts of the
NormankingsandtheschoolsofParis.Seekingtorecordwhatscrapshe
fi
could nd of the Welsh past, he shaped a history of the British people
whichmatchedtheexploitsofRomeandFrance,inwhichArthuralmost
conquers Rome, echoing the careers of the emperors of the later Roman
fi
periodwhobeganasBritishgenerals.Itwas ction,butfarfromimplau-
sible,anditcaughttheimaginationofhiscontemporaries;afewgrumbled
thattherewasnotraceofArthurinreliablebooks,butforthemostpart
ff
Geo rey’s work was taken up with enthusiasm, and incorporated into
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historical chronicles, where it lled an awkward blank in the past. From
chronicles in Latin, poets retold the story in French verse; and with the
adventofanewandsophisticatedcourtliteratureinFrenchandGerman,
the Arthurian legends began to take shape.
ThemostremarkablethingaboutthestoriesgroupedaroundArthuris
fi
the extraordinary rapidity with which they were created. The rst
romances appear in the middle of the twelfth century, about 1160; by
1225therewasahugeandcomplexmassofinterwoventales,a‘cycle’of
stories about the heroes of the Round Table – which itself had only
appeared in the 1150s. Even more dramatic was the growth of stories
abouttheGrail,inventedintheearly1190s;withintwentyyearstherewas
ff
not just one fully developed romance, but at least three widely di ering
versionsofitsstory.Itseemedthatthelegendsgatheredupintheirwake
whatever was new and exciting: the idea of courtly love, the new enthu-
siasm for chivalry, the sport of tournaments, even the spiritual teachings
oftheCistercianorderandthedebateabouttherealpresenceofChrist’s
body in the Mass.
Perhapspreciselybecausetherewasnorealhistoricalcoretothestories,
fi
theywerefreetodevelopaccordingtoeachwriter’sownagenda.We nda
hugerangeofstyles.Thereisanentrancingsimplicitytosomeoftheearly
Tristan poems; yet Gottfried von Strassburg tells the same story in an
exceptionally sophisticated, highly philosophical style. Chrétien de
Troyes explores the psychology of his characters in long monologues,
whilelaterwritersprefertoplungeintolengthydescriptionsofthephys-
ical violence of the tournament. Wolfram von Eschenbach envelops the
Grail story in alchemical lore and eastern mysteries, ranging magpie-like
throughavaststoreofknowledge.AndthecreatorofGalahaddrawson
Cistercian theology to create a didactic story on the spiritual values of
knighthood.
Yetbythemid-thirteenthcentury,somethingakintoanacceptedcore
ofstorieshademerged.Atthebeginningofthatcentury,anobscurewriter
calledRobertdeBoronhadtakenthestoryoftheGrailandhadgivenita
Introduction 3
prehistory, a kind of Hollywood ‘prequel’, which in a stroke of aston-
ishing boldness created a chronicle of the guardians of the Grail from
Joseph of Arimathea, who had overseen the burial of Christ, to King
Arthur’sdays.ThestoryofArthur,inthisversion,wasintimatelybound
up with the story of man’s redemption through Christ, and this over-
arching concept is present in the so-called ‘Vulgate Cycle’, which spans
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theperiodfromtheCruci xiontoArthur’sdeath,bringinginthetaleof
Arthur himself, the adventures of Lancelot and the quest for the Grail,
before recounting the tragedy of the last days of Arthur’s reign. Later
writersreshapedandextendedthismaterialaccordingtotheirowntastes;
Lancelot’sstorypredominatesinoneversion,andtheGrailstoryisdrawn
intothisentirelyseculartaleoftheloveofArthur’sgreatestknightforhis
queen, Guinevere. Another huge romance was centred on Tristan, and
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when it eventually winds its way to a conclusion, we nd the death of
Tristan and Iseult intertwined with the achievement of the Grail, with
Arthur almost absent.
Although the stories continued to be read and adapted in the four-
fi
teenth and fteenth centuries, and were as popular as ever, the main
creativeperiodoftheromanceswasover.Therearestrangenewtalessuch
as that of Perceforest, a type of secular parallel to the prehistory of the
Grail which takes the Round Table back to heathen times, before the
birth of Christ; there are oddities, such as Arthur’s adventures as
knight-errantaccompaniedbyatalkingparrotinthetalecalledTheKnight
with the Parrot; and there are isolated masterpieces like Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight, taking a single hero and a single story out of the throng. As
forthevastearlierromances,theirsheerlengthhadbecomeanobstacleto
fi
enjoyment,andwe ndaseriesofattemptstoproduceamoremanageable
versionofthewholestory,inItaly,inGermany,atthecourtoftheducde
Berry in France, and, most notably, in England, where Sir Thomas
Malory, drawing on a wide range of French and English sources besides
the Vulgate Cycle, forged the most powerful of all the accounts of the
Round Table.
MaloryhasachievedsuchastatusinEnglishliteraturethatitiseasyto
forgettherichandvariedpastwhichliesbehindhiscoherentwork.When
VictorianwritersrediscoveredtheworldofArthur,itwaslargelythrough
Malory’spages,andthesuccessiveprintingsofhisworkintheearlynine-
teenthcenturymatchtheprogressoftheArthurianrevival.Onlygradually
did the wider canvas of medieval romance become known again, as
scholars worked on previously disregarded manuscripts, and translations
ff
were o ered to the wider world. Indeed, the great Vulgate Cycle version
fi
hadtowaitforacompleteeditionuntilthe1890s,andthe rstfulltrans-
fi
lation nally emerged in the 1990s.