Introduction

Abstract

When Lazamon, a Worcestershire priest, wrote around 1200 (quoting Merlin) that Arthur would be food for storytellers till the end of time, he prophesied more truly than he could have imagined. Eight hundred years later, Arthur still has very extensive name recognition. Continuously from the twelfth century to the present day, authors and artists using various modes - romances, poetry, plays, novels, sculptures, manuscript illuminations, frescoes, paintings, operas, films, graphic novels, cartoons - have produced variations on the basic theme of the great king who saved Britain from enemies at home and abroad, conquered much of the Continent (even Rome, according to some sources), and established a court which became a magnet for the best and bravest knights in the world, only to be brought low by treachery in the end, like many other legendary rulers. Fortune's wheel, such a potent symbol in the Middle Ages, turns inexorably, carrying him up to the very top, and then throwing him down. The Arthurian legend became one of the dominant narrative themes of the later Middle Ages. According to Jean Bodel, there were three: the Matter of Rome (from the fall of Troy to Æneas' establishment of the Roman Empire), the Matter of France (the deeds of Charlemagne and his lords), and the Matter of Britain (the story of Arthur and his Round Table). The story of Alexander was also very popular, but more often as a cautionary tale of excessive ambition. Although Arthur was a British king, his legend was known and retold much more widely.