“He was covered from head to toe with ancient iron armor; his head was inside a helmet resembling an iron barrel with slits; he held a shield, a sword, and a long spear; his horse was also in armor, a steel horn stuck out on its forehead, and a luxuriant, red and green, silk blanket hung like a blanket almost to the ground."
Mark Twain. "Yankees at the Court of King Arthur"
King Arthur is a knight from legend. Did it look like the writer Mark Twain described it to us in his witty and funny book "Yankees at the Court of King Arthur" or something else? And what is really known today about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table? Was the story about them a beautiful fiction or is it based on real historical events? And can you believe what the directors of cartoons and popular films are shooting about them? We will tell you about all this now.
Death of King Arthur. A hand from the lake takes his sword. " It is probably not entirely correct to place at the beginning of the material an illustration depicting the death of the main character of the article. But … it is very impressive. In addition, there are no illustrations of the times of King Arthur himself at all. And everything that appeared later is no more than a fiction of their authors. Miniature from the manuscript "Death of Arthur", 1316 St. Omer or Tournai. (British Library, London)
About kings and knights. History on demand
Well, we will start by recalling once again the English proverb that “many hands make everything better”. And indeed it is. It was not even in my thoughts to write about King Arthur and his knights, until … this topic did not interest one of the readers of "VO", and he asked me to deal with this topic. After that, it turned out that, firstly, it is not only interesting in itself, but, secondly, it is also in the most direct way connected with the "knightly theme". True, her chronological framework is somewhat different, but one cannot, after all, be a pedant to such an extent. In addition, the topic turned out to be so exciting that I have to say that I enjoyed working on it a lot.
How do we know about Arthur?
Now let's talk about the most important thing in our story. How do we know at least something about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table? From popular TV cartoons, ancient legends and manuscripts, or is it all one continuous extrasensory perception, as, for example, in the novel by Alfred Bester "The Man Without a Face"? Let's try to get to the very foundations of the legends about Arthur, and then we'll also see what it was during the time for England, what was important then in this country, and what great this Arthur really did, if, of course, his deeds were not fiction …
Merlin reads his prophecies to King Vortigern. "History of the Kings of Britain". Geoffrey of Monmouth. (British Library, London)
Poem, the same age as the hero, and other written sources
Well - it has long been known that Arthur's name first appears in the poem "Wye Gododdin", the Welsh bard Aneirin, which dates back to around 600. It describes the Battle of Katraet in which the Anglo-Saxons fight the kings of the "Ancient North". And that's where we are talking about King Arthur, a valiant warrior who has accomplished many feats. The leader of the Britons is compared with him in this poem. That is, we are talking about a person whom everyone should know, since comparison with the unknown is nonsense. Another Welsh poem, The Trophies of Annun, attributed to the bard Taliesin, describes Arthur's journey into the Welsh underworld of Annun. According to linguistic analysis, its text refers to the year 900. That is, there is a difference of 300 years between these two poems. And the fact that the image of Arthur during this time did not fade and was not forgotten, speaks only of one thing - its prevalence and significance.
In the Annals of Cambria dating back to the second half of the 10th century, the name of Arthur is mentioned in connection with the battle of Badon in 516 and at Camlanne in 537, that is, this in a certain way indicates the time in which he lived, namely the 6th century …
The entire lineage of Arthur as a king who inherited power from noble ancestors is set forth in the Mostun manuscript, dating from the end of the 13th century. and which is kept at the National Library of Wales. She is also found in a number of other manuscripts, so who he is and whose son is known for sure. But again, it is known only from these written sources. In the same Mostun manuscript the following is written: "Arthur, son of Uther, son of Kustennin, son of Kinfaur, son of Tudval, son of Morfaur, son of Eudath, son of Cador, son of Keenan, son of Karadog, son of Bran, son of Llir the Little-Speech." However, all these figures are semi-legendary. Their real existence, as, indeed, of Arthur himself, has not been proven by anything, in fact. Although … there is still something material for today …
"King Arthur". Peter de Langtoft. "Chronicle of England" c. 1307 - 1327 (British Library, London)
Stones and inscriptions
It is found in the cultural layer of the Tintagel castle, and dates back to the 6th century. that is, to the era of King Arthur, a stone with an engraved inscription in Latin: "Father Kol created this, Artugnu, a descendant of Kolya, created this." According to the archaeologist Gordon Maichen, some of the letters in this inscription were missing, which was typical of the then inscriptions. Therefore, it should be read like this: "Artugnu erected this stone in memory of his forefather Kolya." Well, King Kohl is another semi-mythical king of Britain who lived in the IV-V centuries. n. NS. If we assume that Artugnu is a distorted name Arthur (or Arthur is a distorted name of Artugnu), then … we have an artifact in which, not on paper, but on a stone, the real existence of a person with that name is attested. But nothing more! Unfortunately, there is no evidence that Arthur and Artugnu are one and the same person.
The same stone, although the inscription is barely distinguishable …
There was also the so-called "Arthur's Tomb". As early as 1191, during repairs in the Abbey in Glastonbury, the grave of a man and a woman was found, on the slab of which the name of King Arthur was found. For many years, pilgrims from all over Britain came to her. But in 1539 the monastery was dispersed, and today only ruins have survived. The grave has not survived either, but in the place where it seems to have been for tourists there is a sign. And that's all for today!
That very grave, or rather all that remains of it …
The History of the Britons by Nennius
Well, and the first historical document, and not a poem, which mentions King Arthur, is the "History of the Britons", dated about 800, and written by a Welsh monk named Nennius in Latin. Many British scholars believe that he used folk tales about him spread in Wales. In the "History" about Arthur it is said that he won twelve victories over the Saxons, and finally defeated them at the battle of Mount Badon.
Ruins of Tintagel Castle in Cornwall
However, Nennius's description of Arthur is very contradictory. On the one hand, Arthur is the leader of the British Christians against the Saxon invaders, and on the other … he is clearly a magical figure. This, however, did not prevent Geoffrey of Monmouth from including Arthur in his History of the Kings of Britain, written in the first half of the 12th century. He wrote about him as an unconditionally existing historical character, but the reliability of his work still raises great doubts among historians.
"King Uther Pendragon arrives at Tintagel." Thumbnail on a page from Robert Weiss's Dry Narrative, continued until Edward III; Destruction of Rome; Fierabras ". Second quarter of the XIV century(British Museum, London)
A History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth
So, Jeffrey wrote that Arthur lived in the 6th century AD, which was already known, and then turned him … into a victorious leader who was the king of all Britain and the conqueror of most of Northern Europe. His court attracted the most daring knights from all over Christendom, and he himself was the embodiment of chivalry. Geoffrey either visited Tintagel himself, or knew someone who was there and simply told him the legends about King Arthur that were prevalent in those places. Apparently, this is how the message appeared about how, with the help of magic, King Uther entered the castle of Tintagel, defeated its master Gorlua and married his wife, or rather, already a widow, Igerna. And that Arthur was conceived and born in Tintagel, which, of course, could not but flatter the inhabitants of the village of the same name, which lay not far from its ruins. Here, however, there is one important circumstance. Or we believe in magic, and then everything was exactly like that. Either we do not believe - and then all this simply could not have happened, or it was all completely different.
King Uther Pendragon talks to Merlin. Peter de Langtoft. "Chronicle of England" c. 1307 - 1327 (British Library, London)
Literary translation by Robert Weiss
A very peculiar "historical work" Geoffrey was translated into Norman-French in 1155 by Robert Weiss of Jersey, who added his own inventions and, in particular, a description of the famous "Round Table" of King Arthur, and here he also has Arthur's sword was first named Excalibur. As a result, it was this book that found fertile ground at the court of Henry II and all subsequent English kings and, by the way, was repeatedly rewritten. Henry's own grandson and the builder of the new castle Tintagel - Richard, Earl of Cornwall - was also raised on the tales of Arthur, and it is not surprising that he built his castle in this place. The legend gave the English kings a role model, which ultimately led to the creation of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III, who clearly wanted something to resemble the glorious King Arthur.
Skeptic William of Malmesbury
Geoffrey of Monmouth's contemporary, William of Malmesbury, also did not doubt the reality of Arthur's existence, but treated him as a historical figure with great caution. In the extensive work Chronicle of the Kings of England, he dedicated only a few lines to King Arthur, and he performs his exploits together with the Roman Ambrose Aurelian. Here is what he wrote: “Ambrose, the only survivor of the Romans, who became king after Vortigern, suppressed the arrogant barbarians with the help of the warlike Arthur. This is the Arthur about whom the British naively tell many fairy tales, even today, a person certainly worthy of glorification, not only because of empty fantasies, but for the sake of true history. For a long time he supported the sinking state, and encouraged the broken spirit of his compatriots to war. Finally, in the battle at Mount Badon, relying on the image of the Holy Virgin, which he attached to his armor, he fought nine hundred enemies alone and scattered them with incredible cruelty."
In this message, by far the most important is the mention of the image of the Holy Virgin. He attached it to the armor, and won the victory. Everything is exactly the same as in the medieval Russian chronicles, in which the appeal to the saints and the mention of God's help are found in almost every second paragraph.
The film version of the image of Arthur in 2004. In it, he is shown as a Roman, well, the equipment in which he was dressed is still quite tolerable in this regard …
At the end of his story, William of Malmesbury writes about all this in a very revealing way: “The truth is therefore obscure; although none of these people were below the glory that they acquired. That is, he simply said in other words that the truth is always somewhere there!
References:
1. Roger Middleton. 'The Manuscripts' in The Arthur of the French, ed. by Glyn S. Burgess and Karen Pratt, Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, 4 vols (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2006), IV.
2. Pamela Porter. Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2000)
3. David Nicolle. Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars (Anglo-Celtic Warfare, AD 410-1066). L.: Osprey Pub., (Men-at-Arms series # 154), 1984.
