King Arthur's Forest

Next Up:  The Saints Lives. The Saints Lives is not one book or or even a series of stories.  They are actually disparate tales of different saints by by different authors during the early 11th and 12th centuries.  They are interesting because they feature a version of Arthur who can sometime be seen as conniving, dishonest, vain, even as a rapist, which is quite apart from the noble, generous Leader you may be used to. I will discuss them soon in more detail.  For those of you who wish to read ahead I would advise to use Richard White's King Arthur: In Legend and History   (pp.12-21), rather than the Oxford Guide. White's version has pulled the excerpts relevant to the subject which will save you from having to read unrelated material or purchase unnecessary books.  Each saint only makes brief mention of Arthur, from about a paragraph to a page, so it will be a blessedly short read.  If you only have the Oxford guide, though it does not prov...

Culhwch and Olwen Culhwch and Olwen happens to be one of my favorite of the Mabinogion tales regardless of its possible importance to the Arthurian tradition.  It is a weird and wonderful story that is positively packed with segments of various medieval welsh bardic traditions.  Within it you will see name-lists, lineages, bardic triads, folklore, and segments of poetry, many of which seem to exist outside this story.  It is as if multiple stories and traditions have been mashed together which is probably what happened according to some scholars.  When I read it, it just feels old.  It is as if I can imagine it being recited by a bard late in the evening, with every segment hinting at another tale.  It also makes me a bit sad that many of these hinted at tales have vanished from history.   For those who haven't read it yet, allow me to give a brief synopsis.  Culhwch (pronounced kil-hook or sometimes as key-look) is cursed to only l...

Upcoming subject:  Culhwch and Olwen Before reading Culhwch and Olwen, I thought you may want a brief overview of the Mabinogion, the book where the story is found. The Mabinogion, is an assembled book of eleven Welsh tales found in two manuscripts: The Red Book of Hergest and the White Book Of Rhydderch. Both of the manuscripts can be roughly dated to the 14th century.  However, dating the stories inside has been difficult since the stories seem to be older than the manuscripts themselves, and many from different times.  Only five of the eleven tales feature Arthur and appear to come from two traditions.  The first set are three ‘romances’: Peredur, son of Efrog, Geraint, son of Erbin, and The Lady and the Well. These three mimic the story lines of three tales by Chretien de Troyes (written 1170-1180) and feature a distinct French influence so they may be either later additions or both are based on a common source now lost.  The remaining two are olde...

The History of the Britons and the Welsh Annals As we begin to reach into the 9th and 10th centuries, we really begin to  close in on many of the works that had influenced  Geoffrey of Monmouth and his groundbreaking work Historia Regum Brittaniae.  (If you are coming in late, I advise that you read my 1st entry on this work HERE )  Of course, there is doubtful chance anyone will ever find his "very ancient book in the British tongue", if it ever existed at all, but we can at least cover the books he probably read.  We'll cover two works today I would like to start with a discussion on The History of the Britons (Historia Britionum)  written by a christian monk who identifies himself in the text as Nennius.  Written around the early 800's, Nennius repeats some of what we have seen in Bede with the villainous king Vortigern summoning the Saxon forces led by Hengest and Horsa in order to defeat the Scots and Picts.  In this part of the chronic...

Because subscribers are not updated when a new "page" is added to the blog, I have to create a blog entry to notify you.  A "page" is a resident link on the main blog Home.  This can be anything- such as a book list or a page of links...anything I want it to be.  In this case it is "how to best use this blog" whose purpose should be self explanatory.  I hope everyone finds it useful as I have given tips for every type of reader.  Here is a link if you would like to have a peek.   How To Best Use This Blog Thanks, Joe

I wanted to start giving updates to any major changes I have made to any of the previous articles or lessons that were previously posted.  This blog is a work in progress and it goes along with some of my own learning.  With that in mind I may want to self correct or improve my writing on some of my previous entries.  Naturally, I don't want to bore you with every little edit but I may, from time to time, combine things or even completely redo things. In this particular case I wanted to include an entry on Bede with my posting on Gildas.  Bede is an almost identical case as Gildas.  However, despite being an extremely important individual to medievalists, he does not have much to offer on Arthurian history.  But, like Gildas, his inclination not to mention Arthur could speak volumes about Arthur's historicity and importance or some might say his complete lack of those things..  So far there is no answer to that question.  So I want to notify m...

A few thoughts on Gildas and Bede In the mid 500's, a monk-historian by the name of Gildas put down his thoughts on five British Kings in a work called De excidio et conquestu Britanniae (On the Destruction and Conquest of Britain) sometimes shortened to "The Ruin of Britain".  This work, intended as more of a sermon than a history, claims that the invasion of the Saxons and the fall of Britain was due to the sins of the British people.  There are a few things of note that are of interest to Arthurian scholars that occur in this work.  First, this is the earliest surviving mention of the Battle of Mount Badon, the battle whose victory is later attributed to Arthur.  Secondly,  this is a major source for information regarding the Saxon invasion and Gildas attributes resistance leadership to an individual by the name of Ambrosius Aurelianus.  Lastly, Gildas does not mention Arthur, the supposed victor of "Badon Hill," at all. This lack of mention of ...