Finding Arthur (5 page)

Toward the end of the twelfth century, in Glasgow, the monk Jocelyn of Furness wrote an authorized version of a local saint, Mungo Kentigern. Jocelyn’s
Life of Kentigern
is one of the main pillars upon
which the story of Merlin stands. Jocelyn set about gathering source-material, and to his dismay he found that Mungo’s Christianity was not the same thing as his bishop’s Christianity. This was a problem for Jocelyn but not for long:

For by your command, I went around the … city, through its streets and quarters, searching for a written life of … [Mungo] Kentigern … I have discovered … a codicil … which is filled with solecisms all the way through and yet it contains a more unbroken account of the life and acts of the holy bishop. Seeing therefore the life of so esteemed a bishop, who was glorious with signs and portents and most famous in virtue and doctrine, perversely recited and turned away from the pure faith… I confess I suffered greatly. On that account, I therefore accepted to mend this life … and by binding my method to your command, to season with Roman salt what had been ploughed by barbarians.
¹⁴

Not only was Jocelyn prepared to “mend” history to suit his bishop’s book, he was also proud of what he had done and anxious that his bishop should know about it (no doubt because he expected some reward). Men like Jocelyn and his bishop controlled the written and the printed word in the millennium after the death of Arthur, and used this power to faithfully “cleanse” the historical record on an industrial scale. They left little unchanged or undeleted that they thought was contrary to the interests of the Church, and they unscrupulously added whatever inventions they thought might promote their ends. It is only through the dark glass of “histories” created by men like these that we can consider the matter of Arthur today.

Innumerable authors contributed to the story that became the legend of Arthur before Thomas Malory wrote
Le Morte d’Arthur
in the fifteenth century. Malory, who described himself as a “knight prisoner,” was accused of ambush, abduction, extortion, and rape, among other things (although there is reason to believe he was not guilty of rape, the woman being willing, the husband less so). Much of
Le Morte d’Arthur
was written while Malory was in prison. He was also a Member of Parliament.

The printing of books for general consumption was introduced about the time Malory was active and so it was that with the publication of
Le Morte d’Arthur
the legend of Arthur came to be fixed in the common consciousness. Certainly, before I came to read about Arthur, Merlin, and Camelot for the purposes of this book, the Arthurian story I knew was Malory-based, albeit with additions from a variety of other sources, including the poetry of Tennyson, the musical film
Camelot
, and the
Hotspur
comic for boys. The following account is what I remembered as the story of Arthur before I came to research this book.

Uther Pendragon, king of England, calls upon the wizard Merlin to help him seduce Igraine, the wife of the Duke of Cornwall. Merlin agrees to help on one condition: he is to be given charge of any child born of the union of Uther and Igraine. Uther agrees and so Merlin uses magic to change Uther’s shape to that of the Duke of Cornwall and so deceives Igraine into having sexual intercourse with Uther. By this means is Arthur conceived. The scene of this conception was always Tintagel in my mind, because this is what both Malory and Geoffrey said and because Tintagel is simply a spectacular location.

That night, the Duke of Cornwall is killed, which is fortunate for everyone except the Duke. Igraine discovers what has happened but still agrees to marry Uther and even more mysteriously agrees to hand over her newborn baby, Arthur, to Merlin. Merlin puts Arthur into the care of a foster family headed by the kindly Sir Ector—a family that includes Ector’s oafish son, Sir Kay—but still keeps in touch with Arthur over the years, as Arthur grows up bullied by Kay. (This part of my memory came primarily from Disney’s
The Sword in the Stone
.)

No one except Merlin knows who Arthur’s real father is, including Arthur, and so, when Uther dies, no one acclaims Arthur as king. Merlin suggests that a tournament be held in London, to which every knight in the realm will be invited, and where the matter will be decided. In London, Merlin reveals a large stone upon which stands an anvil with a sword stuck into it. Upon this Stone-Anvil combination is written, “Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of all England.”
¹⁵

Ector, Kay, and Arthur (by now Kay’s squire), go to London for the tournament along with everyone else of importance. One day, as he is on his way to a joust, Kay notices that he has forgotten his sword and sends Arthur back to their lodgings to fetch it. On the way there Arthur sees a sword sticking out of an anvil in the middle of a churchyard. (Apparently Arthur was not one for keeping up to date with current affairs and had not heard of this sword, although it must have been the talk of the town.) Rather than go back to their lodgings to get Kay’s sword, Arthur decides he will save some time and trouble and take the sword in the anvil instead. The fact that the sword is not his and that he will have to steal it does not seem to have occurred to Malory’s Arthur. (Of course, Malory was not writing a history but an entertainment based on historical material, and his priority was a good story. The story he produced is one of the greatest stories ever told.)

Arthur takes the sword from the anvil and presents it to his foster-brother, Kay, who, unlike Arthur, has obviously been listening to the news. Kay recognizes the sword and uses it to pretend he is the rightful king. Everyone heads back to the churchyard, and Kay is told to put the sword back in place and show everyone how he took it out. Of course Kay cannot get the sword out of the anvilstone, because of course Kay is not the rightful king (whatever a rightful king may be). Other knights try but none of them can take the sword from the stone.

Eventually Kay confesses that the sword was given to him by Arthur, and Arthur explains what happened. Then, before all, Arthur removes the sword from the anvil-stone. As I remembered the story, everyone then recognizes Arthur as the true king. Under the circumstances, who would be so churlish as not to recognize him?

Arthur sets up court at a place called Camelot and marries Guinevere who, just as one would expect, is very beautiful. (Her name means “most fair,” “very lovely,” “exceedingly beautiful,” “awfully good-looking”—something like that.) He then creates an order of knights whose members ride out on quests, in the course of which they right wrongs. This usually involves slaying dragons and fighting villainous knights in single combat. These knights also protect the meek
and the weak, although these tend to include a disproportionately high number of good-looking women.

At first, this questing consists of knights looking for good deeds to do, but with the arrival of knights like Galahad and Perceval, it mutates into knights seeking religious totems, such as the famous Holy Grail.

The Round Table is a common feature of every Arthurian story. It is usually said to have been made round to avoid any one knight having precedence. Even before I re-read Malory I thought this part was just more nonsense. While there may be no head to such a table, the most prestigious place would clearly have been near the king, especially the place at the king’s right hand. Whatever the reason for the table being round, in the stories I knew knights travel from far and wide to join the Knights of the Round Table, including the best knight of all, Lancelot of the Lake, who comes from France to become Arthur’s friend and right-hand man.

Before I started researching
Finding Merlin
I thought the sword Arthur takes from the stone was Excalibur. I had forgotten the equally famous story in which Arthur is given Excalibur by the Lady of the Lake. It was only when I re-read
Le Morte d’Arthur
that I realized that the sword Arthur takes from the stone is broken in battle and that Merlin later brings Arthur to a lake in the woods, where a woman’s arm rises from the water, holding Excalibur. This lady of the lake then gives Excalibur to Arthur. My memory of this event has always included the startling slow-motion version from John Boorman’s film
Excalibur
, with the words of Tennyson as my personal voice-over: “… an arm / Rose up from out the bosom of the lake, / Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,/ Holding the sword …”
¹⁶

Having taken part in this last great set piece in the early part of the Arthurian legend, Merlin becomes a hindrance to achieving the conflict required from a good story. Until this point everything he has done for Arthur has been successful; he has arranged Arthur’s conception and his elevation to the throne, supervised the creation of the Round Table, provided Arthur with a magical sword, and seen him married to a nice girl. Now, for the story to remain interesting, everything has to go awry. This would be difficult to explain if a man as
wise as Merlin were still around and so Merlin has to go. In the film versions Merlin is quite literally written out of the picture. He usually just slips away without any fuss, leaving Arthur to deal with things on his own.

On the few occasions when Merlin is the center of attention, usually in the written versions of the stories, he is given his own romantic interest: sometimes Viviane, sometimes Nimuë, but always a beautiful young woman determined to learn all he knows about magic. Merlin falls in love with Nimuë, and, although he knows she will use his teachings against him, tells her all his secrets. Viviane-Nimuë uses the power Merlin has given to her to imprison him in a rock or a tree or a crystal cave, or some such thing.

With Merlin out of the way, Guinevere and Lancelot start their adulterous affair. There is a clear turning point in the stories around the time Merlin disappears. Until then Arthur has been the central hero and the plot has revolved around him, but now Arthur begins to take second place to Lancelot. It is also usually around the time Merlin disappears that Mordred, always the villain, appears on the scene.

Mordred is either Arthur’s nephew or, in more explicit tales, Arthur’s son-nephew, the result of an incestuous relationship between Arthur and his sister (what I think of as the
Chinatown
versions). I always found it curious that Arthur, who until this point has always been a heroic figure, should suddenly be portrayed as engaged in an incestuous relationship. This is not the kind of thing one expects of a hero.

Mordred hates Arthur and is jealous of Lancelot. Ambitious to be king, he plots to divide the Knights of the Round Table by telling Arthur of Lancelot’s affair with Guinevere. Lancelot is forced to flee (people never just ran away in those days, they always fled). Arthur, bound to enforce the law, condemns Guinevere to death, but before she can be burned at the stake, Lancelot rides into town and snatches her away from the flames. Again, Arthur is made to look weak, especially in comparison to the heroic Lancelot.

The Knights of the Round Table are divided. Some remain loyal to Arthur. Others side with Mordred. Civil war breaks out. The two armies meet in battle at a place called Camlann. In the course of negotiations
between the opposing armies, an adder appears near a knight’s foot. The knight draws his sword to kill the adder. The soldiers on the other side, thinking they are about to be attacked, also draw their swords and the battle begins.

Arthur wins but it is a hollow victory:

And thus they fought all the long day and never stinted till the noble knights were to the cold earth; and ever they fought still till it was near night, and by that time was there an hundred thousand laid dead upon the down. Then was Arthur wood wroth out of measure, when he saw his people so slain from him.
¹⁷

Arthur engages Mordred in single combat and strikes him through the body with his spear. Mordred pushes the spear up to the limit to get close to Arthur and then strikes him hard on the head before falling “stark dead to the earth.”
¹⁸

That Arthur kills Mordred in single combat while at the same time receiving a mortal wound was always too Holmes-and-Moriarty-going-over-the-Reichenbach-Falls-together for my liking. This kind of thing just seemed too melodramatic to be true, as did the boy-meets-girl romantic elements and the Lady of the Lake—simply the medieval equivalent of special effects. The death of Arthur as described by Malory reads like pure fiction.

Arthur, severely wounded, is carried from the field by Bedevere, one of his few remaining knights. Believing himself close to death, Arthur orders Bedevere to take Excalibur and throw it into nearby water, usually described as a lake, although Malory simply says water. Twice Bedevere hides Excalibur under a bush and tells Arthur he had obeyed his orders. It is only when he is commanded for a third time to throw Excalibur into the water that he does what he has been told to do. A woman’s arm rises from the surface of the lake, catches the sword and brandishes it before drawing it down, back into the water.

Then women arrive in a barge and take Arthur away with them to tend to his wounds in Avalon, an island somewhere in the western sea. There Arthur is to remain until his people need him again. He is Arthur,
Rex Quondam Rexque Futurus
, The Once and Future King.

This, broadly, is the story I grew up with. I got my visuals from comics and then from films in which the English countryside (it was always England) often looked a lot like California. John Boorman’s film
Excalibur
eventually supplanted most of these images.

No one today seriously suggests that Malory was even trying to write history, any more than anyone today would claim that Mel Gibson was trying to produce a historical documentary when he made the film
Braveheart
. But this doesn’t mean that Malory and Mel Gibson created their fictions from nothing or that Arthur and William Wallace were not real historical figures.