Excalibur is a 1981 dramatic fantasy film directed, produced and co-written by John Boorman that retells the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. Adapted from the 15th century Arthurian romance, Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory, Excalibur features the music of Richard Wagner and Carl Orff, along with an original score by Trevor Jones. It stars Nigel Terry as Arthur, Nicol Williamson as Merlin, Nicholas Clay as Lancelot, Helen Mirren as Morgana, Liam Neeson as Gawain, Corin Redgrave as Cornwall, and (the then relatively unknown) Patrick Stewart as Leondegrance. The film is named for the legendary sword of King Arthur that features prominently in Arthurian literature.

Shot entirely on location in Ireland and employing Irish actors and crew, the film has been acknowledged for its importance to the Irish filmmaking industry and for helping launch the film careers of Neeson, as well as Gabriel Byrne, Neil Jordan and Ciarán Hinds.^[1]

Excalibur achieved moderate box office success while receiving mixed reviews. Although film critics Roger Ebert and Vincent Canby criticized the film's plot and characters,^[2][3] they, along with other reviewers,^[4] praised it visually. Excalibur opened at number one in the United States, eventually grossing $34,967,437 on a budget of around USD $11 million, to rank 18th in that year's receipts.^[5]

Plot[link]

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (March 2011)

The beginning[link]

The sorcerer Merlin (Nicol Williamson) retrieves Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake for Uther Pendragon (Gabriel Byrne). With it, Uther secures a brief alliance with Gorlois, the Duke of Cornwall (Corin Redgrave), but Uther's lust for Cornwall's wife Igrayne (Katrine Boorman) soon ruins the truce. Merlin agrees to help Uther seduce Igrayne on the condition that Uther gives Merlin whatever results from his lust. Merlin transforms Uther into Cornwall's likeness with the Charm of Making. Cornwall's daughter Morgana senses her father's death in an assault on Uther's camp. Igrayne is fooled by the disguise, and Uther impregnates her. Only the devastated Morgana knows the truth.

Nine months later, Merlin takes Uther's son Arthur. Uther pursues but is mortally wounded by Gorlois's knights. Uther thrusts Excalibur into a stone, and Merlin proclaims that "he who draws the sword from the stone, he shall be king."

The sword in the stone[link]

Years later, Sir Ector (Clive Swift) and his sons Kay (Niall O'Brien) and Arthur (Nigel Terry) attend a jousting tournament. The victor, Sir Leondegrance (Patrick Stewart), wins a chance to try pulling Excalibur from the stone, but he fails. Kay's sword is later stolen, and Arthur pulls Excalibur after failing to stop the thief. Word spreads, and Merlin announces to the crowd that Arthur is Uther's son and hence the rightful ruler.

Leondegrance immediately proclaims his support for the new king, but not all are willing to accept. While the others argue, Merlin and Arthur enter the forest, and Merlin tells the boy that he is the rightful king, and that he and the land are one. Overwhelmed, Arthur falls into a long sleep.

When he wakes, Arthur comes to aid Leondegrance, whose castle is under siege by Arthur's enemies. During the battle, Arthur asks Sir Uryens (Keith Buckley) to knight him, and hands him Excalibur to do so. Uryens is tempted to strike the boy down, but, deeply moved by Arthur's display of faith, Uryens knights the boy, then falls to his knees and declares loyalty, leading the others to follow suit.

Guenevere and Camelot[link]

Soon after, Arthur meets Leondegrance's daughter Guenevere (Cherie Lunghi) and is smitten, but Merlin forsees this leading to future problems.

Years later, the undefeated knight Lancelot (Nicholas Clay) blocks a bridge and will not move until he is defeated in single combat, seeking a king worthy of his sword. Lancelot defeats Arthur and his knights. Arthur summons Excalibur's magic and defeats Lancelot, but the sword breaks. Arthur, ashamed of abusing the sword's power to serve his own vanity, throws the sword's remains into the water. The Lady of the Lake offers the restored blade to the king. Arthur vows never to abuse the sword's power again, and Lancelot is revived.

Arthur and his knights unify the land. Arthur creates the Round Table, builds Camelot, and marries Guenevere. Lancelot confesses that he, too, has fallen in love with her. Arthur's half-sister, Morgana (Helen Mirren), a budding sorceress, and still bitter towards Arthur, becomes apprenticed to Merlin in hopes of learning the Charm of Making from him.

Lancelot and Guenevere[link]

Lancelot stays away from the Round Table to avoid Guenevere. On an excursion, he meets Perceval (Paul Geoffrey), a peasant boy, and takes him to Camelot to become a squire.

Sir Gawain (Liam Neeson), under Morgana's influence, openly accuses Lancelot and Guenevere of adultery. Lancelot must duel Gawain to defend his and Guenevere's honor. The night before, Lancelot duels himself in a nightmare and awakens to find himself wounded by his own sword. Arthur hastily knights Perceval when Lancelot is late to the duel, but Lancelot appears just in time. He defeats Gawain but nearly dies from his wounds.

Merlin heals him, and he rides out to the forest to rest. Guenevere realizes her feelings for Lancelot and they consummate their love in the forest. Meanwhile, Merlin lures Morgana to his lair to trap her, suspecting her plots against Arthur. Arthur finds Guenevere and Lancelot asleep together. Heartbroken at their betrayal, he thrusts Excalibur into the ground between the sleeping couple. Merlin's magical link to the land impales him on the sword, and Morgana seizes the opportunity to trap him in a crystal with the Charm of Making. Morgana takes the form of Guenevere and seduces Arthur. On awakening to the sight of Excalibur, Lancelot flees in shame and Guenevere lies weeping.

Quest for the Grail[link]

Morgana bears a son, Mordred (Charley Boorman/Robert Addie). Because of the boy's "unholy" origin in incest, a curse descends upon Arthur and the land is striken with famine and sickness. A broken Arthur sends his knights on a quest for the Holy Grail in hopes of restoring the land. Many of his knights die or are bewitched by Morgana.

Morgana captures Perceval who narrowly escapes. Perceval encounters a bearded man with armor under his tattered robes who preaches to followers that the kingdom has fallen because of "the sin of Pride". A shocked Perceval recognizes the man as Lancelot. After Perceval fails to convince Lancelot to come to Arthur's aid, Lancelot and his followers throw Perceval into a river. Perceval has a vision of the Grail during which he realizes that Arthur and the land are one. Answering the riddle, he attains the Grail and takes it to Arthur who drinks from it and is revitalized, as is the land, which springs into blossom.

The final battle[link]

Arthur finds Guenevere at a convent, where they reconcile. She gives him Excalibur, which she has kept safe since the day she fled.

Frustrated in preparation for battle against Morgana's allies, Arthur calls to Merlin, unknowingly awakening the wizard from his enchanted slumber. Merlin and Arthur have one final conversation before Merlin vanishes. The wizard then appears to Morgana as a shadow and tricks her into uttering the Charm of Making, producing a fog from the breath of the Dragon, and exhausting her own magical powers which had kept her young. She rapidly ages, and her own son, not recognising his own mother, kills her.

Arthur and Mordred's forces meet in battle, with Arthur's side benefiting from the fog which conceals the smallness of their army. Lancelot unexpectedly arrives and turns the tide of battle. He later collapses from the old, self-inflicted wound, which never healed. Arthur and Lancelot reconcile, and Lancelot dies with Arthur's honors.

Mordred stabs Arthur with a spear, but Arthur further impales himself to get within reach of the boy. Arthur kills Mordred with Excalibur.

After first ignoring Arthur's dying wish that he throw Excalibur into a pool of calm water, Perceval then finally throws it into the pool, where the Lady of the Lake catches it. Perceval returns to see Arthur lying on a ship, attended by three formally posed ladies clad in white, sailing into the sun toward the Isle of Avalon.

Cast[link]

• Nigel Terry as King Arthur
• Helen Mirren as Morgana Le Fay
• Nicol Williamson as Merlin
• Paul Geoffrey as Perceval
• Nicholas Clay as Lancelot
• Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere
• Corin Redgrave as Cornwall
• Patrick Stewart as King Leondegrance
• Keith Buckley as Uryens
• Clive Swift as Sir Ector
• Liam Neeson as Gawain
• Gabriel Byrne as Uther Pendragon
• Robert Addie as Mordred (adult)

Even though he was 35 years old, Nigel Terry plays King Arthur from his teenage years to his ending as an aged monarch.

Several members of the Boorman family also appeared in the picture: his daughter Katrine Boorman played Igrayne, Arthur's mother and his son Charley Boorman portrayed Mordred as a boy. Because of the number of Boormans involved with the film, it is sometimes called "The Boorman Family Project."^[6]

PG and R-rated versions[link]

The movie was originally put into theatrical release in 1981 as an R-rated film in the USA. Later there was an announcement of a PG-rated version, but it was not widely released. The original R-rated cut is 140 minutes. Most home video versions are the R-rated version, but TV and movie channels show the PG cut, making the movie 119 minutes. The R-rated version features about 21 more minutes of graphic sex and violence.^{[citation needed]}

Production[link]

Origin[link]

John Boorman had planned a film adaptation of the Merlin legend as early as 1969, but the studio he offered it to (United Artists) rejected his concept, offering him J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings instead. When Boorman, having written a three-hour-one-film-script with Rospo Pallenberg, submitted the film script to United Artists, they rejected it, deeming it too costly. Boorman was allowed to shop the script elsewhere, but no studio would commit to it. Returning to the original idea of the Merlin legend, Boorman was eventually able to secure deals that would help him do Excalibur instead. Much of the imagery and set designs seen in the film were originally created with Lord Of The Rings in mind.^[7]

According to Boorman, the film was originally three hours long; among scenes that were deleted from the finished film but featured in one of the promotional trailers was a sequence where Lancelot rescued Guenevere from a forest bandit.

Casting[link]

John Boorman cast Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren opposite each other as Merlin and Morgana, knowing that the two were at the time on less than friendly terms, due to personal issues that arose during a production of Macbeth seven years earlier. Boorman felt that the tension on set would come through in the actors' performances. This is stated by John Boorman himself in the audio commentary track of the Excalibur DVD.

Filming[link]

Excalibur locations trail in County Wicklow, 28 years after filming.

Excalibur was filmed in Irish locations in County Wicklow, County Tipperary, and County Kerry. The early critical battle scene around a castle, in which Arthur is made a knight by Uryens, while kneeling in a moat, was filmed in Cahir Castle, in Cahir County Tipperary, Ireland. It is a genuine Norman castle, one of the best preserved anywhere and the moat is the River Suir which flows around the castle. The fight with Lancelot was filmed at Powerscourt Estate's waterfall.

According to director John Boorman, the love scene between Lancelot and Guinevere in the forest was filmed on a very cold night, but Nicholas Clay and Cherie Lunghi did the scene in the nude anyway.

Costumes[link]

The costumes were designed by Bob Ringwood, for which he received a BAFTA nomination. The armour was designed by Terry English, who also crafted the armour for the film Aliens.

Adaptation[link]

The screenplay was written by Rospo Pallenberg and John Boorman. It is primarily an adaptation of Malory's Morte d'Arthur (1469–70). In order to recast the Arthurian legends as an allegory of the cycle of birth, life, decay, and restoration, the text was stripped of decorative or insignificant details. The resulting film is reminiscent of mythographic works such as Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough and Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance; Arthur is presented as the "Wounded King" whose realm becomes a wasteland to be reborn thanks to the Grail, and may be compared to the Fisher (or Sinner) King, whose land also became a wasteland, and was also healed by Perceval. "The film has to do with mythical truth, not historical truth," Boorman remarked to a journalist during filming. The Christian symbolism revolves around the Grail, perhaps most strongly in the baptismal imagery of Perceval finally achieving the Grail quest. "That's what my story is about: the coming of Christian man and the disappearance of the old religions which are represented by Merlin. The forces of superstition and magic are swallowed up into the unconscious."^[8][9]

In keeping with this approach, the film is intentionally ahistorical.^[8] For example, the opening titles state the setting to be the Dark Ages, even though the knights wear full plate armor, a technology of the 15th century. Knights, knighthood and the code of chivalry also did not exist during the period. Furthermore, Britain is never mentioned by name, only as "the land".

In addition to Malory, the writers incorporated elements from other Arthurian stories, sometimes altering them. For example, the sword between the sleeping lovers' bodies comes from the tales of Tristan and Iseult; the knight who returns Excalibur to the water is changed from Bedivere to Perceval; and Morgause and Morgan Le Fay are merged into one character.

The sword Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are presented as the same thing; in some versions of the legends they are separate. In Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Galahad, the illegitimate son of Lancelot and Elaine of Carbonek, is actually the Knight who is worthy of the Holy Grail. Boorman follows the earlier version of the tale as told by Chrétien de Troyes, making Perceval the grail winner.

Some new elements were added, such as Uther wielding Excalibur before Arthur (repeated in Merlin), Merlin's 'Charm of Making' (written in Old Irish), and the concept of the world as "the dragon".

The Charm of Making[link]

According to linguist Michael Everson, the "Charm of Making" that Merlin speaks to invoke the dragon is evidently an invention, there being no known classical source. It is apparently based upon Old Irish.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Transcribed phonetically as spoken in the film, the charm is pronounced [aˈnaːl naθˈrax, uːrθ vaːs beˈθud, doxˈjeːl ˈdjenveː]. The most likely interpretation of the spoken words, supposedly composed in Old Irish, though the pronunciation in the film has little relation to how the text would actually be pronounced in Irish, is:

Anál nathrach,

orth’ bháis’s bethad,

do chél dénmha

In modern English, this would be translated as:

Serpent's breath,

charm of death and life,

thy omen of making.

Soundtrack[link]

The soundtrack consists of original music composed by Trevor Jones, with the inclusion of classical pieces from Orff's Carmina Burana, as well as from Wagner's Ring and Tristan und Isolde operas.^[14]

• Part of Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung was used as the main theme.
• Orff's "O Fortuna" is heard during two scenes when Arthur and his knights ride out to do battle.
• The theme between Lancelot and Guinevere is the prelude to Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde", a piece about the romance of Sir Tristram and Iseult, another pair of lovers from the Arthurian tales.
• The theme of Perceval and the Grail is the prelude to Wagner's "Parsifal".

Reception[link]

Excalibur was the number one film during its opening weekend of April 10–12, 1981, eventually earning $34,967,437 gross in the United States.^[5]

Reviews for Excalibur were mixed. Widely hailed for its visuals, setting and overall design, other elements such as the story and performances some critics found wanting. Ebert, for instance, called it both a "wondrous vision" and " a mess".^[2] Elaborating further, Ebert said the film was "a record of the comings and goings of arbitrary, inconsistent, shadowy, figures who are not heroes but simply giants run amok. Still, it's wonderful to look at." Canby was more critical, saying that while Boorman took Arthurian myths seriously, "he has used them with a pretentiousness that obscures his vision."^[15] In her review in The New Yorker, Pauline Kael said the film had its own "crazy integrity", adding that the imagery was "impassioned" with a "hypnotic quality". According to her, the dialogue, however, was "near-atrocious". She concluded by saying that "Excalibur is all images flashing by... We miss the dramatic intensity that we expect the stories to have, but there's always something to look at."^[16]

Others have praised the entire film, with Variety calling it "a near-perfect blend of action, romance, fantasy and philosophy".^[4] Sean Axmaker of Parallax View said, "John Boorman's magnificent and magical Excalibur is, to my mind, the greatest and the richest of screen incarnation of the oft-told tale."^[17] In a later review upon the Excalibur's release on DVD, Salon's David Lazarus noted the film's contribution to the fantasy genre, stating that it was "a lush retelling of the King Arthur legend that sets a high-water mark among sword-and-sorcery movies."^[18] A recent study by Jean-Marc Elsholz demonstrates how closely the film Excalibur was inspired by the Arthurian romance tradition and its intersections with medieval theories of light, most particularly in the aesthetic/visual narrative of Boorman's film rather than in its plot alone.^[19]

Excalibur currently has an 79% "fresh" rating on the Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer.^[20]

Many young actors who have risen to stardom today, such as Helen Mirren, Patrick Stewart and Liam Neeson featured in this film in notable screen roles, playing Morgana, Leondegrance and Gawain respectively. For his performance as Merlin, Nicol Williamson received widespread acclaim. The Times in 1981 wrote: "The actors are led by Williamson's witty and perceptive Merlin, missed every time he's offscreen".

Awards[link]

Alex Thomson, the film's cinematographer, was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 1982 Academy Awards, but lost to Vittorio Storaro for Reds.

Boorman won the prize for Best Artistic Contribution, and was nominated for a Palme d'Or, at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival.^[21]

Remake[link]

A remake was announced by Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment in late 2009 with Bryan Singer attached to direct, but this has been shelved indefinitely as of October, 2011.^[22]

See also[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Excalibur (film)

• List of American films of 1981
• Excalibur, King Arthur's sword, the central symbol of kingship for Malory and the film
• List of films based on Arthurian legend

References[link]

External links[link]

• Excalibur at the Internet Movie Database
• Excalibur at AllRovi
• Excalibur at Rotten Tomatoes

Statue of King Arthur, Hofkirche, Innsbruck, designed by Albrecht Dürer and cast by Peter Vischer the Elder, 1520s^[1]

King Arthur of Britain, by Howard Pyle from The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. (1903)

King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians.^[2] The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthur's name also occurs in early poetic sources such as Y Gododdin.^[3]

The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful and imaginative 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain).^[4] Some Welsh and Breton tales and poems relating the story of Arthur date from earlier than this work; in these works, Arthur appears either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatural enemies or as a magical figure of folklore, sometimes associated with the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn.^[5] How much of Geoffrey's Historia (completed in 1138) was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown.

Although the themes, events and characters of the Arthurian legend varied widely from text to text, and there is no one canonical version, Geoffrey's version of events often served as the starting point for later stories. Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul. Many elements and incidents that are now an integral part of the Arthurian story appear in Geoffrey's Historia, including Arthur's father Uther Pendragon, the wizard Merlin, Arthur's wife Guinevere, the sword Excalibur, Arthur's conception at Tintagel, his final battle against Mordred at Camlann and final rest in Avalon. The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot and the Holy Grail to the story, began the genre of Arthurian romance that became a significant strand of medieval literature. In these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table. Arthurian literature thrived during the Middle Ages but waned in the centuries that followed until it experienced a major resurgence in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the legend lives on, not only in literature but also in adaptations for theatre, film, television, comics and other media. However, the Arthur in films and television is clearly depicted as living during a much later period – the costumes used in such dramatizations resemble those of people living in the 12th century more than they do those used during the 5th or 6th.

Debated historicity[link]

Arthur as one of the Nine Worthies, tapestry, c. 1385

The first datable mention of King Arthur is in a 9th century Latin text. The Historia Brittonum, a 9th-century Latin historical compilation attributed in some late manuscripts to a Welsh cleric called Nennius, lists twelve battles that Arthur fought. These culminate in the Battle of Mons Badonicus, or Mount Badon, where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men. Recent studies, however, question the reliability of the Historia Brittonum.^[6] The historical basis for the King Arthur legend has long been debated by scholars. One school of thought, citing entries in the Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) and Annales Cambriae (Welsh Annals), sees Arthur as a genuine historical figure, a Romano-British leader who fought against the invading Anglo-Saxons sometime in the late 5th to early 6th century.

The other text that seems to support the case for Arthur's historical existence is the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, which also link Arthur with the Battle of Mount Badon. The Annales date this battle to 516–518, and also mention the Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut (Mordred) were both killed, dated to 537–539. These details have often been used to bolster confidence in the Historia's account and to confirm that Arthur really did fight at Mount Badon. Problems have been identified, however, with using this source to support the Historia Brittonum's account. The latest research shows that the Annales Cambriae was based on a chronicle begun in the late 8th century in Wales. Additionally, the complex textual history of the Annales Cambriae precludes any certainty that the Arthurian annals were added to it even that early. They were more likely added at some point in the 10th century and may never have existed in any earlier set of annals. The Mount Badon entry probably derived from the Historia Brittonum.^[7]

This lack of convincing early evidence is the reason many recent historians exclude Arthur from their accounts of sub-Roman Britain. In the view of historian Thomas Charles-Edwards, "at this stage of the enquiry, one can only say that there may well have been an historical Arthur [but ...] the historian can as yet say nothing of value about him".^[8] These modern admissions of ignorance are a relatively recent trend; earlier generations of historians were less sceptical. Historian John Morris made the putative reign of Arthur the organising principle of his history of sub-Roman Britain and Ireland, The Age of Arthur (1973). Even so, he found little to say about a historical Arthur.^[9]

The 10th-century Annales Cambriae, as copied into a manuscript of c. 1100

Partly in reaction to such theories, another school of thought emerged which argued that Arthur had no historical existence at all. Morris's Age of Arthur prompted archaeologist Nowell Myres to observe that "no figure on the borderline of history and mythology has wasted more of the historian's time".^[10] Gildas' 6th-century polemic De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain), written within living memory of Mount Badon, mentions the battle but does not mention Arthur.^[11] Arthur is not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle or named in any surviving manuscript written between 400 and 820.^[12] He is absent from Bede's early 8th-century Ecclesiastical History of the English People, another major early source for post-Roman history that mentions Mount Badon.^[13] Historian David Dumville has written: "I think we can dispose of him [Arthur] quite briefly. He owes his place in our history books to a 'no smoke without fire' school of thought ... The fact of the matter is that there is no historical evidence about Arthur; we must reject him from our histories and, above all, from the titles of our books."^[14]

Some scholars argue that Arthur was originally a fictional hero of folklore—or even a half-forgotten Celtic deity—who became credited with real deeds in the distant past. They cite parallels with figures such as the Kentish totemic horse-gods Hengest and Horsa, who later became historicised. Bede ascribed to these legendary figures a historical role in the 5th-century Anglo-Saxon conquest of eastern Britain.^[15] It is not even certain that Arthur was considered a king in the early texts. Neither the Historia nor the Annales calls him "rex": the former calls him instead "dux bellorum" (leader of battles) and "miles" (soldier).^[16]

Historical documents for the post-Roman period are scarce, so a definitive answer to the question of Arthur's historical existence is unlikely. Sites and places have been identified as "Arthurian" since the 12th century,^[17] but archaeology can confidently reveal names only through inscriptions found in secure contexts. The so-called "Arthur stone", discovered in 1998 among the ruins at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall in securely dated 6th-century contexts, created a brief stir but proved irrelevant.^[18] Other inscriptional evidence for Arthur, including the Glastonbury cross, is tainted with the suggestion of forgery.^[19] Although several historical figures have been proposed as the basis for Arthur,^[20] no convincing evidence for these identifications has emerged.

Name[link]

The origin of the name Arthur remains a matter of debate. Some suggest it is derived from the Roman nomen gentile (family name) Artōrius, of obscure and contested etymology^[21] (but possibly of Messapic^[22][23][24] or Etruscan origin^[25][26][27]). Some scholars have suggested it is relevant to this debate that the legendary King Arthur's name only appears as Arthur, or Arturus, in early Latin Arthurian texts, never as Artōrius (though it should be noted that Classical Latin Artōrius became Arturius in some Vulgar Latin dialects). However, this may not say anything about the origin of the name Arthur, as Artōrius would regularly become Art(h)ur when borrowed into Welsh.^[28]

Another possibility is that it is derived from a Brittonic patronym *Arto-rīg-ios (the root of which, *arto-rīg- "bear-king" is to be found in the Old Irish personal name Art-ri) via a Latinized form Artōrius.^[29] Less likely is the commonly proposed derivation from Welsh arth "bear" + (g)wr "man" (earlier *Arto-uiros in Brittonic); there are phonological difficulties with this theory—notably that a Brittonic compound name *Arto-uiros should produce Old Welsh *Artgur and Middle/Modern Welsh *Arthwr and not Arthur (in Welsh poetry the name is always spelled Arthur and is exclusively rhymed with words ending in -ur - never words ending in -wr - which confirms that the second element cannot be [g]wr "man").^[30][31]

An alternative theory, which has gained only limited acceptance among professional scholars,^[32] derives the name Arthur from Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Boötes, near Ursa Major or the Great Bear. Classical Latin Arcturus would also have become Art(h)ur when borrowed into Welsh, and its brightness and position in the sky led people to regard it as the "guardian of the bear" (which is the meaning of the name in Ancient Greek) and the "leader" of the other stars in Boötes.^[33]

A similar first name is Old Irish Artúr, which is believed to be derived directly from an early Old Welsh or Cumbric Artur.^[34] The earliest historically attested bearer of the name is a son or grandson of Áedán mac Gabráin (d. AD 609).^[35]

Medieval literary traditions[link]

The creator of the familiar literary persona of Arthur was Geoffrey of Monmouth, with his pseudo-historical Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), written in the 1130s. The textual sources for Arthur are usually divided into those written before Geoffrey's Historia (known as pre-Galfridian texts, from the Latin form of Geoffrey, Galfridus) and those written afterwards, which could not avoid his influence (Galfridian, or post-Galfridian, texts).

Pre-Galfridian traditions[link]

A facsimile page of Y Gododdin, one of the most famous early Welsh texts featuring Arthur, c. 1275

The earliest literary references to Arthur come from Welsh and Breton sources. There have been few attempts to define the nature and character of Arthur in the pre-Galfridian tradition as a whole, rather than in a single text or text/story-type. One recent academic survey that does attempt this, by Thomas Green, identifies three key strands to the portrayal of Arthur in this earliest material.^[36] The first is that he was a peerless warrior who functioned as the monster-hunting protector of Britain from all internal and external threats. Some of these are human threats, such as the Saxons he fights in the Historia Brittonum, but the majority are supernatural, including giant cat-monsters, destructive divine boars, dragons, dogheads, giants and witches.^[37] The second is that the pre-Galfridian Arthur was a figure of folklore (particularly topographic or onomastic folklore) and localised magical wonder-tales, the leader of a band of superhuman heroes who live in the wilds of the landscape.^[38] The third and final strand is that the early Welsh Arthur had a close connection with the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn. On the one hand, he launches assaults on Otherworldly fortresses in search of treasure and frees their prisoners. On the other, his warband in the earliest sources includes former pagan gods, and his wife and his possessions are clearly Otherworldly in origin.^[39]

One of the most famous Welsh poetic references to Arthur comes in the collection of heroic death-songs known as Y Gododdin (The Gododdin), attributed to the 6th-century poet Aneirin. In one stanza, the bravery of a warrior who slew 300 enemies is praised, but it is then noted that despite this "he was no Arthur", that is to say his feats cannot compare to the valour of Arthur.^[40] Y Gododdin is known only from a 13th-century manuscript, so it is impossible to determine whether this passage is original or a later interpolation, but John Koch's view that the passage dates from a 7th-century or earlier version is regarded as unproven; 9th- or 10th-century dates are often proposed for it.^[41] Several poems attributed to Taliesin, a poet said to have lived in the 6th century, also refer to Arthur, although these all probably date from between the 8th and 12th centuries.^[42] They include "Kadeir Teyrnon" ("The Chair of the Prince"),^[43] which refers to "Arthur the Blessed", "Preiddeu Annwn" ("The Spoils of Annwn"),^[44] which recounts an expedition of Arthur to the Otherworld, and "Marwnat vthyr pen[dragon]" ("The Elegy of Uther Pen[dragon]"),^[45] which refers to Arthur's valour and is suggestive of a father-son relationship for Arthur and Uther that pre-dates Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Other early Welsh Arthurian texts include a poem found in the Black Book of Carmarthen, "Pa gur yv y porthaur?" ("What man is the gatekeeper?").^[46] This takes the form of a dialogue between Arthur and the gatekeeper of a fortress he wishes to enter, in which Arthur recounts the names and deeds of himself and his men, notably Cei (Kay) and Bedwyr (Bedivere). The Welsh prose tale Culhwch and Olwen (c. 1100), included in the modern Mabinogion collection, has a much longer list of more than 200 of Arthur's men, though Cei and Bedwyr again take a central place. The story as a whole tells of Arthur helping his kinsman Culhwch win the hand of Olwen, daughter of Ysbaddaden Chief-Giant, by completing a series of apparently impossible tasks, including the hunt for the great semi-divine boar Twrch Trwyth. The 9th-century Historia Brittonum also refers to this tale, with the boar there named Troy(n)t.^[47] Finally, Arthur is mentioned numerous times in the Welsh Triads, a collection of short summaries of Welsh tradition and legend which are classified into groups of three linked characters or episodes in order to assist recall. The later manuscripts of the Triads are partly derivative from Geoffrey of Monmouth and later continental traditions, but the earliest ones show no such influence and are usually agreed to refer to pre-existing Welsh traditions. Even in these, however, Arthur's court has started to embody legendary Britain as a whole, with "Arthur's Court" sometimes substituted for "The Island of Britain" in the formula "Three XXX of the Island of Britain".^[48] While it is not clear from the Historia Brittonum and the Annales Cambriae that Arthur was even considered a king, by the time Culhwch and Olwen and the Triads were written he had become Penteyrnedd yr Ynys hon, "Chief of the Lords of this Island", the overlord of Wales, Cornwall and the North.^[49]

In addition to these pre-Galfridian Welsh poems and tales, Arthur appears in some other early Latin texts besides the Historia Brittonum and the Annales Cambriae. In particular, Arthur features in a number of well-known vitae ("Lives") of post-Roman saints, none of which are now generally considered to be reliable historical sources (the earliest probably dates from the 11th century).^[50] According to the Life of Saint Gildas, written in the early 12th century by Caradoc of Llancarfan, Arthur is said to have killed Gildas' brother Hueil and to have rescued his wife Gwenhwyfar from Glastonbury.^[51] In the Life of Saint Cadoc, written around 1100 or a little before by Lifris of Llancarfan, the saint gives protection to a man who killed three of Arthur's soldiers, and Arthur demands a herd of cattle as wergeld for his men. Cadoc delivers them as demanded, but when Arthur takes possession of the animals, they turn into bundles of ferns.^[52] Similar incidents are described in the medieval biographies of Carannog, Padarn and Eufflam, probably written around the 12th century. A less obviously legendary account of Arthur appears in the Legenda Sancti Goeznovii, which is often claimed to date from the early 11th century although the earliest manuscript of this text dates from the 15th century.^[53] Also important are the references to Arthur in William of Malmesbury's De Gestis Regum Anglorum and Herman's De Miraculis Sanctae Mariae Laudensis, which together provide the first certain evidence for a belief that Arthur was not actually dead and would at some point return, a theme that is often revisited in post-Galfridian folklore.^[54]

Geoffrey of Monmouth[link]

Mordred, Arthur's final foe according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, illustrated by H. J. Ford for Andrew Lang's King Arthur: The Tales of the Round Table, 1902

The first narrative account of Arthur's life is found in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin work Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain).^[55] This work, completed c. 1138, is an imaginative and fanciful account of British kings from the legendary Trojan exile Brutus to the 7th-century Welsh king Cadwallader. Geoffrey places Arthur in the same post-Roman period as do Historia Brittonum and Annales Cambriae. He incorporates Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon, his magician advisor Merlin, and the story of Arthur's conception, in which Uther, disguised as his enemy Gorlois by Merlin's magic, sleeps with Gorlois's wife Igerna at Tintagel, and she conceives Arthur. On Uther's death, the fifteen-year-old Arthur succeeds him as King of Britain and fights a series of battles, similar to those in the Historia Brittonum, culminating in the Battle of Bath. He then defeats the Picts and Scots before creating an Arthurian empire through his conquests of Ireland, Iceland and the Orkney Islands. After twelve years of peace, Arthur sets out to expand his empire once more, taking control of Norway, Denmark and Gaul. Gaul is still held by the Roman Empire when it is conquered, and Arthur's victory naturally leads to a further confrontation between his empire and Rome's. Arthur and his warriors, including Kaius (Kay), Beduerus (Bedivere) and Gualguanus (Gawain), defeat the Roman emperor Lucius Tiberius in Gaul but, as he prepares to march on Rome, Arthur hears that his nephew Modredus (Mordred)—whom he had left in charge of Britain—has married his wife Guenhuuara (Guinevere) and seized the throne. Arthur returns to Britain and defeats and kills Modredus on the river Camblam in Cornwall, but he is mortally wounded. He hands the crown to his kinsman Constantine and is taken to the isle of Avalon to be healed of his wounds, never to be seen again.^[56]

Merlin the wizard, c. 1300^[57]

How much of this narrative was Geoffrey's own invention is open to debate. Certainly, Geoffrey seems to have made use of the list of Arthur's twelve battles against the Saxons found in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, along with the battle of Camlann from the Annales Cambriae and the idea that Arthur was still alive.^[58] Arthur's personal status as the king of all Britain would also seem to be borrowed from pre-Galfridian tradition, being found in Culhwch and Olwen, the Triads and the Saints' Lives.^[59] In addition, many of the elements that Monmouth's King Arthur includes are strong parallels to "Culhwch and Olwen." The motifs and themes of loyalty, honor, giants, gift giving, wife-stealing, and magical creatures are prominent in both stories. Furthermore, Monmouth derived many of his character's names from "Culhwch and Olwen"; Sir Kay comes from "Kai"; Sir Bedivere is derived from "Bedwyr"; and lastly Sir Gawain is "Gwalchmei" in Welsh. Also, the heroines of both tales have similar names: the meaning of Guinever is "White Phantom", while Olwen equates with "of the white track."^[60] Finally, Geoffrey borrowed many of the names for Arthur's possessions, close family and companions from the pre-Galfridian Welsh tradition, including Kaius (Cei), Beduerus (Bedwyr), Guenhuuara (Gwenhwyfar), Uther (Uthyr) and perhaps also Caliburnus (Caledfwlch), the latter becoming Excalibur in subsequent Arthurian tales.^[61] However, while names, key events and titles may have been borrowed, Brynley Roberts has argued that "the Arthurian section is Geoffrey’s literary creation and it owes nothing to prior narrative."^[62] So, for instance, the Welsh Medraut is made the villainous Modredus by Geoffrey, but there is no trace of such a negative character for this figure in Welsh sources until the 16th century.^[63] There have been relatively few modern attempts to challenge this notion that the Historia Regum Britanniae is primarily Geoffrey's own work, with scholarly opinion often echoing William of Newburgh's late-12th-century comment that Geoffrey "made up" his narrative, perhaps through an "inordinate love of lying".^[64] Geoffrey Ashe is one dissenter from this view, believing that Geoffrey's narrative is partially derived from a lost source telling of the deeds of a 5th-century British king named Riotamus, this figure being the original Arthur, although historians and Celticists have been reluctant to follow Ashe in his conclusions.^[65]

Whatever his sources may have been, the immense popularity of Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae cannot be denied. Well over 200 manuscript copies of Geoffrey’s Latin work are known to have survived, and this does not include translations into other languages.^[66] Thus, for example, around 60 manuscripts are extant containing Welsh-language versions of the Historia, the earliest of which were created in the 13th century; the old notion that some of these Welsh versions actually underlie Geoffrey's Historia, advanced by antiquarians such as the 18th-century Lewis Morris, has long since been discounted in academic circles.^[67] As a result of this popularity, Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae was enormously influential on the later medieval development of the Arthurian legend. While it was by no means the only creative force behind Arthurian romance, many of its elements were borrowed and developed (e.g., Merlin and the final fate of Arthur), and it provided the historical framework into which the romancers' tales of magical and wonderful adventures were inserted.^[68]

Romance traditions[link]

During the 12th century, Arthur's character began to be marginalised by the accretion of "Arthurian" side-stories such as that of Tristan and Iseult. John William Waterhouse, 1916

The popularity of Geoffrey's Historia and its other derivative works (such as Wace's Roman de Brut) is generally agreed to be an important factor in explaining the appearance of significant numbers of new Arthurian works in continental Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries, particularly in France.^[69] It was not, however, the only Arthurian influence on the developing "Matter of Britain". There is clear evidence for a knowledge of Arthur and Arthurian tales on the Continent before Geoffrey's work became widely known (see for example, the Modena Archivolt),^[70] as well as for the use of "Celtic" names and stories not found in Geoffrey's Historia in the Arthurian romances.^[71] From the perspective of Arthur, perhaps the most significant effect of this great outpouring of new Arthurian story was on the role of the king himself: much of this 12th-century and later Arthurian literature centres less on Arthur himself than on characters such as Lancelot and Guenevere, Perceval, Galahad, Gawain, and Tristan and Isolde. Whereas Arthur is very much at the centre of the pre-Galfridian material and Geoffrey's Historia itself, in the romances he is rapidly sidelined.^[72] His character also alters significantly. In both the earliest materials and Geoffrey he is a great and ferocious warrior, who laughs as he personally slaughters witches and giants and takes a leading role in all military campaigns,^[73] whereas in the continental romances he becomes the roi fainéant, the "do-nothing king", whose "inactivity and acquiescence constituted a central flaw in his otherwise ideal society".^[74] Arthur's role in these works is frequently that of a wise, dignified, even-tempered, somewhat bland, and occasionally feeble monarch. So, he simply turns pale and silent when he learns of Lancelot's affair with Guinevere in the Mort Artu, whilst in Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain, the Knight of the Lion he is unable to stay awake after a feast and has to retire for a nap.^[75] Nonetheless, as Norris J. Lacy has observed, whatever his faults and frailties may be in these Arthurian romances, "his prestige is never—or almost never—compromised by his personal weaknesses ... his authority and glory remain intact."^[76]

Arthur and his retinue appear in some of the Lais of Marie de France,^[77] but it was the work of another French poet, Chrétien de Troyes, that had the greatest influence with regard to the above development of the character of Arthur and his legend.^[78] Chrétien wrote five Arthurian romances between c. 1170 and c. 1190. Erec and Enide and Cligès are tales of courtly love with Arthur's court as their backdrop, demonstrating the shift away from the heroic world of the Welsh and Galfridian Arthur, while Yvain, the Knight of the Lion features Yvain and Gawain in a supernatural adventure, with Arthur very much on the sidelines and weakened. However, the most significant for the development of the Arthurian legend are Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, which introduces Lancelot and his adulterous relationship with Arthur's queen (Guinevere), extending and popularizing the recurring theme of Arthur as a cuckold, and Perceval, the Story of the Grail, which introduces the Holy Grail and the Fisher King and which again sees Arthur having a much reduced role.^[79] Chrétien was thus "instrumental both in the elaboration of the Arthurian legend and in the establishment of the ideal form for the diffusion of that legend",^[80] and much of what came after him in terms of the portrayal of Arthur and his world built upon the foundations he had laid. Perceval, although unfinished, was particularly popular: four separate continuations of the poem appeared over the next half century, with the notion of the Grail and its quest being developed by other writers such as Robert de Boron, a fact that helped accelerate the decline of Arthur in continental romance.^[81] Similarly, Lancelot and his cuckolding of Arthur with Guinevere became one of the classic motifs of the Arthurian legend, although the Lancelot of the prose Lancelot (c. 1225) and later texts was a combination of Chrétien's character and that of Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Lanzelet.^[82] Chrétien's work even appears to feed back into Welsh Arthurian literature, with the result that the romance Arthur began to replace the heroic, active Arthur in Welsh literary tradition.^[83] Particularly significant in this development were the three Welsh Arthurian romances, which are closely similar to those of Chrétien, albeit with some significant differences: Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain is related to Chrétien's Yvain; Geraint and Enid, to Erec and Enide; and Peredur son of Efrawg, to Perceval.^[84]

The Round Table experience a vision of the Holy Grail. From a 15th century French manuscript.

Up to c. 1210, continental Arthurian romance was expressed primarily through poetry; after this date the tales began to be told in prose. The most significant of these 13th-century prose romances was the Vulgate Cycle (also known as the Lancelot-Grail Cycle), a series of five Middle French prose works written in the first half of that century.^[85] These works were the Estoire del Saint Grail, the Estoire de Merlin, the Lancelot propre (or Prose Lancelot, which made up half the entire Vulgate Cycle on its own), the Queste del Saint Graal and the Mort Artu, which combine to form the first coherent version of the entire Arthurian legend. The cycle continued the trend towards reducing the role played by Arthur in his own legend, partly through the introduction of the character of Galahad and an expansion of the role of Merlin. It also made Mordred the result of an incestuous relationship between Arthur and his sister and established the role of Camelot, first mentioned in passing in Chrétien's Lancelot, as Arthur's primary court.^[86] This series of texts was quickly followed by the Post-Vulgate Cycle (c. 1230–40), of which the Suite du Merlin is a part, which greatly reduced the importance of Lancelot's affair with Guinevere but continued to sideline Arthur, now in order to focus more on the Grail quest.^[85] As such, Arthur became even more of a relatively minor character in these French prose romances; in the Vulgate itself he only figures significantly in the Estoire de Merlin and the Mort Artu.

The development of the medieval Arthurian cycle and the character of the "Arthur of romance" culminated in Le Morte d'Arthur, Thomas Malory's retelling of the entire legend in a single work in English in the late 15th century. Malory based his book—originally titled The Whole Book of King Arthur and of His Noble Knights of the Round Table—on the various previous romance versions, in particular the Vulgate Cycle, and appears to have aimed at creating a comprehensive and authoritative collection of Arthurian stories.^[87] Perhaps as a result of this, and the fact that Le Morte D'Arthur was one of the earliest printed books in England, published by William Caxton in 1485, most later Arthurian works are derivative of Malory's.^[88]

Decline, revival, and the modern legend[link]

Post-medieval literature[link]

The end of the Middle Ages brought with it a waning of interest in King Arthur. Although Malory's English version of the great French romances was popular, there were increasing attacks upon the truthfulness of the historical framework of the Arthurian romances—established since Geoffrey of Monmouth's time—and thus the legitimacy of the whole Matter of Britain. So, for example, the 16th-century humanist scholar Polydore Vergil famously rejected the claim that Arthur was the ruler of a post-Roman empire, found throughout the post-Galfridian medieval "chronicle tradition", to the horror of Welsh and English antiquarians.^[89] Social changes associated with the end of the medieval period and the Renaissance also conspired to rob the character of Arthur and his associated legend of some of their power to enthral audiences, with the result that 1634 saw the last printing of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur for nearly 200 years.^[90] King Arthur and the Arthurian legend were not entirely abandoned, but until the early 19th century the material was taken less seriously and was often used simply as vehicle for allegories of 17th- and 18th-century politics.^[91] Thus Richard Blackmore's epics Prince Arthur (1695) and King Arthur (1697) feature Arthur as an allegory for the struggles of William III against James II.^[92] Similarly, the most popular Arthurian tale throughout this period seems to have been that of Tom Thumb, which was told first through chapbooks and later through the political plays of Henry Fielding; although the action is clearly set in Arthurian Britain, the treatment is humorous and Arthur appears as a primarily comedic version of his romance character.^[93]

John Dryden's masque King Arthur is still performed, largely thanks to Henry Purcell's music, though seldom unabridged.

Tennyson and the revival[link]

Gustave Doré's illustration of Arthur and Merlin for Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, 1868

In the early 19th century, medievalism, Romanticism, and the Gothic Revival reawakened interest in Arthur and the medieval romances. A new code of ethics for 19th-century gentlemen was shaped around the chivalric ideals that the "Arthur of romance" embodied. This renewed interest first made itself felt in 1816, when Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur was reprinted for the first time since 1634.^[94] Initially the medieval Arthurian legends were of particular interest to poets, inspiring, for example, William Wordsworth to write "The Egyptian Maid" (1835), an allegory of the Holy Grail.^[95] Pre-eminent among these was Alfred Lord Tennyson, whose first Arthurian poem, "The Lady of Shalott", was published in 1832.^[96] Although Arthur himself played a minor role in some of these works, following in the medieval romance tradition, Tennyson's Arthurian work reached its peak of popularity with Idylls of the King, which reworked the entire narrative of Arthur's life for the Victorian era. First published in 1859, it sold 10,000 copies within the first week.^[97] In the Idylls, Arthur became a symbol of ideal manhood whose attempt to establish a perfect kingdom on earth fails, finally, through human weakness.^[98] Tennyson's works prompted a large number of imitators, generated considerable public interest in the legends of Arthur and the character himself, and brought Malory’s tales to a wider audience.^[99] Indeed, the first modernization of Malory's great compilation of Arthur's tales was published shortly after Idylls appeared, in 1862, and there were six further editions and five competitors before the century ended.^[100]

This interest in the "Arthur of romance" and his associated stories continued through the 19th century and into the 20th, and influenced poets such as William Morris and Pre-Raphaelite artists including Edward Burne-Jones.^[101] Even the humorous tale of Tom Thumb, which had been the primary manifestation of Arthur's legend in the 18th century, was rewritten after the publication of Idylls. While Tom maintained his small stature and remained a figure of comic relief, his story now included more elements from the medieval Arthurian romances, and Arthur is treated more seriously and historically in these new versions.^[102] The revived Arthurian romance also proved influential in the United States, with such books as Sidney Lanier's The Boy's King Arthur (1880) reaching wide audiences and providing inspiration for Mark Twain's satiric A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889).^[103] Although the "Arthur of romance" was sometimes central to these new Arthurian works (as he was in Burne-Jones's The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon, 1881–1898), on other occasions he reverted back to his medieval status and is either marginalised or even missing entirely, with Wagner's Arthurian operas providing a notable instance of the latter.^[104] Furthermore, the revival of interest in Arthur and the Arthurian tales did not continue unabated. By the end of the 19th century, it was confined mainly to Pre-Raphaelite imitators,^[105] and it could not avoid being affected by the First World War, which damaged the reputation of chivalry and thus interest in its medieval manifestations and Arthur as chivalric role model.^[106] The romance tradition did, however, remain sufficiently powerful to persuade Thomas Hardy, Laurence Binyon and John Masefield to compose Arthurian plays,^[107] and T. S. Eliot alludes to the Arthur myth (but not Arthur) in his poem The Waste Land, which mentions the Fisher King.^[108]

Modern legend[link]

How Arthur drew forth ye sword, by Howard Pyle. The sword in the anvil or sword in the stone chapter of The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. (1903)

In the latter half of the 20th century, the influence of the romance tradition of Arthur continued, through novels such as T. H. White's The Once and Future King (1958) and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon (1982) in addition to comic strips such as Prince Valiant (from 1937 onward).^[109] Tennyson had reworked the romance tales of Arthur to suit and comment upon the issues of his day, and the same is often the case with modern treatments too. Bradley's tale, for example, takes a feminist approach to Arthur and his legend, in contrast to the narratives of Arthur found in medieval materials,^[110] and American authors often rework the story of Arthur to be more consistent with values such as equality and democracy.^[111] The romance Arthur has become popular in film and theatre as well. T. H. White's novel was adapted into the Lerner-Loewe stage musical Camelot (1960) and the Disney animated film The Sword in the Stone (1963); Camelot, with its focus on the love of Lancelot and Guinevere and the cuckolding of Arthur, was itself made into a film of the same name in 1967. The romance tradition of Arthur is particularly evident and, according to critics, successfully handled in Robert Bresson's Lancelot du Lac (1974), Eric Rohmer's Perceval le Gallois (1978) and perhaps John Boorman's fantasy film Excalibur (1981); it is also the main source of the material utilised in the Arthurian spoof Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).^[112]

The combat of Arthur and Mordred, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth for The Boy's King Arthur, 1922

Re-tellings and re-imaginings of the romance tradition are not the only important aspect of the modern legend of King Arthur. Attempts to portray Arthur as a genuine historical figure of c. 500 AD, stripping away the "romance", have also emerged. As Taylor and Brewer have noted, this return to the medieval "chronicle tradition"' of Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Historia Brittonum is a recent trend which became dominant in Arthurian literature in the years following the outbreak of the Second World War, when Arthur's legendary resistance to Germanic invaders struck a chord in Britain.^[113] Clemence Dane's series of radio plays, The Saviours (1942), used a historical Arthur to embody the spirit of heroic resistance against desperate odds, and Robert Sherriff's play The Long Sunset (1955) saw Arthur rallying Romano-British resistance against the Germanic invaders.^[114] This trend towards placing Arthur in a historical setting is also apparent in historical and fantasy novels published during this period.^[115] In recent years the portrayal of Arthur as a real hero of the 5th century has also made its way into film versions of the Arthurian legend, most notably the TV series Arthur of the Britons^[116] and the feature films King Arthur (2004) and The Last Legion (2007).^[117] The 2008 BBC series Merlin is a reimagining of the legend in which the future King Arthur and Merlin are young contemporaries. Camelot (2011) ^[118] is an exclusive short series of episodes which depict Arthur in ancient Briton and his struggle for the throne. Also, a recent Disney film, Avalon High has been released, the story about a modern day King Arthur and his knights of the round table.

Legacy as a role model[link]

During the Middle Ages, Arthur was made a member of the Nine Worthies, a group of heroes encapsulating all the ideal qualities of chivalry. His life was thus proposed as a valuable subject for study by those aspiring to chivalric status. This aspect of Arthur in the Nine Worthies was popularised firstly through literature and was thereafter adopted as a frequent subject by painters and sculptors. Arthur has also been used as a model for modern-day behaviour. In the 1930s, the Order of the Fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table was formed in Britain to promote Christian ideals and Arthurian notions of medieval chivalry.^[119] In the United States, hundreds of thousands of boys and girls joined Arthurian youth groups, such as the Knights of King Arthur, in which Arthur and his legends were promoted as wholesome exemplars.^[120]

Legacy in popular culture[link]

Arthur's diffusion within contemporary culture goes beyond obviously Arthurian endeavours, with Arthurian names being regularly attached to objects, buildings and places. As Norris J. Lacy has observed, "The popular notion of Arthur appears to be limited, not surprisingly, to a few motifs and names, but there can be no doubt of the extent to which a legend born many centuries ago is profoundly embedded in modern culture at every level."^[121]

See also[link]

• Historical basis for King Arthur
• King Arthur's family
• King Arthur's messianic return
• Excalibur and Clarent, King Arthur's weapons
• List of Arthurian characters
• List of books about King Arthur
• List of films based on Arthurian legend
• Nine Worthies, of which Arthur was one

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: King Arthur

• "Arthurian Gwent", Blaenau Gwent Borough County Council, http://www.blaenau-gwent.gov.uk/8035.asp, retrieved 2008-05-22 . An excellent site detailing Welsh Arthurian folklore.
• Arthurian Resources: King Arthur, History and the Welsh Arthurian Legends, http://www.arthuriana.co.uk, retrieved 2008-05-22 . A detailed and comprehensive academic site, which includes numerous scholarly articles, from Thomas Green of Oxford University.
• Arthuriana, http://www.arthuriana.org/, retrieved 2008-05-22 . The only academic journal solely concerned with the Arthurian Legend; a good selection of resources and links.
• Celtic Literature Collective, http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/index_welsh.html, retrieved 2008-05-22 . Provides texts and translations (of varying quality) of Welsh medieval sources, many of which mention Arthur.
• "Faces of Arthur", Faces of Arthur, http://www.facesofarthur.org.uk/bibliograrth.htm, retrieved 2009-11-16 . An interesting collection of articles on King Arthur by various Arthurian enthusiasts.
• Ford, David Nash, "King Arthur, General of the Britons", Britannia History, http://www.britannia.com/history/arthur/kageneral.html, retrieved 2008-05-22 .
• The Camelot Project, The University of Rochester, http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stm, retrieved 2008-05-22 . Provides valuable bibliographies and freely downloadable versions of Arthurian texts.
• The Heroic Age: A Journal of Early Medieval Northwestern Europe, The Heroic Age, ISSN 1526-1827, http://www.heroicage.org/, retrieved 2008-05-22 . An online peer-reviewed journal that includes regular Arthurian articles; see especially the first issue.
• "The Medieval Development of Arthurian Literature", h2g2, BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A533350, retrieved 2008-05-22 
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "Arthur (king)". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. 
  • "Arthur (king)". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. 
  • "Arthur". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921. 
  • Heroes Every Child Should Know: King Arthur
  • "Arthur and Gorlagon", translated by Frank A. Milne, notes by Alfred Nutt. Folk-Lore. Volume 15, 1904.

v t e Culture of Cornwall Symbols Celtic cross · Cornish chough · Cornish heath · Cornish kilts and tartans · Jonathan Trelawny · Michael An Gof · Saint Piran · Saint Piran's Flag Festivals AberFest · Allantide · Chewidden Thursday · Furry Dance · Golowan · Guldize · Kernewek Lowender · Montol Festival · Mummer's Day · Nickanan Night · Noze looan · 'Obby 'Oss · Picrous Day · St Piran's Day · Tom Bawcock's Eve Sports Cornish hurling · Cornish pilot-gig racing · Cornish wrestling · Rugby union in Cornwall Cuisine Cloam oven · Clotted cream · Cornish cream tea · Cornish fairings · Cornish Gilliflower · Hevva cake · Hog's pudding · Pasty · Saffron bun · Stargazy pie · Yarg Arts Cornwall Film Festival · Tate St Ives · St Ives School · Newlyn School · Barbara Hepworth · Daphne du Maurier · William Golding · Minack Theatre · The Pirates of Penzance · Tristan and Iseult Music Cornish bagpipes · Brenda Wootton · Gwenno Saunders · Fisherman's Friends · Crowns Folk songs "Bro Goth agan Tasow" · "Camborne Hill" · "Come, all ye jolly tinner boys" · "Delkiow Sivy" · "Hail to the Homeland" · "The Song of the Western Men" Language Cornish literature · Ordinalia · Beunans Meriasek · Bewnans Ke · Prayer Book Rebellion Folklore Beast of Bodmin · Blunderbore · Bucca · Cruel Coppinger · Knocker · King Arthur · Lyonesse · Owlman · Piskie Organisations Federation of Old Cornwall Societies · Gorsedh Kernow · Institute of Cornish Studies · Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society · Royal Institution of Cornwall Cornwall portal

John Boorman
Boorman at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, 24 September 2006
Born	(1933-01-18) 18 January 1933 (age 79) Shepperton, Surrey, England
Occupation	Filmmaker
Spouse	Christel Kruse

John Boorman (born 18 January 1933) is a British filmmaker who is a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.

Early life[link]

Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey, England, the son of Ivy (née Chapman) and George Boorman.^[1] He was educated at the Salesian School in Chertsey, Surrey, even though his family was not Roman Catholic. He has directed a total of 22 movies.

Career[link]

Boorman first began by working as a drycleaner and journalist in the late 1950s. He ran the newsrooms at Southern Television in Southampton and Dover before moving into TV documentary filmmaking, eventually becoming the head of the BBC's Bristol-based Documentary Unit in 1962.

Capturing the interest of producer David Deutsch, he was offered the chance to direct a film aimed at repeating the success of A Hard Day's Night (directed by Richard Lester in 1964): Catch Us If You Can (1965) is about competing pop group Dave Clark Five. While not as successful commercially as Lester's film, it drew good reviews from distinguished critics such as Pauline Kael and Dilys Powell and smoothed Boorman's way into the film industry. Boorman was drawn to Hollywood for the opportunity to make larger-scale cinema and in Point Blank (1967), a powerful interpretation of a Richard Stark novel, brought a stranger's vision to the decaying fortress of Alcatraz and the proto-hippy world of San Francisco. Lee Marvin gave the then-unknown director his full support, telling MGM he deferred all his approvals on the project to Boorman.

After Point Blank, Boorman re-teamed with Lee Marvin and Toshirō Mifune for the robinsonade of Hell in the Pacific (1968), which tells a fable story of two representative soldiers stranded together on an island.

Returning to the UK, he made Leo The Last (US/UK, 1970). This film exhibited the influence of Federico Fellini and even starred Fellini regular Marcello Mastroianni, and won him a Best Director award at Cannes.

Boorman achieved much greater resonance with Deliverance (US, 1972, adapted from a novel by James Dickey), the odyssey of city people played by Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty as they trespass into Appalachian backwoods and discover their inner savagery. This film became Boorman's first true box office success, earning him several award nominations.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Boorman was planning to film The Lord of the Rings and corresponded about his plans with the author, J. R. R. Tolkien. Ultimately the production proved too costly though some elements and themes can be seen in Excalibur.

A wide variety of films followed: Zardoz (1973), starring Sean Connery, was a post-apocalyptic science fiction piece, set in the 24th century. According to the director's film commentary, the 'Zardoz world' was on a collision course with an "effete" eternal society, which it accomplished, and in the story must reconcile with a more natural human nature.

Boorman was selected as director for Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), but the resultant film was widely ridiculed and regarded by many as a failure.

Excalibur (UK, 1981), a long held dream project of Boorman's, is a retelling of the Arthurian legend, based on Le Morte D'Arthur. Boorman cast actors Nicol Williamson and (now Dame) Helen Mirren against their protests as the two disliked each other intensely, but Boorman felt their mutual antagonism would enhance their characterizations of the characters they were playing. The production was based in the Republic of Ireland where Boorman had relocated. For the film he employed all of his children as actors and crew and several of Boorman's later films have been 'family business' productions.

Hope and Glory (1987, UK) is his most autobiographical movie to date, a retelling of his childhood in London during The Blitz. Produced by Goldcrest Films with Hollywood financing the film proved a Box Office hit in the US, receiving numerous Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. However his 1990 US produced comedy about a dysfunctional family, Where the Heart Is, was a major flop.

The Emerald Forest (1985) saw Boorman cast his actor son Charley Boorman as an eco-warrior, in a rainforest adventure that included commercially-required elements — action and near-nudity — with authentic^{[citation needed]} anthropological detail. Rospo Pallenberg's original screenplay was adapted into a book of the same name by award winning author Robert Holdstock.

When his friend David Lean died in 1991, Boorman was announced to be taking over direction of Lean's long planned adaptation of Nostromo, though the production collapsed. Beyond Rangoon (US, 1995) and The Tailor of Panama (US/Ireland, 2000) both explore unique worlds with alien characters stranded and desperate in them.

Boorman won the Best Director Award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival for The General,^[2] his black-and-white biopic of Martin Cahill. The film is about the somewhat glamorous, yet mysterious, criminal in Dublin who was killed, apparently by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

In 2004, Boorman was made a Fellow of BAFTA

Released in 2006, The Tiger's Tail was a thriller set against the tableau of early 21st century capitalism in Ireland. At the same time, Boorman began work on a long-time pet project of his, a fictional account of the life of Roman Emperor Hadrian (entitled Memoirs of Hadrian), written in the form of a letter from a dying Hadrian to his successor. In the meantime, a re-make/re-interpretation of the classic The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz with Boorman at the helm has been announced in August 2009.^[3]

In 2007 and 2009 he has taken part in a series of events and discussions as part of the Arts in Marrakech Festival along with his daughter Katrine Boorman including an event with Kim Cattrall 'Being Directed'.^[4]

Personal life[link]

Boorman lives in Annamoe, County Wicklow, Ireland, close to the famous Glendalough twin lakes.^[5] He has seven children. His son Charley Boorman has a career as an actor but reached a wider audience when he and actor Ewan McGregor made a televised motorbike trip across Europe, Central Asia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and the Midwest USA during 2004. His daughter Katrine (Igrayne in Excalibur) works as an actress in France. John Boorman's daughter Telsche wrote the screenplay for Where the Heart Is. She died of ovarian cancer in 1997 at the age of 39 ^[6]. She was married to the journalist Lionel Rotcage, the son of French singer Régine. Boorman has three other children: Lola, Lee and Lily Mae. He was recently divorced.

Filmography[link]

Further reading[link]

• Boorman, John (2003). Adventures of a Suburban Boy. London: Faber and Faber. 
• Boorman, John (1985). Money Into Light: The Emerald Forest: A Diary. London: Faber and Faber. 
• Boorman, John (1992). "Bright Dreams, Hard Knocks: A Journal for 1991". Projections: A Forum for Film Makers. London: Faber and Faber. 
• Ciment, Michel (1986). John Boorman. London: Faber and Faber. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• John Boorman at the Internet Movie Database
• John Boorman at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• That's all, folks, article by Boorman in The Guardian arguing that the current Hollywood studio system promotes mediocrity and is unsustainable
• Zardoz: Out of the Vortex Infos, timeline, special files, pics and much more about 'Zardoz' (1973)
• Boorman's plans for The Lord of the Rings
• Boorman's attempted trip to Middle-earth
• More info on Boorman's LOTR, from the theonering.com message board
• John Boorman at the Grand Action A documentary about John Boorman who came in Paris (France), in 2006, to present Point Blank with the French critic Michel Ciment.
• John Boorman Interview of John Boorman for Boulevard du Classic