king arthur’s messianic return

 

  • [10] However, as Oliver Padel has noted, no example of a Welsh prophetic poetry telling of Arthur’s return to expel the enemies of the Welsh from Britain has survived, which
    some have seen as troubling and a reason for caution: we must rely on non-Welsh texts (such as the above) for the notion that this was a widespread belief amongst the Welsh from the mid-12th century onwards, along with more debatable evidence
    such as Henry VII’s attempts to associate himself with Arthur when taking the throne, discussed below.

  • [15] Post-medieval politics[edit] The influence of King Arthur on the political machinations of England’s kings was not confined to the medieval period: the Tudors also found
    it expedient to make use of Arthur.

  • Origins The possibility of Arthur’s return is first mentioned by William of Malmesbury in 1125: “But Arthur’s grave is nowhere seen, whence antiquity of fables still claims
    that he will return.

  • King Arthur’s messianic return is a mythological motif in the legend of King Arthur, which claims that he will one day return in the role of a messiah to save his people.

  • [17] Whilst the potential for such political usage—wherein the reality of Geoffrey’s Arthur and his wide-ranging conquests was accepted and proclaimed by English antiquarians
    and thus utilized by the crown—naturally declined after the attacks on Geoffrey’s Historia by Polydore Vergil and others,[18] Arthur has remained an occasionally politically potent figure through to the present era.

  • [12] Once King Arthur had been safely pronounced dead, in an attempt to deflate Welsh dreams of a genuine Arthurian return, the Plantagenets were then able to make ever greater
    use of Arthur as a political cult to support their dynasty and its ambitions.

  • [21] The return of King Arthur has been especially prominent in the comics medium with examples from at least the 1940s.

  • [20] C. S. Lewis was also inspired by this aspect of Arthur’s legend in his novel That Hideous Strength (1945), in which King Arthur is said to be living in the land of Abhalljin
    on the planet Venus.

  • So John Lydgate in his Fall of Princes (1431–38) notes the belief that Arthur and Philip II of Spain apparently swore, at the time of his marriage to Mary I of England in
    1554, that he would resign the kingdom if Arthur should return.

  • Few historical records of Arthur remain, and there are doubts that he ever existed, but he achieved a mythological status by High Middle Ages that gave rise to a growing literature
    about his life and deeds.

  • [2][3] As Constance Bullock-Davies demonstrated, various non-Welsh sources indicate that this belief in Arthur’s eventual messianic return was extremely widespread amongst
    the Britons from the 12th century onwards.

  • In the 20th century, a comparison of John F. Kennedy and his White House with Arthur and Camelot, made by Kennedy’s widow, helped consolidate Kennedy’s posthumous reputation,
    with Kennedy even becoming associated with an Arthur-like messianic return in American folklore.

  • On the one hand, it seems to have provided a means of rallying Welsh resistance to Anglo-Norman incursions in the 12th century and later.

  • The Anglo-Norman text Description of England recounts of the Welsh that “openly they go about saying,… / that in the end, they will have it all; / by means of Arthur, they
    will have it back… / They will call it Britain again.

  • [13] Similarly, “Round Tables”—jousting and dancing in imitation of Arthur and his knights—occurred at least eight times in England between 1242 and 1345, including one held
    by Edward I in 1284 to celebrate his conquest of Wales and consequent “reunification” of Arthurian Britain.

  • [16] Later, in the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth, Arthur’s career was influential once again, now in providing evidence for supposed historical rights and territories
    in legal cases that pursued the crown’s interests.

  • One of the better-known uses of this motif is by Mike Barr and Brian Bolland, who has Arthur and his knights returning in the year 3000 to save the Earth from an alien invasion
    in the comic book series Camelot 3000 (1982–85).

 

Works Cited

[‘1. O. J. Padel, “The Nature of Arthur” in Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 27 (1994), pp.1-31 at p.10.
2. ^ Berard, C. M. “King Arthur and the Canons of Laon”, in “Arthuriana” 26.3 (2016), pp. 91–119.
3. ^ Coe, Jon and Young, Simon, Celtic Sources
for the Arthurian Legend, Llanerch, 1995, pp. 44-47.
4. ^ William of Newburgh and others mocked the Britons for this: “most of the Britons are thought to be so dull that even now they are said to be awaiting the coming of Arthur.” C. Bullock-Davies,
“Exspectare Arthurum, Arthur and the Messianic Hope” in Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 29 (1980–82), pp.432–40; T. Green, Concepts of Arthur (Stroud: Tempus, 2007), pp.72-5; the Englynion y Beddau reference to the absence of a grave for Arthur
suggests that he was considered unkilled and unkillable, but there is no indication that he was expected to return in this poem: A. O. Jarman (ed.), Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin (University of Wales Press, 1982), p. lix. Anoeth bit bed y arthur: the stanza
can be found in poem 18.133-135. ISBN 0-7083-0629-2.
5. ^ R. S. Loomis, “The Legend of Arthur’s Survival” in R. S. Loomis (ed.) Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959), pp.64–71 at pp.64–65.
6. ^ Geoffrey
of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae Book 11.2; Geoffrey of Monmouth, Life of Merlin: Vita Merlini ed. and trans. B. Clarke (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1973).
7. ^ R. S. Loomis, “The Legend of Arthur’s Survival” in R. S. Loomis (ed.)
Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959), pp.64–71 at pp.68–71.
8. ^ T. Green, Concepts of Arthur (Stroud: Tempus, 2007), pp.259, 261-2; T. Green, “The Historicity and Historicisation of Arthur”, fn.22 from
Arthurian Resources, retrieved on 14-03-2008.
9. ^ O. J. Padel, “The Nature of Arthur” in Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 27 (1994), pp. 1-31 at p.11; C. Bullock-Davies, “Exspectare Arthurum, Arthur and the Messianic Hope” in Bulletin of the Board
of Celtic Studies 29 (1980-82), pp.432-440.
10. ^ “The poetry of prophecy sang of revenge against the Saxons (Saeson) and of a national deliverer who would restore Welsh fortunes. The deliverer, the Son of Prophecy, was often named after mythical
or historical heroes”. From David Rees, The Son of Prophecy [:] Henry Tudor’s Road to Bosworth (1985 ; new revised edition, Rhuthin, 1997), p. 12. ISBN 1-871083-01-X; see T. Green, Concepts of Arthur (Stroud: Tempus, 2007), p.74 for the observation
that the link between Arthur and the expulsion of the English is only found in post-Galfridian texts, not pre-Galfridian.
11. ^ O. J. Padel, Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000), pp. 61-3; see Elissa P.
Henken, National Redeemer: Owain Glyndŵr in Welsh Tradition (University of Wales Press, 1996), pp. 47-53 et passim, on Owain Lawgoch, and Owain Glyndŵr, who do appear in the prophetic poetry of the medieval period, and the use of the name “Owain”
for the Mab Darogan from the late 12th century onwards. ISBN 0-7083-1290-X.
12. ^ Richard I’s nephew and heir was called Arthur. N. J. Higham, King Arthur, Myth-Making and History (London: Routledge, 2002), p.232.
13. ^ E. M. R. Ditmas, “The
Cult of Arthurian Relics” in Folklore 75.1 (1964), pp.19-33 at pp.26-7; N. J. Higham, King Arthur, Myth-Making and History (London: Routledge, 2002), p.232.
14. ^ J. Vale, “Arthur in English Society” in W. R. J. Barron (ed.) The Arthur of the English
(Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1999), pp.185-196 at pp.186-187.
15. ^ N. J. Higham, King Arthur, Myth-Making and History (London: Routledge, 2002), pp.232-233.
16. ^ N. J. Higham, King Arthur, Myth-Making and History (London: Routledge,
2002), pp.234-235.
17. ^ For example, D. Starkey, “King Arthur and King Henry” in Arthurian Literature XVI (1998), pp.171-196.
18. ^ See J.P. Carley, “Polydore Vergil and John Leland on King Arthur: The Battle of the Books” in Interpretations
15 (1984), pp.86-100.
19. ^ A. Lupack and B. T. Lupack, King Arthur in America (Boydell and Brewer, 1999), pp.276-7; Z. Isola, “Defending the Domestic: Arthurian Tropes and the American Dream” in E. S. Sklar and D. L. Hoffman (edd.) King Arthur
in Popular Culture (Jefferson: McFarland, 2002), pp.24-35 at p.29; B. A. Rosenberg, “Kennedy in Camelot: The Arthurian Legend in America” in Western Folklore 35.1 (1976), pp. 52-59.
20. ^ J. Masefield, Midsummer Night and Other Tales in Verse (London:
Heinemann, 1928); R. Barber, Arthur of Albion (London: Boydell, 1961), pp.169-76 has a good brief analysis of Masefield’s work.
21. ^ C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (London: Lane, 1945).
22. ^ M. A. Torregrossa, “Once and Future Kings: The
Return of King Arthur in the Comics,” in Adapting the Arthurian Legends for Children: Essays on Arthurian Juvenilia, ed. Barbara Tepa Lupack (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 243-262; A. Stewart, Camelot in Four Colors, retrieved 13-03-2008.
23. ^
Lawhead, Stephen R. Avalon: The Return of King Arthur. HarperTorch: New York, 1999.
24. ^ Yukimura Makoto, Vinland Saga, 2005.
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ampphoto/1445228333/’]