KING ARTHUR

IN HISTORY AND LEGEND

THIS little book is an attempt to trace, in asclear and summary a form as possible, theorigin and growth of King Arthur’s historical andliterary renown, and follows, largely, the lines ofa chapter contributed by me to the first volumeof The Cambridge History of English Literature.Although I have had, necessarily, to refer to muchliterary matter which is purely mythological, Ihave not sought to give any account of the speculationsof those who in our own time have endeavouredto reconstruct and interpret the myths and beliefsof pre-historic Celtic heathendom. Nor have Imade more than the briefest allusion to the subsidiarylegends which, mainly through the agency of Frenchromantic scribes, came to be associated with Arthur’sname, and to be included in “the matter of Britain”as it emerged out of the age of high romance. Thebook deals, all but exclusively, with King Arthurhimself, as he is known to chroniclers, romancersand poets.

My obligations to particular writers will be found[vi]recorded in the paginal notes. I must, however,express here my special indebtedness to the writingsof Sir John Rhys and the late Mr Alfred Nutt. ToMr Nutt, in particular, whose tragic and untimelydeath last year was a grievous loss to Celtic scholarship,I owe much private help and suggestion.

In one or two chapters of the book—the secondand the third, more especially—I have reproduced,almost