AVALON
The Theosophy
King Arthur Pages
King Arthur’s
Marriage to Guinevere
King
Arthur
Fact
or Myth
Kings Arthur has appeared in many ancient legends and
although his story has been embellished by many writers, we can be certain that
the story of King Arthur is based on the life real charismatic military leader.
So who might King Arthur have been?
We can be certain King Arthur was not a medieval King
with a council of knights in suits of armour and a big castle called Camelot
that looks something like the North Wales castles built by English King Edward
1 (1272 -1307).
We know very little historically but if we accept that
he existed, then King Arthur was probably a 5th century warrior chief who
protected his peoples from the Saxon invaders for a time.
The battle of Camlan probably took place and is
connected to King Arthur, but virually everything
about King Arthur is conjecture. He could have come
from
King Arthur was said to be the son of Uther Pendragon
and Ygraine of
Arthur is a near mythic figure in Celtic stories such
as Culhwch and Olwen. In early chronicles he is presented as a military leader,
the dux bellorum suggesting a conncetion with the declining post Roman Britain
of the time.
In later romance he is a king and emperor. The Tudor
monarchs traced their lineage to King Arthur and used that connection as a
justification for their occupation of the English throne.
Irrespective of whether King Arthur was real or
mythical, it cannot be denied that King Arthur has been a major influence on
literature, from the early Middle Ages to the present day. And although if King
Arthur had been a "real" king, he would have lived around the 5th or
6th centuries, it is more as a Middle Ages knight that he is presented in
literature.
From Malory to Tennyson to T. H. White. The central
story is of a noble kingdom of high ideals, whose ideals are undermined by the
adultery of Queen Guinevere with Lancelot, the most noble of
all the knights. And eventually brought down by the
treachery of Mordred. In spite of this, Arthur's memory lives on. Historia
Brittonum (written c.830AD) says “Arthur fought against them [the Saxon
invaders] in those days, together with the kings of the Britons, but he was the
leader in battles [dux bellorum].” The rest of the text lists a number of his
supposed battles of which the
other historical sources (Gildas’s De Excidio Britanniae
of c.540AD, which mentions the battle but not Arthur).
The main impetus for Arthurian stories starts with
Geoffrey of Monmouth who records Arthur's birth, childhood, ascension to the
throne, military conquests, and death. He places King Arthur as living from the
late fifth century to 542,
when the king was mortally wounded in his last battle.
This story became the basis of the Arthurian legend, and was built on by
Chrétien de Troyes and Sir Thomas Malory.
Geoffrey completed his History around 1130, using
earlier sources such as Gildas, Nennius, The Annales Cambriae and Bede. But
none of these makes any subsantial mention of a King Arthur. So where did he
get his facts? Geoffrey claimed to have had in his possession a "certain
very ancient book written in the British language." However nobody else
has used this book, and if it existed, has not been passed down to modern times
Other attempts to fill-out the above concept of King
Arthur have focused on trying to localise this Arthur. Arthur has been placed
by various researchers as the war-leader in the North of
are too vague to tie him down.
But the main source of Arthurian myths did not come
from British English writings. Rather from French authors living in
They might well have based their tales on stories told
by English Crusaders in the 11th century, but they undoubtedly embroidered
these stories themselves. These early romantic novelists
gave us most of the myths that was later further
embroidered by Malory and Tennyson.
So really King Arthur, the 'King of the Britons' was
in probably a French invention, as are so many of the details of the legend
that come from these early French writers. Lancelot, his affair with Guinevere,
Excalibur, Camelot, the Round Table, Sir Perceval all originate with these
French writers.
And at roughly the same time Geoffrey of Monmouth was
writing his History of the
Kings of
Arthur goes on to invade France, defeats the Roman
armies and almost conquers the remnants of the
It seems that there was a war leader, whose name we do
not know, who defeated the Saxons, checking their advance temporarily. As time
went by people
remembered this leader fondly, the good old days and a
touch of "Oh, if only ... was our leader now". Eventually the name
Arthur stuck as his name in folk memory, and his ascribed deeds grew long after
his death - King Arthur arrives, the once and future king.
Theosophy
Avalon
King Arthur &
The Round Table
Merlin & The Tree of Life
Merlin
the Magician
Born
circa 400 CE ; Welsh: Myrddin;
Latin:
Merlinus; English: Merlin.
The restored and
landscaped Chester Amphitheatre
Some historians
believe that this was the site
of King Arthur’s
Round Table. Chester’s Roman fortifications
and its proximity to
the Welsh border have always made it a
strong candidate for the location of Camelot.
Chester is also often credited with
being the site of
“ The Battle of the
City of the Legion”
which was King Arthur’s ninth victory
The Holy Grail
The Theosophy
King Arthur Pages
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Tekels Park to be
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Concerns are
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Retreat, Tekels Park in Camberley,
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Arthurian Picture Gallery
Arthur Marries Guinevere
Death of Arthur
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Guinevere
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The Round Table
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