King Arthur

Introduction

This essay is based on King Arthur. King Arthur is the archetypal romantic hero. Raised by the wizard Merlin, he meets a fairy who lives in a lake, he becomes king by the grace of a sword torn from the stone, the beautiful wife Guinevere and won hard-fought countless battles. The King Arthur is a legend man of the middle Ages, a hero of the great age of chivalry which extends from twelfth to the fifteenth century. King Arthur had obtained the throne by pulling his sword Excalibur from a rock. In other tales, Excalibur is a lake outlet carried by hand (the famous Viviane, Lady of the Lake). In all cases, this sword is the symbol that is unique heir to the throne, chosen by God, and making it virtually invincible (Higham, pp. 15).

King Arthur is a special legend, bathed in magic, bravery and righteousness, carried through the centuries by various storytellers famous or anonymous, the most recent one was René Barjavel with its famous Merlin. To get acquainted with the historical figure that inspired the legend, we must go back much further in time, long before the appearance of medieval culture. This is the journey to meet the man behind the myth. Arthur was really a king. Arthur is more than a king among the Britons, simply gives a title that defines it more as a skillful and courageous warrior (Ashe, pp. 35).

The Arthurian romances are numerous and each author over the centuries has added there personal touch which has amended the original myth. Therefore, nowadays it is very difficult to make uniform legends. In contrast, the different versions are often contradictory. For the development of the tradition of Arthurian romance, we have to turn to the activities of the 12th-century French and Anglo-Norman writers who developed a body of narratives focussed on the adventures of individual members of Arthur's court.

Discussion and Analysis

King Arthur is a film released in the United States on June 28, 2004 by Touchtone Pictures, subtitled the untold true story that inspired the legend. The producers of the film claim to present a historically authentic version of the so called "Arthurian legends", supposedly inspired by new archaeological findings. Although, the certainty of such a statement is debatable, many have considered this film as quite atypical to represent the King Arthur as a Roman soldier and not a medieval knight, as the traditional version of the legend. The deepest roots of the Arthurian myth lie in the Celtic legends and popular beliefs of a people who suffered the cruelest setbacks history. In a time so dark and confusing as it was the Arthurian period, evidence about Arthur are reduced to a handful of old chronicles, epics and historical fragments of dubious veracity. The decline of the Roman administration led to the loss of numerous writings (Martin, pp. 6).

Celtic beliefs and their language began to be seen as the culture of a conquered people and new customs and language Saxon soon settle in soil ...