King Arthur – The “Once and Future King” (A Giant?)

The “Once and Future King” – The Beast That Was, Is Not, and Yet will be.

Unorganized Notes

The Mystery and Legend of the Once and Future King

The account of Arthur as a Future King who will return again, leading his people to victory at a time of their greatest peril is thought to have it’s origins in the 5th-6th century defeat of the Celts by the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain. Hence, the early Welsh stanza, “Concealed til Doomsday is the grave of Arthur.’ It is certain that by Malory’s time, this same legend of a future return attained an even more subtle connection emblazoned in the Celtic heart when he wrote “…King Arthur is not dead, but had by the will of our Lord Jeshu gone into another place; he shall come again, and he shall win the Holy Cross. I will not say it shall be so, but rather I will say: here in this world he changed his life. There is written upon his tomb this verse: Hic Jacet Arthurus, Rex Quondam, Rexque Futurus…Here lies Arthur, the Once and Future King.” Of course the well documented account of Arthur’s grave having been found, excavated, and subsequently moved, in 1191 at Glastonbury only adds to the literal and historical aspect of his life, yet it was the heavy lead cross found at the site which brings back the legend to a preparedness in the heart once more. HIC IACET SEPULTUS INCLITUS REX ARTURIUS IN INSULA AVALONIA “Here lies buried the renowned King Arthur in the Isle of Avalon.”

A Giant? A Flood?

King Arthur: There is some Arthurian lore which claims that he piloted an ark during the Deluge, and this legend also relates that he stood just over nine feet tall. King Henry II, inspired by stories that Arthur was buried at Glastonbury, dispatched a team there to excavate the area. At a depth of nine feet, they found a lead cross inscribed with the words: “Here lies the body of King Arthur.” Sixteen feet below that was a stone sarcophagus containing the bones of a man nine feet tall. Skeptics put forth the argument that the lead cross could have been forged by local abbots wishing to draw attention (and donations) to their abbey. Such an argument, however, fails to address the fact that the nine-foot skeleton discovered beneath the cross would tend to negate the notion that this could have been a mere hoax. Later, in the early 1500s, another gigantic coffin was disinterred, and found to contain a skeleton eight feet and three inches tall. History fails to record what became of these later bones, although those of Arthur were respectfully re-interred.

Lost Lyonesse

Lyonesse (/liːɒˈnɛs/ lee-uh-NESS) is a kingdom which, according to legend, consisted of a long strand of land stretching from Land’s End at the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England, to what is now the Isles of Scilly in the Celtic Sea portion of the Atlantic Ocean. It was considered lost after being swallowed by the ocean in a single night. The people of Lyonesse were said to live in fair towns, with over 140 churches, and work in fertile, low-lying plains. Lyonesse’s most significant attraction was a castle-like cathedral that was presumably built on top of what is now the Seven Stones Reef between Land’s End and the Isles of Scilly, some 18 miles (29 km) west of Land’s End and 8 miles (13 km) north-east of the Isles of Scilly. It is sometimes spelled Lionesse.

Lyonesse is mentioned in Arthurian legend, specifically in the tragic love-and-loss story of Tristan and Iseult.

~Wikipedia

The Island of Avalon

“Geoffrey makes no mention of where Avalon is located. In fact, it was a historian called Gerald of Wales who first put forward a case for connecting Avalon to Glastonbury in Book 1 of his Instructions for a Ruler: “The place now called Glastonbury was of old called the Isle of Avalon. For it is like an island, surrounded by marshes, and hence called in British Inis Avalon, that is, the Isle of Apples” (so called due to the large numbers of apple trees that grow there). Although it was not an island surrounded by water in the 12th century, the geo-topography of Glastonbury Tor suggests it was once an island and the terrain surrounding it was likely underwater during the time when Arthur supposedly lived.”

The Body Exhumed

Glastonbury Abbey – Often called the oldest ‘Christian Church’ in Britain and Western Europe, it is also the Legendary Avalon and burial place of King Arthur. The length of the ruined Abbey is reportedly precisely 666 feet in length.

Year 1966 – Renowned Archeologist Geoffrey Ashe (who detailed the Glastonbury excavations of King Arthur) embarked upon a massive excavation to find Arthur’s Camelot in this year concentrating his efforts on top Cadbury Hill (Somerset). Found was a gilt bronze letter ‘A’ among many other ‘Arthurian pieces.’

The exhumation of Arthur

The historian Gerald of Wales was most likely invited to visit the abbey and witness this miraculous event, recording it in Instructions for a Ruler as follows: “In our own days his body…was discovered at Glastonbury between two stone pyramids…buried deep in the earth in a hollow oak and indicated by wonderful, almost miraculous, signs, and it was brought into the church with honor and deposited becomingly in a marble tomb.”

The exhumation was quite an event. Large screens were erected around the tomb beneath the two stone pyramids to shield it from view as the monks dug down well below the level at which one would normally expect to find a monk’s grave, until they struck a large metal cross bearing the inscription “Here lies buried the glorious king Arthur and Guinevere his second wife in the Isle of Avalon.” Beneath it rested the giant bones of King Arthur and the smaller remains of his second wife, Guinevere. The glorious discovery was joyfully carried by the monks into the main church and entombed before the high altar.

The Once and Future King Joined With The Angevin Dynasty

The association of King Arthur with the English monarchy began with Geoffrey of Monmouth, who dedicated a manuscript of the History of the Kings of Britain to King Stephen in 1136. The Angevin dynasty, that began with King Henry II in 1154, looked to Arthur as a sort of founding father in much the same way as Glastonbury Abbey did, except that the Angevin kings claimed to be direct descendants of King Arthur’s bloodline. Henry II makes this claim quite plainly in Glastonbury’s charter records, tracing his own lineage back to “the glorious Arthur.”

References
Carley, James P. 1996. Glastonbury Abbey: the holy house at the head of the moors adventurous. Gothic Image.

Carley, James P, ed. 2001. Glastonbury Abbey and the Arthurian tradition. Brewer.

Gerald of Wales. Instructions for a Ruler. Ed. and trans. Robert Bartlett, 2018. Clarendon Press.

Reno, Frank D. 1996. The historic King Arthur: authenticating the Celtic hero of post-Roman Britain. McFarland.

History of the Lord Mayor’s Show

History of the Lord Mayor’s Show
Gog and Magog
Towards the head of the procession you may see two stern but benevolent wicker giants. They are Gog and Magog, the traditional guardians of the City of London, and they have been carried in the Lord Mayor’s Show since the reign of Henry V.

The matter of Britain
Gog and Magog, or sometimes Gogmagog and Corineus, are descended from mythical pagan giants and their origins lie in mediaeval legends of the early British Kings. The story goes that Diocletian – the Roman Emperor – had thirty-three wicked daughters. He managed to find thirty-three husbands to curb their unruly ways, but the daughters were not pleased and under the leadership of their eldest sister Alba they plotted to cut the throats of their husbands as they slept.

For this crime they were set adrift in a boat with half a year’s rations, and after a long and dreadful journey they arrived at a great island that came to be named Albion, after the eldest. Here they stayed, and with the assistance of demons they populated the the wild, windswept islands with a race of giants.

Some time later Brutus, the great-grandson of Aeneas, fled the fall of Troy and by way of various scrapes arrived at the same islands. He too named them for himself, so we also know them as Britain. With him he brought his most able warrior and champion Corineus, who faced the leader of the giant brood in single combat and eventually hurled him from a high rock to his death. The name of the giant was Gogmagog and the rock from which he was thrown became known as Langnagog or ‘The Giants Leap’. As a reward Corineus was given the western part of the island, which came to be called Cornwall after him. Brutus travelled to the east and founded the city of New Troy, which we know as London.

The full story can be found in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s twelfth century Historia Regum Brittaniae, a largely fanciful (but hugely influential) history that connects Celtic royalty to the heroic world of the Greek myth by way of the old Welsh legend of King Arthur. The alert reader will have noticed that the fall of Troy was about 2300 years before the reign of Diocletian and that the name Gogmagog is a mangled borrowing from the Old Testament, but these histories were accepted as fact for centuries and would have real importance to the mediaeval participants in the Mayor’s procession.

Giants
It is common enough for people to regard the original inhabitants of their lands as giants. The memory of early struggles for land or survival is preserved in mythology and heroes become giants in the popular mind. They probably were large and powerful men, and their physical strength and stature become exaggerated as their deeds pass into legend. Our pagan giants were not ugly or huge: they are the elaborated folk memory of great men inhabiting a lost age of might and simplicity.

Effigies
The custom of carrying effigies and images at festivals is sometimes explained as an echo of the days when the same festival would have revolved around a human sacrifice. The victim was replaced with a symbolic representation, and as the old rites were incorporated into the Church the sacrificial effigy became the saint who had made the sacrifice. Whatever one thinks of this theory, the custom of carrying effigies at festivals was widespread in the middle ages both in England and on the continent, and the giants of myth were among them. The tall figures that you will see on the day of the Lord Mayor’s Show are just the latest in a long line of pagan effigies that go back at least a thousand years.

Guildhall

Another version of the story has it that these two giants were the last two survivors of the sons of the thirty-three infamous daughters of Diocletian, who were captured and kept chained to the gates of a palace on the site of Guildhall to act as guardians. However they got there, we do know that by the reign of Henry V there were carved giants guarding the gates of Guildhall. In 1554 they appeared in the Lord Mayor’s Show, and in 1605 the Pageantmaster of the day alluded to the giants who appeared in the Procession on Lord Mayor’s Day as Corineus and Gogmagog.

Lord Mayor’s Day
In 1672 the Pageantmaster Thomas Jordan referred to the giants as “two exceeding rarities”, and stated that “at the conclusion of the Show, they are to be set up in Guildhall, where they may be daily seen all year and I hope never to be demolished by such dismal violence as happened to their predecessors.” He was referring to the destruction of much of the City by the great fire in 1666. His giants however only lasted a few years being made of wickerwork and pasteboard, in common with their sacrificial forebears, and were eventually destroyed by mice and rats.

They were replaced in 1708 by a magnificent pair of wooden statues carved by Captain Richard Saunders. These giants, on whom the modeern versions are based, lasted for over two hundred years before destruction in the blitz. They, in turn, were replaced by the pair which can now be seen in Guildhall, and which were carved by David Evans in 1953. They were a gift to the City by Alderman Sir George Wilkinson who had been Lord Mayor in 1940, at the time of the destruction of the Saunders versions.

Modern London
Gog and Magog symbolize one of many links between the modern business institutions of the City and its ancient history. This is only the most recent of many rebirths, which have long been symbolised by the phoenix on Magog’s shield representing return after fire. Today, the words of Thomas Boreman summarise the Londoner’s view as well as ever:

“Corineus and Gogmagog were two brave giants who richly valued their honour and exerted their whole strength and force in the defence of their liberty and country; so the City of London, by placing these, their representatives in their Guildhall, emblematically declare, that they will, like mighty giants defend the honour of their country and liberties of this their City; which excels all others, as much as those huge giants exceed in stature the common bulk of mankind.”
The Gigantick History of the two famous Giants, and other curiosities in Guildhall, London (volume 1), 1741

Arthur: Christian or Pagan?
October 14, 2017 / Caitlin Brenner
By Monroe Smith II

Noble King Arthur’s religion has never been in doubt; it has always been Christianity. While Geoffrey of Monmouth et al place Christianity at the forefront of Arthur’s being, is the Noble King a Christian or was he a pagan? By exploring when Christianity reached the British Isles it can be determined whether or not Arthur’s religious influences or the writers’ own biases and beliefs led to Arthur’s faith as it appears in many Arthurian texts.

It is noted in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of British Kings that Arthur whilst trying to rally his troops said, “… I, who remain faithful to my God… with the help of Christ” (Lacy 66). This is one of the best examples that clearly established Arthur as a Christian or having Christian faith. Since Geoffrey’s text is what many other authors used as inspiration for their own writings the Christian theme therefore continued. An example of Geoffrey’s Christian influence on others include Wace’s Roman de Brut “On his shield was masterfully portrayed an image of Our Lady St. Mary.” (Lacy 98)

In various texts by various authors written with centuries between them, Arthur for the most part is portrayed as a Christian man of faith and leads a godly people. Merlin despite being some kind of magician using different spells and potions is also viewed to be Christian as well and in some texts is referred to as a prophet making it seem as though he is of divine origins or has divine authority.

The history of Christianity and its spread across Europe from Asia is found throughout the archeological record (Henig). And while there is evidence to show that Christianity reached the British Isles as early as 400 AD (Henig) it is not clear how widespread it actually was across the Isle. Since most of the archeological record points to only a certain class of people being Christianized, Roman governors for example, (Henig) it does not clearly show that it was as widespread as Geoffrey makes it out to be. For example there are several instances around Europe where archeological relics were found that depict Christian themes in as early as the 4th century; however, there are relics of the same time period that depict the Roman Gods (Henig). From this evidence it can be inferred that while Christianity was being practiced it was not the only religion throughout the Roman Empire.

It wasn’t until 319 AD that the Roman Emperor Constantine allowed Christianity to be practiced when he wrote the Edict of Milan, up until then the practice of Christianity was a capital offense and could lead to execution. “During the 4th Century, British Christianity became more visible but it had not yet won over the hearts and minds of the population. Pagan beliefs still abounded and Christianity was a minority faith” (Religions). It wasn’t long after Constantine’s death that the Roman occupation of Britain ended and for a number of years Britain was in a constant state of flux as various groups tried to establish themselves as rulers of Britain (Religions).

A couple of these groups, the Saxons and the Anges, established a beachhead and took over most of the southeastern and eastern coasts of Britain (Violatti). These two groups fought against Roman rule for decades it can be believed that they did not accept the Roman push for Christianity and therefore were not Christian.

Christianity didn’t really spread throughout the British Isles and become the dominant religion until “…it was Augustine’s famous mission in 597 AD from the Pope in Rome to King Aethelbert of Kent that really set up the future course of Christianity in Britain, creating a strong alliance between Christianity and Kingship” (Religions). By this time in British history at least according to Geoffrey the reign of King Arthur would have been over by almost half a century.

While Christianity was gaining in popularity in Britain it wasn’t until William the Conqueror had many churches built throughout Britain that it truly took hold and flourished. This didn’t occur until after 1066 AD “It was the Norman Conquest that really cemented the power of the church in England” (Religions), which was decades before Geoffrey was born rather centuries before. Geoffrey was born under Norman rule, and may have used his History of British Kings to let the Norman elites of the time that they were not the true rulers of Britain. Again being a Christian Cleric he favored his religion over paganism, but not Norman’s over British.

So how did Christianity become the belief of Arthur and his knights? It is through Geoffrey’s own Christian beliefs Geoffrey a cleric would have been influenced in writing about the history of his people in a way that would have been inspired by his nationalistic pride, his Christian faith and religious beliefs. His view of Saxons as pagan invaders would have biased him to write in such a way that only his Christian views would allow him to do. Paganism despite being practiced throughout Britain through the 600s and beyond is not acceptable under Christian tenants.

If Arthur had existed it is possible he was Christian, but more likely he would have been following some kind of Celtic religious belief system. While the evidence is unclear as to how wide spread Christianity was during the theorized time of Arthur it is clear that religious beliefs, other cultural views, and sociopolitical elements greatly influenced Arthurian writers centuries later.

Works Cited

Henig, Martin, et al. Intersections: the Archaeology and History of Christianity in England, 400-1200: Papers in Honour of Martin Biddle and Birthe KjÃ¸Lbye-Biddle. Archaeopress, 2010.

Lacy, Norris J., and James J. Wilhelm. The Romance of Arthur An Anthology of Medieval Texts in Translation. Taylor and Francis, 2013.

“Religions – Christianity: Christianity in Britain.” BBC, BBC, 27 Apr. 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/uk_1.shtml

Violatti, Cristian. “The Saxons.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 14 Dec 2014. Web. 18 Sep 2017.

Some Arthurian Coats of Arms

Arthurian Motif in The Book of Revelation

“THE RED DRAGON IS THE NATIONAL SYMBOL OF WALES, KING ARTHUR’S ENSIGN, THE BANNER OF ANCIENT ROME”

CHILDREN OF ARTHUR ?

Parallels

“Peter Meister does an excellent job of pointing out the main parallels of the characters from Arthurian texts with Jesus: “the supernatural birth (Merlin); the amazing deed at a young age (Arthur); the gifts of leadership (Arthur) and the prophecies (Merlin); burial in a cave that is sealed with a stone (Merlin); and then, of course, the expectation that the hero will return (Arthur)” (38). A few of these parallels will be discussed in further detail in the following paragraphs, but the similarities between Arthur and Merlin with Jesus are clear. Arthur and Merlin can be seen as Christ-like figures with these parallels which would serve as a good way for a largely Christian public to relate to Arthurian texts.”

~Arthurian Literature