



Sir Galahad pulls the sword out of the stone in front of King Arthur and the court. Bangor University Library and Special Collections, Author provided


In the last 15 years alone, there have been Hollywood movies, computer games, and other creative re-tellings. With Bangor University’s new Centre for Arthurian Studies just launched a fortnight ago, and Guy Ritchie’s new movie, King Arthur: the Legend of the Sword, due to be released in late spring, there is no doubt both the scholarly search for Arthur and the impact of his legends on modern culture are continuing to flourish.


The epic hero

Few might know that Arthur is a hero whose ancestry goes back to the Brittonic inhabitants of early medieval Wales before the arrival of the Saxons, and not just the kingly figure that appears in later romances. In fact, the Arthur of legend was neither a king, nor the owner of a round table, at least not in the way we use these terms today.

Arthur’s defeat of the Saxons. Wikimedia




King Arthur, as painted in 1903 by Charles Ernest Butler. Wikimedia

A modern legend

However, Arthur was always connected to the realities of those countries, and the times and peoples for whom he was reinvented. The Arthurian revival of the late 19th century, for example, helped put him back on the international cultural map by removing the historical aura, and emphasising the values he stood for – a far cry from the medieval attempts to utilise him as a national figure from whom medieval kings could derive their right to rule. This paved the way to the fantasy worlds created, most famously, by T.H. White in The Once and Future King, published in 1958.

All of these interpretations were about more than just revealing the secrets of one of the most intriguing men of all time. In this confusing and sometimes frightening world, audiences seek reassurance in the models of the past. They want a standard of moral integrity and visionary leadership that is inspirational and transformational in equal measure. One that they cannot find in the world around them, but will discover in the stories of King Arthur.

Is our modern appetite for fantasy a reflection of our need to reinvent the past, and bring hope into our present? Moral integrity, loyalty to one’s friends and kin, abiding by the law and defending the weak, form the cornerstone of how Arthurian fellowship has been defined through the centuries. They offer the reassurance that doing the morally right thing is valuable, even if it may bring about temporary defeat. In the end, virtues and values prevail and it is these enduring features of the legends that have kept them alive in the hearts and minds of so many through the centuries.