Matter of Britain

The Matter of Britain is the body of Medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany, and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great story cycles recalled repeatedly in medieval literature, together with the Matter of France, which concerned the legends of Charlemagne, and the Matter of Rome, which included material derived from or inspired by classical mythology.
==History==
The three "Matters" were first described in the 12th century by French poet Jean Bodel, whose epic La Chanson des Saisnes ("Song of the Saxons") contains the line:
Ne sont que III matières à nul homme atandant,
De France et de Bretaigne, et de Rome la grant.
"Not but with three matters no man should attend:
Of France, and of Britain, and of Rome the grand."
The name distinguishes and relates the Matter of Britain from the mythological themes taken from classical antiquity, the "Matter of Rome", and the tales of the Paladins of Charlemagne and their wars with the Moors and Saracens, which constituted the "Matter of France". Arthur is the chief subject of the Matter of Britain, along with stories related to the legendary kings of the British, as well as lesser-known topics related to the history of Great Britain and Brittany, such as the stories of Brutus of Troy, Coel Hen, Leir of Britain (King Lear), and Gogmagog.
==Themes and subjects==
===Legendary history of Britain===
It could be said that the legendary history of Britain was created partly to form a body of patriotic myth for the country. Several agendas thus can be seen in this body of literature.
The Historia Brittonum, the earliest known source of the story of Brutus of Troy, may have been devised to create a distinguished genealogy for a number of Welsh princes in the 9th century. Traditionally attributed to Nennius, its actual compiler is unknown; it exists in several recensions. This tale went on to achieve greater currency because its inventor linked Brutus to the diaspora of heroes that followed the Trojan War, and thus provided raw material which later mythographers such as Geoffrey of Monmouth, Michael Drayton, and John Milton could draw upon, linking the settlement of Britain to the heroic age of Greek literature, for their several and diverse literary purposes. As such, this material could be used for patriotic myth-making just as Virgil linked the founding of Rome to the Trojan War in The Æneid. Geoffrey of Monmouth also introduced the fanciful claim that the Trinovantes, reported by Tacitus as dwelling in the area of London, had a name he interpreted as Troi-Novant, "New Troy".
More speculative claims link Welsh mythology with several of the rulers and incidents compiled by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniæ. It has been suggested, for instance, that Leir of Britain, who later became Shakespeare's King Lear, was originally the Welsh sea-god Llŷr (see also the Irish sea-god Ler). Various Celtic deities have been identified with characters from Arthurian literature as well: for example Morgan le Fay was often thought to have originally been the Welsh goddess Modron (cf. the Morrígan). Many of these identifications come from the speculative comparative religion of the late 19th century and have been questioned in more recent years.
William Shakespeare was interested in the legendary history of Britain, and was familiar with some of its more obscure byways. Shakespeare's plays contain several tales relating to these legendary kings, such as King Lear and Cymbeline. It has been suggested that Shakespeare's Welsh schoolmaster Thomas Jenkins introduced him to this material, and perhaps directed him to read Geoffrey of Monmouth. These tales also figure in Raphael Holinshed's The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which also appears in Shakespeare's sources for Macbeth.
Other early authors also drew from the early Arthurian and pseudo-historical sources of the Matter of Britain. The Scots, for instance, formulated a mythical history in the Picts and the Dál Riata royal lines. While they do eventually become factual lines, unlike those of Geoffrey, their origins are vague and often incorporate both aspects of mythical British history and mythical Irish history. The story of Gabrán mac Domangairt especially incorporates elements of both those histories.
===Arthurian cycle===
The Arthurian literary cycle is the best-known part of the Matter of Britain. It has succeeded largely because it tells two interlocking stories that have intrigued many later authors. One concern Camelot, usually envisioned as a doomed utopia of chivalric virtue, undone by the fatal flaws of Arthur and Sir Lancelot. The other concerns the quests of the various knights to achieve the Holy Grail; some succeed (Galahad, Percival), and others fail (Lancelot).
The Arthurian tales have been changed throughout time, and other characters have been added to add backstory and expand on other knights of the round table.
The medieval tale of Arthur and his knights is full of Christian themes; those themes involve the destruction of human plans for virtue by the moral failures of their characters, and the quest for an important Christian relic. Finally, the relationships between the characters invited treatment in the tradition of courtly love, such as Lancelot and Guinevere, or Tristan and Iseult. In more recent years, the trend has been to attempt to link the tales of King Arthur and his knights with Celtic mythology, usually in highly romanticized, early 20th century reconstructed versions.
The work of Jessie Weston, in particular From Ritual to Romance, traced Arthurian imagery through Christianity to roots in early nature worship and vegetation rites, though this interpretation is no longer fashionable.
Additionally, it is possible to read the Arthurian literature in general, and that concerned with the Grail tradition in particular, as an allegory of human development and spiritual growth (a theme explored by mythologist Joseph Campbell amongst others).
==Characters==
===Legendary kings and founders===
*Ambrosius Aurelianus
*Brutus of Troy
*Cassivellaunus
*Cadwaladr
*Caradocus
*Corineus
*Coel Hen
*Constantine
*Cunobeline (Shakespeare's Cymbeline)
*Leir of Britain (Shakespeare's King Lear)
*Lot
*Mark of Cornwall
*Urien
*Uther Pendragon
===Arthur and his entourage===
* King Arthur
* the Round Table
* Guinevere, wife of Arthur
* Excalibur, Arthur's magic sword
* Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur
* Camelot, Arthur's capital
* Mordred, Arthur's heir and enemy
* Avalon, Arthur's resting place
===Knights of the Round Table===
* Agravain
* Bedivere
* Bors
* Caradoc
* Gaheris
* Galahad
* Galehaut
* Gareth
* Gawain
* Geraint
* Lamorak
* Lancelot
* Kay
* Lucan
* Palamedes
* Pelleas
* Pellinore
* Percival
* Sagramore
* Tristan
* Ywain
===Other important figures===
* Sir Ector
* Lady of the Lake
* Merlin
* Morgan le Fay
==Noteworthy authors==
===Medieval===
 
Author 	Century	Œuvres
Béroul 	12th 	Tristan
Chrétien de Troyes 	12th 	Erec and Enide, Cligès, Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, Perceval, the Story of the Grail
Geoffrey Chaucer 	14th 	The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey of Monmouth 	12th 	Historia Regum Britanniae
Gottfried von Strassburg	13th 	Tristan
Hartmann von Aue 	12th 	Erec, Ywain
Layamon 	13th 	Brut
Thomas Malory 	15th 	Le Morte d'Arthur
Marie de France 	12th 	The Lais of Marie de France: Lai de Yonec, Lai de Frêne, Lai de Lanval (...)
Nennius 	09th 	Historia Brittonum
Robert de Boron 	12th 	Estoire dou Graal
Taliesin 	06th 	Book of Taliesin
Thomas of Britain 	12th 	Tristan and Iseult
Wace 	12th 	Roman de Brut, Roman de Rou
Wolfram von Eschenbach 	12th 	Parzival
Raoul de Houdenc 	12th 	Meraugis de Portlesguez
Païen de Maisières 	13th 	La Demoiselle à la mule (also called La Mule sans frein)
Rustichello da Pisa 	13th 	Roman de Roi Artus, Gyron le courtois, Meliadus de Leonnoys (Meliadus)
Ulrich von Zatzikhoven 	13th 	Lanzelet
===Anonymous===
 
Œuvres 	Century
Alliterative Morte Arthur 	14th–15th century
L'âtre périlleux (on Gawain) 	13th century
Blandin de Cornouaille 	14th century
Le Chevalier à l'Épée 	
Le Chevalier au Papegau 	
La Demoiselle à la Mule 	12th century
Folie Tristan d'Oxford 	12th century
Gliglois (hero who enters the service of Gawain) 	
Hunbaut 	
Le Roman de Jaufré 	
The Lancelot-Grail Cycle 	13th century
Life of Caradoc 	
The Mabinogion (medieval Welsh) 	
Les Merveilles de Rigomer (Lancelot, Gawain and 58 knights)	13th century
Of Arthour and of Merlin 	13th century
Perlesvaus ou le Haut Livre du Graal 	13th century
The Post-Vulgate Cycle 	13th century
Prose Tristan 	
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 	14th century
Stanzaic Morte Arthur 	14th century
===Modern===
* Lloyd Alexander
* Alexandre Astier
* René Barjavel
* T. A. Barron
* Marion Zimmer Bradley
* Gillian Bradshaw
* Deepak Chopra
* Bernard Cornwell
* Sara Douglass
* Michael Drayton
* Hal Foster
* Parke Godwin
* Roger Lancelyn Green
* Raphael Holinshed
* Eric Idle
* David Jones
* Debra A. Kemp
* Stephen Lawhead
* C. S. Lewis
* Rosalind Miles
* Howard Pyle
* Michel Rio
* William Shakespeare
* Edmund Spenser
* John Steinbeck
* Mary Stewart
* Rosemary Sutcliff
* Alfred, Lord Tennyson
* J. R. R. Tolkien
* Mark Twain
* Richard Wagner
* Charles White
* T. H. White
* Jack Whyte
* Charles Williams
* Elizabeth Wein
* Fred Saberhagen
==See also==
* Battle of Badon
* Breton mythology
* Chivalry
* Corineus
* Cornish mythology
* English historians in the Middle Ages
* Glastonbury
* Historical basis for King Arthur
* Holy Grail
* Knights of the Round Table
* List of Arthurian characters
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail (film)
* Excalibur (film)
* Pendragon (fiction series)
* Sites and places associated with Arthurian legend
* The Faerie Queene (poem)
* The Mists of Avalon (book)
* Welsh mythology
==References==
===Footnotes===
==External links==
*The Camelot Project contains a large selection of Arthurian etexts from the sixth to the early 20th centuries
*International Arthurian Society
*Arthurian Resources: King Arthur, History and the Welsh Arthurian Legends - detailed and comprehensive academic site, includes numerous scholarly articles, from Thomas Green of Oxford University
*Arthuriana - the only academic journal solely concerned with the Arthurian Legend with a selection of resources and links
*The Medieval Development of Arthurian Literature - from H2G2
*The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester - provides valuable bibliographies and freely downloadable versions of Arthurian texts
*Celtic Literature Collective - provides texts and translations (of varying quality) of Welsh medieval sources, many of which mention Arthur
*The Heroic Age - an online peer-reviewed journal which includes regular Arthurian articles, especially the first issue
*Arthurian Folklore - a website detailing Welsh Arthurian folklore
*Vortigern Studies - a collection of articles on King Arthur by various Arthurian enthusiasts
 
Category:Breton mythology and folklore
Category:British folklore
Category:British traditional history
Category:English folklore
Category:Medieval legends
Category:Medieval literature