Matter of Britain#Arthurian cycle

The three "matters" were first described in the 12th century by French poet Jean Bodel, whose epic {{ill|Chanson des Saisnes|fr}} ("Song of the Saxons") contains the lines:

{{verse translation|lang=fro|Ne sont que III matières à nul homme atandant:

De France et de Bretaigne et de Rome la grant

|There are only three subject matters for any discerning man:

That of France, that of Britain, and that of great Rome.{{cite book|last1=Bodel|first1=Jean|last2=Stengel|first2=Edmund|last3=Menzel|first3=Fritz|date=1906|title=Jean Bodels Saxenlied. Teil I. Unter Zugrundlegung der Turiner Handschrift von neuem herausgegeben von F. Menzel und E. Stengel.|language=de|url=https://archive.org/details/jean_bodels_saxenlied/page/n7/mode/2up|location=Marburg|publisher=Elwert'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung}}}}

The name distinguishes and relates the Matter of Britain from the mythological themes taken from classical antiquity, the "Matter of Rome", and from the tales of the Paladins of Charlemagne and their wars with the Moors and Saracens, which constitute the "Matter of France".

King Arthur is the chief subject of the Matter of Britain. The others are stories related to the legendary kings of Britain, 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.

Geoffrey of Monmouth's {{Lang|la|Historia Regum Britanniae}} is a central component of the Matter of Britain. Geoffrey drew on a number of ancient British texts, including the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, the earliest known source of the story of Brutus of Troy. 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. 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 lists Coel Hen as a King of the Britons,{{harvp|Geoffrey of Monmouth|1966}} whose daughter, Helena, marries Constantius Chlorus and gives birth to a son who becomes the Emperor Constantine the Great, thus tracing the Roman imperial line to British ancestors. It prominently included the King Arthur material, in which the post-Roman Britons led by Arthur briefly conquer much of Europe, including Rome itself, in the style of great world conquerors of antiquity.

According to John J. Davenport, the question of Britain's identity and significance in the world "was a theme of special importance for writers trying to find unity in the mixture of their land's Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Roman and Norse inheritance."{{harvp|Davenport|2004}} Geoffrey's pseudo-history succeeded in providing a body of national myth for the new Norman England, portraying the Norman Conquest as a restoration of Britain of the Celtic Britons, delivered from the rule of Arthur's ancient enemies, the Anglo-Saxons.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DyZzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21|title=Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages|first=Stephen|last=Knight|date=18 October 2018|publisher=Cornell University Press|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RZmfBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA142|title=Torture and Brutality in Medieval Literature: Negotiations of National Identity|first=Larissa|last=Tracy|date=28 April 2015|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|via=Google Books}} Geoffrey's work, especially the Arthur material, was further expanded on and reworked by later medieval chroniclers in his wake.

Others 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 Pictish 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. William Shakespeare was interested in the legendary history of Britain. His plays contain several tales relating to these legendary kings, such as King Lear and Cymbeline. These tales also figure in Raphael Holinshed's The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which too appears in Shakespeare's sources for Macbeth.

The Arthurian legend (French légende arthurienne), also known as the Arthurian myth or Arthuriana, is the best-known part of the Matter of Britain. The "historical" (but already containing fantasy elements) Arthurian content of Geoffrey and his successors (notably Wace), along with Welsh and Breton tales (notably the Mabinogion), many of them now-lost oral traditions and unrecorded troubadour works, became the foundation for writers of Arthurian chivalric romances. Many, more or less fantastical, stories in verse and prose came out from France and later England (due to its close ties with France), as well as various other European countries, in the sub-genre known as Arthurian romance that first emerged in Northern France during the second half of the 12th century.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a1h4O_7A1iYC&pg=PA201|title=The Development of Arthurian Romance|first=Roger Sherman|last=Loomis|date=13 November 2012|publisher=Courier Corporation|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=soMHEQAAQBAJ&pg=PA117|title=An Introduction to Middle High German|first1=Howard|last1=Jones|first2=Martin H.|last2=Jones|date=10 July 2024|publisher=Oxford University Press|via=Google Books}} Besides the creation of original works of Arthurian romance in France and other countries (notably in Germany since the late 12th century), in particular the works of the Francophone prose circulated widely across cultures, having been translated (and often altered) in many countries throughout Europe.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=33gqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT51|title=Handbook of Arthurian Romance: King Arthur's Court in Medieval European Literature|first1=Leah|last1=Tether|first2=Johnny|last2=McFadyen|date=26 June 2017|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|via=Google Books}}

The Arthurian tales have been changed throughout time, and other characters have been added to add backstory and expand on various members of Arthur's chivalric order, the Knights of the Round Table. The medieval legend of Arthur and his knights is full of Christian themes, notably the quest for an important Christian relic, the Holy Grail. Another major element involves relationships in the tradition of courtly love, such as these between Lancelot and Guinevere or Tristan and Iseult. Arthurian romance's English-language quasi-canon, based on French prose cycles and some other works, was eventually established by Thomas Malory in his 15th-century compilation Le Morte d'Arthur, which continues to be highly influential today.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j3iEAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT244|title=The Myth of Morgan la Fey|first=K.|last=Pérez|date=2 April 2014|publisher=Springer|via=Google Books}}

The advanced manifestation of Arthurian romance in its cyclical prose forms, beginning in the 13th century (i.e. Lancelot-Grail, Post-Vulgate, Malory's compilation), contains two interlocking threads. One concerns Arthur's kingdom of Logres and his court of Camelot, usually envisioned as a doomed utopia of chivalric virtue, undone by the fatal flaws of the heroes like Arthur, Gawain, and Lancelot, and their moral and spiritual failures. The other concerns the history of the Grail, or at very least (Malory) of the grand quests of the various knights to achieve it: some succeed (Galahad, Perceval) while others fail.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arthurian-legend|title=Arthurian legend | Definition, Summary, Characters, Books, & Facts | Britannica|website=www.britannica.com}} Many of these and other key or iconic motifs and elements (e.g. the Grail, Camelot, Excalibur, Merlin, or the romance of Lancelot and Guinevere) have been first either introduced or modified and popularised by French poets Chrétien de Troyes (often drawing on Celtic sources) and Robert de Boron.

Once an enormously popular subject, the interest in the Arthurian legend largely waned by the end of the Middle Ages, albeit continuing in England and through the Italian Renaissance and the French Renaissance.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WaoqAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA325|title=The Arthurian Legend in Italian Literature|first=Edmund G.|last=Gardner|date=1 May 1930|publisher=J.M. Dent & Sons Limited|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hf6zAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA163|title=The New Arthurian Encyclopedia: New edition|first1=Norris J.|last1=Lacy|first2=Geoffrey|last2=Ashe|first3=Sandra Ness|last3=Ihle|first4=Marianne E.|last4=Kalinke|first5=Raymond H.|last5=Thompson|date=5 September 2013|publisher=Routledge|via=Google Books}} By the 17th century it would be still considerably holding out only in England and to some degree in France, before fading away there too. The 19th-century Romanticist revival brought it back to the modern era, first in the Victorian Britain and then around the world.

In modern times, since both the Celtic Revival and the renewed interest in Arthuriana in the 19th century,{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqVxhFxzPFQC&pg=PA436|title=A Companion to Arthurian Literature|first=Helen|last=Fulton|date=30 January 2012|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|via=Google Books}} there have been attempts by the Celticist scholars and folklorists (e.g. Albert Pauphilet, Alfred Nutt, Arthur Charles Lewis Brown, Emmanuel Cosquin, Gaston Paris, George Lyman Kittredge, John Rhŷs, et al) to link the tales of King Arthur and the Grail with Celtic mythology, usually in highly romanticized, reconstructed versions.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OZjgEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA29|title=Arthurian Triptych: Mythic Materials in Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, and T. S. Eliot|first=Charles|last=Moorman|date=15 November 2023|publisher=Univ of California Press|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dn11DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA38|title=King Arthur: The Making of the Legend|first=Nicholas J.|last=Higham|date=20 November 2018|publisher=Yale University Press|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DKsjR4qxO2YC&pg=PA16|title=Arthurian Literature XI|first=Richard|last=Barber|date=29 April 1992|publisher=DS Brewer|via=Google Books}} The trend arguably peaked by the middle 20th century with Roger Sherman Loomis and Jean Marx. Various Arthurian characters have been identified with Celtic deities: for example Morgan le Fay as originating from the Welsh goddess Modron or Irish The Morrígan.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IY-zIn5VHUC&pg=PT35|title=Morgan le Fay, Shapeshifter|first=Jill M.|last=Hebert|date=12 March 2013|publisher=Springer|via=Google Books}} Similarly, Geoffrey's Leir of Britain, who later became the Shakespearean King Lear, has been connected to the Welsh sea-god Llŷr, related to the Irish Ler.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1ZIAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA26|title=The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion|date=28 April 1893|publisher=The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (London)|via=Google Books}} Much of Arthurian content without a doubt does have roots in ancient Celtic British material, but which had been already Christianised and otherwise transformed (if not just forgotten) by the 12th century.{{Cite web|url=https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/litterature/moyen-age-1/ed6c3713-b2d5-4b94-8cac-a35fbd9471b1-mythe-arthurien/article/b4f4f281-a6b2-484f-85a2-4dc0a821e5ff-une-bretagne-pleine-merveilles|title=Une Bretagne pleine de merveilles|website=BnF Essentiels}}

Another school of Arthurian scholarship, the mythologists, concerned themselves rather with researching the nature of myth.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BpuOdmHOi3AC&pg=PA102|title=A History of Arthurian Scholarship|first=Norris J.|last=Lacy|date=28 April 2006|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|via=Google Books}} One theme explored by mythologist Joseph Campbell amongst others is to read the Arthurian literature, particularly the Grail tradition, as an allegory of human development and spiritual growth.{{harvp|Campbell|Moyers|1991}} Yet another school became known as the ritualists (e.g. Jessie L. Weston, William A. Nitze), their identifications coming from the speculative comparative religion.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ai9X4KzZHYsC&pg=PR13|title=Arthurian Literature and Christianity: Notes from the Twentieth Century|first=Peter|last=Meister|date=13 May 2013|publisher=Routledge|via=Google Books}} Weston's 1920 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.{{harvp|Surette|1988}} More recent unconventional schools of Arthurian scholarship include the anthropologist proponents of the Scythian/Sarmatian origins theory (notably C. Scott Littleton), and the classicists and others looking back to the works of classical antiquity (e.g. Graham Anderson, Carolyne Larrington).{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3tBVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA147|title=Bulletin bibliographique de la Société internationale arthurienne|first=International Arthurian|last=Society|date=29 April 2007|via=Google Books}} There is also a long-going debate regarding the possible existence of Arthur as a historical figure, with many candidates for such a hypothetical historical Arthur having been brought forth by various authors.

• Avalon and Glastonbury
• Battle of Badon and Battle of Camlann
• Breton mythology and Cornish mythology
• English historians in the Middle Ages
• Historicity of King Arthur
• List of Arthurian characters
• List of Arthurian literature
• List of works based on Arthurian legends
• Sites and places associated with Arthurian legend

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Joseph |title=Power of Myth |last2=Moyers |first2=Bill |publisher=Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group |year=1991 |isbn=978-0385418867 |pages=113–150 |chapter=Sacrifice and Bliss}}
• {{Cite news |url=https://faculty.fordham.edu/davenport/texts/Britain3.pdf |last=Davenport |first=John J. |title=The Matter of Britain: The Mythological and Philosophical Significance of the British Legends |year=2004 |access-date=2022-05-24}}
• {{Cite journal |url=https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/king-arthur-part-1-the-matter-of-britain/Content?oid=2166487 |last=Evans |first=Barry |title=King Arthur, Part 1: The Matter of Britain |journal=North Coast Journal |date=October 25, 2012 |access-date=2022-05-24}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofkingsof00geof |author=Geoffrey of Monmouth |author-link=Geoffrey of Monmouth |year=1966 |title=The History of the Kings of Britain |editor-first=Lewis |editor-last=Thorpe |publisher=Penguin |isbn=0-14-044170-0}}
• {{Cite journal |title=The Waste Land and Jessie Weston: A Reassessment |first=Leon |last=Surette |journal=Twentieth Century Literature |volume=34 |issue=2 |date=Summer 1988 |pages=223–244 |doi=10.2307/441079 |jstor=441079 }}

{{Refend}}

• {{Cite book |editor-last=Fulton |editor-first=Helen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqVxhFxzPFQC |title=A Companion to Arthurian Literature |date=2012 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-470-67237-2 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |editor-last=Kennedy |editor-first=Edward Donald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9eGMAQAAQBAJ |title=King Arthur: A Casebook |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-36727-5 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=elCuBwAAQBAJ |title=The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature: The Development and Dissemination of the Arthurian Legend in Medieval Latin |date=2011|publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-0-7083-2386-1 |language=en|editor-first=Siân|editor-last=Edhard}}
• {{Cite book |last=Lacy |first=Norris J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GYWrAgAAQBAJ |title=The Arthurian Handbook: Second Edition |last2=Ashe |first2=Geoffrey |last3=Mancoff |first3=Debra N. |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-77743-4 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |last=Bruce |first=Christopher W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZFbczeMtYcC&pg=PA95 |title=The Arthurian Name Dictionary |date=1999 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-2865-0 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |editor-last1=Coldham-Fussell |editor-first1=Victoria |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mMpxEAAAQBAJ |title=The Arthurian World|editor-last2=Edlich-Muth |editor-first2=Miriam |editor-last3=Ward |editor-first3=Renée |date=2022 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-52210-5 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |editor-last=Archibald |editor-first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C8RKJhpaJ5sC |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend |editor-last2=Putter |editor-first2=Ad |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-86059-8 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hf6zAAAAQBAJ |title=The New Arthurian Encyclopedia: New Edition |editor-first=Norris J.|editor-last=Lacy|last1=Ashe |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Ihle |first2=Sandra Ness |last3=Kalinke |first3=Marianne E. |last4=Thompson |first4=Raymond H. |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-60633-5 |language=en}}

• {{Cite book |editor-last=Lloyd-Morgan |editor-first=Ceridwen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w-yVDwAAQBAJ |title=Arthur in the Celtic Languages: The Arthurian Legend in Celtic Literatures and Traditions |editor-last2=Poppe |editor-first2=Erich |date=2019 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78683-344-0 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |editor-last=Barron |editor-first=W. R. J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uq4SEAAAQBAJ |title=The Arthur of the English: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval English Life and Literature |date=2020 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78683-740-0 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ywEEAAAQBAJ |title=The Arthur of the French: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval French and Occitan Literature |date=2020 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78683-743-1 |language=en|editor-last1=Burgess |editor-first1=Glynn S.|editor-last2=Pratt |editor-first2=Karen }}
• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yWwDEAAAQBAJ |title=The Arthur of the Germans: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval German and Dutch Literature |date=2020 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78683-737-0 |language=en|editor-last1=Jackson|editor-first1=W.H.|editor-last2=Ranawake|editor-first2=S.A.}}
• {{Cite book |editor-last=Hook |editor-first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BcAmDAAAQBAJ |title=The Arthur of the Iberians: The Arthurian Legends in the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds |date=2015 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78316-243-7 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |editor-last=Allaire |editor-first=Gloria |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GeuBwAAQBAJ |title=The Arthur of the Italians: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Italian Literature and Culture |date=2014 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78316-158-4 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |editor-last1=Besamusca |editor-first1=Bart |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sqUeEAAAQBAJ |title=The Arthur of the Low Countries: The Arthurian Legend in Dutch and Flemish Literature |editor-last2=Brandsma |editor-first2=Frank |date=2021 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78683-683-0 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |editor-last=Kalinke |editor-first=Marianne E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xsMmDAAAQBAJ |title=The Arthur of the North: The Arthurian Legend in the Norse and Rus' Realms |date=2015 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78316-455-4 |language=en}}

{{EB1911 Poster|Arthurian Legend}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080512153652/http://www.blaenau-gwent.gov.uk/8035.asp Arthurian Folklore] - a website detailing Welsh Arthurian folklore
• [http://www.arthuriana.co.uk 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
• [https://www.arthuriana.com Arthuriana] - the only academic journal solely concerned with the Arthurian Legend with a selection of resources and links
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080117172755/http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/index_welsh.html Celtic Literature Collective] - provides texts and translations (of varying quality) of Welsh medieval sources, many of which mention Arthur
• [http://www.internationalarthuriansociety.com/ International Arthurian Society]
• [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/AUTHMENU.htm The Camelot Project] - provides valuable bibliographies of freely downloadable Arthurian texts from the sixth to the early 20th centuries, from the University of Rochester
• [http://www.heroicage.org/ The Heroic Age] - an online peer-reviewed journal which includes regular Arthurian articles
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A533350 The Medieval Development of Arthurian Literature] - from H2G2
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20091027111317/http://geocities.com/vortigernstudies/bibliograrth.htm Vortigern Studies] - a collection of articles on King Arthur by various Arthurian enthusiasts

{{Arthurian Legend}}

{{Geoffrey of Monmouth}}

{{Celts}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Matter Of Britain}}

Category:Arthurian legend

Category:Breton mythology and folklore

Category:British folklore

Category:British traditional history

Category:English folklore

Category:Geoffrey of Monmouth

Category:History of literature

Category:Holy Grail

Category:Medieval literature

Category:Metanarratives

Category:Romance (genre)