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This version incorporates many originally separate stories about the Knights of the Round Table, and other legends such as ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight|Gawaine and the Green Knight]]'', [[Courtly Love]], and the myth of the Holy Grail.
 
This holds true for the English-speaking world. As far as the French are concerned, [[Chrétien de Troyes|Chretien De Troyes]]' romances are the most important version of the Arthurian myth and for German-speakers it is the verse epics of the trio of Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Gottfried von Straßburg, especially Wolfram's ''Parzival''. This is not founded on priority, but also on the superior literary quality of these four authors in comparison with their successors. In general, the way the Arthurian myth is viewed can depend very much on the nationality of the viewer; for people from the British Isles (and by extension, from the rest of the Anglosphere), it usually goes without saying that the Welsh (and English) medieval texts reflect an older and more "genuine" version of the myth than the French ones, even though they were in fact written down later. Here a lot is speculation and inference, as the (presumably mostly oral) traditions on which Geoffrey of Monmouth, Maistre Wace, Chrétien de Troyes and others based their works are lost to history.
 
Any modern Arthurian story that is not about either a) Lancelot/Guinevere/Arthur/Mordred/Morgan and the subsequent collapse of the court or b) specifically about Merlin, is generally going to be about the Grail Quest, despite dozens of other possible plots. However, Tristram and Iseult (usually under the German forms of their names, Tristan and Isolde) by themselves are also becoming more popular, mainly due to the popularity of romance stories.
=== The Main Plot Features Are: ===
 
The genres used may vary from [[Historical Fiction]] ([[Doing In the Wizard|no magic]] and Saxon [[The Horde|hordes]] as [[Mooks]]), to [[Heroic Fantasy]], and the story can be set either in the Dark ages [[After the End|after the fall of Rome]] or in the present day, when King Arthur [[Rightful King Returns|has returned]].
 
The main characters of stories are:
* King Arthur: [[The Hero]], [[The Captain]] and [[Knight in Shining Armor]].
* Sir Bedivere: Arthur's [[Power Trio|oldest companion, besides Kay]]; [[Bash Brothers]] with Kay and vice-versa. As the spotlight shifts to other (newer) characters, both remain Arthur's [[The Good Chancellor|court officials]].
* Sir Kay: Arthur's foster brother, originally a [[Boisterous Bruiser]], later the [[Butt Monkey]]; also [[The Big Guy]] (literally "The Long Man" in Welsh).
* Galahad: [[The Messiah]] and an early [[Marty Stu]].
* Guinevere: [[The Chick]], [[Damsel in Distress]].
* Gawain: [[Badass|Originally]] [[The Lancer]], then [[Badass Decay|wimpified]]. [[Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys|by the French]]. [[Pragmatic Adaptation|Modern versions]] [[Took a Level in Badass|are more forgiving]], [[Anti-Hero|in their own way]].
* Percival: [[Kid Appeal Character|The young, naive fool]] who became a knight and saw the Grail... until later stories had Galahad see it instead.
* Lancelot: [[The Lancer]], The [[Tragic Hero]], The [[Sixth Ranger]], [[Sailor Earth]] (He is a latecomer in two senses: first, in that he first appears at the Round Table long after the vast majority of its membership has assembled; and second, the character entered the myth cycle several hundred years after it was first compiled.)
* Morgause: Arthur's half-sister, Mordred's mother, sometimes blended with her sister Morgana.
* [[Merlin]]: [[Ur Example|The original]] [[The Obi-Wan|Wizard]], [[Mentor]], [[The Professor]], sometimes [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-demon]]. Based on legendary Welsh mystic Myrddin Wyllt, who [[Walking the Earth|wandered the woods]] as a [[Hermit Guru|wild haired mystic]] and converted to Christianity, later adopted as an oracular figure for Arthur, since both of them were basically Welsh; the Welsh maintain [[Adaptation Displacement|separate accounts]] of the "historical" Myrddin's life and places he visited.
* Morgan Le Fay: Sometimes [[The Man Behind the Man]] and would-be [[God Save Us From the Queen|Queen]], sometimes a [[Trickster Mentor]], almost always an [[Evil Sorcerer]]. Except in certain feminist and/or neo-pagan retellings of the stories, in which she's usually the hero and Arthur is an evil patriarchal Christian bastard, or the pawn of same.
* Nyneve/Nimue: Merlin's pupil, and lover. She eventually goes [[Deceptive Disciple]] on him and, in the classical version, places him under an enchantments and [[Sealed Good in a Can|seals him in a tree or rock]]. Whether or not this is justified [[Alternate Character Interpretation|depends on how she and/or Merlin are portrayed.]] Frequently blended with Morgan for the convenience of having a [[Composite Character]] be responsible for all of Arthur's woes.
* Mordred: [[The Dragon]], Arthur's illegitimate son [[Brother-Sister Incest|and nephew.]]
* The Orkney Brothers (Gawain, Agravaine, Gaheris, Gareth and Mordred): [[Five-Man Band]]
** [[The Hero]]: Gawain
** [[The Lancer]]: Agravain
** [[The Smart Guy]]: Mordred (though he swaps roles with Agravain later on.)
** [[The Big Guy]]: Gaheris
** [[The Chick]]: Gareth
*** This troper finds the Orkney brothers are rarely presented as a "well oiled" team. When they are (chiefly in French cyclical literature), they are sans Gareth and a [[Goldfish Poop Gang|pesky, relatively harmless band of dishonorable murderers]] who have to rely on attacking as a group to do any real harm and are usually just tourney-fodder for whatever hero the author is currently espousing.
* Tristram and Iseult: [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]
* [[Monty Python and the Holy Grail|Sir Not Appearing In This Film (or Epic, or whatever)]]: Obviously.
 
There are many other [[Knight in Shining Armor|knights of the round table]], each with their own complex storyline, and, just in case you thought that wasn't enough, most of the names [[Spell My Name with an "S"|also have other, wildly different spellings]]. The worst offenders are probably 'Guinevere', 'Mordred', and 'Iseult', with special mention going to 'Nyneve', who sometimes gets entirely new names such as 'Nimue' and 'Vivien.' (Then again, try telling those names apart in cramped Gothic handwriting.) It's pretty much [[Depending on the Writer|up to the individual]] what you chose to call them.
 
The primary [[Public Domain Artifact]]s associated with the myths are:
* [[Excalibur]], which is part of the early legends, orignally known as Caliburn. There are two origins to Excalibur: the first, and older tradition, stating that Arthur received it from a surprisingly benign member of [[The Fair Folk]], the Lady of the Lake, after the Sword in the Stone was broken; the second, that Excalibur was the Sword in the Stone from the beginning - this is a more modern origin, as writers thought it simpler to have only one magical sword, rather than two.
** The only magic power Excalibur was ever traditionally specifically accredited with was [[Power Glows|glowing brightly]], and that not always, but the ''scabbard'' was said to stop the wearer from bleeding, making it almost invaluable on the battlefield. It was said that the wielder of Excalibur could never be defeated in combat, but the actual mechanics of how this was possible were never traditionally [[Incredibly Lame Pun|set in stone]] (if even stated at all).
** [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|Insane sharpness]] is another reasonably-constant quality of the sword
* [[Only the Chosen May Wield|The Sword in the Stone]], which is featured as an entirely different sword than Excalibur/Caliburn in most versions of Arthurian myth.
* The Round Table: Barring Excalibur, the most iconic item in Arthurian Mythology - the freakin' furniture they installed. The congregation of knights are named for it, after all.
** The Siege Perilous, the last chair of the Round Table to be filled, prophesied to be filled by a knight who would not live long thereafter.
* The [[Holy Grail]], an addition which [[Plot Tumour|came to dominate]] the late medieval version of the myth, though it is [[Grail in the Garbage|often excised]] in modern works.
 
There are also [[Gotta Collect Them All|a metric ton]] of other lesser-commonly-known artifacts from the myths. Just a few are:
* The Broken Sword - The Grail Sword
* The Sword of the Red Hilt
* The Shield of Joesph of Arimathea
* The Shield of [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Burning Dragon Knight]]
* The Green Sash
* The Thirteen Treasures of Britain
* The Ship and Armaments of Arthur (including his knife, shield, spear, chain-mail, tabbard, and ship)
* The Shield of Judas Macabee
* Fail-Not, the Bow of Tristan
* The Dispelling Ring of Lancelot
* The Stone of Giramphiel
* Excalibur's ivory scabbard, which could shield life
 
{{tropelist}}
* [[Absurdly Sharp Blade]]: King Arthur's sword (called [[Excalibur]] or Caliburn or whatnot) is almost always portrayed this way.
* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: Oh. Dear. Christ. To call this the greatest example in history is an understatement. As stated above, Arthur (may have) started out as a prominent <s>Celtic chieftain</s> [[The Remnant|Romano-British]] warlord and leader of a band of warriors. Think [[Jason and the Argonauts]] in fur with Welsh accents. Several centuries and several foreign conquests later, Arthur has ''his own entire extensive mythology named after him!'' Also before Malory, come to that.
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* [[You Can't Fight Fate]]: The fall of Camelot.
 
{{examples|Prominent Versions of the Story:}}
=== The Main Characters Are: ===
 
* King Arthur: [[The Hero]], [[The Captain]] and [[Knight in Shining Armor]].
* Sir Bedivere: Arthur's [[Power Trio|oldest companion, besides Kay]]; [[Bash Brothers]] with Kay and vice-versa. As the spotlight shifts to other (newer) characters, both remain Arthur's [[The Good Chancellor|court officials]].
* Sir Kay: Arthur's foster brother, originally a [[Boisterous Bruiser]], later the [[Butt Monkey]]; also [[The Big Guy]] (literally "The Long Man" in Welsh).
* Galahad: [[The Messiah]] and an early [[Marty Stu]].
* Guinevere: [[The Chick]], [[Damsel in Distress]].
* Gawain: [[Badass|Originally]] [[The Lancer]], then [[Badass Decay|wimpified]]. [[Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys|by the French]]. [[Pragmatic Adaptation|Modern versions]] [[Took a Level in Badass|are more forgiving]], [[Anti-Hero|in their own way]].
* Percival: [[Kid Appeal Character|The young, naive fool]] who became a knight and saw the Grail... until later stories had Galahad see it instead.
* Lancelot: [[The Lancer]], The [[Tragic Hero]], The [[Sixth Ranger]], [[Sailor Earth]] (He is a latecomer in two senses: first, in that he first appears at the Round Table long after the vast majority of its membership has assembled; and second, the character entered the myth cycle several hundred years after it was first compiled.)
* Morgause: Arthur's half-sister, Mordred's mother, sometimes blended with her sister Morgana.
* [[Merlin]]: [[Ur Example|The original]] [[The Obi-Wan|Wizard]], [[Mentor]], [[The Professor]], sometimes [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-demon]]. Based on legendary Welsh mystic Myrddin Wyllt, who [[Walking the Earth|wandered the woods]] as a [[Hermit Guru|wild haired mystic]] and converted to Christianity, later adopted as an oracular figure for Arthur, since both of them were basically Welsh; the Welsh maintain [[Adaptation Displacement|separate accounts]] of the "historical" Myrddin's life and places he visited.
* Morgan Le Fay: Sometimes [[The Man Behind the Man]] and would-be [[God Save Us From the Queen|Queen]], sometimes a [[Trickster Mentor]], almost always an [[Evil Sorcerer]]. Except in certain feminist and/or neo-pagan retellings of the stories, in which she's usually the hero and Arthur is an evil patriarchal Christian bastard, or the pawn of same.
* Nyneve/Nimue: Merlin's pupil, and lover. She eventually goes [[Deceptive Disciple]] on him and, in the classical version, places him under an enchantments and [[Sealed Good in a Can|seals him in a tree or rock]]. Whether or not this is justified [[Alternate Character Interpretation|depends on how she and/or Merlin are portrayed.]] Frequently blended with Morgan for the convenience of having a [[Composite Character]] be responsible for all of Arthur's woes.
* Mordred: [[The Dragon]], Arthur's illegitimate son [[Brother-Sister Incest|and nephew.]]
* The Orkney Brothers (Gawain, Agravaine, Gaheris, Gareth and Mordred): [[Five-Man Band]]
** [[The Hero]]: Gawain
** [[The Lancer]]: Agravain
** [[The Smart Guy]]: Mordred (though he swaps roles with Agravain later on.)
** [[The Big Guy]]: Gaheris
** [[The Chick]]: Gareth
*** This troper finds the Orkney brothers are rarely presented as a "well oiled" team. When they are (chiefly in French cyclical literature), they are sans Gareth and a [[Goldfish Poop Gang|pesky, relatively harmless band of dishonorable murderers]] who have to rely on attacking as a group to do any real harm and are usually just tourney-fodder for whatever hero the author is currently espousing.
* Tristram and Iseult: [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]
* [[Monty Python and the Holy Grail|Sir Not Appearing In This Film (or Epic, or whatever)]]: Obviously.
 
There are many other [[Knight in Shining Armor|knights of the round table]], each with their own complex storyline, and, just in case you thought that wasn't enough, most of the names [[Spell My Name with an "S"|also have other, wildly different spellings]]. The worst offenders are probably 'Guinevere', 'Mordred', and 'Iseult', with special mention going to 'Nyneve', who sometimes gets entirely new names such as 'Nimue' and 'Vivien.' (Then again, try telling those names apart in cramped Gothic handwriting.) It's pretty much [[Depending on the Writer|up to the individual]] what you chose to call them.
 
=== The Main [[Public Domain Artifact|Public Domain Artifacts]] Are: ===
 
* [[Excalibur]], which is part of the early legends. Alternately known as Caliburn. There are two origins to Excalibur: the first, and older tradition, stating that Arthur received it from a surprisingly benign member of [[The Fair Folk]], the Lady of the Lake, after the Sword in the Stone was broken; the second, that Excalibur was the Sword in the Stone from the beginning - this is a more modern origin, as writers thought it simpler to have only one magical sword, rather than two.
** The only magic power Excalibur was ever traditionally specifically accredited with was [[Power Glows|glowing brightly]], and that not always, but the ''scabbard'' was said to stop the wearer from bleeding, making it almost invaluable on the battlefield. It was said that the wielder of Excalibur could never be defeated in combat, but the actual mechanics of how this was possible were never traditionally [[Incredibly Lame Pun|set in stone]] (if even stated at all).
** [[Absurdly Sharp Blade|Insane sharpness]] is another reasonably-constant quality of the sword
* [[Only the Chosen May Wield|The Sword in the Stone]], which is featured as an entirely different sword than Excalibur/Caliburn in most versions of Arthurian myth.
* The Round Table: Barring Excalibur, the most iconic item in Arthurian Mythology - the freakin' furniture they installed. The congregation of knights are named for it, after all.
** The Siege Perilous, the last chair of the Round Table to be filled, prophesied to be filled by a knight who would not live long thereafter.
* The [[Holy Grail]], an addition which [[Plot Tumour|came to dominate]] the late medieval version of the myth, though it is [[Grail in the Garbage|often excised]] in modern works.
 
There are also [[Gotta Collect Them All|a metric ton]] of other lesser-commonly-known artifacts from the myths. Just a few are:
* The Broken Sword - The Grail Sword
* The Sword of the Red Hilt
* The Shield of Joesph of Arimathea
* The Shield of [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Burning Dragon Knight]]
* The Green Sash
* The Thirteen Treasures of Britain
* The Ship and Armaments of Arthur (including his knife, shield, spear, chain-mail, tabbard, and ship)
* The Shield of Judas Macabee
* Fail-Not, the Bow of Tristan
* The Dispelling Ring of Lancelot
* The Stone of Giramphiel
* Excalibur's ivory scabbard, which could shield life
 
==== The Grail in Detail: ====
 
The history of the Holy Grail is rather complicated. Ostensibly the cup that Jesus drank from during the Last Supper, brought to Glatonsbury by Joseph of Aramathea, it's a [[Celtic Mythology|Celtic invention]] that was unknown on the continent before the Arthurian mythos brought it there. It first surfaced in the late 1100s, in an incomplete poem by [[Chrétien de Troyes|Chretien De Troyes]] (whose contributions to Arthurian canon were action packed and unconcerned with spiritual matters), in which a naive Welsh knight named Perceval meets the [[Fisher King]]. A grail appears as part of a larger and quite bizarre mystical procession and is referred simply as "a grail" with no holy context, apart from carrying a host wafer. Perceval fails in his quest by not asking the Fisher King what the hell's going on (making this story the first ever [[Sierra]] adventure game).
 
Over subsequent centuries, the Holy Grail grew into the entire ''raison d'etre'' of the entire Arthurian Court, when originally the Grail Quest was so singularly dangerous that there was a special chair at the Round Table reserved for those who dared attempt it, called the Siege Perilous. By giving the knights a single sacred focus rather than having them [[Walking the Earth|stumbling around Britain]] falling ass backwards into [[The Quest|quests]], this transformation made the sprawling tangle of stories more coherent, and elevated the moral standing of the knights.
 
The Holy Grail itself also grew hugely in significance, in some cases taking on parts of various other magic hamper and cauldron myths, which created a [[Continuity Snarl|mythological snarl]] whose origins modern scholars are nowhere close to deciphering (compare to the several lucid theories about the Sword in the Stone that have cropped up in modern scholarship). By the first decade of 13th century, in ''Parzival'' by Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzifal's calling to the Grail Quest is explicitly a calling to a higher and better world than the normal quests of Arthur's court. The text claims that the Grail itself was the stone the neutral angels of Heaven stayed in during the war against Lucifer. By the 15th century, Malory depicts the Grail [[Cosmic Keystone|as so powerful]] that when Galahad (the most pure and dedicated of all the knights) succeeds on the Grail quest he [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|instantly ascends to Heaven]].
 
=== The Main Storylines Are: ===
 
Any modern Arthurian story that is not about either a) Lancelot/Guinevere/Arthur/Mordred/Morgan and the subsequent collapse of the court or b) specifically about Merlin, is generally going to be about the Grail Quest, despite dozens of other possible plots. However, Tristram and Iseult (usually under the German forms of their names, Tristan and Isolde) by themselves are also becoming more popular, mainly due to the popularity of romance stories.
 
The genres used may vary from [[Historical Fiction]] ([[Doing In the Wizard|no magic]] and Saxon [[The Horde|hordes]] as [[Mooks]]), to [[Heroic Fantasy]], and the story can be set either in the Dark ages [[After the End|after the fall of Rome]] or in the present day, when King Arthur [[Rightful King Returns|has returned]].
 
''Major Arthurian Stories:''
 
* [[wikipedia:Historia Brittonum|Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons)]], traditionally ascribed to Nennius in the 9th century, although it may be much older. While not a story, per se, it contains the oldest written record of Arthur and lists the twelve battles he fought against the invading English. Of note is the fact that Arthur is not depicted as a king here but a ''dux bellorum'', a warlord fighting on behalf of the native kings of Kent. According to ''Historia Brittonum'', Arthur was so successful against the English that they were forced to bring in further troops and kings from Germany, increasing their numbers dramatically until the island of Britain was finally subjugated.
* ''Pa Gur yv y Porthaur?'' ("''What Man is the Gatekeeper''?"): a poem found in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070607035835/http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=blackbookofcarmarthen Black Book of Carmarthen], the oldest known list of Arthur's warband and the first mention of Cei and Bedwyr (later to be Kay and Bedivere). Arthur seeks entrance into a fortress, recalling the heroic feats of his retinue for the gatekeeper. This list was expanded on over the centuries, with each tale adding more and more characters from both history and folklore. A decendant is found in [[Mabinogion|''How Culhwch Won Olwen'']], at which point the retinue has swollen to over 260 warriors, not counting [[Cool Horse|fantastic]] [[Full Boar Action|animals]].
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