hero's journey king arthur

King Arthur and the Heroic Pattern

By susan barton young, deering high school, portland, me , 2009.

• Any version of Greek Mythology ( Mythology & You , ed. Rosenberg & Baker, works particularly well; but many schools still use Edith Hamilton’s  Mythology ; Roger Lancelyn Green’s books work as well)
• John Steinbeck,  The Acts of King Arthur & His Noble Nights , Ch. 1: “Merlin”
• Optional:  Star Wars ,  Lion King ,  Harry Potter , etc.
• Bill Moyers interviews with both Joseph Campbell and George Lucas (note that the Campbell interview was conducted at Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch!)
• Handout:  Blank “Heroic Pattern” chart  (PDF)

Target Audience

7th-9th grade Mythology class

• Familiarize students with the common “monomyth” pattern of the Heroic Journey. Being able to identify such story-structures helps students recognize these sorts of elements in other stories they read; therefore, such structures need to be taught explicitly.
• Help students recognize familiar mythic names and motifs from at least two cultures (Greek & British)
• Help students begin to conceive of their own lives as a story-structure

Joseph Campbell popularized one version of the “monomyth” of the Heroic Journey in his  Hero of a Thousand Faces . (Interestingly, Campbell & Steinbeck crossed paths in Monterey in the early 1930’s). Campbell’s monomyth includes 15-20 steps, depending on which version you use. I have simplified this version into 8-9 steps, as follows:

• Prophecy:  There is a prophecy about what the hero will accomplish during his lifetime (or sometimes, as in the case of Hercules, after his death).
• Unusual Conception/Birth:  Heroes often have unusual conceptions (unions between Gods and mortals, often involving the male being disguised as the woman’s husband); sometimes their births are unusual in some way (early, late, needing divine help, etc.)
• Precocious Childhood:  The hero shows early on that he will be something special—often he demonstrates unusual athletic prowess and/or courage; another facet of this “unusual” childhood is that the child is often raised by a single mom or a foster family.
• Call to Adventure:  Around the time of puberty (usually), the hero encounters a challenge he feels he must embrace (sometimes to save his mother, or salvage his honor, or save someone else).
• The Quest:  What the hero is searching for, or something he must accomplish (often involves killing a monster, or finding some treasure to prove he’s been somewhere)
• Helpers/Gifts:  The hero almost always has some supernatural helpers or tangible gifts to help him along the way.
• Journey to the Underworld:  The hero must journey literally or figuratively to the underworld—under the sea, through forest, or actually to Hades itself
• Flaw:  Though not traditionally part of the “monomyth” pattern, it can be helpful to introduce students to the idea of a “fatal flaw” that limits the hero’s greatness
• Return/Reintegration into Society:  The hero returns from his quest, and often gets married and/or becomes King of some society. He frequently becomes the founder of some great initiative (the Olympic games, the Round Table, etc.)

Joseph Campbell includes many more steps (including an initial refusal of the quest, a confrontation with the father-figure, the role of the woman in the quest, etc.). For the 7th-9th grade levels, however, I have found that these 8 steps (plus the flaw) are more than enough for them to handle. Campbell also draws connections between this monomyth and an individual’s psychological development (leaving the mother, tackling one’s “life-quest,” etc.) These connections, and other metaphors, can be very fruitful to discuss, depending on the emotional maturity of the class. For example, in the story of Hercules, he uses the claw of the Nemean Lion to cut its own skin (Labor #1). It can be a neat question to ask students when they have seen an example of using an enemy’s strength against himself. (A similar theme emerges when Theseus is learning to wrestle by using strategy rather than brute strength.)

Some of the questions I ask include:

• Prophecy:  Ask your parents what “prophecies” were made about you before you were born or adopted. What were the predictions or stories or hopes they had for you?
• Unusual Birth:  (I stay away from “conception” on this one!): Ask your parents for your birth or adoption story. What time of day were you born? What do your parents remember most? Were both parents able to be there? (An “unsual birth” nowadays might be one where one parent has to watch from a remote military base; for adoptive children, their birth always has an “unusual” aspect to it.)
• Precocious Childhood:  What is unusual about your first 10 years? What is a special talent? Were you raised by a single parent? Are you adopted or a foster child? Especially for children with tough backgrounds, this can be a very fruitful discussion: that most heroes come from such unusual childhoods, which can serve to make them stronger, more resilient, more creative, etc.
• Call to Adventure:  When did you feel a “call” to do something different? Did you move at a critical juncture? Did you lose a parent or close friend that made you realize how precious life was? Did you discover a new skill or passion? Or are you still waiting for a “call”? What do you think it might be?
• Helpers/Gifts:  A wonderful discussion to have with teenagers—looking at all the mentors and gifts (both physical and spiritual) they have received to help them become who they are, and who they will be.
• Journey to the Underworld:  In what ways have you had to confront deep fears, insecurities, depression, etc.? When have you had to journey to a scary place, either literally or physically? What did you learn about yourself from this difficult experience?
• Flaw:  If you had to pick one “flaw” that could turn into a “fatal flaw” for you, what would you pick, and why? How has this habit held you back thus far? In what other great heroes do you see this flaw? How did they deal with it? (Note: Being “heroic” does NOT mean being flawless!!!)
• Return/Reintegration to Society:  What do you have to offer to the world around you? What is your unique gift that can help make the world a better place?

Lesson Plan

Day 1: introduce the idea of the “monomyth” and its parts..

You might start with a well-known movie ( Harry Potter ,  Star Wars ,  Lord of the Rings ,  Lion King , etc.) Give students the steps of the “heroic pattern,” and see how many of them they can figure out on their own—come up with their own definitions and examples, based on their current knowledge of “hero” stories. [They may well have examples from anime, or other graphic novels.]

You could also show them clips from the Bill Moyers interviews with both Joseph Campbell and/or George Lucas.

Homework: Think about your own life in terms of the Heroic Pattern, and answer some of the questions provided above about how their own life can be seen as a Heroic Journey.

Day 2: Perseus

Read the story of Perseus aloud with the class, and help them fill in the  Heroic Pattern Chart  (PDF) for his story. (Modeling the process).

Homework: Have students read the story of Theseus or Hercules, noting which Heroic Journey elements they notice.

Day 3: Theseus or Hercules

Have students compare notes about whichever hero they read about. Have them develop consensus about what belongs in each box of their chart.

Homework: Read whichever Hero story is left. Repeat the note-taking and comparing process.

Day 4: Theseus or Hercules

Repeat the same process as the day before. This is a good day to give a spot check—perhaps give groups of students an envelope with the elements of the Heroic Pattern written on separate notecards. They have to put them in order AND define that step in their own words. The first group to finish well gets a prize.

Homework: Read Steinbeck’s “Merlin” chapter from King Arthur

Day 5: King Arthur

Complete the Arthur column of the chart. Discuss how Arthur is similar to and different from the Greek heroes.

Advanced question: While the “monomyth pattern” remains surprisingly consistent across times and cultures, how do certain heroic behaviors or values reveal cultural difference as well?

Extension Activities

• Include some female heroes: Psyche, Mulan, etc. What are the similarities and differences? Are any parts of the traditional Heroic Pattern left out for them? Discuss why the traditional heroes all seem to be male….
• See how the biographies of some modern day “heroes” (Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King) could be written in the form of a Heroic Journey Pattern
• Bring in a heroic myth from a different culture and see if it fits any of the pattern

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Arthurian Legend: How It Illustrates the Hero’s Journey

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading.

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Does Arthurian legend follow the conventions of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey? In what ways is King Arthur the archetypical hero of classic legends?

We’ll cover the elements of the hero’s journey and how Arthurian legends map onto these elements.

The Hero’s Journey and Arthurian Legend

The archetypal myth is that of the hero’s journey, which details the exploits of an exalted figure such as a legendary warrior or king, as in Arthurian legend. But the hero can also start out as an obscure figure of humble origins, on the fringes of society. Frequently, this hero is born to lowly circumstances in a remote corner of the world and is the product of immaculate conception and virgin birth. Thus, they start out with some essential element of the gods already inside them. 

The hero sets out on a journey to acquire some object or attain some sort of divine wisdom. This can be something material (like Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail in Arthurian legend) or something with far greater spiritual weight (like the Buddha’s journey to find ultimate enlightenment). The hero undergoes great trials and tribulations during the course of their quest, undergoes a spiritual (and sometimes literal) death and rebirth, and transforms into an entirely new being. They gain new powers, and with those powers, achieve their goal—they receive the ultimate boon. They then return home to share this heavenly reward with their people—and in doing so, redeem all mankind.

The Monomyth

The core structure of mythology is called the monomyth . It involves three rites of passage—separation, initiation, and return. From the myths of the ancient Egyptians and the medieval Arthurian legend to the folk-tales of the native Maoris of New Zealand, the pattern of the hero’s journey usually follows this cycle: a separation from the world he or she has always known (embarking on the quest), gaining some spiritual or other-worldly power, and a return in which they share the boon of the new power with humanity. 

The Composite Hero

The heroes of mythology, whether it’s King Arthur of Arthurian legend, Odysseus, the Buddha, the Chinese emperor Huang Ti, or Moses, share similar characteristics.

They are often figures who have unique talents or gifts and hold an exalted position within their society —they are renowned scholars, warriors, or kings. But the opposite can also be true: the archetypal, or composite hero can also start out as an obscure figure of humble origins, on the fringes of society . But whether they start out as prince or pauper, they set out on their journey to address some sort of need, to fill some kind of spiritual void. In simple romance tales or fairy tales, this can be nothing more than obtaining a golden ring or the hand of the fair princess, while in myths with deeper theological undertones (like the story of Christ), the hero sets out to redeem and renew the spiritual life of the entire world and save it from falling into ruin, as does Arthur in Arthurian legend.

The Call to Adventure

In the first part of the monomyth, we meet our hero, our “man of destiny,” and witness their call to adventure. In Arthurian legend, this call comes in the form of a deer, as we’ll see. The call to adventure can come about through chance, even a mistake or blunder, which introduces the hero to a hidden world of possibility, guided by mysterious forces which the hero will come to understand through the course of their journey.

A frequent device employed in mythology is that of the herald or conjurer , the (often unlikely) figure who reveals the hero’s destiny and spurs them to action. The herald represents our subconscious, wherein all of our darkest fears are hidden. They are forcing us to confront things that we do not want to. As such, the herald is frequently a grotesque or unpleasant-looking figure, like a frog or a beast , or otherwise some veiled, mysterious, or unknown figure, such as the hart in Arthurian legend. 

King Arthur and the Hart

In Arthurian legend, King Arthur encounters a great hart (an archaic Old English term for a deer) in the forest. He gives chase to the animal, vigorously riding his horse until it dies from exhaustion. Arthur then comes to a fountain, where he sets down his dead horse and becomes lost in deep thought.

While he’s sitting at the forest fountain, he hears what sounds like dozens of hounds coming toward him. But, it is not hounds—instead, it is some strange beast, the likes of which the King had never seen before. The noise of 30 hounds barking and snarling emanate from its stomach, although there is no noise while the beast drinks at the fountain. Arthur marvels at this sight: this is his herald, his signal to begin his quest. From this beginning, Arthurian legend continues to exemplify the features of Campbell’s hero’s journey.

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Amanda Penn

Amanda Penn is a writer and reading specialist. She’s published dozens of articles and book reviews spanning a wide range of topics, including health, relationships, psychology, science, and much more. Amanda was a Fulbright Scholar and has taught in schools in the US and South Africa. Amanda received her Master's Degree in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Otherworld Journeys: Death and Rebirth

            There once was a world like no other, and so it was called the Otherworld.   Over the centuries, there have been countless stories written about a hero's journey to the Otherworld, and Arthurian literature is no exception. Three well-known Arthurian examples are Sir Gawain's journey to the Green Chapel in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, King Arthur's journey to Avalon in Tennyson's Idylls of the King , and Sir Galahad's journey to the Grail Castle in Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur.    Yet these three works do not merely describe the hero's physical journey to the Otherworld; they also describe his psychological journey. By using the typical features of an Otherworld journey –such as a setting associated with death, a hero associated with light, and a journey associated with water – these works ultimately relate the hero's journey to the Otherworld to a journey towards death and, finally, rebirth.

            An Otherworld journey can be defined as a journey to a supernatural world, often a world of the dead.   The Otherworld is most commonly associated with Celtic legend, though it appears in folklore from around the world.   According to the Dictionary of Mythology Folklore and Symbols, the Otherworld is simply the "world to which the soul departs without the body" and may be associated with "Heaven or Paradise," "Hell," "Limbo," "Purgatory," or even "Fairyland" (1220).   The details of this world vary from culture to culture, sometimes even from tale to tale, yet its association with death is constant.   Some of the most common descriptions of the Otherworld include a faraway island in the west (Patch "Elements" 628), an underground kingdom (612), and an everlasting garden (619) – descriptions that can all be associated with death.   After all, the west is associated with the setting sun, the underground has an obvious connection with a grave, and even the garden has parallels to a heavenly paradise. In short, a setting associated with death is a typical feature of the Otherworld journey.

            The hero's association with light or fertility is a second important feature of the Otherworld journey.   This association becomes important because it sets up the hero as a sort of antithesis to the Otherworld, a symbol of life in a world of the dead (Jobes 1624).   An example of this antithesis comes from the Egyptian myth of Ra, a solar god who was said to sail the sun through the underworld each night (Taylor 1).   Another example comes from the Greek myth of Persephone, a fertility goddess whose yearly passage into the Underworld was believed to cause the seasons (Chevalier 749).   In these two examples, we can see the importance of light and fertility as a feature of the Otherworld visitor; it is only by being associated with life that a visitor can safely pass through the world of the dead.

            Finally, the "perilous passage" represents the third important feature of an Otherworld journey.   According to Esther C. Dunn, a perilous passage is "a stock incident of Otherworld journeys" and includes any number of dangerous crossings, such as the drawbridge in Chrétien's Contes del Graal, the cliff bridge in the Celtic myth the Wooing of Emer, and the sword bridge in Chrétien's Chevalier de la Charrete (401-402).   Even the Classical myth of Orpheus crossing the Styx may be considered a type of perilous passage.   Curiously, all of these examples involve a passage over water, and indeed, water does play an important role in the Otherworld journey.   On a practical level, since most descriptions of the Otherworld involve a world "cut off from the every-day world by some sort of water barrier" (Patch, "Elements" 604), a hero must cross over water in order to reach the Otherworld.   Yet there is also a symbolic significance. Water is, after all, a symbol of both life and death and helps one to understand how a journey to the Otherworld also can be a symbol of death and rebirth.

Gawain's Journey to the Green Chapel

            Sir Gawain and the Green Knight describes Sir Gawain's journey to the Green Chapel, yet it also describes his journey towards death.   In the story, the Green Chapel is the place where Gawain has agreed to meet the Green Knight and receive an axe-blow that he is certain will kill him.   Therefore, the imagery of death associated with the setting actually mirrors Gawain's own psychological state as he prepares himself for death.   One of the most prominent reminders of death is the winter imagery.   Gawain sets out to find the Green Chapel after feasting with Arthur on "Al-hal-day" (All Saint't Day), so it is November when he begins his journey.   Descriptions of the landscape emphasize the coldness and barrenness of the season.   It is a world of "slete" and snow that "fres er hit falle" and of "mony bryddes unblythe upon care twyges, / that pitosly ther piped for pyne of the colde" ( Sir 44).   Another reminder of death can be seen in the imagery of wild beasts.   During Gawain's journey, he meets with foes including "wormes" (dragons), "wolves," "wodwos" (wild men), "bulles," "beres," "bores," and "etaynes" (giants), thus lending an atmosphere of savagery to the winter landscape.   Finally, even the Green Chapel is associated with death.   It is described as a "berwe" (mound), that "hade a hole on the ende and on ayther syde, / and overgrowen with gresse in glodes aywhere" (100).   While this description is very similar to that of a Celtic 'Sidhe,' a hill or mound that serves as an entrance to the Otherworld ("Death" 14), it also reminds one of a grave overgrown with grass.   In fact, burial mounds of this sort were frequently seen in the English countryside.   Thus the grave-like chapel and the dangers of winter and wild beasts actually become external symbols of Gawain's fears, emphasizing the true deadliness of his Otherworld journey.

            If the setting of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight represents Gawain's fear of death, then Gawain's association with light becomes a symbol of his virtuousness, of the qualities that, nevertheless, compel him on this journey.   As has already been noted, the Otherworld visitor is often associated with light, and Gawain is associated with light through his shining golden armor "that al glytered and glent as glem of the sunne" ( Sir 39).   Furthermore, Celtic scholar Roger S. Loomis notes that Gawain's shield "of schyr gowles / with the pentangel depaynt of pure golde hewes" (40) is remarkably like the shield of the Celtic hero Cúchulainn. In the myth The Cattle-Raid of Cooley , Cúchulainn's shield is described as "dark red, dark crimson with five wheels of gold," making it similar both in the red background and in the golden design associated with the number five.   Since Cúchulainn is considered a solar hero, Gawain's shield thus serves as a second sign of Gawain's association with light (Loomis 168).   Yet Gawain's shield also offers us some insight into his character.   After all, the pentangle design symbolizes, among other things, the five courtly virtues – "fraunchyse" (liberality), "felawschyp" (friendship), "clannes" (purity), "cortaysye" (courtesy), and "pité" (piety) ( Sir 41).   Like his armor or his shield, it seems that these virtues are things Gawain must put on in order to be a good knight.   The fact that the light imagery is associated with these external objects, not with Gawain himself, perhaps hints at Gawain's flaw.   He is not perfect himself; he merely puts on an act of perfection.

            Finally, Gawain's perilous passage offers us some further insights into his psychological state.   On the day he goes to meet the Green Knight, he must pass through a storm of snow and mist: "The heven was uphalt, bot ugly ther-under / mist muged on the mor, malt on the mountes, uch hille hade a hatte, a myst-hakel huge" ( Sir 96).   Since fairies are known for their ability to influence weather, a passage through snow and mist is actually a common feature of the Celtic Otherworld journeys like The Voyage of Cormac and The Conception of Cúchulainn (Puhvel 225-226 ).   Yet one should also note that a storm differs somewhat from the traditional journey over water; instead, it is a journey through water. In terms of the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , the fact that Gawain must struggle physically through a storm seems to reflect his own psychological struggle with death.   In this perilous passage, we see Gawain literally armed against the storm with his golden armor and shield.   Symbolically, however, we see how he is using a show of virtues to try to combat his fear of dying.

            When Gawain arrives at the Green Chapel, he is not killed; instead the Green Knight teaches him a valuable lesson about virtue.   Thus Gawain's journey to the Green Chapel can also be seen as the story of Gawain's death and rebirth.   As stated before, Gawain fully expects to die at the Green Chapel, and the grave-like imagery associated with the chapel furthers this link between the chapel and death.   Yet the Green Knight does not kill Gawain there.   Instead, he reveals the trick that has been played on Gawain, and this trick, in turn, reveals Gawain's weakness: "Bot here yow lakked a lyttel, sir, and lewté yow wonted; / not that was for no wylyde werke, ne wowing nauther, / bot for ye lufed your lyf" ( Sir 107).   In other words, Gawain's fault was motivated by his fear of death.   Gawain's reaction to this trick then becomes a sort of rebirth.   He realizes his weakness and vows to wear the lady's girdle as a "syngne of [his] surfet" so "when pryde schal me pryk for prowes of armes, / the loke to this luf-lace schal lethe my heart" (109-110).   He returns to Arthur's court sporting the belt "as a bauderyk, bounden bi hys syde," and lives the rest of his life with the knowledge of this weakness (111).   Thus, Gawain is reborn a sadder, but wiser, knight returning from his journey.

Arthur's Journey to Avalon

            Tennyson's Idylls of the King likewise uses elements of the Otherworld to transforms Arthur's journey into a story of death and rebirth.   The landscape, even before the journey, is filled with imagery of death.   Winter is once again the season.   Indeed, it is the winter solstice, "that day when the great light of heaven / burn'd at his lowest in the rolling year."   Furthermore, Arthur is fighting "on the waste sand by the waste sea" where "a death-white mist" "slept over sand and sea" (Tennyson 274). Since this is the landscape in which Arthur will fight Mordred, it is important that the landscape reflects the promise of death.   Yet unlike Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the landscape does not merely symbolize the hero's death.   It symbolizes the death of his knights, his Round Table, his dream of Camelot.   When the mist clears and Arthur sees his dying knights, he says,   "Now I see the true old times are dead... Now the whole Round Table is dissolved / which was an image of the mighty world" (283).   Tennyson clearly believed sin was responsible for the fall of Camelot.   In an earlier idyll, Arthur even blames the destruction of Camelot on Guinevere, for her "shameful sin with Lancelot" which led to so many other sins in Camelot (265).   This death-filled landscape, therefore, might easily be seen as a symbol of the sin that has infected Arthur's kingdom.

            Arthur, therefore, is portrayed as the antithesis of sin, and the light imagery associated with him becomes a symbol of his perfection. Arthur is continually described as "stainless," "blameless," and "faultless," and even the first physical description of Arthur depicts him as "fair / beyond the race of Britons and of men" (14), thus linking his perfection with imagery of light.   In "Passing of the King," the dying Arthur maintains this connection with light:

                                                All his face was white

                        And colorless, and like the wither'd moon

                        Smote by the fresh beam of the springing east;

                        And all his greaves and cuisses dash'd with drops

                        Of onset; and the light and lustrous curls –

                        That made his forehead like a rising sun

                        High from the dais-throne were parch'd with dust. (282)

Note also how Tennyson mixes the light and death imagery in this passage, showing how Arthur's perfection is dying with him in this sin-corrupted world.

            Arthur's only chance for survival lies in his journey to Avalon and his perilous passage over the sea.   Tennyson describes Avalon as an "island valley" which "lies deep-meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns / and bowery hollows crown'd with summer sea" (283-284).   One of the most important features of Avalon is that it lies across the sea, thus Arthur must travel there by boat. A boat is often used "as the vessel of an Otherworld journey," yet there seems to be something special about Arthur's boat (Patch, "Adaptation" 117).   Tennyson describes it as "a dusky barge, / dark as a funeral scarf from stem to stern" "dense with stately forms, / black-stoled, black-hooded" (282).   Obviously, the darkness of this boat is meant to conjure up associations with death, and one can easily see the parallels between this boat and a funerary boat like Elaine's in an earlier idyll. Arthur's journey to Avalon would, therefore, be a symbol of his death.   Yet one can also make parallels between this dark boat and the "bright" boat that first bore Arthur from the sea (15), for a s Sir Bedivere observes, "From the great deep to the great deep he goes" (284).   Therefore, another way to interpret Arthur's journey to Avalon is as a return to a perfect world, to a world free of sin.

            Arthur's journey to Avalon can ultimately be seen as a story of death and rebirth.   Tennyson's final line hints at the theme of rebirth, for as Arthur sails away, Bedivere watches "the speck that bare the King... vanish into light, / and the new sun rose bringing in the new year" (285).   Arthur is mortally wounded when goes to Avalon, yet he expects going there "will heal me of my grievous wounds" (284).   One can see Arthur's healing as a sort of rebirth.   There is even an old Breton belief that Arthur is taken to Avalon to "[grow] stronger until the day that England need him most to restore justice and peace to his people" (Snodgrass 45).   Arthur, therefore, becomes a sort of savior figure for his country, who will not only be reborn himself, but who also has the power to restore his land to fruitfulness.

Galahad's Journey to the Grail Castle

            Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur describes Sir Galahad's journey to the Grail Castle and also show how his journey encompasses both death and rebirth. Like all Otherworld journey, the setting of Galahad's journey includes lots of imagery of death. In particular, it depicts imagery of a wasteland.   It was believed that a king was so connected to his country that "a healthy, moral, and even just king [could ensure] a fertile kingdom, whereas an evil king or even one who was merely disfigured or unwhole" could actually destroy his country (Taylor 21-22).   Therefore, this wasteland imagery can be linked to the Maimed King, a wounded king who resides in the Grail Castle:

And whan Kynge Hurlain [saw Kynge Labor, he dressed this suerd] and smote hym upon the helme so harde that he clave hym and hys horse to the erthe with the firste stroke of hys swerde.   And it was in the realme of Logris, and so befelle there grete pestilence, and grete harme to both reallyms; for there encressed nother corne, ne grasse, nother well-nye no fruyte, ne in the watir was founde no fyssh.

            Therefore men calle hit –the londys of the two marchys –the Waste Londe, for that dolerous stroke. (Malory 561)

Since the lance in this story is the Holy Lance with which "the Roman soldier Longinus pierced the side of Christ on the cross" (Lacy 287), the Maimed King's wound has a strong association with sin.   Therefore, as with Tennyson's Camelot, the wasteland imagery in Malory becomes a symbol for the sin corrupting the kingdom.

            Like Tennyson's Arthur, Sir Galahad is the antithesis of sin, yet unlike Arthur, his associations with light are almost all internal.   There is very little physical description of Sir Galahad.   He is initially described as "passyng fayre" which seems to hint at an association with light, but there is little else to draw on (Malory 497).   Instead, most of Galahad's descriptions are internal.   Galahad's purity is repeatedly mentioned as the source of his greatness.   As a hermit explains, "Sir Galahad ys a mayde and synned never; and that ys the cause he enchyve where he goth" (516).   Since Galahad has all the internal qualities necessary to find the grail, then perhaps the grail itself may be seen as a symbol for Sir Galahad. It is here then that we find Galahad's association with light.   When the grail first appears in Arthur's court, there "entyrde a sonnebeame, more clerer by seven tymes than ever they saw day," thus establishing a connection between the grail and light imagery.   Furthermore, when Lancelot glimpses the grail, he sees "a grete clerenesse, that the house was as bright as all the torcheis of the worlde had bene there" (576). Therefore, it is through his association with purity that Galahad becomes symbolically associated with both the grail and light imagery.

            Finally, during his journey, Sir Galahad undertakes a number of perilous passages.   Perhaps the most significant is Galahad's journey on the rudderless boat.   A rudderless boat is actually a common feature of the Otherworld journey and is supposed to be a symbol of one's faith in God (Patch, "Adaptations" 116-117). Thus, the boat in Malory's story bears this inscription:

THOU MAN WHYCH SHALT ENTIR INTO THIS SHIPPE,

BEWARE THAT THOU BE IN

STEDEFASTE BELEVE, FOR I AM FAYTHE (559)

Since it is this boat takes Galahad to the castle where the grail is kept, one can easily see it as an example of how Galahad's faith in God leads him to find the grail.

            As with Gawain and Arthur, Galahad's journey to the Grail Castle can likewise be seen as a story of death and rebirth.   However, instead of describing the hero's death and rebirth, Malory instead shows how Galahad's death leads to a rebirth for others.   Throughout the story of the grail quest, we see examples of characters sacrificing themselves for others, often as a sort of allusion to Christ's sacrifice.   Galahad himself has many Christ-like features.   He is introduced at Arthur's court wearing "a cote of rede sendell" trimmed with white "ermyne" fur, and red and white are the color symbolically associated with Christ (499).   Also Galahad's "name is taken from "Galaad," or Gilead, in the Vulgate Bible (Genesis 31:48).   This, in terms of medieval interpretation, makes him a type of Christ" (Lacy 307). Throughout his quest, Galahad performs many miraculous feats.   Like Christ in the Harrowing of Hell, he purges seven wicked knights from the Castle of Maidens and "bought all the soules oute of the thralle" (Malory 516).   He also he heals the Maimed King with the blood from the Holy Spear:

And Sir Galahad wente anone to the speare which lay upon the table and towched the bloode with hys fyngirs, and cam aftir to the Maymed Kynge and anoynted his legges and hys body.   And therewith he clothed hym anone, and sterte uppon hys feete oute of hys bedde as an hole man, and thanked God that He had heled hym. (584)

Yet what truly makes Galahad into a Christ figure is his death.   Galahad is too pure for this corrupted world, so when his quest is completed, his soul is "[born] up to heven" by "a grete multitude of angels" (586).   In a sense, Galahad has died achieving the grail, and so his death becomes analogous to Christ's final sacrifice.

            Sir Gawain's journey to the Green Chapel, King Arthur's journey to Avalon, and Sir Galahad's journey to the Grail Castle all represent journeys towards death and rebirth.

Thus the Otherworld journey, by depicting a journey to the land of the dead and back again, becomes a fitting framework for these stories.   Indeed, the Otherworld motif helps us to understand these Arthurian journeys by establishing certain conventions about the setting, hero, and plot.   We know, for example, that the setting of an Otherworld journey is associated with death while the hero is associated with light.   Thus we can use this antithesis to explore the story from a symbolic level.   If the imagery of death represents something wrong in the hero's world, then the hero's light imagery becomes of symbol of the virtuousness that will allow him to challenge this wrong. The convention of a perilous passage can similarly be explored symbolically; it represents how the hero will challenge this wrong.   By understanding these conventions, we can then use them to compare the journeys of Gawain, Arthur, and Galahad and to discover, not only similarities, but also important differences between them.

            Though the journeys of Gawain, Arthur, and Galahad all describe a journey towards death and rebirth, each story reveals a different interpretation of this theme. Sir Gawain's journey represents a near-death experience; it teaches Gawain his own fault and allows him to be reborn with the knowledge of his own imperfection.   King Arthur's journey, on the other hand, becomes a story of resurrection, as Arthur himself becomes a mythical figure whose return to life will only come when his country really needs him.   Finally, Sir Galahad's journey represents a sacrificial death, for he dies after performing many miraculous feats to restore the kingdom of the Grail Castle.   Therefore, though the Otherworld journey unites these tales through a common framework, each tale ultimately describes a very different type of journey.

Works Cited

Chevalier, Jean and Alain Gheerbrant.   The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols .   Trans. John Buchanan-Brown.   New York: Penguin Group, 1996.

"Death, Reincarnation and the Otherworld." Seanchas 2.4 (1989): 12-18.

Dunn, Esther C.   "The Drawbridge of the Graal Castle."   Modern Language Notes 33.7 (1918) 399-405. JSTOR . Web. 8 March 2010.

Jobes, Gertrude.   Dictionary of Mythology Folklore and Symbols. New York: Scarecrow Press, 1961.

Lacy, Norris J., Geoffrey Ashe and Debra N. Mancoff.   The Arthurian Handbook .   2 nd ed. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997.

Loomis, Roger Sherman.   "More Celtic Elements in 'Gawain and the Green Knight'." The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 42.2 (1943). 149-184. JSTOR .   Web. 22 March 2010.

Malory, Sir Thomas.   Le Morte Darthur.   Ed. Stephen H. A. Shepherd.   New York: Norton & Company, 2004.

Patch, Howard R.   "The Adaptation of Otherworld Motifs to Medieval Romance." Philologica: The Malone Anniversary Studies .   Ed. Thomas A. Kirby and Henry Bosley Woolf. Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1949. 115-123.

Patch, Howard Rolin.   "Some Elements in Medieval Descriptions of the Otherworld."   PMLA 33.4 (1918). 601-643. JSTOR . Web. 24 Feb. 2010.

Puhvel, Martin. "Snow and Mist in 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.'" Folklore . 89.2 (1978) 224-228. JSTOR . Web. 24 Feb. 2010.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Ed. Paul Battles.   Peterborough, CA: Broadview Press, 2011.

Taylor, Richard P.   Death and the Afterlife: A Cultural Encyclopedia . Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2000.

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord.   Idylls of the King and a Selection of Poems .   New York: Penguin Books, 2003.

How King Arthur became one of the most pervasive legends of all time

Professor of Medieval Literature and English Literature, Bangor University

Disclosure statement

Raluca Radulescu works is a founding director of the new Centre for Arthurian Studies at Bangor University. She is also president of the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society.

Bangor University provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

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King Arthur is one of, if not the, most legendary icons of medieval Britain. His popularity has lasted centuries, mostly thanks to the numerous incarnations of his story that pop up time and time again.

Indeed, his is one of the most enduring stories of all time. Though his tale is rooted in the fifth and sixth centuries, it has continued to captivate audiences to this very day. There is just something about the sword in the stone, the knights of the round table, Lancelot, and the wizard Merlin, that have kept us coming back to the various legends of King Arthur for such a long time.

In the last 15 years alone, there have been Hollywood movies, computer games, and other creative re-tellings. With Bangor University’s new Centre for Arthurian Studies just launched a fortnight ago, and Guy Ritchie’s new movie , King Arthur: the Legend of the Sword, due to be released in late spring, there is no doubt both the scholarly search for Arthur and the impact of his legends on modern culture are continuing to flourish.

Arthur’s life story is one that has become almost a standard for knightly heroes to aspire to. He is seen as brave, noble, kind – everything that some might say is missing from our modern world.

The epic hero

Few might know that Arthur is a hero whose ancestry goes back to the Brittonic inhabitants of early medieval Wales before the arrival of the Saxons, and not just the kingly figure that appears in later romances. In fact, the Arthur of legend was neither a king , nor the owner of a round table , at least not in the way we use these terms today.

Records about Arthur’s life are few and far between. He emerges in the sixth century in the work of the Welsh monk Gildas , where his victory at Mount Badon is celebrated, but he is not named. It is only in the ninth century Historia Brittonum, composed by another monk, Nennius, that Arthur is named as a “dux bellorum” , a military commander, and his 12 battles are listed.

Much time passed between these early records and the 12th century’s full-blown accounts of Arthur’s reign – in the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth and the French Chretien de Troyes , the writers who truly made Arthur the legendary king we now know – and he took on a variety of roles.

In the Welsh stories, Arthur remains a warrior, often a foil for other heroes’ path to greatness. But in the early French romances, he provided a yardstick for courtly behaviour, as epic battles do not form the backbone of these later stories written on the continent. Geoffrey of Monmouth brought back the leadership and determination of an Arthur who becomes not only a king (on whom 12th century Anglo-Norman kings could model themselves), but also a conqueror – again reflecting a desire for greatness beyond national boundaries. Thus the image of the courtly king, a leader in both war and times of peace, was born.

A modern legend

However, Arthur was always connected to the realities of those countries, and the times and peoples for whom he was reinvented. The Arthurian revival of the late 19th century , for example, helped put him back on the international cultural map by removing the historical aura, and emphasising the values he stood for – a far cry from the medieval attempts to utilise him as a national figure from whom medieval kings could derive their right to rule. This paved the way to the fantasy worlds created, most famously, by T.H. White in The Once and Future King, published in 1958.

All of these interpretations were about more than just revealing the secrets of one of the most intriguing men of all time. In this confusing and sometimes frightening world, audiences seek reassurance in the models of the past. They want a standard of moral integrity and visionary leadership that is inspirational and transformational in equal measure. One that they cannot find in the world around them, but will discover in the stories of King Arthur.

Is our modern appetite for fantasy a reflection of our need to reinvent the past, and bring hope into our present? Moral integrity, loyalty to one’s friends and kin, abiding by the law and defending the weak, form the cornerstone of how Arthurian fellowship has been defined through the centuries. They offer the reassurance that doing the morally right thing is valuable, even if it may bring about temporary defeat. In the end, virtues and values prevail and it is these enduring features of the legends that have kept them alive in the hearts and minds of so many through the centuries.

• Myths and legends
• Medieval history
• King Arthur
• Medieval England
• Medieval Wales

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International collection of children’s and adolescent literature, the hero’s journey from another point of view: here lies arthur.

By Judi Moreillon, Texas Woman’s University, Texas Ambassador for USBBY

British author Philip Reeve uses the well-known legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable as a springboard for his novel Here Lies Arthur . Reeve offers explanations for the unexplained in the original tales, which may be part history and greater part folklore, and have been embellished by retellers since the late 5th and early 6th century when King Arthur supposedly performed heroic and even magical deeds. Along with his knights, Arthur has been credited with defending Britain from invading Saxons. He has embodied the virtues of loyalty, honor and chivalry. In his author’s note, Reeve provides historical and literary documentation for the novel. Reeve’s retelling is told from the point of view of Gwyna/Gwyn, the sometimes girl, sometimes boy servant of Myrddin (Merlin). Here Lies Arthur is Gwyna’s story. After Myrddin uses Gwyna to pose as the lake-lady (Lady-of-the-Lake) in order to present the sword Caliburn (Excalibur) to Arthur, Myrddin grows fond of Gwyna. Determined to keep her, Myrddin disguises her as a boy. As Gwyn, she/he travels with Arthur’s band, learns the ways of men, and all of Myrddin’s stories.

As in Tiger Moon (Michaelis) stories within this story are seamlessly blended into the narrative. Early on in Here Lies Arthur , Myrddin tells Arthur’s tales but later, Gwyna, who has matured into a strong young woman, retells them and then begins to make up stories of her own. On the eve of a great battle, Gwyna makes up the story of Cunomorus’s healing cauldron to ease the men’s fears. She tells how the lake-lady came upon a young, handsome and wounded warrior. Feeling pity for him, she retrieved her gold cauldron from her hall beneath the waters. When he drank from it, the warrior was healed and whole once more. And after hearing the story, Arthur’s men slept peacefully and Gwyna, pleased with her telling, lay “thinking already of ways [she] might better it when [she] told it next” (276).

Gwyna’s female perspective on the tales of the archetypal male hero and his band (for after all when she is disguised as Gwyn, Gwyna is still a girl) puts a whole new twist on the legend. Gwyna, who begins the story as a waif made homeless by Arthur’s war-band, travels her own hero’s journey toward the self-sufficient woman she will become. She learns the truth about Arthur who is not really a hero at all but a brute that is buoyed up by Myrddin’s fabrications.

In the end, Gwyna shows the courage and cleverness she has developed over the course of her journey. She attends to Arthur’s needs as he lays dying, and at his command, she throws Caliburn back into the lake. Then, after confessing her female identity, Gwyna travels the countryside telling stories of Myrddin’s wise and heroic King Arthur, rather than true stories of the tyrannical and often cruel Arthur she had known. Although she knows he is dead, she tells them Arthur may yet live and may return; she gives her listeners hope. She earns her bread and bed by telling the lies that people want to hear.

Here Lies Arthur is replete with memorable and quotable lines about the power of stories to shape reality. “‘Of course, it’s all nonsense,’ Myrddin said, ‘You’ll have to learn that, Gwyna. Just because someone tells a story doesn’t mean it’s true. I have no magic powers. I’m just a traveler who has picked up a few hand conjuring tricks along the road… You see, Gwyna, men do love a story. That’s what we’re giving them this morning, you and I. A story they’ll remember all their lives and tell to their children and their children’s children until the whole world knows how Arthur came by the sword of the other-world’” (27).

In these declarations about the “truth” in stories, Reeve provides his own rationale for filling in the blanks in the journey of the legendary hero we know as King Arthur. In doing so, however, he creates a young heroine in the person of Gwyna/Gwyn who succeeds on her own hero’s journey, who blossoms into a storyteller with powers of her own. “’Everyone loves a story,’ [Myrddin] always said. And whatever Arthur did, Myrddin could turn it into a story so simple and clean that everyone would want to hear it, and hold it in their hearts, and take it out from time to time to polish it and see it shine, and pass it on to their friends and children” (61).

Just as the personal, family, and cultural stories help us make meaning in our real lives, authors of literary works who integrate stories within the story help their characters make meaning in their lives, too. The stories within the stories of all four of the hero’s journey novels we have discussed this month, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Lin), Tiger Moon (Michaelis), Heartsinger (Stoffels), and Here Lies Arthur (Reeve) offer readers tales that we can hold in our hearts, take out and polish, and pass on to our students, families, and friends. As Yolen wrote about stories, “Touch magic. Pass it on” (57).

What is your response to Reeve’s imaginative retelling? What are your connections to the hero’s journey archetype? What other books have you read or media you have viewed that contain stories within the story? Do you feel this motif is an example of art imitating life?

Thank you to all who participated in the WOW Currents blog this month, including 8 th -grade students in the Calhoun Middle School International Book Club, their sponsor and USBBY Texas Ambassador Ragina Shearer, and Texas Woman’s University graduate students in LS5633: The Art of Storytelling.

Works Cited Lin, Grace. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon . New York: Little, Brown, 2009. Print.

Michaelis, Antonia. Tiger Moon . Trans. Anthea Bell. New York: Amulet Books, 2006/2008. Print.

Reeve, Philip. Here Lies Arthur . New York: Scholastic, 2007. Print.

Stoffels, Karlijn. Heartsinger. Trans. Laura Watkinson. New York: Arthur Levine/Scholastic, 2006/2009. Print.

Yolen, Jane. Touch Magic: Fantasy, Faerie and Folklore in the Literature of Childhood . New York: Philomel, 1981. Print.

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• Themes : Here Lies Arthur , Judi Moreillon , Philip Reeve
• Descriptors: Books & Resources , Student Connections , WOW Currents

15 thoughts on “ The Hero’s Journey from Another Point of View: Here Lies Arthur ”

I really liked Here Lies Arthur, because a uses the original heroicic story of king arthur. It full of dangerous and exciting adventures, and even magic. THis story is in the point of view of Gwyna/Gwyn, the sometimes girl, sometimes boy servant of Myrddin (Merlin). This story has a unique twist to it making it a great outstanding book that will leave you hungry for more. This story doesnt conisist of the heroric arthur that is told among all, he in this story is a trecherous person. As arthor is in his death bed she confesses her true identity, and arthur throws his legendary sord back in the lake it came. While she has two choices that will forever change arthurs identity. She has the choice to tell lies making him a hero, or to reveal the true cruel and trecherous side of the legendary arthur. Meanwhile Gwana makes stories of her own, which will be used to heal those with a broke or fallen heart. She tells how the lake-lady came upon a young, handsome and wounded warrior. Feeling pity for him, she retrieved her gold cauldron from her hall beneath the waters. When he drank from it, the warrior was healed and whole once more. while this helped arthur men come to rest with peacfull and good thought, giving them the courage to continue.I personally enjoy how the story is unfolded and told throught the book. I also enjoy the setting that is placed, and how the “truth” is told. This is a great book that, will not upset those who read it. I hope that all who read this book will enjoy it as much as i did. I love how Philip Reeve puts the story onto a vivis image and make your mind flow with great pictures of the story that come to life. Overall this story is great and outstanding, you will feel as if ur with Gwyna every step of her hard but adventurous journey. This is a a book that is like none other, including magic, adventure, thrill, and most of all… truth.

The best way to look at hero’s journey is Kal Bashir’s way – as a set of functions. Go to http://www.clickok.co.uk/index4.html

This book was such a roller-coaster of a ride! The book got darker and grittier with each chapter. Today’s readers will eat it up… such tragic characters. I have to admit that Myrddin (aka “Merlin” of the Arthurian tales) frustrated me as a character. Even when we finally get the skinny on Myrddin’s history, his motivations and moral compass are complicated to the point that I found myself, like Gwyna, wanting to shout in rage at him. His blindness regarding Arthur as the “great hero and savior” make it possible for Arthur to leave a trail of innocent carnage behind him for years. And, no, Myrddin’s Saxon enemies are not avenged. What a waste of years and lives. I’m with Gwyna who spat on Myrddin near the end and shouted, “You’ve wasted your life building him high and wrapping him up in stories, but Arthur hasn’t cleaned the Saxons away…all you can do is make up stories, make up lies, try to turn him into something that he isn’t. And your stories won’t last any longer than Arthur does. When he dies, the stories will die with him, and he’ll ne forgotten. And so will you. And so will all of it” (p. 305-306).

But, ironically, in the end, the stories are apparently the only thing that HAS lasted! Gwyna redeems Myrddin’s craft by taking what she has learned from him and using it for good. Her motivations are different….manipulative, yes, but without Myrddin’s twisted, blinded devotion that refuses to acknowledge moral darkness. Her stories bring joy and hope to others for a time before she sails away with Peredur to find a place “somewhere better” where they can build a new story.

Here Lies Arthur was a realy good book. The nararator of the story is Gwyna she is telling a story about a servent named Myrddinwho is sometimes boy and a girl. I like the point of view in this story because i have read stories about King Arthur and this one in paticular stands out to me becuase it is more discriptive and is more exciting than the other ones. The Story goes on about a powerful king named Arthur and other charctars and tell the story about how Arthur became king and his journey to becomeing king and the important people that helped him with that. I would love to recomend this book to other book lovers and book readers.

Here Lies Arthur was an exciting novel and a good illustration in the power of a story. Who has not believed in something because of a story that was once told? Throughout the novel, the main character, Gwyna finds herself playing many roles which Myrddin spins: Gwyn (a boy), the “Lady of the Lake,” then back to Gwyna (a girl). Gwyna does an excellent job of adapting to each life, though the transitions are terribly hard for her and uncomfortable for the reader. Not only does she lose friends, but she has to adapt to new hobbies, jobs, and people. Myrddin however, continues to weave stories, which serve as an illusion to the people, and helps strengthen King Arthur as a leader. Gwyna sees the truth. She understands that Myrddin’s lies offer only false hope and throughout her travels with Myrddin she grows stronger, more confident, and understands that the tricks give hope to some, but bring destruction on others. While it was easy to fall in love with Gwyna, Myrddin is a whole other story. His undying devotion to Arthur as the “savior” and his ability to spin tales helps to create the legendary reputation of the mighty King Arthur. However, Arthur’s heroic image is just that, a false image. Myrddin does have a place in his heart for Gwyna; she is the long lost child he never had, and one could almost like him after he tells of his childhood if one could believe him. Gwyna says it best, “That’s the trouble with a story-spinner. You never know what’s real and what is made up.” The great Arthur is another character that is easily despised in the story. Throughout the story Arthur often times acts out of anger, he is quick to speak, slow to think, and comes across as gross. His shining moment is when he beheads Bedwyr out of anger because he is having an affair with his wife, Gwenhwyfar. While the story is built around the mighty King Arthur, Reeve’s focus is on Gwyna and her point-of-view of Arthur.

Reeves writes, what reads as a true account of the real King Arthur. A behind the scenes look at what really went on with the enchanted tales of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The story reads like a true epic, easing into bloodshed and heart ache. But once it hits, there is plenty to go around. In fact, you can almost hear the gory sounds described by Reeves. Gwyna is the true hero of the story, enduring loss, trickery, and love. She is truly a good person, devoting herself to those around her and protecting the weak. One character in particular that she has a strong connection with is Peredur. Gwyna’s first encounter with Peri was while she was at her (his) village. However, Peri was a girl at the time, due to his mother’s fear of losing him to war. Gwyna at the time was playing the role of Gwyn, a boy. The two meet and a friendship is instantly formed, a friendship that turns into love. This story has it all, tender scenes mixed with gory battles and plenty of blood, and never a dull moment.

Mary and Luis, you both made reference to Gwyna using stories for good rather than for selfish reasons. Her stories bring healing and give courage to many. I believe stories do the same today. Often times it is because of a story that we believe something, or in something. These stories give us hope, a sense of wonder, excitement, and more. Like you Luis, I loved how Gwyna had to make a choice, would she destroy the legendary King Arthur by revealing who he really was, or would she uphold his image and build on it? Gwyna’s choice shows the hero that she truly is. She carries the stories on to give the people hope. Gwyna is a very unselfish hero, the humble kind we all love to read about.

The story-within-a-story theme of this novel makes me think about the movie Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. If you haven’t seen this it is wonderful. A young boy travels to the Mysterious Island found in Jules Verne’s novel. While on the island many different classic stories come into play, such as the Nautilus of Captain Nemo which helped them escape, the opposite world of Gulliver’s Travels and the giant animals, and the volcano of gold in Treasure Island. The movie weaves these stories together for an exciting tale. In the story the family believed that these stories were only fiction, but the young boy (main character) believed they were real. This is the power of a story, that one could believe in it and have hope in it; that it could possibly exist. How exciting!

Gwyna, knows the truth yet is willing to set that aside to give hope to others. The stories are what must live on, it doesn’t matter that Arthur didn’t, it’s really the hope and belief in the story that is important. Myrddin taught her this; he taught her that life is all about a story. While Myrddin’s character was despicable, he did offer some wisdom to Gwyna.

There are probably eleventy billion books out there based on the King Arthur story, but this is one of the best I’ve read. It’s one of the “realistic” ones: Arthur isn’t a king or a hero; he’s a thug who wants to take as much as he can from the other thugs of post-Roman Britain and Merlin is a smooth-talking PR man who’s trying to convince everyone Arthur is the one who will save them from the Saxons. The author imagines believable origins for all the stories that have been passed down as glorious myths, but he also explores how important stories are to people who are afraid of dying in battle or just living hard, boring lives. The narrator is a girl who sometimes pretends to be a boy and the differences between these two existences are thoughtfully explored. Because of the unflinching descriptions of life in the Dark Ages (abuse, rape, wholesale slaughter) it’s not for younger teens. The writing is beautiful.

Gwyna is a young servant girl who runs from her master’s home when it is being raided and burned. She swims to a wood and is found by Myrddin who takes her and protects her and makes her the Lady of the Lake. After that she gets her hair cut short and acts like a boy. She meets a boy who is acting as a girl. In this story I think it’s very old but a nice tale to be told. My favorite character would have to be “Gwyn” or Gwyna.

This idea of man’s need for story is fascinating. Luis, Jennifer, and Kassidy have each pointed out how important stories are for survival. Stories give us reasons to live. Stories help us make sense of our world. This book certainly depicts the need for story in order to LIVE.

Jennifer, I love how you connected the idea of a story-within-a-story to modern media in JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. (I really have to see that movie now! What a star-studded cast…I love anything with the Rock.) And since the movie weaves in the theme of a young character who believes these classic stories are real, I think you’ve made a great connnection with the same theme in HERE LIES ARTHUR.

This also reminds me of one of my favorite movies, SECONDHAND LIONS, in which two wealthy, reclusive aging brothers find themselves unexpectedly in charge of parenting a neglected young nephew. Throughout the movie, one of the brothers spins stories to the boy about their lives of daring-do adventure and reckless excitement. The viewer is never sure how much of the stories are real or made-up. And we come to see that in the end, it really doesn’t matter. The stories empower the boy (and the teller), give the boy new eyes, and help him become a man. Sounds like Gwyna.

A story within a story…isn’t that what our lives really are?

In the introductory post Judi Moreillon posted that Gwyna/Gwyn “blossoms into a storyteller with powers of her own.” One of my favorite stories Gwyna tells was of Gwenhwyfar. She was not necessarily beautiful but Gwyna was able to make her beautiful in her stories, “I couldn’t tell them she’d been young, the way I had with folk who’d never known her, I made her kind and wronged enough that they started to think she had been beautiful, and not so old as they had thought. Sometimes in the firelight, on one face or another, I’d see tears running down.” (268) This shows how wonderful a storyteller Gwyna had become, able to manipulate reality just enough to create a desired image, but also able to create an emotional reaction to the story. This story reminds us that the storyteller is the one with the true power. Thinking back through our history there have been many stories told which we have taken as truth, only to find out later that the story was not entirely true or completely false. Think about political figures, and things their staff did not want the public knowing about. In our world, just like in Reeve’s world, we manipulate the facts, bend the story, and twist the endings in order to reveal what we want others to believe.

And yes Mary, I agree, our lives are just “stories within stories,” all mixing together and sending us different directions.

After reading this story, I really began thinking about the “spin” anyone can put on a story and the audience is left to distinguish what is fact or fiction. For us, the spin on news and information we receive through television, books, internet, radio, and newspapers influences and requires us to critically analyze the validity of what we encounter. We see this in Here Lies Arthur as Myrddin works magic as he travels throughout Britain spinning stories of Arthur’s greatness. The author, Reeve, provides us with a unique perspective, told through Gwyna’s point of view. Gwyna is a girl forced from her master’s home as Arthur and his war-band raid their village. Gwyna’s character is transformed throughout the story. In the beginning, she is known as Gwyna the Mouse, minimizing her importance and emphasizing how powerless she is to control her own fate. (p.6) The reader learns the true strength of Gwyna as she fights her way through being a boy, Gwyn, and resuming her role as a girl, Gwyna. She takes us on this journey viewing Arthur and Myrddin in a very different way, revealing the dark side of Camelot. I believe this is where the power of a story compels one to seek the truth. We experience the feelings that Gwyna works through as she acknowledges the truths that are revealed to the very end of the story – Gwenhwyfar’s marriage betrayal with Bedwyr, and Myrddin’s plan to lead Cei and his soldiers to their death, Myrddin’s admissions on his death bed … We follow Gwyna’s character as it grows stronger and wiser and never loses hope.

Thank you, Jennifer, for reminding us of the power of the storyteller to create an emotional response as seen through Gwyna’s stories of Gwenhwyfar. You are so correct. The story teller is the one with the real power which we do see through today’s PR spinners.

For those who already love the stories of King Arthur or who want to dig into the “classic” stories of King Arthur further, here are a few resources you might like:

-Hudson Talbott’s picture books TALES OF KING ARTHUR. There are 4 books in the series with gorgeous illlustrations.

-I also like this 3 minute YouTube http://youtu.be/E4pGFGkHOd8 with movie clips from Excalibur and a remake of Nat King Cole’s song. Teens, you’ll think this is a hoot.

For teachers: http://www.arthuriana.org/ and go to the “Teaching” link on the right. Lots of grade level ideas here. If I were going to introduce this novel to high school (or maybe preAP 8th graders), I would use some of the suggested internet sites for a look at the middle ages and then have students do background research on the original tales of King Arthur.

Student groups could even each be assigned one of Arthur’s tales and then have them present the tales chronologically to the class (skits, multimedia, etc.) in order to get an overview of the life and legends of Arthur. Fun!

I really enjoyed how the author tells a story within a story. I have always loved hearing and watching different versions of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable. This novel differs greatly from any of the stories I have known so far. I recently began watching a weekly show, Once Upon a Time; it uses traditional tales and integrates a story within a story. I look forward to the similar stories and characters and find them enjoyable to watch. Each story has characters from various tales – Snow White, the wicked Stepmother, Rumpelstiltskin … but tell a modern version while returning to the traditional tales we know and love. The same is true of, Here Lies Arthur, the reader references the known story of King Arthur as Reeve’s story unfolds. It is a true page turner that I could not put down. I found myself saying, “Just one more chapter!”

When we first heard of “Here lies Arthur”, we thought ‘Oh Great, another King Arthur story’. Then we read other people’s blogs and thought, This might not be such a bad story. As we read it, we found that it was a story within a story, an entwined tale. We found it a very intruiging novel. The author, Phillip Reeve, definetly told the story in a way that would capture the imagination of us all, and took us to a distant land. We loved reading this story and definetly recommend it.

Here Lies Arthur, by Philip Reeve, is the key to find the true story that lies upon King Arthur’s memory! The books cover leads you to a different path(conclusion about the book.) Although this happens, once you read the book, you’ll find it more interesting, and encounter a whole type of different story! This is not just a whole other fantasy book. This book, is a great Historical Fiction! It is such a great book that shows the power of a book through history(the past)!!! This book is great!:)

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Charlie Jane Anders

Why Can't We Have a Good King Arthur Movie? Blame Game of Thrones

In case you haven't heard—which you probably haven’t, because nobody cares—there's a new King Arthur movie. Directed by gangster-flick auteur Guy Ritchie, it's got the oddly generic title King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and is limping into theaters this weekend with horrendous reviews and virtually no buzz. It's another reimagining of the Camelot legend that this time, thanks to bad CGI, shaky-cam filming, and choppily edited action, is a ponderous snoozefest that comes in at just more than two hours but feels like three. In other words, despite the fact that it has Ritchie at the helm and cost 175 million dollars , it's as vital as another Dracula reboot. Why is it so hard to tell this classic story of a humble boy who turns out to be a long-lost king? Blame Game of Thrones .

King Arthur may or may not have been a real person, but by the Middle Ages his Round Table and sword-from-a-stone maneuver were the stuff of legend. And now, centuries later, his myth is probably the most classic of the "chosen one" stories---the original hero's journey. Whenever a young protagonist rises from humble obscurity to claim their destined greatness—like Luke Skywalker, Buffy Summers, or Harry Potter—they owe a debt to Arthur and to pop culture retellings like The Sword in the Stone , The Once and Future King , and Excalibur . But after decades of Arthur and his narrative progeny, and especially after watching the twisted and sadistic progress of "chosen" characters like Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, going back to the original vanilla version seems, well, pointless.

George R. R. Martin deliberately set out to subvert the tales of Camelot, which he grew up reading . In A Game of Thrones , he presents Bran Stark as a "young King Arthur" archetype, and then has something unspeakable happen to him. Throughout his Westeros books, characters who seem destined for greatness either die, suffer, or make terrible mistakes. Or all three. By now, we're conditioned to seeing the Chosen One meet a bad end. And at this point, after Martin's painstaking deconstruction of statecraft and relentless demonstration that the road to bad government is often paved with good intentions, the notion of King Arthur rising to the throne and becoming a good king who makes mistakes but also rules justly with Merlin by his side feels particularly naïve.

Throwing this whole shift into, uh, stark contrast is King Arthur , which telegraphs from the beginning how desperately it wants to be Game of Thrones . Ritchie, who reinvented Sherlock Holmes as a rakish badass, tries to do the same with Arthur (Charlie Hunnam), but instead of resurrecting him as a hero worthy of Westeros just bogs his story down with overused fantasy tropes, endless vision quests, and magician babble. This Arthur may be a man who made his bones running the brothel where he was raised (edgy!), but from the Battle of Castle Black-wannabe opening skirmish to the inclusion of two Thrones stalwarts—Aidan Gillen (Petyr Baelish on Thrones ) and Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton)—his movie is a two-hour reminder of the show you wish you were watching instead.

Meanwhile, the story of Arthur's rise from peasant boy to King of England is, more than anything, an origin story. And after 20 years of endless superhero films, we've seen too many of those to accept a straight retelling. Marvel movies, taking the second act blueprint of the monomyth to heart, have trained us to believe that heroes must be arrogant and narcissistic, and then learn a lesson, before they can pull the metaphorical swords from their stones. At the same time, *King Arthur'*s dullest parts seem to have come right out of the Zack Snyder playbook, particularly his retelling of Superman's origin. There's angst, and slow-motion, and grimacing—all the Snyder staples. And, despite a few signature Ritchie jokey scenes, it also shares Snyder's distaste for a good time.

In fact, Ritchie's King Arthur made me wonder if we can even appreciate a fun, good-hearted version of the original heroic narrative anymore. Maybe these tropes have been subverted and deconstructed so often, particularly when it comes to epic fantasy, that no one wants to buy into the archetypes now. Maybe in this post- Game world, everything in this genre looks like a knockoff—even movies based on the hero's journey that helped inspire it. Or maybe the once and future king is just waiting for someone who can pull him out of the darkness and help him reclaim his throne.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX9y5JPuRHY

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Sofia Barnett

Review: Charlie Hunnam's 'King Arthur' takes a so-so stab at heroic lore

The seminal hero’s journey gets a punk-rock makeover in  King Arthur: Legend of the Sword , a sharp-tongued swing and a miss at the tale of the Knights of the Round Table.

There’s no shortage of modern attitude in director Guy Ritchie’s new take (** out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters nationwide Friday) on Arthurian lore. It's a messy mélange of the British filmmaker's own gangster pictures and  Lord of the Rings, a medieval Avengers with Charlie Hunnam as the reluctant hero. The Sons of Anarchy star gives Arthur plenty of muscular charisma , but Legend of the Sword ’s overemphasis on the supernatural and the visually spectacular mortally wounds an often-rollicking adventure.

Instead of the glorious Camelot, this Arthur’s origin story begins in hardscrabble fashion, finding the hero living out of a brothel and heading up a gang of miscreants. His nights are filled with crippling nightmares of a violent incident from his childhood, and Arthur discovers his hidden lineage when he’s the only guy able to pull a mystical sword from a stone: He's the son of King Uther (Eric Bana), who died by the unholy alliance of his brother (and current ruler) Vortigern (Jude Law) and the malevolent magician Mordred (Rob Knighton).

5 things to know about the new 'King Arthur' starring Charlie Hunnam

Vortigern sets his sights on his nephew, since Arthur is the only person who can challenge his uncle’s rule, and Arthur is recruited into the resistance by a motley group that includes his father’s loyal subject Bedivere (Djimon Hounsou) and marksman Goose Fat Bill (Aidan Gillen). There's no Merlin, but our main man does have a mysterious female mage (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) who helps him learn the amazing abilities imparted by Excalibur.

Hunnam’s hero has a captivating sort of rule-breaking scruffiness , and while Law isn’t as over-the-top as on The Young Pope , he’s still chowing down as much scenery as he can. Fresh-faced Bergès-Frisbey is underutilized as Arthur's witchy confidante, and so is David Beckham, who plays against type as a very undashing royal henchman.

In creating new versions of the Lady of the Lake and other aspects of the ancient legend, Ritchie offers a few amazing visuals when  King Arthur dives into fantasy weirdness. Super-sized elephants are destructive forces of nature in an attack on Camelot, and the Sirens are a strange, slithering three-bodied sight working with Vortigern on his nefarious plans. What doesn’t work as well are the “superpowers” that Arthur’s sword gives him, with CGI making fight scenes indecipherable, and the large-scale climactic battle, which is heavy-handed with its filmmaking wizardry.

Charlie Hunnam launches his big-screen adventure

It’s a shame, because Ritchie’s best works have a heightened normalcy at their core. His Sherlock Holmes films resonate because they’re about a really smart dude who sees the little details no one else does, and movies like Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels are quick-cut, highly stylized looks at cockney hoodlums navigating an eccentric crime world. Similarly, King Arthur shines when its boasts a flip of the familiar, with Arthur and the boys engaging in wanton thievery or on a caper to assassinate Vortigern.

But this Sword  should have stayed in the stone. A well-intentioned albeit unfocused effort to retell the legend, King Arthur  offers a little campy fun yet is only a so-so stab at something new.

Every King Arthur Movie, Ranked Worst To Best

• King Arthur movies offer various interpretations of the legend, inspiring live-action, animated, and modern adaptations.
• The portrayal of King Arthur can vary, with some movies focusing on his idealistic image as a medieval knight.
• While some films may lack magic and excitement, others showcase the enduring impact and charm of the Camelot story.

The Arthurian legend is a popular choice among filmmakers historically, with some of the best King Arthur movies bringing the tale to the screen in exciting and new ways. A central figure in the legends making up a body of medieval literature and arcane texts known as the Matter of Britain, the King Arthur legend has since developed into a figure of international interest. King Arthur is a story cited as inspiring numerous live-action interpretations, as well as animated shorts, parodies, and modernizations of the famous Camelot story.

While other stories around this time regarding King Arthur all vary from text to text both in creativity and narrative, modern historians have decided that Arthur is a fictitious character designed to embody the ideal image of a forthright medieval knight. With other iconic characters populating the tale, from Merlin to Lancelot, the King Arthur movies have ranged in how they tackle the legend as well as the quality in which they do it. Some are short of magic and excitement while others are proof of why the story has such a lasting impact.

The 55 Best Movies Of All Time

Screen Rant breaks down the best movies of all time, from old classics to modern masterpieces across multiple genres of cinema.

Arthur & Merlin: Knights Of Camelot (2020)

King arthur goes through a crisis as camelot is seiged.

Audiences looking to understand the legend of King Arthur should seek out any source material other than this dire attempt at a feature film. Arthur and Merlin: Knights of Camelot sees Arthur (Richard Short) and his men race home to prevent the evil Mordred from taking over Camelot castle, yet this classic story is somehow twisted beyond recognition in director Giles Anderson's hollow attempts at making a rugged and realistic period piece.

Knights of Camelot takes an interesting approach in telling a more stripped-down take on the story, focusing on a version of Arthur who has lost faith in the legend of himself. However, while it attempts to be a compelling character study of the man, it is hard to overlook how thin the story is and the low-budget nature of the movie makes it feel like an amateurish production .

Sword Of The Valiant: The Legend Of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight (1984)

A young knight is challenged by a mystic warrior.

The extensive nature of the Arthurian world allows for some tales of heroes beyond Arthur himself. Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a low-budget retelling of the classic 14th-century poem which stars Arthur's young knight Gawain (Miles O'Keeffe) accepting a challenge to fight a mysterious Green Knight, who proves to be a more mystical foe than he initially thought. Sean Connery stars as the Green Knight.

A strangely low budget, poor production values, and dreary fight sequences conspire to make Weeks' medieval epic feel more like B-movie fare than its stellar cast has any right to feature in. Sword of the Valiant 's screeching synthesizer-led score adds an unpleasant aspect for the audience to put up with long before Gawain (Miles O'Keeffe) meets the Green Knight (Sean Connery) on the field of battle.

A Kid In King Arthur's Court (1995)

A young kid is transported back in time.

Loosely based on Mark Twain's iconic 1889 novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court , A Kid in King Arthur's Court attempts to offer a kid-friendly Arthurian adventure with a time travel twist. This forgotten Walt Disney movie sees a young, baseball-obsessed boy named Calvin transported from contemporary Los Angeles to Camelot, where he helps King Arthur keep his throne using a CD player, a Swiss Army Knife, and roller skates.

The groan-inducing catchphrase " Joust Do It " is a prime example of the kind of lazy humor that can be expected from this Disney misfire that offers no real fun with the Arthurian legend and simply presents one tired fish-out-of-water gag after another . While nearly a total misfire from Disney, A Kid in King Arthur's Court is worth viewing if only to see performances from a young Kate Winslet and Daniel Craig, who both went on to become huge stars later on.

Shrek The Third (2007)

Shrek tries to convince a young arthur to be king.

The Shrek movie franchise has always had a lot of fun reworking fairy tales and fables into its family-friendly comedy stories, so it was only a matter of time before they got around to tackling the Arthurian legend. The movie finds Shrek inheriting the throne he has no interest in so he is forced to find Fiona's young, under-achieving cousin, Arthur (or Artie), to take his place.

At its core, Shrek the Third 's concept is seemingly designed to be a film for adults that is instead shackled by its core demographic of a child-based audience, containing multiple jokes about existential ennui that undoubtedly fly straight over most of its viewer's heads. While the cast of Shrek the Third is still clearly having a good time voicing the characters that made Shrek and Shrek 2 such fantastic family movies, there is little about Shrek the Third 's story to excite or enthrall fans .

The Last Legion (2007)

A roman soldier heads to britain to gather supporters.

While many of the takes on King Arthur focus on the well-known legend rather than worry about historical accuracy, there are some that are interested in diving deeper into the real historical aspects that inspired the legend. Loosely inspired by the events of 5th-century European history, including the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, The Last Legion blends these historical events with fantastical elements from the legend of King Arthur to provide a fictional basis for the Arthurian legend.

To form the backbone of a gritty narrative, Doug Lefler's The Last Legion brings together a crop of fine English actors, including Colin Firth, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ben Kingsley, and Rupert Friend. The Last Legion is decent enough combat-based fare but it pales compared to other historical action films released around the same time period, including Troy and Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur .

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

The transformers and the arthurian legend mix for a new adventure.

Not content with the exciting concept of giant robots that can disguise themselves as various vehicles, the Transformers movies have also been keen on reshaping history by putting these robots at the center of some big events. After playing into the Moon landing and battling the Nazis in World War II, Transformers: The Last Knight links to King Arthur with them helping him and Merlin defeat the Saxons and tie their legend with his.

The fifth installment in the Transformers film series is not looking to think too hard about any of its narrative choices, instead delivering the epic battles and collision of worlds that Bay's Transformers titles have become known for. Transformers: The Last Knight 's special effects essentially prop up an otherwise nonsensical movie , but the CG work is so clean in Bay's final Transformers offering that it masks the franchise's now-familiar shortcomings more palatable than some of its predecessors.

Tristan & Isolde (2006)

Two young royals on opposites one a dispute form a romance.

Tristan and Isolde is another movie that puts one of the knights of the roundtable in the spotlight rather than Arthur himself. In the movie, Tristian is the second in line to take the throne only for his duty to his kingdom to become complicated when he falls in love with a princess of the Irish clan who is currently feuding with his family.

Tristan and Isolde is a serviceable attempt at a medieval romance wrapped up in Arthurian legend , although the Scott Free-produced film occasionally fails to elicit the levels of emotion needed to sustain its core love story. A young James Franco excels as Tristan here, playing the prince with a well-tempered blend of duty and passion, while his chemistry with co-star Sophia Myles is palpable even if it isn't the epic romance that was promised in the marketing.

First Knight (1995)

An older king arthur battles a rogue knight.

While not a historical take on the story, First Knight is a more grounded approach to the story of King Arthur and some of the key characters in his world. Sean Connery plays the older King Arthur who is contending with an invading rogue knight while his younger wife Guinevere (Julia Ormond) begins a romantic affair with Lancelot, played by Richard Gere. The movie takes inspiration from French poet Chrétien de Troyes' take on the legend.

First Knight would benefit greatly from a little magic, or indeed humor, to elevate the otherwise strong performances from Connery and several of his co-stars. While Gere is perhaps a fatal miscasting as an uninspired Lancelot, the film is a gorgeous spectacle visually , with Adam Greenberg's cinematography transporting audiences to the rolling hills surrounding the fabled Camelot.

King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword (2017)

A young outlaw discovers he is the heir to the throne.

Director Guy Ritchie 's take on the Arthurian legend is certainly bold, with Charlie Hunnam strutting around as the titular king in a manner more akin to earlier Guy Ritchie gangster movie fare such as Snatch. The movie finds Arthur unaware of his lineage to the thrown and playing the reluctant hero who begins the movie more interested in serving himself. He is joined by the likes of Jude Law, Djimon Honsou, and Eric Bana.

Ritchie cheekily also draws parallels to the Brexit issue dominating his home country at the time of the film's release. Yet despite the tongue-in-cheek fun posited by King Arthur: Legend of the Sword , its box office failure scuppered the other five sequel films in the pipeline, leaving Ritchie's franchise starter as a standalone film that is a highly enjoyable ride whose narrative never really goes anywhere.

A Knight In Camelot (1998)

A computer programmer goes back in time.

Another reimagining of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court , this made-for-TV movie proved to be a more successful comedy. The real star of A Knight In Camelot is leading lady Whoopi Goldberg, whose turn as scientist Vivien Morgan out of her time is both touching and hilarious as she saves King Arthur's (Michael York) bamboozled court from the nefarious Sir Sagramore (Robert Addie).

Disney was acutely aware of their failure with A Kid In King Arthur's Court in 1995, with the studio attempting a more mature-skewing remake just three years later as a result. This time, however, the production studio landed much closer to their usual standard of the movie, with A Knight In Camelot providing genuine laughs alongside a more robust, cohesive script and led by a genuine comedic star.

Dragonheart (1996)

A knight and dragon team up to take down an evil ruler.

Sean Connery is an actor who has certainly popped up in a lot of King Arthur movies, but his role in Dragonheart might be the most memorable despite the fact that he doesn't appear on screen. Dennis Quaid leads the movie as a sword for hire who runs a scam, hunting down fake dragons for a price. However, when he runs into a real dragon named Draco (voiced by Connery) the two form an unexpected bond and attempt to take down a corrupt ruler.

Far from jostling to be taken seriously, Dragonheart unselfishly frees its actors of the script's potentially grandiose shackles, instead allowing each character (especially the villains) monologues and overt mannerisms to run riot, making Dragonheart feel a maximalist production in every sense. Dragonheart 's visual effects were also stunning at the time of its release, with Draco's animations holding up well some 26 years later .

King Arthur (2004)

A gritty retelling of arthur's historical rise to power.

Though Antoine Fuqua is a director known for his modern action movies like the Equalizer movies , he brought his style to the medieval setting for this grounded and gritty take on King Arthur. Clive Owen stars as the titular king as he prepares to take on the invading Saxon forces, led by Stellan Skarsgard's compelling villain. The movie features Kiera Knightley as Guinevere, Ioan Gruffudd as Lancelot, Stephen Dillane as Merline, and a host of impressive supporting actors, like Ray Winstone, Mads Mikkelsen, and Joel Edgerton.

Fuqua's King Arthur is in a class of its own when delivering visceral, bone-crunching medieval action . Yet King Arthur remains much more than a sum of its goriest scenes, with its key cast representing the crop of British acting talent in 2004. Clive Owen, in particular, plays the part of an Artorius stripped of his typical bravado with such conviction it is hard to imagine a more convincing portrait of the burgeoning ruler in modern King Arthur movies to date.

Lancelot And Guinevere (1963)

A forbidden romance blooms between two of king arthur's closest companions.

Lancelot and Guinevere remains not only one of the oldest King Arthur stories to grace the big screen but also one of the most touching following its initial 1963 release. Cornel Wilde's classic depicts a lesser-known version of the Camelot legend, in which Lancelot (Cornel Wilde) must shed his image as a paragon of virtue to pursue and court King Arthur's (Brian Aherne) wife Guinevere (Jean Wallace), with their tryst ending in Arthur's wife being burned at the stake amid accusations of witchcraft.

Originally titled Sword of Lancelot for U.S. audiences, Lancelot and Guinevere remains a heartbreaking depiction of the inner workings of Camelot that stands the test of time. There is a grand sweeping epic feel to the movie in the style of Old Hollywood that is engrossing and feels fitting for this exploration of the legend.

The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)

A young kid becomes a modern hero when inheriting excalibur.

Director Joe Cornish's previous movie, Attack the Block, put a winning cast of young characters in a fun and thrilling alien invasion story. The Kid Who Would Be King goes for a similar approach but with the youngster populating an Arthurian legend. It follows a young boy who must use Excalibur to take on an evil sorceress in modern-day England. Along with the cast of young actors, Patrick Stewart and Rebecca Ferguson provide some gravitas.

Despite being a commercial flop owed in part to a poor marketing strategy, The Kid Who Would Be King is an unbridled joy of a film for any of those able to look past its less-than-stellar title. A bold blend of Arthurian legend, CG monster action, and sharp comedy , The Kid Who Would Be King modernizes a classic story and makes it accessible (and enjoyable) for all ages, whether they are familiar with the medieval legends of Bedders and Morgan le Fay or not.

Army Of Darkness (1992)

Ash fights deadites in medieval times.

Of all the ways to adapt to the classic Arthurian legends, the most left-field option is undoubtedly Army of Darkness ' choice to place King Arthur and his fabled knights at the center of Ash's (Bruce Cambell) battle against the Deadites. Following the memorable twist at the end of Evil Dead 2 , the third movie picks up with Ash transported back to medieval times where he is faced with the same ancient evil he has been battling.

Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness marks a distinct departure from earlier Evil Dead franchise entries, taking on a more comical tone as Ash attempts to recite passages from the Necronomicon and fix his time travel gaffe which landed him in the Middle Ages, to begin with. Despite an outrageous premise, Army of Darkness is great fun wrapped up in surprisingly deep Evil Dead lore that is enhanced by its medieval setting and characters .

Excalibur (1981)

King arthur and merlin battle evil forces.

The King Arthur legend gets turned into a big, campy, and wonderfully epic adventure with the fantasy movie that ended up being a huge influence to many filmmakers that followed. Excalibur 's cast list reads like a who's who of premium actors in the early 1980s, with the peerless Helen Mirren, Patrick Stewart, Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, and Ciarán Hinds all lending their prowess to John Boorman's dazzling visual spectacle.

More important than the film's visual settings, however, is how Excalibur humanizes the main players within the Arthurian legend , reducing Arthur, Merlin, and company to humans following their base urges as they attempt to navigate a harsh medieval landscape. Moreover, Helen Mirren is in dazzling form here, playing the evil Morgana's every salacious action with a glee that marks Excalibur as a must-see King Arthur movie.

The Sword In The Stone (1963)

A young boy begins his journey to the throne.

The Sword In The Stone taught generations of children the Arthurian legend in the years following its 1963 release and continues to be celebrated to this day. In typical Disney fashion, the animated feature forgoes the overt bloodshed of the real 15th Century to instead deliver a wholly captivating coming-of-age story as a young King Arthur comes to terms with his destiny.

In this way, The Sword In The Stone is a towering example of Disney's enduring magic as a classic that weaves poignant narrative beats into a vibrant historical world . While not often looked at as one of the animated studio's classics, it is one worth revisiting. In fact, the movie's sequence of Merlin and the villainous Madam Mim having a magic duel is one of the most underrated Disney moments of all time.

Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975)

A comedic retelling of the arthurian heroes.

Although there are many King Arthur movies that provide comical moments, there are none that hold a candle to Terry Gilliam's comedic masterpiece, The Holy Grail . In a fashion typical of the legendary Monty Python troupe, The Holy Grail 's zaniness is infectious as it zips between references to Homer's Iliad , the Arthurian classics, and gratuitous pokes at Christianity with gleeful abandon.

While The Holy Grail pales only in comparison to Monty Python 's sketch adaptation The Life of Brian , it nonetheless remains a monument to the genius of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Gilliam himself. From the hilarious insulting French guard to the iconic Black Knight to the hilarious absurd ending to all the wackiness , it marks a triumphant Monty Python movie and the funniest King Arthur movie of all time.

The Green Knight (2021)

A young knight receives a terrifying challenge.

Not many superlatives can adequately do justice to the visual feast that is The Green Knight 's entire 130-minute runtime as it honors and deconstructs its source material in equal measure. The Green Knight from David Lowery, put simply, is spellbinding in that it weaves audiences into the inverted coming-of-age journey that the phenomenal Dev Patel goes through as Sir Gawain.

Stripped away from its numerous aesthetic thrills does little to diminish The Green Knight' s story as a spectacle, with its core message of facing one's demons as relevant and poignant today as it was in King Arthur's time of chivalry and mysticism. The Green Knight tackles heavy themes in an almost spectral manner , allowing each idea to float and take form as the seasons change around Gawain and his terrifying opponent, making it undoubtedly one of the best King Arthur movies to date.

Camelot (1967)

A musical take on the legend.

The only film able to oust Lowery's The Green Knight from the top spot is the timeless Arthurian tale Camelot . Based on the 1960 stage musical of the same name by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Joshua Logan's Camelot is an unabashed and glittering production whose every shot is sumptuous by design. Intricately crafted sets, costumes, and a leading career-best duo of the highest order in Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave conspire to make this 1967 classic a must-see for any audience regardless of their passion for the tales of the Round Table.

Camelot cemented its status as one of the all-time great musical adaptations in its inaugural year by taking home three Golden Globes and three Academy Awards. That's a ceremonial sweep worthy of the best King Arthur movie to exist to date.