Matter of Britain

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The Matter of Britain is a name given collectively to the body of literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and its legendary kings, particularly King Arthur. Together with the Matter of France, which concerned the legends of Charlemagne, and the Matter of Rome, which included material derived from or inspired by classical mythology, it was one of the three great literary cycles recalled repeatedly in medieval literature.

History

The three "Matters" were first described in the 12th century by the French poet Jean Bodel, whose epic Chanson de Saisnes contains the line:

Ne sont que III matières à nul homme atandant,

De France et de Bretaigne, et de Rome la grant.

There are but 3 matters that no man should be without,

That of France, of Britain, and of great Rome.

The name distinguishes and relates the Matter of Britain from the mythological themes taken from classical antiquity, the "Matter of Rome", and the tales of the paladins of Charlemagne and their wars with the Moors and Saracens, which constituted the "Matter of France". While Arthur is the chief subject of the Matter of Britain, other lesser-known legendary history of Great Britain, including the stories of Brutus of Britain, King Cole, King Lear, and Gogmagog, is also included in the Matter of Britain: see Legendary kings of the British.

Themes and subjects

Legendary history of Britain

It could be said that the legendary history of Britain was created in part to form a body of patriotic myth for the country. Several agendas thus can be seen in this body of literature.

The Historia Britonum, the earliest known source of the story of Brutus of Britain, may have been devised to create a distinguished genealogy for a number of Welsh princes in the 9th century. Traditionally attributed to Nennius, its actual compiler is unknown; it exists in several recensions. This tale went on to achieve greater currency because its inventor linked Brutus to the diaspora of heroes that followed the Trojan War, and thus provided raw material which later mythographers such as Geoffrey of Monmouth, Michael Drayton, and John Milton could draw upon, linking the settlement of Britain to the heroic age of Greek literature, for their several and diverse literary purposes. As such, this material could be used for patriotic mythmaking just as Virgil linked the mythical founding of Rome to the Trojan War in The Æneid. Geoffrey of Monmouth also introduced the fanciful claim that the Trinovantes, reported by Tacitus as dwelling in the area of London, had a name he interpreted as Troi-novant, "New Troy".

More speculative claims link Welsh mythology with several of the rulers and incidents compiled by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniæ. It has been suggested, for instance, that Leir of Britain, who later became Shakespeare's King Lear, was originally the Welsh sea-god Llŷr (see also the Irish sea-god Lir). Various Celtic deities have been identified with characters from Arthurian literature as well: Morgan le Fay was often thought to have originally been the Welsh goddess Modron (cf. the Irish goddess Mórrígan). Many of these identifications come from the speculative comparative religion of the late 19th century, and have been questioned in more recent years.

William Shakespeare seems to have been deeply interested in the legendary history of Britain, and to have been familiar with some of its more obscure byways. Shakespeare's plays contain several tales relating to these legendary kings, such as King Lear and Cymbeline. It has been suggested that Shakespeare's Welsh schoolmaster Thomas Jenkins introduced him to this material, and perhaps directed him to read Geoffrey of Monmouth^{[citation needed]}. These tales also figure in Raphael Holinshed's The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which also appears in Shakespeare's sources for Macbeth.

Other early authors also drew from the early Arthurian and pseudo-historical sources of the Matter of Britain. The Scots, for instance, formulated a mythical history in the Picts and the Dál Riata royal lines. While they do eventually become factual lines, unlike those of Geoffrey, their origins are vague and often incorporate both aspects of mythical British history and mythical Irish history. The story of Gabhran especially incorporates elements of both those histories.

The Arthurian cycle

The Arthurian literary cycle is the best known part of the Matter of Britain. It has succeeded largely because it tells two interlocking stories that have intrigued many later authors. One concerns Camelot, usually envisioned as a doomed utopia of chivalric virtue, undone by the fatal flaws of Arthur and Sir Lancelot. The other concerns the quests of the various knights to achieve the Holy Grail; some succeed (Galahad, Percival), and others fail (Lancelot).

The medieval tale of Arthur and his knights is full of Christian themes; those themes involve the destruction of human plans for virtue by the moral failures of their characters, and the quest for an important Christian relic. Finally, the relationships between the characters invited treatment in the tradition of courtly love, such as Lancelot and Guinevere, or Tristan and Iseult. In more recent years, the trend has been to attempt to link the tales of King Arthur and his knights with Celtic mythology, usually in highly romanticized, early 20th century reconstructed versions.

Additionally, it is possible to read the Arthurian literature in general, and that concerned with the Grail tradition in particular, as an allegory of human development and spiritual growth (a theme explored by mythologist Joseph Campbell amongst others).

Characters and subjects

Legendary kings and founders

Brutus of Britain Corineus King Cole Cymbeline

Leir of Britain (Shakespeare's King Lear) Cassibelanus Caradocus

Aurelius Ambrosius Uther Pendragon Cadwallader

Arthur and his entourage

King Arthur the Round Table Guinevere, wife of Arthur

Excalibur, Arthur's magic sword Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur Camelot, Arthur's capital

Mordred, Arthur's heir and enemy Avalon, Arthur's resting place

Knights of the Round Table

Lancelot Galehaut Galahad Tristan Gawain Percival Bors

Geraint Gareth Kay Lamorak Gaheris Bedivere Agravaine Caradoc

Sagramore Calogrenant Ywain Erec Pelleas Palamedes Dinadan

Other important figures

Merlin Morgan le Fay

Sir Ector The Lady of the Lake

Noteworthy authors

Medieval (6–16th centuries)

Author	Century	Œuvres
Béroul	12th	Tristan
Chrétien de Troyes	12th	Erec and Enide, Cligès, Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, Perceval, the Story of the Grail
Geoffrey Chaucer	14th	The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey of Monmouth	12th	Historia Regum Britanniae
Hartmann von Aue	12th	Erec .. Ywain
Layamon	13th	Brut
Thomas Malory	15th	Le Morte d'Arthur
Marie de France	12th	The Lais of Marie de France: Lai de Yonec, Lai de Frêne, Lai de Lanval (...)
Nennius	09th	Historia Brittonum
Robert de Boron	12th	Estoire dou Graal
Taliesin	06th	Book of Taliesin
Thomas of Britain	12th	Tristan and Iseult
Wace	12th	Roman de Brut, Roman de Rou
Wolfram von Eschenbach	12th	Parzival
Raoul de Houdenc	12th	Méraugis de Portlesguez
Païen de Maisières	13th	La Demoiselle à la Mule (also called La Mule sans Frein)
Rustichello da Pisa	13th	Roman de Roi Artus, Gyron le courtois, Meliadus de Leonnoys (Meliadus)
Ulrich von Zatzikhoven	13th	Lanzelet

Anonymous

Œuvres	Century
L'Âtre Périlleux (on Gawain)	13th century
Blandin de Cornouaille	14th century
Le Chevalier à l'Épée
Le Chevalier au Papegau
La Demoiselle à la Mule	12th century
Gliglois (hero who enters the service of Gawain)
Hunbaut
Life of Caradoc
The Lancelot-Grail Cycle	13th century
The Mabinogion (medieval Welsh)
The Post-Vulgate Cycle	13th century
Les Merveilles de Rigomer (Lancelot, Gawain and 58 knights)	13th century
Perlesvaus ou le Haut Livre du Graal	13th century
Le Roman de Jaufré
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Prose Tristan

Modern

Lloyd Alexander René Barjavel T. A. Barron Marion Zimmer Bradley Gillian Bradshaw Bernard Cornwell Michael Drayton Hal Foster Parke Godwin

Raphael Holinshed David Jones Debra A. Kemp Stephen Lawhead Rosalind Miles Michel Rio William Shakespeare Edmund Spenser John Steinbeck

Mary Stewart Rosemary Sutcliff Alfred, Lord Tennyson Mark Twain Charles White T. H. White Jack Whyte Charles Williams Elizabeth Wein

See also

Medieval and Renaissance Literature
Early Medieval literature
Matter of Rome Matter of France Matter of Britain Byzantine literature Kannada literature
Medieval literature
Hebrew literature Persian literature Arabic literature Telugu literature 13th century in literature 14th century in literature
European Renaissance Literature
15th century in literature
v · d · e

• Holy Grail
• The Mists of Avalon
• Corineus
• Glastonbury
• Mons Badonicus
• Chivalry
• The Faerie Queene
• Knights of the Round Table
• List of Arthurian characters
• Sites and places associated with Arthurian legend
• Historical basis for King Arthur
• English historians in the Middle Ages
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• Pendragon (fiction series)

References

• Derek Pearsall, Arthurian Romance: a short introduction, Blackwell, Oxford, 2005
• D. H. Green, The Beginnings of Medieval Romance: Fact and fiction, 1150-1220, CUP Cambridge 2005
• Carol Dover (ed), A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, Boydell & Brewer, 2005

External links

• Historia Britonum (Latin) at The Latin Library
• Historia Britonum (English)
• Brut by Layamon (Middle English)
• The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland by Raphael Holinshed (partial)
• The History of Britain by John Milton
• The Camelot Project contains a large selection of Arthurian etexts from the sixth to the early 20th century