English Arthurian Literature

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Edward Donald Kennedy (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

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England (Location)

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The Celtic Background

Whether Arthur was historical or fictive has been debated since the Middle Ages. The Arthurian legends originated among the Britons, the Celtic ancestors of the Welsh, Cornish and Bretons of Brittany, but little early written evidence survives. Perhaps the first reference appears in an elegy about fallen heroes, Y [The] Gododdin. Written in Welsh, it originated in former Briton territory in southern Scotland or in northern Britain in what is now Cumbria and has been dated anywhere from the 7^th to the 11^th centuries. One hero is said to have been great, “but no Arthur”. If Gododdin was written c. 600, and if the allusion is not a later interpolation, the elegy would …

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6244 words

Citation: Kennedy, Edward Donald. "English Arthurian Literature". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 October 2014 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19367, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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