Myth of the Month 12: The Arthur Cycle:
pt. 1 – Creating “King Arthur”
Why does the earliest known picture of King Arthur show him riding on a goat and charging towards a deadly cat-monster? How has the tale of King Arthur and his knights evolved since it first emerged from Celtic folklore? We consider the shaping of the Arthur story from the songs of mysterious Welsh and Breton bards to the high medieval romances of French courtier-poets.
Myth of the Month 12: The Arthur Cycle:
pt. 2 – The Rise and Fall of Camelot
When Jackie Kennedy told reporters that she and the late President used to listen to the soundtrack of the musical “Camelot,” the word immediately caught on as the name for the Kennedy White House – portrayed as a brief, golden period of wise rule, ended by tragedy. More than a thousand years’ worth of romantic associations could be evoked with three simple syllables. In this second segment, we consider how the chivalric legend of the Round Table and the Court of Camelot was conceived and elaborated, from French courtly romances, through the first English Arthurian epic of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, to the popular novels, plays, and movies of the modern times.
UNLOCKED: Myth of the Month 12, Finale:
The Historical King Arthur
Released to the public after one year for patrons only: Archaeology, geography, linguistics, textual analysis — all of these fields of knowledge must be brought to bear on a centuries-old question: Was there a “real” King Arthur? Answer: It’s complicated. We discuss the likelihood that some “historical” personage underlies the layers of legend.
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