The vast Prose Brut tradition, derived as it is from Galfridian pseudo-history, but with the continuations found in the Anglo-Norman, Latin and then Middle English chronicles, benefits from the integration of Arthurian pseudo-history and some elements of romance into the history of the ‘English nation’. It becomes the bestselling English history in the Middle Ages, attesting to the enormous popularity of Arthur’s reign not just among those interested in the chivalric ethos and courtly love, but in how the land was governed through the centuries. The Prose Brut was copied anonymously for the vast majority of the extant corpus across the three languages of medieval England, but even more importantly, was owned and read by a cross-section in society, enjoyed among the middle classes, and clearly produced, at least in part, commercially. It was one of the first texts printed by William Caxton and went through seventeen editions in the first few decades of the printing press in England.

In Central and Eastern Europe Arthurian literature was associated with chivalric values. Already present in the byliny tradition of the Kievan Rus’, Arthurian elements cannot be traced to a specific origin/text. The fourteenth-century Old Czech Tristan, also known as Tristan a Izalda, derived from specific German Arthurian texts. This was also the case with the Old Czech Tandariuš (Tandariàš a Floribella). The Tristan tradition appears in Bulgarian (or Bulgarian-Macedonian-Serbian) songs. The sixteenth-century Belarusian Tristan had Italian sources. Polish literature includes only short references to the Arthurian tradition. The so-called Artus Courts (curiae regis Artus) became highly popular in the Hanza towns of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and they showed that Arthurianism still stood for high moral values at the time.

The literary tradition where Arthur first appeared belongs to Welsh language, the immediate descendent of the Brittonic Celtic language spoken across most of the island of Britain before the subsequent arrivals of the Romans, then the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, and the Normans. At the turn of the sixth century, which marks the moment associated with the Arthur of history, the landscape and cultural outlook of Wales and northern Britain offered an anchor to what were probably oral stories in circulation. The earliest surviving Welsh Arthurian poems and narratives furnished the essence and the pathways for the later transmission and adaptation of the legends into other languages and territories throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture (henceforth CHALC) acknowledges the longue durée of Arthuriana, from the origins of the Arthurian story to an exploration of its impressive reach across medieval Europe, then into the global world.

This chapter explores the earliest insular texts featuring the prophet Merlin, and his Welsh original, Myrddin. From the uses of the name ‘Myrddin’ as a prophetic authority in early Welsh prophecy, to the appearance of ‘Merlin’ in Latin histories and hagiographies in the twelfth century, this chapter details the early literary life of the foremost prophet of the Arthurian tradition. It acknowledges the development of the Arthurian Merlin as the product of multiple, and potentially multidirectional, lines of influence between insular languages, centring on two related figures first conflated by Geoffrey of Monmouth: a northern wild man prophesying in the Caledonian Forest a generation after the age of Arthur, and the child prophet from Carmarthen who interprets the mystery of the red and white dragons in the age before. This is read in relation to wider insular traditions concerning prophecies of national deliverance, and early Welsh references to the prophet ‘Myrdidn’, whose own early legendary biography remains obscure.

This chapter examines a range of Arthurian poems in alliterative verse, including Awntyrs off Arthur, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Alliterative Morte Arthure. It argues that while the works are diverse in tone and content, there is a consistent thematic preoccupation with the relationship between Arthur and his nephew Gawain. Through a close reading of the presentation of the characters, it suggests that the alliterative poems – despite their differing treatments – display a certain anxiety about King Arthur. By implicit comparison with Gawain, elements of Arthur’s character are often found wanting.

This chapter examines the evolution of scholarship devoted to medieval Arthurian literature, concentrating on that in Old French, with occasional reference to Arthuriana in other languages. It begins with the rise of Romance philology and the publication of the first scholarly editions in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and traces trends in Arthurian studies down to the present day. The development of Arthurian scholarship mirrors that in other disciplines. While certain major scholars can be seen to guide and influence particular types of study, others produce work ‘outside of the box’ which contributes to the basis on which modern scholarship builds. The chapter also underlines the danger of reinventing the wheel if earlier studies are not taken into account. The study of medieval Arthurian literature at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century is now seeking direction.

Shortly after Geoffrey of Monmouth completed Historia regum Britanniae, abbreviated adaptations began to appear in chronicles. Not many Continental chroniclers, outside of Brittany and Spain, considered it historically valid, but short accounts about Arthur appeared in Continental universal chronicles. In Britain, it was adapted into Anglo-Norman and English by Wace and Laʒamon, and abbreviated versions appeared as the introductory sections of chronicles that told of pre- and post-Conquest Britain. This context gave it historical authenticity. From the time of Edward I, Arthur began to be considered English rather than British since the part of Britain he lived in was Logres, which corresponded to England.  Arthur’s subjugation of Scotland in HRB appeared to justify English attempts to conquer Scotland and caused many Scottish chroniclers to develop their own version of the story in which the true heir to the throne was Arthur’s nephew, the Scot Modred.

Tennyson is the dominant figure in English-language versions of the Arthur story in this period, but this chapter focuses on the tradition outside of the Idylls. By the early days of Queen Victoria’s reign the Arthurian legend was not as fixed as it would be by the end of the century. Malory’s version of the story was not as dominant as Tennyson would make it. This chapter traces the way the legend was presented by such writers as Reginald Heber, Edward Bulwer Lytton, the young William Morris, R. S. Hawker and Algernon Swinburne. The chapter also considers the way in which Arthur was evaluated as a possible historical figure, looking at Arthurian scholarship as it developed through the century in the hands of such figures as Sharon Turner through to Frederick Furnivall and Thomas Wright, to Jessie L. Weston. It concludes by looking at the entry of the legend into versions for children, with a brief nod to the future of Arthur in the cinema.

This chapter discusses a multiplicity of Arthurs, all mirroring the complexity of contemporary Africa and the Middle East. Arthur is a familiar presence here in advertisements, video games, children’s books and popular films, but he is rarely found elsewhere. Interestingly, both Chaka and Saladin are sometimes positioned as local counters to Arthur, but later Arthurian references are more likely to be comic or satirical, except for allusions to the Grail legend. References to the latter are characteristic of Nashid Uruk, for instance, and it has been argued that Doris Lessing’s work also reveals a sustained pattern of Grail imagery. Other representations of Arthur are almost entirely negative, linking him to autocratic rule, class elitism, gender imbalance and armed violence; however, awareness of Sir Moriaen, the Moorish knight, seems to be resurging and this may at last allow the tales to move out of the oppressive shadow cast by European imperialism.

Due to the national seclusion policy (1639–1854), the Japanese came to know Arthurian works at the end of the nineteenth century; and such sudden contact led to a peculiar reception of the legend.  This chapter investigates how Japanese people have enjoyed Arthurian works roughly in three periods: around 1900, when non-medieval European materials by Alfred Tennyson, Wilhelm Richard Wagner and Joseph Bédier were popular; during the twentieth century, when American authors such as Thomas Bulfinch and Mark Twain became influential; and in the twenty-first century, when female King Arthurs prevail because of a Japanese game series entitled Fate.  As a result, Excalibur and other Arthurian motifs are ubiquitous in Japanese pop culture these days, via games, comic books, juvenile novels and stage performances.

Middle Dutch Arthurian romances often are translated from French sources, yet Flemish and Dutch poets also created their own Arthurian tales. What do these ‘Dutch originals’ contribute to European Arthuriana? They may, with a modern term, be seen as ‘speculative fiction’, exploring new and unexpected narrative possibilities. The source issue of the Torec romance and its meaning for the French tradition is discussed first, followed by an explanation of what speculative fiction entails. Three examples then demonstrate the ‘What if…?’ nature of the Middle Dutch Arthurian tales: (1) the threefold, rather than single, quest in the Roman van Walewein, (2) the appearance of, and reactions to, a black-skinned knight in the Arthurian setting (Moriaen), and (3) the experiment of creating a cyclic narrative from different kinds of romances (originating in prose and verse), with special attention to the development of the (emotional) self of main characters like Lancelot and Gawain in the consecutive stories of the cycle.