The Mammoth Book of King Arthur

690 Pages·2007·11.46 MB·English

by  Mike Ashley

Mike Ashley is an author and editor of over seventy books,
including many Mammoth titles. He worked for over thirty years
in local government but is now a full-time writer and researcher
specializing in ancient history, historical fiction and fantasy,
crime and science fiction. He lives in Kent with his wife and
over 20,000 books.
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THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF
Kmg
L/frthur
Mike Ashley
CARROLL & GRAF PUBLISHERS
New York
Carroll & Graf Publishers
An imprint of Avalon Publishing Group, Inc.
245 W. 17th Street
New York
NY 10011-5300
www.carrollandgraf.com
Q
AVALON
First published in the UK by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd 2005
First Carroll & Graf edition 2005
Copyright © Mike Ashley 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced in any form or by any means
without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN 0-7867-1566-9
Printed and bound in the EU
CONTENTS
Preface: Peeling Back the Layers ix
Section 1: The Historical Arthur
1 An Introduction to Arthur - What's in a Name? 3
2 Before Arthur - The Roman Background 9
3 The Darkness Descends 34
4 The Chroniclers 65
5 Gildas - The Man Who Knew Arthur 84
6 Nennius's Old Papers 107
7 Arthur's Battles - Seeking the Sites 130
8 The Welsh Tradition - The Other Arthurs 187
9 The Creation of Arthur - Geoffrey's Version 237
10 The Real King Arthur - The Twenty Claimants 282
Section 2: The Legend Grows
11 Arthur's Bones 309
12 From Monmouth to Malory - The Crusader Dimension 319
13 Tristan and Iseult - The Romance Begins 367
14 Gawain - The First Hero 379
15 Merlin - The Magic and the Madness 395
16 The Holy Grail 407
17 Lancelot and Guenevere - The Romance Ends 439
18 The Forgotten Adventurers 465
19 Malory - Camelot in a Prison Cell 484
20 The Victorian Revival 496
VI CONTENTS
Section 3: The Big Picture
21 Scribes of the Round Table - Modem Arthurian Novels 513
22 Visions of Camelot - Arthurian Cinema 551
23 Friend or Foe? - An Arthurian Who's Who 563
24 Lost Worlds - An Arthurian Gazetteer 609
25 Further Quests - Arthurian Societies and Websites 649
Bibliography 651
Acknowledgments 659
Index 661
TABLES AND CHARTS
2.1 The Roman Civitas 12
3.1 The Arthurian patriarchs 44
3.2 The ancestors of Cunedda and Coel 50
3.3 The descendants of Coel 52
3.4 The descendants of Ceretic of Strathclyde 54
3.5 The rulers of Dal Riata and the Picts 54
3.6 The rulers of Dyfed 55
3.7 The rulers of Gwent and Glywysing 57
3.8 The rulers of Gwynedd and
other descendants of Cunedda 59
3.9 The rulers of Powys, Gwrtheymion and Brycheiniog 60
3.10 The rulers of Dumnonia and Armorica [Brittany] 62
3.11 The ancestors of the Saxons 63
6.1 The family of Vortigern 123
6.2 Chronology from Roman withdrawal to Badon 128
7.1 Nennius's Battle Sites 171
7.2 British Pendragons and Wledigs 173
8.1 Arthur's maternal family 190
9.1 An Arthurian chronology according to Geoffrey 279
10.1 The Composite Arthur 305
12.1 Arthurian Literature and Events
from Monmouth to Malory 320
12.2 The Kings of Jerusalem 348
12.3 Constantinople and Jerusalem
The Angevin connection 349
19.1 The sources for Malory's Morte Darthur 493
vin TABLES AND CHARTS
23A Malory's Knights of the Round Table
from Le Morte Darthur 566
Maps
1 British Kingdoms of the Fifth Century xvi.
2 Fourth-century Britain 13
3 Principal Roman Roads 16
4 Suggested sites for Vortimer's Battle Campaign 120
5 Possible sites for Cerdic's battles 163
6 Suggested Sites for Arthur's battles in Armorica 165
7 Suggested Sites for Arthur's battles 169
8 Possible British Frontiers 170
9 Arthur's Hunt for Twrch Trwyth 201
10 The Saxon Campaigns adapted from Geoffrey
of Monmouth 265