Why is camelot so important

This was a fifth-century realm of mystery, magic, and beauty. The wizard Merlin haunted the halls and granted Arthur powers of magic. Within Camelot's chambers, ladies-in-waiting attended the beautiful and daring queen, Guinevere. Among the gardens and grounds, minstrels and poets made merry and music.

Lords and ladies worshiped the Holy Grail, fell in love, and kept the dream of Camelot alive. Or so the story goes. Hundreds of tales have been written about Camelot and its king--all part of a huge cycle of literature known as Arthurian lore. Books and movies about Arthur and Camelot, such as last July's film King Arthur, fall into the realm of legend. Like tales of Robin Hood or the mountain utopia Shangri-La, legends are fiction spun from touchstones of historical fact.

Historians, archaeologists, mapmakers, and language experts have long pursued a quest for that treasured truth. Their answer, after all these years, is both yes and maybe. There's no doubt about the literary Camelot, the storybook utopia. Its place is fixed in the imagination through works such as T. But where did the stories come from? But Tennyson didn't invent Camelot. And Malory got his story from Chretien de Troyes's 12th-century work Lancelot, which contains the first mention of Camelot: "King Arthur A Literal Place?

However, due to their Welsh origins and the original Welsh tale of King Arthur their claim is more likely than that of the Plantagenets. King Arthur was first of all a warrior. For the building of civilization first came the discipline of battle demanding courage, skill, loyalty and self control, more than that, chivalry.

It meant much more than courtly manners. So the first thing you have to know about sir galahad is he was supposed to be the noblest, he was one of the knights that went on the quest for the holy grail, and finally he was brave. It's strange to think that a knight would even want to die especially if he is loved by practically everyone. So let me explain why I believe Sir Galahad deserved his place at the round table. The Shielding lineage is not the only powerful monarchy in Beowulf, there is also the Geat dynasty.

This is a long story about how Arthur became king. His father was Uther, he was a great king because he had this special weapon. A weapon called excalibur, whoever had it will gain power and become the king. Well Uther gained this sword by Merlon. Merlon does magic and that is how he acquired the sword. It was written by an unknown author c. Before and during each of these battles, Beowulf exhibits tremendous amounts of courage, determination, and bravery.

Send to Hygelac, if battle takes me off, the best of battle garments that arms my breast… Fate ever goes as it must. Historically legends and the figures they are about have been ways that civilizations have retold their history. But ultimately, he believes the veracity or otherwise of the legend is irrelevant - more important being the grip it has held on the collective imagination ever since.

They are still living stories that connect with people. He gets appropriated by everybody. It's endlessly repeatable - the hero fighting the dark, evil hordes.

Certainly, the story of Arthur developed a life of its own after Geoffrey's account became the medieval equivalent of a bestseller. In , monks claimed to have discovered the remains of Arthur and Guinevere at Glastonbury abbey. Though latter-day cynics have observed that the building had recently suffered a fire and an influx of tourists would have been of great assistance to the restoration fund, the find cemented the area's status as the focal point of English mysticism and crystal healing shops.

Through this process, over time, Arthur transmogrified from a fierce Celtic warlord to a wise, noble and honourable national father-figure. Terry Jones, co-director of Monty Python's interpretation of the myth, and a keen historian, says he was always cynical about the Arthurian legend and its supposed virtues for this reason.

But nonetheless, he says he recognised that the universality of the tales made them an ideal backdrop for Pythonic humour. The whole notion of chivalry was about dressing it up to make it respectable. Everybody tries to claim Arthur for themselves - the French and the Welsh, not just the English. Indeed, Nick Higham, professor in Early Medieval and Landscape History at the University of Manchester and an expert in Arthurian myth, believes the sagas help us chart the development of national identity on these islands.