King Arthur

Journal of Higher Criticism, 2023

This will be a surprising re-analysis of Arthurian Legend to many readers. Traditionally, Arthurian research has split into two camps: literalists who revere the 'real history' of King Arthur, and doubters who aim to tear down the very essence of this 'unsubstantiated mythology'. This new analysis will take a difficult median path. It will attempt to pull down the mythological facade that masks the truth about King Arthur, and then rebuild the inner core which may well be based upon real history. By necessity, this new analysis will be forced to take the cornerstones of Arthurian legend down unexpected avenues, and out into new historical realms. It will be a surprising analysis, but one that is fully supported by the texts and the evidence.

2013

A translation, done as an undergraduate with Dr. Karen Mura of Susquehanna University, of The Awntyrs off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne. Unpublished but available for anyone who wants to use or share it.

Arthuriana, 2007

In this paper we look at some of the main candidates for the original historical King Arthur.

From Medievalism to Early-Modernism: Adapting the English Past, 2020

Everything old is made new again in medieval-themed films, and nowhere is this adage as prevalent as in cinematic representations of the Arthurian legend. The Arthurian space has continued to grow over the centuries and across media. Hollywood's love affair with King Arthur needs no introduction here. The familiarity of the Arthurian legend, with its mythical characters, magical objects, and undying chivalric ethos, including King Arthur, Excalibur, the Knights of the Round Table, Merlin, Lancelot and Guenevere, and the Holy Grail, continues to feed our nostalgia for the Middle Ages. This chapter explores how Arthurian material has endured for so long in so many different guises, focusing on the two very different re-writings of Arthurian origins in: King Arthur (2004) and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017).

Perpetuation of the Myth of King Arthur , 2017

Bachelor of Arts thesis depicting perpetuation of the Myth of King Arthur, from Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur" (1485), to film adaptations of "Excalibur" (1984) and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975).

2019

A Companion to British Literature, 2014

David Matthews, in his contribution to this volume, identifies a tension between veneration of significant figures from the past and scepticism surrounding their authorship, their arguments, and in some cases their existence. Elsewhere, Paul Stevens has shown the extent to which Milton was in a similar predicament, wanting to find in England's history a subject worthy of epic, but torn between the rigorous revisionism of the likes of Camden and Selden and 'the patriotic [tradition] mediated through Spenser, Shakespeare, and Drayton' (Stevens 2012: 157). Between Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur, completed by 1470, and published by Caxton-with carefully qualified scepticism about Arthur's existence-in 1485, and Milton's History of Britain (1670), we can follow the fortunes of Arthur as a figure contested and celebrated in equal measure. Malory depicted the French wars under the guise of Arthur's sixth-century campaign against Rome, and Book III of Milton's History uses the same interval between Roman departure and Saxon arrival to warn contemporaries of the dangers of backsliding. One approach to early modern Arthurianism suggests that somewhere between Malory and Milton, Arthur became an inconvenient myth, retaining poetic and propagandistic potential but scoffed at by serious scholars. The Reformation and the rise of antiquarianism engendered suspicion of medieval sources, and Arthur and Brutus were undone by the rise of Anglo-Saxon studies (Brinkley 1932). Yet Arthur, like Brutus, maintained momentum even as myth morphed from history to poetry. But before delving into the variegated history of later 2 representations of Arthur, we must first consider how the legendary king was used in Malory's time. Why the Matter of Britain mattered It's been argued that Malory's Morte Darthur was, like Spenser's Faerie Queene, an historical allegory, addressing the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V. Inconsistencies in Malory's Arthur have been attributed to his allegorical depiction of successive English monarchs: "interpreting it in terms of the Lancastrian dynasty, the three rulers dominating the life of Malory, it is a strikingly accurate picture. In general features the personality and career of Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI correspond respectively to (1) the Arthur of the first three books, (2) the Arthur of book four extending through to the Grail section, and (3) the Arthur of the post-Grail period"