Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
22 - The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
Summary
In writing history, beginning at the beginning preempts in media res, which is more common in literature, especially the epic. The earliest attempt in English, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, provides a beginning for English history. The earliest manuscript is now lost, but it survives in copies distributed to various monasteries where it was updated sporadically for another two hundred years. A handwriting change in the earliest extant copy, the Winchester Chronicle, suggests the original composition no later than 892 CE. The earliest entry refers to biblical times: “Sixty years before Christ was born, [when] Julius Caesar, emperor [sic] of the Romans, came to Britain.” Following a brief account of battles, the chronicler moves to the visit of the “astrologers” and the return of the Christ child from Egypt from the Gospel of Matthew but also the age of the world in Year 6 as five thousand two hundred years (Garmonsway 1965, 5–6). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is thus not a “chronicle” updated year by year. Entries beginning nine hundred years before the time of composition indicate this is an invented history using whatever records, or what passed for records, to construct a prologue to the writer's own time.
While additions to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle continued in various monasteries until the mid-twelfth century, literary praise accumulated around a legendary King Arthur who does not appear in any of these. Since the Chronicle and other early records from England make no mention of him, it appears he was unknown when it was first composed in the ninth century. Yet today he is the best known and virtually the only known king alleged to have ruled at the dawn of English history. But while he is heroic with supernatural overtones, he was eventually eclipsed by the exploits of his Knights of the Round Table. Over several centuries they became the focus of a fictional empire of the distant past, conferring power on the British comparable to that of the Franks and Romans.
The “chronicles” of the English were uneventful and not surprisingly took second place with the appearance of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain composed around the year 1136 CE where a new and compelling version of the past emerged. Geoffrey's title suggests it may be history, but this impression is short lived.
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- Information
- Invented History, Fabricated PowerThe Narratives Shaping Civilization and Culture, pp. 257 - 266Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2020