ARTHUR. A half-legendary king of the Britons, supposed to have reigned in the Sixth Century. lle was the great national hero of the British Celts. and became the central figure of one of the principal cycles of medifeval romance. Nothing is absolutely known of his history, and his existence has sometimes been denied alto gether. The more IISIIR I view, however. reeog nizes at least an historic starting-point for the great body of tradition that centres in his name. In accordance with a favorite theory of modern mythologists, Arthur is often regarded as a com bination of au actual British hero with one or more ancient Celtic gods. Thus, Professor Ilhys, who eonneets Arthur's name with an Aryan root which means 'to plough.' thinks that some elements in his legend belonged originally to a culture-god described on Continental as Mercurius Artaois, or Mercurius perhaps other elements were derived from an old sky-god, a kind of Celtic Zeus.
The usual account of Arthur is briefly as follows: He was the son of Uther Pendragon, King of Britain, and Igerne, the wife of the Duke of Cornwall, whose union was effected by a device of Merlin the Wizard. After the death of the Duke, Uther made Igerne his queen. and in due time Arthur succeeded to the throne. Upon becoming King, Arthur at once took the lead of his people in their wars with the Saxons. and defeated the invaders on every hand. En couraged by victory, he extended his conquests to Ireland. the Orkneys. and even to Norway and Gaul. Meanwhile he established a great court at Cuerleon-un-Usk, where, with his Queen Guine vere (or Guanhumara ), he was surrounded by a grand assemblage of knights and kings. After a time a message came from the Emperor of Rome demanding tribute, and Arthur, ably sup ported by (lawain, conducted a successful expe dition against the forces of the Empire. In the midst of his victories on the Continent Arthur was recalled to defend his kingdom and queen from the traitorous Modred, who had seized upon both in his absence. Arthur undertook to put down the rebellion, and in the first battle his forces were victorious, but was slain. Then, in the battle of Candan. Modred was de feated and killed, hut Arthur himself was griev ousl• wounded and carried off to the Island of Avalon to be healed. The hope was long cher ished by the British people that. Arthur would some day return and restore them to power.
Much of this narrative is obviously unhistoric, and very little of it can be traced with certainty to sources older than the Ninth Century. The first recorded mention of Arthur is in the ills torio Britoonnt of Nennius, a work which as sumed its present shape about 850. He is there
described as a dux Gel loru in, who, along with other leaders of the Britons, fought twelve battles against the Saxons. The Anoules Cam bria- (probably written in the Tenth Century) also mention him, giving the year 537 as the date of his death. The Vile (Whiff. (usually ascribed to the Twelfth ('entury) speaks of him as a king of all Britain. Rut not till we come to tile ll istoriu llrgum Brilunnim of Geoffrey of Monmouth (written about II36) do we tind the more folly developed story of which an out line has just been given. The question with regard to Geoffrey's sources is very difficult, and may never be fully settled. The later chroniclers —Waee, Layamon, Robert of Gloucester, and the rest—fo• the most part repeat the same fie count, with minor modifications. Thus Wace (who wrote in 1155) first mentions the Round Table. an element which he surely did not in vent, but mint have derived from current Celtic traditions.
It was not in the chronicles, however, that the material about Arthur found its fullest and best expression. The fame of his court was most widely celebrated in the romances of chiv alry. Of this class of literature one of the earliest and greatest representatives was the French poet, Chrestien de Trbyes, who wrote in the latter half of the Twelfth Century. He had many followers in France, and the French romances were widely translated and imitated in the other European languages. The relation between the romances and the chronicles is not entirely clear, but the latter cannot be looked upon as the source of any considerable part of the material in the former. In the romances, less attention is paid to Arthur and his con quests. and far more to the lives and exploits of his several knights; so that the King, while re maining the central figure of all the poems, is the hero of hardly any. Gawain, Twain, Lance lot, and Pe•eeval are celebrated in turn, until they, too, give place to new knights, the favorites of new poets. Most of the earlier romances (like those of Chrestien) were metrical ; but the stories soon began to be worked over in prose, and finally great prose cycles were written, in which the scattered episodes were woven together with as much consistency as could he obtained. The great example in English of this stage of de velopment is the Monte d'A•thu• of Sir Thomas Malory, which has been the source of Arthurian lore most consulted by English readers and writers since the Fifteenth Century.