The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture Medieval Arthurian Literatures and Cultures
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The Early Arthur
- 1 Arthur in Medieval Wales
- 2 Arthur in Early Histories
- 3 Early Merlin and Early Myrddin
- 4 Geoffrey of Monmouth and Arthur
- Part II Arthurian Literary Developments
- Part III Cross-Cultural Medieval Arthur
- Part IV Imaging the Medieval Arthur
- Index
- References
1 - Arthur in Medieval Wales
from Part I - The Early Arthur
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 January 2026
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The Early Arthur
- 1 Arthur in Medieval Wales
- 2 Arthur in Early Histories
- 3 Early Merlin and Early Myrddin
- 4 Geoffrey of Monmouth and Arthur
- Part II Arthurian Literary Developments
- Part III Cross-Cultural Medieval Arthur
- Part IV Imaging the Medieval Arthur
- Index
- References
Summary
The origins of Arthur are in the Welsh language, and this chapter presents the Welsh Arthur from those origins to the end of the Middle Ages and beyond. While Geoffrey of Monmouth reconfigured the Arthur he found, propelling him into a new trajectory, the Galfridian route does not provide the telos for the Welsh material: the most important manuscripts of the period show court poets and prose writers engaging self-consciously with traditions old and new, aware of the colonial implications of French and English Arthurs, and energetically navigating strategies of irony, satire, postcolonial reimagining and culturally confident re-engagement with the pre-Galfridian (and pre-Chrétien). Arthur is at once signifier of the ‘Britain’ of the bards (a half-imagined Welsh-speaking Britain, inheritor of Romanitas) and a field of signification on which to project contemporary political realities, over the best part of a good millennium.
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and CultureMedieval Arthurian Literatures and Cultures, pp. 43 - 63Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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