King Arthur, the Legend

14O5O9 - Kelly H.1's 17th Birthday.
14O4O9 - Mun Hong gor gor's 23rd Birthday.

Like what the title suggests - King Arthur, the legendary idol of in the Dark Ages, the era with the most scarce information provided. After watching the series The Adventures of Merlin (Merlin for short), I've decided to do some research about what have actually happened in the legend and this is what I've discovered:

Legend or History?
There have been numerous translations of the Legends of King Arthur and according to this website, the first work that mentioned Arthur was written by Nennius in the 9th Century. It was a paragraph written in Latin, which was thought to have been taken from an ancient Welsh story, regarding with the 12 great battles that were fought by Arthur. A collection of legends written in Brittany in their local language was the first evidence of Kin Arthur's stories however, by the middle of the 12th Century it was the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth, entitled Historia Britonum in 1135 AD, that provided the first real reference to King Arthur related legends. This was translated into Latin. After his work, the Norman chronicler Wace translated it into Norman French. Apparently, at the end of the 12th Century, a writer called Walter Map took their work and 'romaniticised' them into French prose. It is his version which we acknowledge the most. Alternatively, according to this, it was Chetien de Troyes and Malory who 'emblished' Geoffrey's work.

So how did it all start?
It was said that after the tragedy of the Night of the Long Knives, due to the betrayal of the Angles and Saxons against King Vortigern, Ambrosius Aurelianus became King. He consulted the wizard Merlin to help him choose an appropriate monument to raise to the dead chieftains and Merlin suggested to bring the King's Ring from Mount Killarus, in Ireland, back to England. Uther Pendragon, the King's brother, lead a group of soldiers to bring back the stones which Merlin then magically reconstructed the stone as Stonehenge around the burials of the dead British cheiftains. The King then died during the battle against the Saxons and hence, Uther became the King. According to this website, it was Merlin who created the Round Table at Carlisle where knights would be bound by the Oath to 'serve each other and their country with the most imperial manner possible.' Later on, Uther fell in love with Igrain, the wife of Gerlois, Duke of Tintadiel. In order to win Igrain, Uther made a deal with Merlin that if he helped him, obviously with magic, then their first born child would be his, which was Arthur. However, in this website, it suggested that Merlin only took Arthur because he believed that during those difficult times, the child would be targetted by enemies since he was the heir to the throne. Either legend would lead to Arthur being in the care of Sir Ector. When King Uther died, Merlin purposely placed a special sword, the Caliburnus, and quoted "He who so ever draws forth this sword from the stone shall be the rightful king of English." Obviously, Arthur was the chosen one. However, during a battle the sword was broken and hence, The Lady of the Lake gave him a magical sword, the Excalibur, and a scabbard which is said to make him almost invincible. The Lady of the Lake was either referred to Nimue or Vivienne and was the scribe and lover of Merlin however, it was said that she eventually trapped him in a cave of uncertain territory. One version said that Arthur first fell in love with his half sister, Morgan le Fay, and had a son with her called Mordred but after realising the truth, shipped the child away. However, the child was then saved and came back later to attempt to take over Camelot. But before that, King Arthur fell in love again with Queen Quinevere, who then experienced adultry with one of the knights from the Round Table: Sir Lancelot. Later on, Sir Lancelot saved Queen Guinevere from being burned alive, by the orders of King Arthur, and eloped to France. Whether Mordred was Arthur's son or nephew, they met in the Battle of Camlann, which taken place at approximated 537 AD. Eventually Mordred died and Arthur was fatally wounded. He asked Sir Bedivere to throw the Excalibur into the lake, but another version said that Nimeu was obliged to take back the sword. In conclusion, Arthur was taken to Avalon, where 3 sorceresses takes him on a boat to an island in the lake, where he healed but eventually ended up dying.

It's amazing what you can learn from watching a drama series =). If I didn't get into Merlin, if I didn't already know bits and pieces of the legend already and if I didn't realise that the legend is altered, I wouldn't have been bothered with this research =) LOL!

PS. The font colour is red to represent the royalty of King Arthur.