King Arthur and Lancelot

Presents: Contemporary Interpretations of the Legends of Good King Arthur and his Noble Knights of the Table Round

A Gallery of New Paintings, Drawings and Pictures in a variety of mixed media ~

The Lady in the Lake

Tales of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table

King Arthur and Sir Lancelot

Did King Arthur Ever Really Live?

   Did King Arthur ever really live? For more than a thousand years there has been debate over this question. Top authors and scholars from medieval times were furious about the fables that sprang up around the name of Arthur, the historical Romano-British king from the 5th Century. Did you know the real life Robin Hood ( before the legend was Christianized ) actually fought the ancient Romans during the reign of Emperor Claudius and was really a Celtic Warrior named Caracticus?

     Certainly a historical King Arthur lived but this stubborn oral folklore was not merely of a possible historic figure, but a survival of pre-historic myth, a hero of romance, and a fairy king. What began as an underground stream of oral tradition has emerged as a mighty river of literature, possibly the greatest fiction works of all time. In these prose romances he is a noble knight and a monarch of great splendor, riches and generosity who enjoyed the admiration of all. We are also told that all fairy haunted places, wherever they may be- belong to King Arthur. ( Brun de la Montage, Biblitheque Nationale )

       It is now generally regarded as fact that the Celtic legends of history surrounding the medieval King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table  and Guinevere are really derived from the Religion of the Ancient Britons. It is also believed by many scholars that the attributes and events of the life of King Artaius and Gwenhwyvar of the British gods have been applied to the actual historical King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in an attempt to preserve the oral traditions of their ancient Celtic spiritual and cultural heritage against the persecution of the Romans during the dark ages... Merlin was Myrddin, Mordred was Medrawt, Galahad was Gwalchaved and Sir Kay was Kai to name a few.

Note the images of Heraldry on all the shields, flags and garments in the art in this gallery. Arthur has a kingly lion, while Lancelot has the Piscean opposing fish imagery since he came across the water and had the conflict of being both Arthur's most loyal knight, but also having betrayed him by having an affair with Guinevere, the queen he was appointed to protect. In real life, the heraldic crests were the symbols of family groups and had many other very definite meanings

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The Idylls of the King

The Magic Sword, Excalibur

Baron Bisclavret, The Werewolf Knight

The Sword of Lancelot

Merlin, the Dragon's Breath, and King Arthur's Parents~

King Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur had a vision of a dragon that was considered a mighty omen. Uther took one of Merlin's potions which rendered him an exact likeness of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall and husband of Igraine. She was like Helen of Troy and Uther was consumed with desire for her... with Merlin's Dragon's Breath spell he was able to gain entrance the castle and to Igraine, his wife more than three hours after the duke of Cornwall's death,  Thinking he was her husband, she allowed Uther into her bed, and King Arthur was conceived.

King Uther takes Igraine	Merlin claims the infant Arthur	King Uther driveth the Sword into the stone
Merlin demanded custody of the child in return for the spell... On the night he claimed Arthur Igraine drove Uther to try and break his pact with Merlin to retrieve the child... Uther vwas beset by assassins and killed, but as he staggered drove the sword of power into the stone and Merlin cast a spell that it could not be drawn by ANY save the rightwise King of England.

The Sword in the Stone

The Sword in the Stone- When no one could remove it, Caliburn rested, and they built a great cathedral before it...

The Name of the sword is surrounded by controversy as well as are the different myths regarding its origins. The idea of one sword  is recent, there were always two before the advent of motion pictures. The two swords of King Arthur were the sword drawn from the rock which proved the kingship of the true heir and the true  sword Excalibur; or "cut steel". In early English and French traditions the sword was Caliburn; a magical sword from Avalon.   One story tells us Caliburn comes from Caledfwlch, the original Welsh name for the sword, from the Mabinogion. It is also  considered to be an incarnation of Caladbolg, a sword wielded by several figures from Irish mythology.

Merlin sees to it Young Arthur is raised correctly in secret in the noble Sir Ector's home

Yet another source tells us the name Excalibur comes from Greek origins, Ex-Kylie-Pyr or "out of a cup~fire". That the Holy Grail 
was one of the items the ancient gods used to draw down the Sun in order to make fire. Excalibur, to them, was a "brand of light" 
and associated with Aaron's Rod. Just as only Aaron or Moses could activate the powers in the rod, so only Arthur could pull 
Excalibur from the stone.  We are also told Excalibur was originally derived from the Latin phrase Ex calce liberatus, "liberated 
from the stone". Are they related or just similar?  The world's scholars have been debating since the Middle Ages..

Sir Kay - son of Ector oversees the Boy's Training and makes sure it is deadly enough to make him fearless

       After Arthur draws the Sword from the Stone the nobles do not all accept him as king and there is war...

    The Legendary King Arthur with the Sword- from the tale of King Pellinor and the Questing Beast.

The Lady of the Lake

The Lady of the Lake was a title given to several different or related figures in the Arthurian Cycle.  This mysterious female gave Arthur the magic sword, Excalibur. Was she a Celtic lake divinity in origin, the same kind as the Gwagged Annwn?     More likely she was originally a lake fairy from Welsh folklore. Of many similar water spirit legends with many names, Nimue is the best choice for this particular Lady of the Lake - the very one who also enchanted Merlin and imprisoned him forever.        There is controversy over what King Arthur had to promise the Lady of the Lake in return for Excalibur. Legends record the lady told Arthur that the sword belonged to her.

The Lady of the Lake - delivering Excalibur

She would grant Excalibur to Arthur if and only if the young king grant her his service in return. In one account Arthur gave his pledge to the Lady of the Lake that he would, in another he refused citing murder was an unjust request. My favorite choice was that he promised to protect the beliefs and culture of the pagan people of which Nimue was the head of being the incarnation of the mother goddess on earth.   This pledge King Arthur broke when Guinevere persuaded him to fight exclusively under the banner of Christianity. King Arthur then received a new sword from the Lady of the Lake, which was exclusively then called Excalibur.

  Sir Thomas Malory distinguished the sword in the stone from the sword he received from the Lady of the Lake,in "Le Morte D'Arthur" and it was only this second sword that was the true Excalibur in the 15th Century.    " Le Morte D'Arthur" is the work most modern authors use as their source and it differs greatly from earlier versions dating back to pre-historic tales of heathen gods and fairy kings which were modified and expanded upon in the 13th century Vulgate Cycle, also known as the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, and in the Post-Vulgate Cycle which surfaced in its wake. Primitive cultures often remodeled the older myths to adapt to changes wrought by religion, revolution, war or  technology, and usually glossed over the brutality and corrupt motives.  

Merlin the Magician

Little of the Merlin legend in Le Morte d'Arthur is completely new and the tales from his earlier life are omitted. The main events in the Arthurian Cycle include Merlin's king-making role, his influencing the Archbishop of Canterbury to summon all the lords who would be king to assemble in London at Christmas, and to come to mass and pray and afterward the great marble stone is seen with the sword in it with the famous inscription that whoever draws the sword is "rightwise king born of all England."

Merlin the Magician, mentor of King Arthur

 The original Merlin (Myrddin) legend is not associated with King Arthur. In Welsh poems he was a prophetic Wild Man living in the Caledonian forest in the 6th century. Other Scottish sources name this Wild Man as Lailoken, not Myrddin, but the story is similar. 

King Arthur seeks Merlin's Advice

Morgan Le Fay ~Arthurian Sorceress

Morgan Le Fay or Morgan of the Fairies

Morgan Le Fey; Beautiful sister of King Arthur and famed Arthurian sorceress, was said to be "the most frightful witch in all  Christendom'. She was a shape-shifter, a healer, incarnation of a benevolent fairy, a heathen priestess, and sole personage of  Avalon the Isle of Apples, a sea goddess, the daughter of Goloris, (the Duke of Cornwall) and Igraine , mother of Mordred, (who  was also King Arthur's incestuous son,) the lady-in-waiting to Queen Guinevere, the wife of Uriens, secret lover of Sir Accolon, an  admirer of Sir Lancelot, and 'as fair a lady as any might be' among other things.    She first appeared in Arthurian legend around AD 1150, but her true origin stems from Celtic mythology and like so many Arthurian characters, is altered with each re-telling to suit the story teller.

The Education of Morgan Le Fay

Knights in Shining Armor

This magnificent King Arthur as we now know him... the King Arthur riding around on a mighty steed in shining plate armor rescuing beautiful maidens and performing noble deeds such as questing for the Holy Grail really did not appear until the 12th century A.D. This is the earliest appearance of the plate armour wearing King Arthur and  the knights of the Round Table that we know so well in our literature, motion pictures and  folklore.

The Green Knight, Merlin and the Vision of the Sword and Sir Gawain & the Green Knight

The Code of Chivalry

The Age of Chivalry [The damsel in distress]

      No collection of Art work devoted to the Legends of King Arthur would be complete without a damsel in distress or a villainous 
scoundrel like Mordred performing an abduction, making treacherous alliances and doing foul deeds.
     The Code of Chivalry demanded a knight be always ready with his armor on, except when taking his rest at night. That he defend ALL women, as well as the poor and the weak without reward, to be honest at all times no matter what the cost and of course to defend his faith, his home and his country with his life.  
  In "De Casibus Virorum Illustrium" Giovanni Boccaccio states these basic rules of the Knights of the Round Table:

The Code of Chivalry

*To never lay down arms* To seek after wonders* When called upon, to defend the rights of the weak with all one's strength*To injure no one*Not to attack one another*To fight for the safety of one's country*To give one's life for one's country*To seek nothing before honor*Never to break faith for any reason*To practice religion most diligently*To grant hospitality to anyone, each according to his ability*Whether in honor or disgrace, to make a report with the greatest fidelity to truth to those who keep annals*

The Fair Ladies of Camelot

Down to towered Camelot; And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy, Listening, whispers " 'Tis the fairy Lady of Shalott."

"The Lady of Shalott" (2010) Above was inspired by Tennyson and paintings of the same name by J. W. Waterhouse and borrows from the Hon. John Collier.

Sir Lancelot and his Ladies Fair

Lady Elaine of Corbenic and the Sorceress Dame Brusen	The Queen's Champion" Sir Lancelot and Guinevere.	The Fair Lady Huntress of Windsor Forest

The Lady Elaine of Corbenic, is identified as "The Grail Maiden" or "Grail Bearer" showed Lancelot the Grail. Her surpassing beauty made the sorceress Morgan le Fay so jealous she magically trapped her in a boiling bath. Sir Lancelot rescues her and Elaine falls in love with him, only to find he is already in love with Queen Guinevere and would not knowingly sleep with any other woman. In order to seduce Lancelot, Elaine goes to the sorceress Dame Brusen for help. Dame Brusen gives Lancelot wine and Elaine a ring of Guinevere's in order to trick Lancelot into thinking Elaine is Guinevere, who later caught thewm and went into a jealous rage. She loved Lancelot to her dying day and bore his son, Sir Galahad. The Fair Lady Huntress of Windsor Forest was noted for shooting Lancelot in the buttocks so deeply he could not get the arrowhead out before the Grand Tournament.

King Arthur and Queen Guinevere

   Of course the most notable and desperately beautiful of the Arthurian Fair Maidens would be King Arthur's wife...

The Betrothal of King Arthur and Guinevere

When the barons suggested it was time the young king took a wife, he told Merlin that he loved Guinevere, but Merlin warned him that she wasn't wholesome enough to be his wife, and prophesied that she would betray him, break his heart and tear his kingdom down around his ears...

The Wedding of King Arthur & Guinevere

 A Celtic queen was equal in status to a King and conducted their affairs unhindered.  Queen Guinevere's involvement with other men, willingly or unwillingly, was an ongoing theme throughout the Arthurian Cycle.  Guinevere's abductions are the epitome of the damsel in distress, though she was never in danger of death, but the object of desire. Guinevere, Arthur, and Lancelot, formed the most celebrated love-triangle in European literature. In Tennyson's "Idylls of the King", Sir Balin went in search of a demon in the lands of King Pellam. He took Guinevere as his inspiration for this task, but when he witnesses a meeting between her and Lancelot one day, he flees Camelot shattered—what has he just seen? When he shouted in anguish, his brother who came to help him struck out at the cry and killed his brother. Tragically, the ideal woman, Guinevere remained childless, morally dubious, an unfaithful woman who loved a man to whom she could never give children. Lancelot did  rescue her from being burnt at the stake for adultery. 

The Anguish of Guinevere

Sir Lancelot rescues Gwinevere from the Stake

King Arthur forgives Guinevere

 Arthur's Last Battles

After Arthur  leaves the convent, he rides to what he knows will be his last battle. In “The Passing of Arthur,” he kills Mordred and receives a fatal wound in the process. He asks his last remaining faithful knight, Bedivere, to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. Bedivere fails twice before finally managing to throw it in on his third attempt. Three ladies arrive on the shore of the lake in a boat in which Bedivere places Arthur at his request. Bedivere watches the boat disappear into the sunrise.

The Quest for the Holy Grail

Святой Грааль Художник Говард Дэвид Джонсон

The morphology of the Grail Legend: From it's origin as Celtic Myth and development over time into a powerful Christian Symbol draws a connection between the concept of the feminine "Grail-bearer" and the ancient sovereignty goddess of Ireland, Ériu, [Erin] who prefigures the Christian Legend by granting the chalice only to the worthy.

The Grail Maiden	The Quest for the Grail	Sir Galahad
By Merlin's prophecy,~ Sir Percival, Sir Bors, and Sir Galahad were the only three Round Table Knights shall achieve the Grail Quest — two virgin knights and one who is chaste; and the best of these was Galahad. In the King Arthur legends the quest for the Holy Grail was the highest spiritual undertaking for a knight. The Holy Grail is the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper and Joseph of Arimathea used it to catch Christ's blood and sweat during the crucifixion. The Round Table of Camelot recreated the table of the Grail built by Joseph of Arimathea as an archetype of the table from the Lord's Supper. Through many adventures over many years, Knights of the Round Table searched Britain high and low for it. Sir Galahad was the chief Grail knight, though other knights, Perceval and Bors also achieved the quest, achieving fulfillment- seeing grail and man lifted up to heaven as Moses, Elijah and Enoch were in the Bible. The quest for a divine vessel was a popular theme in ancient British mythologies. Celtic Cauldrons were of great religious importance,as evidenced in the Arthurian Cycle and much older Celtic mythological legends. It appears in the Mabinogion tale of Culhwch and Olwen, and in the "Spoils of the Otherworld" in which the Celtic Arthur and his warriors voyage to the Celtic Otherworld to obtain the pearl-rimmed Cauldron of Annwfn and like the grail it was both a bringer of prophecy and prosperity.

British Kings and Dragons

  Dragons make both physical and symbolic appearances in Arthurian legend, Arthur, like his father Uther, was called "Pendragon," (Head Dragon). As a warrior-king it associates him with its fearsome qualities.    Merlin's prophecy to King Vortigern reveals that Vortigern's tower cannot stand because its foundation rests over the den of two struggling dragons. 

Defenders of the Faith

Once the dragons are released from the ground, the white dragon kills the red one and then dies itself. Although Merlin said that the dragons symbolize Vortigern and those who will defeat him, this prophecy suggests a more foreboding interpretation to an audience aware of Camelot's immenent fall. Merlin's prophetic relationship with the Kings of Britian had been  profound for generations, and accounts as far back as AD 574 describe them in various forms.

    It is in "The History of the Kings of Britain" (Historia Regum Britanniae) written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century, that the Arthurian legend with Merlin begins to take shape. 

The Dragon Slayer 

Uther began a tradition of using the Dragons war like and terrible effigies as standards, carrying them into battle to "strike fear into the hearts of the heathen." Dragons were a very real terror even as late as 1564 appearing as part of the fauna known to medieval naturalists in the classic "Historia animalium" of Conrad Gesner.

The Crusader and the Dragons

    Dragons were at times also conceived as beneficent powers - Wiley and sharp eyed dwellers of the innermost portions of the Earth, wise to discover it's secrets and utter them in oracles, or powerful to invoke as guardian Genii ( Djinn ). In the sacred Hebrew texts ( The Holy Bible ) the Serpent or Dragon was the source of sin and death, a conception which was adopted by the New Testament and so passed into Knightly Christendom. Dragons and other mythic creatures were painted on shields and the Vikings carved Dragons heads onto the prows of their ships.

     The Dragon myths of the east took new forms in the west in the legends of the victories of St. Michael and St. George. The Dragon is a guardian of hoards, a greedy withholder of good things from men; keen witted rulers of cavernous underworlds. 

The FIRE Drake

Dragons were usually a power of evil, and the slaying of a dragon the crowning achievement of heroes. Sigfried, Siegmund, Beowulf, Arthur, Tristram, and even Lancelot the "beau Ideal" of Medieval chivalry were all dragon slayers...The King Arthur legends are still continuously a part of our modern culture in motion pictures, art, music, & literature and are constantly evolving to the delight of ordinary people and defying historians everywhere. The belief in dragons seems to have risen all over the world without even the slightest knowledge of dinosaurs...

Origins of Arthuriana
Historia Brittonum ~  [The History of the Britons - dated to about 829A.D. ] has profoundly influenced the legends and myths surrounding King Arthur. The earliest source presenting Arthur as a historical figure, This work is an imaginative and fanciful account and the source of several stories which were repeated and amplified by later authors in prose and poetry for centuries to come... Giants and dragons, were-beasts wizards monsters and all the tropes of today's high fantasy can be found in its pages...

Howard Pyle's "The Story of King Arthur" was one of my boyhood favorites along with T .H. White's "The Sword in the Stone" and "The Boy's King Arthur" by Thomas Mallory illustrated by N.C. Wyeth.	The Boy King	"King Arthur through the Ages" by Lady Charlotte Guest, Sir John Knowles & Dr. Colin Bradshaw-Jones fearuring illustrations by Howard David Johnson- Available on Amazon

Bibliography/Acknowledgements

Howard Pyle: "The Story of King Arthur and his Knights" T. H. White: "The Sword in the Stone" Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, M.A.  "Keltic Researches" John Rhys: "Studies in the Arthurian Legend" and " Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Celtic Heathendom" Alfred Nutt: "Popular studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore" Nennius: Historia Britonum and  "Le Mort D' Arthur" Sir Thomas Mallory

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