Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur within Imaginary Boundaries of the Celtic World

Abstract

This essay on Fuqua’s King Arthur navigates the shape of the film’s plot and the Celtic mythos on which it rests: its concept of character that, in its most liberated form, is defined by a Celtic democracy of free choice; the plot’s universal social and spiritual concerns; and the tale’s religious ethos, particularly as it deals with gender issues, setting, and the constriction of institutional customs. My reading stresses the centrality of Pelagius’ views on nature and the equality of humankind within early Irish spirituality, with the Celtic creation story, and with Celtic ideas on the transmigration of souls, women warriors, the virtues of animals and animality, health and the cauldron of plenty (the Grail), and the earth itself as the sole playing field of meaningful behavior.