The legend or not?

King Arthur is a legendary king in the mythology of Great Britain. He lived in Camelot and owned the mythical sword Excalibur.Some people think King Arthur lived some time from the end of 5th century to the early 6th century. He might have been a king or a leader of Britons. Later his story grew with additional stories like the magician Merlin or the knight Sir Lancelot. No one knows whether he is a real person or not. Some say he is a mythical person like Hercules and some say he is a real person with a miraculous story.

When Arthur grew up he found a sword stuck in a stone. He was told that whoever could pull it out was the true king. So he pulled it out and became king. After that sword broke, Arthur got another sword named Excalibur.

Excalibur is a legendary sword in the mythology of Great Britain. It was owned by King Arthur.

The sword was obtained by the king with the advise of his wizard-adviser Merlin. But it was considered that there existed two Excalibur swords. The first was the one Merilin put into the stone and said that the throne will be taken by the one who will take the sword out of the stone. Young Arthur was the one to do it.

The second Excalibur was the one which was located at a magical lake where the Lady of the Lake gave it to Arthur. The Excalibur was made by an Avalonian elf. Later the sword was stolen by his sister and it was the time when the scabbard (sword coverage) was lost. In the battle of Camlann, Arthur was hurt, and he told Bedwyzr (Griflet) to return the Excalibur to the lake.

Guinevere was the legendary queen consort of King Arthur. She was most famous for her love affair with Arthur's chief knight Sir Lancelot, which first appears in Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart. This motif was picked up in all the cyclical Arthurian literature, starting with the Lancelot-Grail Cycle of the early 13th century and carrying through the Post-Vulgate Cycle and Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. Their betrayal of Arthur leads to the downfall of the kingdom.

In the legends of King Arthur, Camelot is Arthur's castle. In fiction about the Middle

Ages, Arthur rules England from Camelot and holds feasts at his round table.

Later on, King Arthur's sword Excalibur was stolen and used by a traitor named Mordred. They fought and Mordred was able to make King Arthur bleed, but King Arthur killed Mordred in the end. Finally, King Arthur died from losing too much blood, and one of his knights threw the mystical sword Excalibur into the lake where it came from.

Some people believe that King Arthur must have been not a man at all, but a god.

Like so many other characters featured in the Mabinogion, Arthur in his earliest form, appears almost entirely mythical. He and his companions have superhuman strength and abilities, and consort with giants and other mythological creatures.

Created by:Natalia MackiewiczWiktoria Drozd

Społeczne Gimnazjum im. S.F. Klonowica w Lublinie

Wrzesień 2008