1paper essay to analyze the character
zumrutnaime
LECTURE_08_ARTHUR-1.pptHIST 223 MEDIEVAL HEROES: EAST AND WEST
Arthurian Legends
Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur
British Library Add. MS 59678, f.35
“For herein may be seen noble chyvalrye, curtosye, humanyte, frendlynesse, hardynesse, love, frendshyp, cowardyse, murdre, hate, vertue, and synne.
Doo after the good and leve the evyl, and it shal brynge you to good fame and renommee.”
From Caxton’s Preface, 1485
Annales Cambriae
British Library MS Harley 3859
516
The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights on his shoulders and the Britons were the victors.
537
The battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut fell: and there was plague in Britain and Ireland.
Nennius, Historia Brittonum (History Of The Britons), c 800, Wales
When Gratian Aequantius was consul at Rome, because then the whole world was governed by the Roman consuls, the Saxons were received by Vortigern in the year of our Lord four hundred and forty-seven (447), and to the year in which we now write, five hundred and forty-seven (547).
And whosoever shall read herein may receive instruction, the Lord Jesus Christ affording assistance, who, co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Ghost, lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
Nennius, Historia Brittonum (History Of The Britons), c 800, Wales
“dux bellorum”
warrior lord
“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.”
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 1136
Historia regum Britannie (History of the Kings of Britain)
Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian romances, late 12th century
“... Walter, archdeacon of Oxford,... [gave me] a certain very ancient book in the British language, which continually and in order, in most beautiful language, displays the deeds of all these men, from Brutus, the first king of the Britons, up to Cadwallader, the son of Cadwallo. Thus at Walter's request, I have taken the trouble to translate the book into Latin...”
Aşıkpaşazade, Tevârih-i Âl-i Osman, c.1480
Nâ-gâh bir cemâ'at azizlerden Âl-i Osmân'un tevârîhinden ve menâkı-bından zikr itdiler. Fakirden dahi sü'âl itdiler. Fakîr dahi cevâb vir-düm. Orhan Gâzİ'nün imâmı İshak Fakıh ogli yahşi Fakı'dan kim olSultân Bâyezîd Han'a gelince bu menâkıbı ol Yahşi Fakı'dan yazıl-mış buldum kim ol Orhan Gâzİ'nün imâmı oglıdur ve fakîr dahi ba'zı hâllarından ve kâllerinden ve menâkıblanndan ihtisâr idüp kalem diline virdüm.
Ol vakt du'âcı fakir köyde kaldum. Orhan'un imâmı oglı Yahşi Fakıh evinde hasta oldum. Geyve'de anda kaldum. Menakıb-ıAl-i Osmân'ı tâ Yıldırum Han'a gelince ol imam oglından naklitdüm kim habar virürin.
The mainland courtyards of Tintagel Castle
King Gorlois and Queen Igraine
King Uther arriving at Tintagel
Conception of Arthur
From:
Histoire de Merlin,
c. 1290-1300
Paris, BNF fr. 95,
f. 149v
Baby Arthur entrusted to Merlin as old man
Fr. 95 f. 153v
Sword removed by Arthur
Fr. 95 f. 156v
Sword removed by Arthur again
Coronation of Arthur
Fr. 95 f. 159v
Mounted Combat between Arthur and Rebels
Fr. 95 f. 162v
Round Table
in Winchester Great Hall
Made during the reign of Edward I’(1272–1307)
repaired and repainted under Henry VIII (probably in 1516)
Why is
The Round Table
Round?
Round Table
//
first among equals
Morgawse + King Lot of Lothian and of Orkney
Sir Gawain
Sir Gaheris
Sir Agravain
Sir Gareth
Elaine + King NentIes of the land of Garlot
Morgan Ie Fay + King Uriens of the land of Gore
Sir Uwain
*
Dubricius, Archbishop of the City of the legions, climbed to the top of a hill and cried out in a loud voice:
“You who have been marked with the cross of the Christian faith. Be mindful of the loyalty you owe to your fatherland and to your fellow-countrymen!
If they are slaughtered as a result of this treacherous behaviour by the pagans, they will be an everlasting reproach to you, unless in the meanwhile you do your utmost to defend them! Fight for your fatherland.”
(Monmouth)
“And if you are killed suffer death willingly for your country’s sake. That in itself is victory and a cleansing of the soul. Whoever suffers death for the sake of his brothers offers himself as a living sacrifice to God and follows with firm footsteps behind Christ Himself who did not disdain to lay down His life for His brothers.
It follows that if anyone of you shall suffer death in this war, that death shall be to him as a penance and an absolution for all his sins, given always that he goes to meet it unflinchingly.”
(Monmouth)
ARTHUR himself put on a leather jerkin worthy of so great a king.
On his head he placed a golden helmet, with a crest carved in the shape of a dragon;
and across his shoulders a circular shield called Pridwen, on which there was painted a likeness of the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, which forced him to be thinking perpetually of her.
He girded on his peerless sword, called Caliburn, which was forged in the Isle of Avalon.
A spear called Ron graced his right hand: long, broad in the blade and thirsty for slaughter.
(Monmouth)
He drew his sword Calibum, called upon the name of the Blessed Mary. Every man whom he struck, calling upon God as he did so, he killed at a single blow. He did not slacken his onslaught until he had dispatched four hundred and seventy men with his sword.
(Monmouth)
GAWAIN, fearless in his courage, did his utmost to come up with Lucius himself in the fight. He made every effort to push forward, for he was the bravest of all the knights. He decimated the enemy by his onslaught and as he killed them he moved ever forward.
Gawain finally found the opening for which he was longing. He rushed straight at the Roman general and fought with him hand to hand.
Lucius was in the prime of his youth. He was a man of great courage, strength and prowess, and there was nothing that he wanted more than to join battle with a knight who would force him to prove his worth as a soldier. He accepted Gawain’s challenge and fought with him. He was very keen to begin and rejoiced that his opponent was so famous a man.
The contest between two lasted for a long time. They dealt each other mighty blows, holding out their shields to their opponent’s onslaught and each planning how he could kill the other. (Monmouth)
L'estoire de Merlin
(Lancelot Cycle. Branches 1, 2, 3 in French prose)
c.1300
Guiron le Courtois (fragments). Before 1500
Arthur And Other Early English Kings
in Matthew Paris's Epitome of Chronicles
1255
*
Matthew Paris was a monk of St Albans' Abbey, from 1217 until his death in 1259, about whom we know a great deal: he was a prolific chronicler of national and local events, from which we can learn a lot about him. Manuscripts such as this, in his own handwriting, demonstrate his interest in, and aptitude for, subjects are varied as geography, heraldry, and history, as well as his considerable abilities as a draughtsman. At the beginning of he manuscript are a series of miniatures depicting the early rulers of England. The second of these pages shows Kings Uther Pendragon, Aethelbert, Arthur, and Oswald.
Yet some men say in many parts of England that King Arthur is not dead, but had by the will of Our Lord Jesu into another place; and men say that he shall come again, and he shall win the holy cross. I will not say that it shall be so, but rather I will say, here in this world he changed his life. But many men say that there is written upon his tomb this verse:
HIC IACET ARTHURUS, REX QUOANDAM REXQUE FUTURUS.
Battle of Camlann
Avalon
*
John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott , 1888 ,
Oil on canvas, 153 x 200 cm, Tate Gallery, London
Chrétien de Troyes
Lancelot (1180)
“King Arthur on Ascension Day had left Caerleon and held a most magnificent court at Camelot with all the splendour appropriate to the day.”
Ioan Gruffud as Lancelot in "King Arthur" (2004).
Santiago Cabrera as Lancelot in “Merlin” (2008-21011)
Richard Gere as Lancelot in “The First Knight” (1995)
*
"I am Sir Launcelot du Lake,
King Ban's son of Benwick,
and knight of the Round Table."
The Boy's King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, Edited for Boys by Sidney Lanier (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922), p. 38
*
King Ban and his queen watching their castle burn.
The Lady of the Lake takes the infant Lancelot.
*
SIR LANCELOT AND DOLOROUS CASTLE
“Sir knight, since ye have delivered this lady, ye shall deliver us from a serpent that is here in a tomb.”
The tomb letters of gold that said thus:
HERE SHALL COME A LEOPARD OF KINGS’ BLOOD, AND HE SHALL SLAY US SERPENT, AND THIS LEOPARD SHALL ENGENDER A LION IN THIS FOREIGN COUNTRY, THE WHICH LION SHALL PASS ALL OTHER KNIGHTS.
*
SIR LANCELOT AND THE HOLY GRAIL
So it befell on a night, at midnight, he arrived afore a castle, on the back side, which was rich and fair, and there was a postern opened toward the sea, and was open without any keeping, save two lions kept the entry; and the moon shone clear.
Then he ran to his arms, and so armed him, and so went to the gate and saw the lions. Then set he hand to his sword and drew it. Then there came a dwarf suddenly, and smote him on the arm so sore that the sword fell out of his hand.
(Malory)
*
SIR LANCELOT AND THE HOLY GRAIL
Then said Launcelot, ‘Fair Father Jesu Christ, I thank thee of Thy great mercy that Thou reprovest me of my misdeed; now see I well that Ye hold me for Your servant.’
Then took he again his sword and put it up in his sheath, and made a cross in his forehead, and came to the lions, and they made semblant to do him harm. Notwithstanding he passed by them without hurt, and entered into the castle to the chief fortress, and there were they all at rest.
(Malory)
*
Bahram Gur Kills 2 Lions to Claim his Crown,
Leaf from Five Poems (Quintet), hamsa of Nizami Ganjavi
Sir Lancelot Fights Monsters
Leaf from Le Roman de Lancelot
*
SIR LANCELOT AND THE HOLY GRAIL
Right so heard he a voice that said, “Sir Launcelot, more harder than is the stone, and more bitter than is the wood, and more naked and barer than is the leaf of the fig tree; therefore go thou from hence, and withdraw thee from this holy place.”
“My sin and my wickedness have brought me unto great dishonour. For when I sought worldly adventures for worldly desires, I ever achieved them and had the better in every case, and never was I discomfit in no quarrel, were it right or wrong.
And now I take upon me the adventures of holy things, and now I see and understand that mine old sin hindereth me and shameth me, so that I had no power to stir nor speak when the holy blood appeared afore me.”
(Malory)
*
Miniature of Lancelot duelling for the queen's honour.
La Queste del Saint Graal
c.1316
Concept of Courtly Love
John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott, 1888,
Oil on canvas, 153 x 200 cm, Tate Gallery, London
‘Ah madam’, said Launcelot, ‘in this ye must hold me excused for divers causes; one is, I was but late in the quest of the Sangrail; and I thank God of His great mercy, and never of my desert, that I saw in that my quest as much as ever saw any sinful man, and so was it told me.
And if I had not had my privy thoughts to return to your love again as I do, I had seen as great mysteries as ever saw my son Galahad, other Percival, or Sir Bors; and therefore, madam, I was but late in that quest.
Wit ye well, madam, it may not be yet lightly forgotten the high service in whom I did my diligent labour.
(Malory)
*
‘Also, madam, wit ye well that there be many men speaken of our love in this court, and have you and me greatly in a-wait, as Sir Agravain and Sir Mordred; and madam, wit ye well I dread them more for your sake than for any fear I have of them myself, for I may happen to escape and rid myself in a great need, where ye must abide all that will be said unto you.
And then if that ye fall in any distress through wilful folly, then is there none other remedy or help but by me and my blood.’
(Malory)
*
‘And wit ye well, madam, the boldness of you and me will bring us to great shame and slander; and that were me loth to see you dishonoured.
And that is the cause I take upon me more for to do for damosels and maidens than ever I did tofore, that men should understand my joy and my delight is my pleasure to have ado for damosels and maidens.’
(Malory)
*
*
All this while the queen stood still and let Sir Launcelot say what he would. And when he had all said she brast out on weeping, and so she sobbed and wept a great while.
And when she might speak she said:
‘Launcelot, now I well understand that thou art a false recreant knight and a common lecher, and lovest and holdest other ladies, and by me thou hast disdain and scorn. For wit thou well,’ she said, ‘now I understand thy falsehood, and therefore shall I never love thee no more. And never be thou so hardy to come in my sight; and right here I discharge thee this court, that thou never come within it; and I forfend thee my fellowship, and upon pain of thy head that thou see me no more.’
(Malory)
*
But nowadays men cannot love seven night but they must have all their desires: that love may not endure by reason; for where they be soon accorded and hasty, heat soon it cooleth. Right so fareth love nowadays, soon hot soon cold: this is no stability. But the old love was not so; men and women could love together seven years, and no licours lusts were between them, and then was love, truth, and faithfulness: and lo, in likewise was used love in King Arthur’s days.
Wherefore I liken love nowadays unto summer and winter; for like as the one is hot and the other cold, so fareth love nowadays; therefore all ye that be lovers call unto your remembrance the month of May, like as did Queen Guenever, for whom I make here a little mention, that while she lived she was a true lover, and therefore she had a good end.
(Malory)
*
