No literary figure has stood the test of time quite like\u00a0King Arthur<\/a>. His story has inspired people across Europe for centuries.<\/p>\n The earliest reference to Arthur can be found in \u2018The Book of Aneirin<\/a>\u2019. Originally composed in the 6th century,\u00a0Aneirin<\/a>\u2019s poem \u2018Y Gododdin\u2019 discusses the battle of Catraeth between the Celtic Britons and the Saxons. However brave the Briton heroes, they were \u2018no Arthur\u2019 in Aneirin\u2019s eyes. Here, Arthur is remembered as a royal Celtic warrior, who fiercely fought the Saxons a century earlier.<\/p>\n Geoffrey of Monmouth<\/a>‘s \u2018Historia Regum Britanniae<\/a>\u2019 (\u2018History of the Kings of Britain\u2019), written around 1136, contains one of the earliest accounts of King Arthur’s life from his extraordinary birth to his wars and conquests, and his triumph over the Romans. It ends with the battle at Camlann where Arthur is mortally wounded and taken to Avalon, never to be seen again.<\/p>\n Around 1155,\u00a0Wace<\/a>\u00a0adapted the \u2018Historia Regum Britanniae\u2019 into the French \u2018Roman de Brut<\/a>\u2019. Arthur becomes the ultimate symbol of strength and glory through his triumphs. Wace was the first to mention the Round Table: to him, it represented a model of ideal society.<\/p>\n A generation later, between 1170 and 1190,\u00a0Chr\u00e9tien de Troyes<\/a>\u00a0wrote several Arthurian romances in French. He glorified Arthur\u2019s knights, including Lancelot, Percival and Ywain, incorporating them into a fictional universe full of elements from earlier traditions.<\/p>\n In the 13th century,\u00a0Robert de Boron<\/a>\u00a0refocused the legends on Merlin and his magical gifts, giving him a more central role. Merlin becomes instrumental in ensuring Arthur\u2019s birth, crowning him king and establishing the Round Table.<\/p>\n In the late-12th – early-13th centuries, the legend of King Arthur took another step east. Chr\u00e9tien de Troyes\u2019s stories were translated in Germany: –\u00a0Hartmann von Aue<\/a>\u2019s \u2018Erec\u2019 and \u2018Iwein\u2019 –\u00a0Wolfram von Eschenbach<\/a>\u2019s version of the Holy Grail story, \u2018Parzival\u2019 At the same time, it crossed the Alps. Old French manuscripts circulated in Italy and inspired authors like\u00a0Rustichello da Pisa<\/a>, who wrote a compilation of Arthurian material.<\/p>\n Several translations were also produced in the 14th century: the \u2018Estoire del Saint Graal\u2019, the \u2018Queste\u2019 and the \u2018Mort Artu\u2019. You can also read an Italian translation of \u2018Lancelot\u2019, but unfortunately the only surviving manuscript is incomplete. The most famous Italian writers\u00a0Dante<\/a>,\u00a0Petrarca<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Boccaccio<\/a>\u00a0and painters such as\u00a0Pisanello<\/a>\u00a0knew those texts very well, as they mention and\u00a0portray<\/a>\u00a0Arthur and his knights in their works.<\/p>\n The Arthurian literary traditions promoted the code of chivalry throughout Europe, turning Arthur into an emblematic European hero. With the Round Table, King Arthur sets the standard for a government where all the knights are equals. This lays the founding principles for a European model of government: –\u00a0the noble deeds of the knights and the equality between them appealed to the medieval nobility – the emblematic king embodied the ideal of good government – the supernatural elements supported the idea that God approved of the monarchy and the chivalric code<\/p>\nKing Arthur: a Legendary Figure<\/h4>\n
Arthur\u2019s Knights, Merlin and Magic<\/h4>\n
Translations<\/h4>\n
A Model Society<\/h4>\n