King Arthur: Difference between revisions

The [[Knight in Shining Armor|perfect king]], who ruled [[Useful Notes/Britain|Britain]] during a [[Golden Age]] with [[Merlin]] at his side, but fell to treachery, and [[King in the Mountain|now sleeps]], waiting for Britain's [[In Its Hour of Need|hour of greatest need]]. Subject of many a [[Chivalric Romance]], long known as the "Matter of Britain," alongside the Matter of France (stories of Charlemagne's court and wars with the Saracens) and the Matter of Rome (The Trojan War, the Aeneid, Alexander the Great).<ref> These three ''matières'' (sources of inspiration) were defined ca. 1200 by the French poet Jean Bodel for French works; it does not encompass themes important to other literature, such as the German cycles about the Burgundians and the Goths, notably represented by the ''[[Nibelungenlied]]''. Or, for that matter, all French or Anglo-Norman romances, whatever they claimed.</ref>