King Arthur Essay

While significant attention is given to the potential historical origins of King Arthur, the Arthur who lingers in pop consciousness is the product of the romantic imaginings of literature and poetry. It is frequently asserted that he is a product of a medieval zeitgeist, which needed a heroic figure to represent the values of its culture. Arthur is a rather complex hero in the wake of the Greek heroes that preceded him, a medieval modern who stands in stark contrast to his classically antiquated predecessors. The tales identify Arthur as the bastard child of the lady Igraine. Merlin used his skills to help Uther Pendragon come to her under the guise of Igraine’s husband the Duke of Cornwall, and Arthur was the fruit of that adulterous union. Merlin takes Arthur and raises him, and when he reached manhood he becomes King of Britain. Arthur’s ascension is detailed as having begun with an embrace with his destiny by obtaining the sword Excalibur. Depending on how the tale is told, he either obtains it by pulling it from a stone or anvil, or it is given to him by the Lady of the Lake. Either way, this dramatically proves his worth despite numerous challengers to the throne. As King, Arthur takes a wife and assembles a gallery of knights who convene around a round table and go on quests in search of the legendary Holy Grail, as well as unifying the various geographical and political factions of Britain as one kingdom, governed under the utopia capital of Camelot. However, despite his desire for peace and prosperity for Britain, the foibles and flaws of his peers continue to disappoint him. Eventually he faces his own mortality, when he is challenged by his own son Mordred for the right to rule, despite his desire for a peaceable settlement. Mordred is defeated but Arthur is fatally wounded and dies. Arthur exemplifies a hero who struggles with duality. Despite the mythic stature accorded to him, his ability to command respect, his strength of courage and his fair-minded sense of justice makes him an exemplar of pure Christianity: liberal in disposition and democratic in temperament, but he is also rather arrogant and inflexible. His crusades also place him in a position in which he frequently neglects his responsibilities as a leader, despite having fought for the right to rule among petty bickering would-be monarchs. The Queen he romanced is left neglected during his adventures, and she betrays him through adultery. His cunning and courage is remarkable, but is witness only abroad never to be put to good use within the kingdom. The Greek heroes are significantly darker, which sets them apart from the rather romantic and idealist tone of Arthur’s mythical self-journey. Consider for example, Achilles: Like Arthur, he was born of an arranged union. Zeus was afraid of a prophecy which told that a child of Thetis would overthrow him, and thus provided for her to conceive with a half-mortal child. Whereas Arthur’s parentage was largely a design of Merlin’s to obtain a new protà ©gà © to raise, while Achilles’ parentage was a political one, insofar as the machinations of gods can be political. Additionally, Achilles’ alienation from humanity is more pronounced, because he is literally ‘less than human’ in his partial divinity, though this divinity makes him cruel rather than virtuous, a far cry from Arthur. The superhuman Beowulf is also comparable to Arthur. While he is able to defeat monstrous opponents in single combat, he parallels Arthur as a monarch whose grim demeanor softens as he ages, and concludes his life with a confrontation with his own mortality. He emerges victorious but fatally wounded, ready to embrace death with the same kind of acceptance that Arthur does.