The Timelessness of Arthurian Tales

A couple of years ago, I wrote about a new series I had started watching called MERLIN.

As I said then, I was shocked by what I perceived as the ridiculous aspects of the show and how much they had changed the Arthurian cycle. However, after the first few episodes of the show I began to see its qualities and the wonderful ways in which it revived the Arthurian legend for a new generation.

This past weekend, I finished watching the fifth and final season of this BBC Series.

I’m actually a little sad that the series is done. I’m also surprised at how attached I became to many of the characters, especially the characters of Merlin and Arthur whose bantering, odd, loyal relationship is the central theme and strength of the series.

We all know that Arthur dies in the end. Of course he does. But I found myself hoping that maybe, just maybe, Arthur would survive. I wanted him to! The series had changed so many other aspects of the legend, why not change that? End things on a positive, uplifting note, right?

No. The death of Arthur in story is something that is inevitable, even for a modern interpretation. It’s the death of Arthur that shows the essential elements of tragedy, sacrifice, and hope for the future that are so crucial to Arthurian tales.

In MERLIN, the actors Colin Morgan and Bradley James manage to pull off an emotional, gut-wrenching final episode that is, to me, a worthy addition to the Arthurian canon.

After watching that final episode, I found myself dealing with a familiar feeling of sadness and longing in the pit of my stomach. It’s something I always feel when I finish watching or reading the story of Arthur and his knights.

This experience reminded me why I love Arthurian stories so much, and why I will never tire of them.

I grew up with the stories of Arthur. In fact, they are a big part of the person I have become, the ideals I hold to be true and important. They speak to me on many levels. They are timeless.

Historically, those few decades straddling the 5^th and 6^th centuries A.D gave rise, in my opinion, to some of the most important and moving literature and literary traditions since Homer composed the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Whether ‘Camelot’ was a late medieval castle, or a re-fortified Iron Age hill fort at South Cadbury doesn’t matter. It’s irrelevant if the sword Excalibur rose out of the water in the hand of an ancient priestess or water nymph, or if it was cast as a solid piece of iron in a stone mould by a highly skilled smith.

What matters in the Arthurian cycle are the people, and the journeys that they take.

When I think about Arthurian legend, I think about a young boy facing his destiny, I think of lovers facing insurmountable odds, I think about brave and gifted people working to better the land they love.

When I think of these stories I think about ideals of chivalry that, real or imagined, are a bright light in a world that seems to be crumbling apart, pinioned as it is between the classical and early medieval worlds.

When I travelled to Glastonbury, Cadbury Castle, Birdoswald, Wroxeter, Dinas Emrys, Tintagel, or Caerleon, I wasn’t focussed so much on the archaeology and whether it supported the legends of those places.

What pulled me into those places, what grabbed my imagination and would not let go, were the stories and people associated with those places. Therein lies the true magic.

I’ll never forget the names of Balin and Balan, Eric and Enide, Sir Gawain and Sir Perceval, Tristan and Isolde, The Lady of Shalott, Lancelot, Guinevere, Uther, and Arthur, and so many more.

If my heart were a book shelf, there would be a scroll with a special space dedicated to every chapter of the Arthurian cycle.

I feel like I’ve watched the barge carrying Arthur’s body sail to Avalon countless times, and yet the cycle is always reborn inside of me, my mind, and my imagination.

Someday, when I’m ready, I’ll write my own version of the cycle in as historically accurate a way as possible. This has always been my goal.

But, even more so, I will write my own offering to the traditions in a way that the most inspiring aspects of the tales come to the fore.

It feels like an impossible task, but then, no quest is intended to be easy.

Thank you for reading.

Which are your favourite Arthurian tales? Share yours in the Comments box below!

Keeping History and Legend Alive

BBC's Merlin series

Happy New Year to everyone. Hope your various celebrations were enjoyable, sweet and wine-filled. My holidays were also filled with history and magic.

The past week, I have been watching the recent BBC series, Merlin, for which I obtained a copy of season one at the local library. After the first episode of this show, my first reaction was – “What a complete load of rubbish. I can’t believe how they have butchered my beloved Arthurian tales.”

John Boorman's
Excalibur

Ok, I didn’t say ‘beloved’, though, for me the Arthurian cycle is indeed sacred ground. It should not be meddled with lightly. However, like many a good book, sometimes the initial chapters can be slow or misleading, disappointing even. So, I pressed on and watched another couple episodes. I realized that, despite the completely inaccurate setting (Camelot as a late medieval castle), the unfortunate character of Uther Pendragon (I much prefer Marion Zimmer Bradley or Jack Whyte’s versions of the man), and the anachronistic dialogue among other things (Guinevere is a servant!), the show actually focuses on some important themes. Richer is the Arthurian cycle for the entwined destinies of Merlin and Arthur, the opposing forces of paganism and Christianity, ideals of kingship and knighthood and even elements of the magical that add to the legend. Merlin has all of these, the show’s faults notwithstanding.

If you can look past the show’s appearance, it can be quite gripping. Though I much preferred the setting of the late 90’s version of Merlin, with Sam Neill,  I now look forward to the next episode of this new Merlin and find it hard to watch only one. Now that I am over my Arthurian purist’s prejudice, I am reminded of other television series that also meddled with favourite bits of history and legend. Certainly, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Xena: Warrior Princess are at the top of the list. Those two shows were chock full of anachronism and cheese but they also tapped the deep-rooted archtypes of ancient tradition and storytelling which appeal to us on quite another level of consciousness. Ancient tradition is often a part of the very fibre of our being.

Lucy Lawless and Kevin Sorbo as
Xena and Hercules

I think that it has become absolutely necessary for tales from Greek mythology, Arthurian tradition or others to be retold and given fresh new garb every so often, for successive generations. That is how the tales endure, how they remain relevant as the years go by. The clothing may be different than the original period in question but the essential messages, the human strife, remain the same. Indeed, new life is given to them, new interest created. I’ve said it before that there is nothing wrong with a Hollywood version of history, even if some things are inaccurate – if interest is sparked, then people will read up on something more and as a result find out what is fact and what is fiction, and where the two live amiably side by side.

Manuscript page of Chrétien de Troyes'
Yvain or Le Chevalier au Lion

As for the Arthurian tradition, let us not forget that even Chrétien de Troyes and Sir Thomas Malory reinvented the Arthurian cycle, setting it not in the immediate post-Roman world of Dark Age Britain, written about by Nennius or Aneirin, but rather in the courtly world of 12^th century Aquitaine and the shiny armour world of 15^th century England. Every generation has its perspective and a language that appeals to that perspective. If adapting the telling of these tales in media to speak to the current generation is what keeps history and legend alive, then that is a good and honourable thing.