Myths of King Arthur.English 241

In my Tuesday/Thursday British Lit. class, we talked quite a bit about the myths of the legend of King Arthur, in particular how vast those myths are.  Most of the stories have enough similarities to have created the wonderful legend that is King Arthur, but in every story, there's something different--which should remind any audience that regardless of the consistencies, it's the inconsistensies that make King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table LEGEND, not reality.

So if King Arthur wasn't real, why is he mentioned in even factual, reputable history books?  Someone today said, as we saw the movie we watched in class, that "everyone needs a hero."  The truth is that the King Arthur legend is a wonderful story about a geeky kid who pulls a sword out of a stone when all the strong men of England are unable to and then he grows up to a King full of wisdom, who ends up in a tragic marriage, and has a tragic ending to his life.  (The beginning of his life wasn't a picnic, either!)  In spite of the odds stacked against him, Arthur rises above and even shines.  What's not to love about the stories of King Arthur?!  Great swords.....tragic love triangle.....best friends.....betrayal of best friends......magicians.....sword fighting.....knights.....code of chivalry......and on and on and on!!!!!

I know there's only a teeny, tiny blurb about King Arthur that we read (we didn't choose La Morte D'Arthur), but it's just too fascinating to walk away from without more......

I'm including links to several interesting web sites I found in case you'd like to read more about the legends of King Arthur.  This is not a complete list.  It is interesting to note the similarities as well as the differences between the different "authoritative" web sites on King Arthur!  These are probably not even the best, but in doing a quick Google search, they are the ones I've found.  I might include more later, but these are the ones I found for this posting.

http://www.timelessmyths.com/arthurian/arthur.html

http://www.britannia.com/history/arthur/kamyth.html

http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/myths_four_arthur.html

http://www.legendofkingarthur.co.uk/

http://www.loggia.com/myth/arthur.html

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/mythguide/king_arthur.html

http://www.caerleon.net/history/arthur/page2.htm

Enjoy as many of the web sites as you choose.  I just think it's absolutely fascinating and thought I'd make it a little easier on you in case you wanted to read more about King Arthur!  I can't wait to get to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight!