The story of Arthur, Part 1

At first I wanted to talk exclusively about the historical basis of Arthur at that point of time. But then I decided to lay some groundwork, because it will make it easier to appreciate the gap between the historical Arthur and the fictional one. If indeed it is a gap. A gap needs to sides, and at this point I'm not all that certain there is a historical Arthur at all. It's no coincidence I wrote story, not history, of Arthur.

I will refrain from saying "usually" or " generally" from here on out, but bear in mind that everything about those characters and events is fluid, and there's no true right or wrong to be determined. At all. This stories has been told thousands of times. Everyone will be familiar with at least some part of it, or even one or another of it's incarnations, it's really quite impossible to avoid. I will try to order those many fragments, to forge a coherent narrative of what once was many different stories across different times and places. More on that later. That's also the reason this merely part one.

I will have to write that one a lot, more on that later, so I'd better Strg+C it now.

Arthur is usually born the son of King Uther Pendragon, ruler of Britannia at the time. He is begotten on Igraine. The circumstances of his conception are usually the subject of much discussion, not only ours, but also within the story. At the time, Igraine is actually married to Gorlois, King of Cornwall. He is generally dead when Arthur is conceived, but sometimes only a scant few hours, so that the kinship between Arthur and Uther is constantly questioned by his peers, and especially his adversaries. That's not the icky part, though. In most stories, Uther enters Gorlois' castle Cornwall immediately after the big battle where Gorlois lost. The news of his defeat have not yet arrived, allowing Uther to enter in the guise of Gorlois. He is sometimes helped by Merlin in this, and it is implied that some magic or other is applied to hide Uther's identity. While Uther has genuine affection for Igraine (that she sometimes returns) and later makes her his queen, sleeping with a woman under the pretence of being someone else, clouding her judgement through external means, is more than unsuitable. It is never thus stated in the stories themselves beyond what I said above, but this, my friends, is rape. No discussion there. If I am right, there is one notable exception to this, but we will see that only much further down the road.

What is important from a story reason is that Arthur usually is a fusion of the old ways of Britain, represented by Igraine, and the way of the roman ursurpers, from which Uther comes. There is also a whole subtopic of christianity and pagandom, but more on that later.

Arthur is then hidden away to protect him, and the whole kingdom thinks that Uther is without a heir. Without going to deep into medieval inheritance rules of the nobility, let it suffice to say that this is a problem. Arthur's foster-father is sir Hector, and he has a foster-brother in Kay. Kay is usually the odd one of all his friends, and we will talk exclusively of him another time. Arthur doesn't know he's the heir to the throne (very few people do), and thinks himself some base-born bastard, longing to be a knight and dreaming of chivalry (more on that term later).

I'm going to stop here, and I'll admit that I had hoped to cover more ground in this post. Alas, it should not have been. Next time we will concern ourselves with the famous sword in the sword and Arthur's first years of being King.

The more I write the more I realise that I will have material for a long time, which was initially a concern for me. I think I might at sometime also do some character portraits, I feel that would fit the purpose.