Thoughts on KING ARTHUR

KING ARTHUR
By Alex Ness
December 11, 2022

MYTH RATHER THAN LIES

A great amount of the perceptions, ideas and values of culture in the present are an inheritance of the values, experiences, myths and legends, and history of the past. Myth telling is manner of speaking that imparts a cultural story, ascribing to the story reasons and explanations for an event or person, without necessarily being a factual or historically accurate. Myth has taken on the meaning of being false in the present day. Which is actually quite the reverse of the intent of myth. That isn't to say that you could write a scholarly text using the facts told in myth for accuracy or depth of knowledge. It is to say, rather than lie or lead others to believe falsehoods, the myth was understood to be a story that explained an unknown truth. So a lie agreed upon, as some call History, is not accurate when describing myth. And history is not that either, but the way we understand it is completely different.

I've been fascinated by in history are the roots of myths and ghosts of people found in history. I don't for a moment believe that I am hearing real words or watching real deeds when I watch a film that tells the story of a famous event, in history or in memory found in myths and legends. In the films 300 or Excalibur attempt to tell a version of a story, that are valid, if not historically fully factual. In the case of 300, it is for me the power of the true story that allows such a telling. In Excalibur it is story told from the view of one who sees a life of a king, from boyhood to his death, and interprets a legend, fusing portions of legend, part history and part Hollywood.

There is more to just the legend than exciting tales. The origins of King Arthur might well be that of a Briton leader trained by the Romans, who kept Britannia alive during the fall of Rome's Empire, as well as defending against the Saxon migration and invasion to Britannia. But, while the movie Excalibur is excellent for the story and concept, the historical context is often lost, when movies present inaccurate armor, ideas, castles or fortresses. Geoffrey Ashe, more than any other scholar in the present, has argued for the reality that there was a historical King Arthur, who lived in the 400 AD's, a possible war king who was named Riothamus or Ambrosius. According to his scholarship, the isle of Avalon and various other locations have actual geographical sites at their roots, and he has further found evidence of the name Arthur, in historical sites, and in documents. He might not have wielded a magical sword, he might be dead as a stone and not waiting to return, but in the view of Ashe, he existed.

OTHER KING ARTHUR MEDIA

Pendragon is a game that does the best capturing the flavor of the King Arthur legends and world. I haven't be a fan of the RPG style that is found in the RPG system Pendragon uses. Chaosium, however, is a fine company, creating complex, intelligent games to relive the legends and myths, and at no point does the game system interfere with the flavor of the realms presented. It is a shame that it isn't as heralded as Dungeons and Dragons and Call of Cthulhu.  It is an equal to them.

MY TAKE ON KING ARTHUR

One of my earliest favorite toys was a castle and knights. They fought endlessly in my room.  For the historian I became, all of the questions of whether Arthur existed and was more than a wonderful legend were important, but were never the whole of it. I admired the outrageous courage it required, the bold actions and strategic thinking to be a knight, and beyond that, the chivalry code went beyond my ideals, it was a means by which men who practised chivalry could be judged. We already have laws, and for some the promise of judgment upon death. But knights asked for more judgment and codified reasons to be chastised. The story of Lancelot, the perfect knight and best friend of Arthur being tempted and failing, losing his moral center and trying to regain it, was a story for me of fall and ascent. The works of Arthur have no single author, but as a historian I am aware of the reasons for belief in a real Arthur figure, and that history alone is so rich as to fascinate me. Adding upon that the layers of culture appreciation of the legend, and how it inspired others moves me deeply.  My poetry might well be pedestrian, limited, but it pours from a loving heart. And from all those mentioned roots I have long loved all of the stories of King Arthur and the legends associated, so, even if my work is not directly written and consistently about Arthurian legends, it is still fed and prospers as a result of it. I have copies available of my work for sale for anyone interested.

“O Merlin", said Arthur, "Here hadst thou been slain for all thy crafts had I not been." "Nay,"
said Merlin, "Not so, for I could save myself an I would; and thou art more near thy death than
I am, for thou goest to the deathward, an God be not thy friend.”                 Sir Thomas Malory

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