Arthurian Legends
6 Named after the famous (and most likely fictitious) King Arthur, few collections of myths have captured modern imagination more than this one, involving wizards, kings and the Knights of the Round Table. 2Most people have heard of Merlin, Guinevere, Lancelot, the Lady of the Lake and the Holy Grail.
30ne of the great appeals of this myth cycle is the reality that seems to permeate these larger-than-life characters. 4There is a strong pseudo-history that makes you feel that these events may have truly taken place. 5They are not simply one single work, but have been written over hundreds of years by different authors. 6This gives the illusion that these authors are in fact telling their own versions of real events. 71t also means that some stories have varying components and different endings, though the cast of characters generally stays the same.
8Unlike the other myths in this book, the Arthurian legends are a smaller group of literary tales that do not represent the myth structure of an entire culture or time period. 9They are also not tied to any spiritual or religious belief system either. 10The Arthur mythos is unique in that it seems to have sprung up through literary creativity and has been built upon by many individuals over several centuries.
Quest for the Holy Grail
11This is the one realm of Arthurian fantasy where myth crosses the line with religion, at least on the surface. 12First you need to understand the nature of the Grail before you can learn about the quest to find it. 13Though tied to Christianity, the Holy Grail in this context is in fact a fictional object that has been included in several different pieces of literature starting in a poem by Chretien de Troyes in the 1180s.
14The object of the Holy Grail is very similar to the non-fictional version known as the Holy Chalice, which is considered to be a real item that was used by Jesus during the Biblical Last Supper. 15Their stories have been intertwined, though they are two distinct objects. 161n this mythos, the Grail was indeed the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and was also used to catch Christ s blood when his side was pierced during his crucifixion. 17The cup was given great mystical and magical qualities, depending on the specific story about it.
18Many tales have been told about the Grail, but the general story of the Quest is as follows. 19After the crucifixion of Christ, Joseph of Arimathea travelled to Britain with the Grail. 20He hid the Grail for safekeeping, and it stayed hidden for hundreds of years. 211t was told that it was held in a castle and guarded by a man called the Fisher King.22 At some point the Fisher King was wounded, could not heal and the lands around him suffered as long as he did. 231t was believed that only someone pure of heart could heal the Fisher King and reclaim his wasteland kingdom.
24Early versions of the story have a knight named Percival as the finder of the Grail, but later tales give that role to Galahad. 25We ll focus on the latter version of the story as it is the more well-known ending. 26King Arthur s knights are sent on a quest to find the Grail after Galahad accidentally sits in the chair reserved by prophecy for the one who would recover the sacred Grail. 27When Galahad survives, Arthur knows that it's time to begin the quest. 28Indeed, it is Galahad who does find the cup, and he is immediately taken up to heaven.
29The moral and theme of the Quest is the search for what is holy, sacred and spiritual, and those who brave the unknown will be greatly rewarded. 30Given the power of the Church during the period, the implication of spiritual reward is very blatantly a Catholic one. 31If you remove the religious meaning of the Grail itself, though, the theme remains relevant and equally as potent.
32The power of this story extends right up to the present day. 33People continue to search for the Grail, not knowing where the facts of Christian history end and myth begin. 34The contemporary novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown revived a huge number of Grail theories with its story of conspiracy within the Church, secret societies involving Leonardo Da Vinci, and the idea that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had fathered a line of descendants. 35Da Vinci has played a significant role in many areas of esoteric and even occult matters, and you ll find more about him in a later section on sacred numbers.
The Sword in the Stone
36The famed sword known as Excalibur belonged to King Arthur, but it is not the same sword from this story. 37Excalibur was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake later on in his life after he became king. 38The sword from the stone was an earlier tale when Arthur was a young boy.
39When King Uther died, during troubled times, his son Arthur (then an infant) was raised outside the kingdom for his own safety, as someone would surely try to kill the heir to the throne. 40But this led to many conflicts over who the next ruler would be. 41To stop the fighting, Merlin magically embedded a sword in a large stone with the inscription (paraphrased here), Whoever pulls out this sword is the rightful born king of all England . 42Many tried but could not budge the blade. 43The arguments ceased and the land was more or less peaceful again. 44Years later, a young Arthur tried his hand on a whim and shocked onlookers when the sword slid out with ease.
45The theme that you can take from this tale is that we all have a destiny that will affect our lives, even if we are not actively seeking it. 46Arthur pulled the sword out without knowing what was going on. 47He had no particular aim to be king, and yet his path brought him right where he needed to be. 48The nature of the sword also prevented others from falsely taking that role. 49They too could not alter their own destinies.
Knights of the Round Table
50The concept of the Knights of the Round Table has some important symbolism to it that should be mentioned, though it is not a myth of its own right. 51The knights were the bravest and most trustworthy in Arthur s kingdom, which is what earned them the status of being of the inner circle. 52The circle theme goes further though. 53The reason for the knights meeting at a (literal) round table was that they were all equal and no man was considered superior enough to sit at the head.
The Death of Arthur and Avalon
54After a rather eventful and glorious life, Arthur was fatally wounded in battle and taken away to the island of Avalon. 55Even within the mythical landscape of Arthurian Britain, Avalon was a mysterious place. 56The power of Avalon was supposed to be able to heal him, and the tale of King Arthur ends with him still living there, so that he may return someday when his country needed him most.
57Some have speculated that Glastonbury is the real Avalon (they claim it would have been an island so many years ago due to a changing coastline) and that the present-day castle ruins are where King Arthur is buried. 581t makes for fanciful tourism, but there is no solid evidence that any of this is true. 59Even so, the modern neo-Pagan community has made Glastonbury into a sacred place that connects us to the mystical world of King Arthur.
60The nature of Avalon is not that hard to understand as an archetype. 61This is a version of the heavenly afterlife that we can hope for after having lived a good life here on Earth.
62There are many other stories involving King Arthur and this specific cast of characters, all concerning great courage, valour, betrayal and magical exploits. 63These have just been a few examples to illustrate the main tales, specifically the Holy Grail quest (which is the most important of the entire mythos).
Finding Meaning in the Legends
64As with all myths, there are important moral themes to be gleaned here. 651t s the Quest for the Holy Grail that stands out among all the stories in terms of spiritual meaning. 66As mentioned, the main theme of the legend is the seeking of the sacred, though spiritual meaning can be seen in many of the other shorter tales as well.
67The religious aspects of Arthurian legends are far more obvious than in any other myth structure we ve covered in this book, which puts these stories closer to religion than most others.